More hatching

My next chicken project is to breed two small flocks, one for Vicky and one for my son. I want good layers and the ability to sex link their offspring. I can do this by using Rhode Island Red cockerels and Light Sussex hens. Both are good layers and also good table birds.

This cross (called a gold/silver cross) is the basis of all commercially reared chicken in the UK, giving the ability to sex the offspring as day old chicks by the colour of their down. The obvious advantage here is that you are not feeding unwanted cockerels for 6 months until they can be sexed, unless you want to rear them as table birds, in which case you know which ones to feed for the table. The other advantage is that the egg laying ability of both parents (which is already quite good) is significantly improved genetically in their offspring by a factor of around 50%.

The offspring are generally called Rangers or Warren and are the most prolific egg laying hybrids, laying around 320 eggs a year.

Anyway, that's the theory. Looking forward to testing it.

Chickens are hatching

The six eggs I put in the incubator are hatching now. I bought six assorted cross breed eggs on eBay for £2.99 three weeks ago. Four of the eggs were different shades of brown, one was white, another blue. The white egg hatched around 5am this morning, making such a racket it woke me up, the egg had been chirping for the previous 24 hours. He/she is a lovely fluffy white colour. I hope it's a pullet as I could do with some white eggs but it is so large and noisy I'm afraid it may be a male.

The chick in the blue egg is less noisy and is attempting to break out now, again I hope it's a pullet as a few blue eggs would add some variety. I'm hoping I can sex the chicks within the next six weeks, as there is no way I could keep cockerels in a terraced house and being cross breeds no one would want to take them. There is no sign of movement in the four brown eggs yet but I'll allow them another 48 hours.

I have set up the brooder which will be their home for the next six weeks in the back bedroom. I checked the temperature in it last night and I could only get it to 85 degrees (it should be 90 to 95 degrees for the first week). I'm hoping it will be enough.

Well, as you can see from the photo one brown egg did hatch and it was pretty quick too. It took about 3 minutes for that chick to cut a hole and break out, whereas the blue egg chick took over 4 hours and needed some assistance. I have now put these three in the brooder and am now waiting to see if the other three eggs will hatch.

Wow! It's October. What happened to September?

Nothing really. Most of my crops were ready at the end of August. All I had to do in September was dig up the potatoes, sow a few turnips and clear out the tomato and pepper remains from the greenhouse. This month I sowed more lettuce and carrots in the greenhouse and potted up some leaf beet for the winter. On the allotment I have leeks and cabbage ready to pick.

Cleaning Up

Well it's cold, wet and windy. What a change from the last few months, the greenhouse without heat is struggling to get to 70F. It looks as though I may have to get the vitopod out of the shed soon.

I have picked the last of my sweet peppers and Cayenne pepper this week and cleared out the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse, only the Demon Red (picture below) remain, still to ripen. I'm looking forward to drying them as they have a lot of heat to add to dishes.

Demon Red Chilli

The Vitopod (they must owe me royalties) ensured that my crops peaked early, it's unusual to have your greenhouse cleared by mid-August.

I'm still eating my new potatoes and toying with the idea of planting a few of them in a planter in the greenhouse for a Christmas crop.

Now that the greenhouse is more or less cleared I shall be washing it down this week with a mild disinfectant and taking the opportunity to rearrange my automatic watering system. It wasn't that effective this year, the tomatoes regularly flooded so I need to put more control valves in.

I have purchased some new greenhouse staging and a new heater, as my old one packed up, the staging arrived today but I'm still waiting for the heater. My intention is to use the heater to keep the greenhouse frost free or keep it at 45F, haven't decided yet. The vitopod will be kept at 60F to keep my geraniums and fuschias happy.

I have also bought some spring bulbs to plant up in bowls and pots on the new staging which I hope to get done next week.

I also made a couple of scoops from used milk containers just to pass the time.

Scoop

Scented Geraniums

Plum Chutney

Today I picked the meagre crop of plums on the tree in my garden and decided to make a chutney rather than a jam. I used a basic chutney recipe and added a couple of teaspoons of Cayenne pepper flakes to give a little bite. Plum makes an excellent chutney.

Recipe for Spicey Plum Chutney

Ingredients
500g plums
1 medium onion (optional), chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
100ml white wine vinegar
100g sugar
2 tsp flaked chilli

Method

Stone the plums and chop. Add the chopped onion. Add the vinegar and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the chilli and stir occasionally, until softened and slightly thickened.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 150°C /gas 1-2. Place a clean medium-sized jam jar in the oven to warm. When the plum chutney is ready, spoon it into the warm jar. Seal with a lid and leave to cool completely.

Recipe for Chilli Sauce

15/20 medium size tomatoes
1 medium onion (optional)
1 or 2 garlic cloves
100g chilli peppers
600mls white vinegar
150g white sugar
1 tsp salt

Chop everything and boil for one hour. Allow to cool then blend and strain through a sieve. Boil for another hour or so until you have the desired consistency.

If you intend to keep for some time bottle the sauce into sterilised jars (heated in oven for 15 mins at 150 degrees).