Tea? (Part 1)

[wafflycat]

6:28am?

Are you insane?

Certainly slightly dotty, but that's entirely normal for here. Up early to see to the menagerie properly before doing the chauffeur duties for the day. A mere 130 miles today. Currently having lunch and kettle is on for post lunch cuppa.

 

[Sittingduck]

Yum. That's one of my favourites!

Well I don't think I'll be ditching my "Monkey Bags" just yet but it's good to try such things!

Mmmm I have a craving for Hot Choc now

 

[wafflycat]

It is confirmed. It is officially Winter. The Laydeez have not laid any eggs for three days. Roll on the Spring!

 

[cookiemonster]

Do hens not lay eggs in Winter?

 

[Dayvo]

Do hens not lay eggs in Winter?

Funny! There are always plenty in the shops!

 

[Angelfishsolo]

I'll vouch for the fact it's winter as well. Walking home from the court (I was giving evidence NOT being prosecuted) in my suit and office shoes, my poor feet were freezing. Also as it's a route I regularly cycle it seemed to take for ages to walk it

It is confirmed. It is officially Winter. The Laydeez have not laid any eggs for three days. Roll on the Spring!

 

[wafflycat]

Do hens not lay eggs in Winter?

Not *normally* in the sense that the frequency of laying is controlled by teh amount of daylight they get. Many a free-range purebreed hen will have stopped laying before now. Ex-batts tend to go on a bit longer, as they've been bred for quantity of eggs produced. Commercially, the amount of daylight hens receive can be/is artifically enhanced to keep them laying consistently through the Winter months. Mine may not lay again until the daylight hours increase, or I might get the odd egg now and again through the Winter, but nothing like the regular egg-a-day all through the Spring & Summer. If I put a light in the henhouse, I could induce extra hours of light, but I quite like the fact that they are expressing normal hen behaviour after their horrible start of spending their first year to eighteen months of life in a tiny indoor cage never seeing the real light of day at all.

 

[cookiemonster]

Funny! There are always plenty in the shops!

Hey dude!!

How was SE Asia? Good as it always is I hope.

I'll be there in November.

 

[cookiemonster]

Waffles.

Does that mean that all the eggs in the shops now will be laid by battery hens?

I refuse to buy eggs laid that way.

 

[Dayvo]

Hey dude!!

How was SE Asia? Good as it always was I hope.

I'll be there in November.

Moi, CM! Mitta kullu?

Yeah, it was OK, but more fun/easier to travel alone.

Hope the airport situation improves for you! By the way, November? Next year?

 

[cookiemonster]

Kittos Hyva!! Enta sinulla?

Yes, November next year. I wouldn't mind being stuck in Thailand for an extra week.

 

[Dayvo]

If I can, I'll try and have 2-3 weeks there (SE Asia) in Jan/Feb, otherwise a week or two cycling on one of the Spanish islands.

I love being in hibernation!

 

[cookiemonster]

I recommend Majorca for that. Cycled round there once and it was awesome.

 

[wafflycat]

Waffles.

Does that mean that all the eggs in the shops now will be laid by battery hens?

I refuse to buy eggs laid that way.

No. The UK system of identifying the source of eggs is good (lion mark). Of course, you do have to trust that the farmer is actually adhering to the rules, and some don't. There's been some cases where the unscrupulous have been exposed. When buying eggs from a supermarket I will only buy organic free-range (preferrably Soil Association as the organic body) as the welfare standards for organic free-range in terms of stocking density, is highest, higher than 'normal' free-range - of course these cost more. Add in that commercial breeds of hen are bred to lay an egg-a-day whatever until they are 'spent' that is until the frequency of laying in any given flock is no longer economically viable. From a commercial POV, that's from about a year old until eighteen months. After that, then hens go to slaughter (with the occasional one or two from a battery ending up with a softie such as yours truly). A 'spent' hen will still lay - as my two show. But hens kept by those such as me (effectively as pets) or by smallholders who have small flocks on allotments and the like, the birds return to more natural hen behaviours.

 

[Speicher]

In order that a aura of calm may return to Tea? I can reveal that I now have my own packet of Dark Choc Hobn.....

Well I did have somewhere? Who's half inched it?

They were in the same corner shop as my free range (see the pictures of the hens on the wall) eggs from 10 miles away, carrots for carrot and orange soup, and nut and raisin mix, for snackability reasons, and nearly forgot - specially for SittingDuck, Monkey Nuts.

Me shop in a supermarket, pah! It really is a corner shop, on the corner of the High Street and Church Street.