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Thursday 28 February 2008

Well the return of the gales are forecast, so I made a big pot of sweet potato soup tonight, as comfort food may be in order. I love soups – as I’ve said before I don’t cook and soups are so easy, throw everything into one pot and leave it to get on with things. I tried a new recipe today which turned out well – although the recipe called for 2 teaspoons of curry paste and as I prefer my food bland rather than spicy I only put a tiny bit in – actually next time I think I will up the dose a bit and see how it goes. However the soup was lovely and creamy (that was probably the coconut milk).

As I’ve had my head down working all week I haven’t made any fresh bread, so think I need to set up my new little bread-maker again tomorrow morning to replenish supplies. The Italian Herb bread is so lovely with soup.

I’m also hoping to experiment again making a cake over the weekend. This time though I’ll try and stick properly to the recipe………

Which reminds me, I need to go and collect some eggs before I start baking. Yesterday morning I stuck my hand into the hay bales and encountered a hen still on the nest. Bless her she didn’t even squawk though we both got a fright. I left her in peace and forgot to go back and collect the eggs. Several hens lay in one nest (despite having the whole barn to choose from). I wonder how they work out what order to lay in? And do they stand on the edge tapping their toes urging a hen to hurry up and vacate the nest I wonder?

Last year one hen went broody and the other hens would lay their eggs nearby and she would appropriate them, rolling them with her beak to her little pile and she ended up sitting on nearly two dozen of them! Only three hatched out though and then she abandoned the nest.

One year I hand-reared a chick for a few days. I’d found it lying flat in the nest and when I picked it up it was cold. I thought it had died then I saw a tiny movement. So I brought it indoors and wrapped it in a towel, then placed it on a luke-warm hot water bottle (not too hot or I would have had roast chicken maybe…). Anyway eventually it revived enough to be fed through a dropper. The next day it cheeped incessantly even when it was wrapped in a nice fluffy towel, so I decided it was time to reintroduce it to the Mother hen. Fortunately it didn’t seem to bother her to suddenly have another chick popped into the nest and the little chick ran and snuggled under Mama Hen quite happily. That particular hen was a good mother – without any prompting she calmly adopted five more chicks which were abandoned by one of the other hens. Hmm wonder how many chicks I will get this season.

3 comments:

  1. I love the mental picture of the impatient hen standing at the side of the next with her legs crossed. LOL

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  2. sweet potato soup with curry sounds really good. Care to share the recipe?

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