We have had a couple of hens die 2/3 days apart. I am a bit stumped by this. Both birds had not displayed any symptoms, no sign of any scouring or visual signs on the birds themselves. prior to being found dead in the morning the had been behaving perfectly normally. The other birds in the flock tha...

Hopefully, someone can help settle an argument, is it ok to feed bread to my hens.And I dont' mean an exclusive diet of bread alone! Just the occasional crusts/slices tat are past their best. Does anyone know what it is about bread that they go mad for? My guess is that it is saltier than most of th...

Does anybody have a recipe for a Branston type pickle/chutney? The amount I get through is amazing! And like Marmite, it appears to be one of those products that is steadily creeping up in price.
Regards, Essexboy.

Following on from my posting yesterday, I forgot to mention that I planted a row of Autumn King, organic seeds, very expensive from Duchy originals (promptly christened Prince Charles carrots by my kids) and they were rubbish! Planted at the same time, and next door to the Flakkee, I have never seen...

Have just made my last pick of runner beans on the allotment, not quite my record November 4th for the last pick. I have had a huge crop of runner beans this year, chap down the road said that his were a disaster and that he had dug them up. Don't know what other people think, but i reckon Enorma ta...

Hello everybody, have not posted for ages but would like to share this. Having had very variable results with carrots over the years, a new plot holder reccomended these, the variety seems to be called Flak or Flakkee, depending on the supplier, mine came from Kings seeds. What a crop! Huge, but ten...

Thanks everybody, I look forward to trying them.
Regards, Essexboy

I grew some very successfully a couple of years ago, all different shapes, sizes and colours. When they were ripe and hard, I varnished them, and sold a lot of them at a car boot sale, apparently they are popular with flower arrangers?
Regards, Essexboy.

Hello all, I was ginen a Patty pan plant this year, it has done very well and looks as if it is going to have a lot of fruit on it, if that is the correct term. My question is how do you harvest them, do you let them mature and harden off/ripen like pumpkins, or do you harvest them like you would co...

My allotment neighbour and I started keeping hens on the allotment at the back end of last year. We have a bit of a mixed bunch, Rhode islands, Black rocks and light sussex, 15 in all, they are all young birds. We peaked at around 6-8 eggs a day in the spring, we are now down to 2-3 a day. Al the bi...

We have finally succumbed to my daughters requests and now we have a pet rabbit, and I must admit, I find that he is quite an amusing little chap (this from someone more used to shooting them!) my question is, we have a splendid hutch and outside run for him, but without thinking, we wnt ahead and t...

Hello everybody, have not been on for ages, busy busy busy! I have a Tomato question, due to the almost complete failure to get any tomato seeds to germinate this year(not sure what happened, I did nothing different exept use Lidl seed compost, hmmm) so consequently I have a greenhouse full of all d...

How do Mexicans keep warm in the winter?

They use chicken fajitas!!

Good information Wellywife,
No problems regarding doing the evil deed as you put it, I lived on a Shep farm in the Falkland islands for 8 years, you name it, i've killed it!
Regards, Essexboy.

Hello everybody, Anybody had any experience of keeping Rabbits for meat, as opposed to a pet rabbit in a hutch? Is it worth while? are there particular breeds? I am looking at this from the point of veiw of not having a lot of space for anything bigger. I would keep a pig in the back garden, but som...