Fugly Farm

[N F C]

Are you getting settled in okay?

Are you settled in the UK now? How's your flock doing?

 

[Shadrach]

That's a great philosophy. I agree, we should stick to as close to native plants as possible.
I feel like I need to adopt new goals for chickens too. I love the big brahmas, the langshan, and English orpingtons. I think though, that they don't love this climate so much. Im keeping what i have now, but when I add new hens, they will be welsummers, naked necks, and legbars or easter eggers. It will make for a more heat tolerant flock, and less stress for me.

I would like to grow a bean on the allotments. Lots of the local farmers in Catalonia grew this bean (Mongeta Blank), it's a basic local white bean. Once ripe, the plant stem was cut and the beans left to dry on the plant. This bean provided protein for the farming families over the winter. Many of the more rural farms survived the Civil War by eating these beans and eggs from the chickens. Most of what they would hunt for meat had been killed as the the anti Franco army retreated into Catalonia and through to France.

The UK just doesn't get enough sun to get these to grow. I'm looking for an alternative to plant next year.

 

[Shadrach]

Are you settled in the UK now? How's your flock doing?

I think so. Mind you, if I find a large bag of diamonds lying around I'll be off to Sicily.

I get my pension now. I've got a flat in the city of Bristol which I was lucky to get. I see a lot of my family. I've got an allotment out of the city and chickens including a rooster to look after.

The Ex Battery hens are living longer than I thought they would so that's good.
In the process of trying to get them to move into a new coop currently.

 

[N F C]

I think so. Mind you, if I find a large bag of diamonds lying around I'll be off to Sicily.

I get my pension now. I've got a flat in the city of Bristol which I was lucky to get. I see a lot of my family. I've got an allotment out of the city and chickens including a rooster to look after.

The Ex Battery hens are living longer than I thought they would so that's good.
In the process of trying to get them to move into a new coop currently.

Sounds like things are looking good for you!

 

[igorsMistress]

It would seem an awful shame to give up. It was a constant battle in Catalonia and just on my current very small allotment plot everything seems to go wrong at once altogether.
Grow what survives best and not what you would like to grow was what I learn't.
We had much better results when we stopped growing salad plants for example and tomatoes. These needed constant attention in the hot periods. The tomatoes split because of the skin tension from drying out and then going plump again after watering. Soak hoses sort of worked but they still need an open tap and when the ground gets rotovated or weeded they are always in the way.
Here, back in the UK this year stayed too wet and cold for too long. Pushed lots of stuff back.

A friend of mine from Catalonia painted this on one of the raised beds I built. It best translates as this:

Horticulture is an act of faith in the future.

I love that saying Shad, thanks so much for sharing. I agree, grow what will make it and don’t give up.

 

[igorsMistress]

That's a great philosophy. I agree, we should stick to as close to native plants as possible.
I feel like I need to adopt new goals for chickens too. I love the big brahmas, the langshan, and English orpingtons. I think though, that they don't love this climate so much. Im keeping what i have now, but when I add new hens, they will be welsummers, naked necks, and legbars or easter eggers. It will make for a more heat tolerant flock, and less stress for me.

I think the roosters of the heavier breeds do better than the hens since their combs and wattles are bigger. If any of my girls goes broody I’d only keep naked neck babies. It’s not anything I’m promoting, but if it happens…

 

[janiedoe]

I think the roosters of the heavier breeds do better than the hens since their combs and wattles are bigger. If any of my girls goes broody I’d only keep naked neck babies. It’s not anything I’m promoting, but if it happens…

Doris (my big old boy) isn't doing so well with the heat now, but his first few years he did fine. The other two are his sons. One is bigger than Doris. He is fine.
My naked neck girls from Ideal poultry, here in Texas, are doing great. The ones from Hoover, in Indiana, seem to be stressed as bad as my brahma girls.
I'm sticking with Ideal chickens if I buy more. Their welsummers take the heat well too.
Most of my chicks that hatch here do fine.
Good news though, the roosters think the naked neck girls are the sexiest of all. must be all that skin showing.

 

[Shadrach]

Doris (my big old boy) isn't doing so well with the heat now, but his first few years he did fine. The other two are his sons. One is bigger than Doris. He is fine.
My naked neck girls from Ideal poultry, here in Texas, are doing great. The ones from Hoover, in Indiana, seem to be stressed as bad as my brahma girls.
I'm sticking with Ideal chickens if I buy more. Their welsummers take the heat well too.
Most of my chicks that hatch here do fine.
Good news though, the roosters think the naked neck girls are the sexiest of all. must be all that skin showing.

Have you checked their eyesight?

 

[janiedoe]

Have you checked their eyesight?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Behold the favorite gal

 

[Shadrach]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Behold the favorite gal
View attachment 3196236

I guess there is hope for me yet.