Home made mayo and meringues

Courtesy of Elly I have posted a link from her blog, click the title above to be taken to the page with the recipe for home made mayo which is brilliant although Hellmans now use only free range eggs, whereas supermarket own brands all use battery eggs.



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Lincs Little Hens

HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

more eggs

Yet another half dozen eggs this afternoon. Our girls must be happy

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Lincs Little Hens

HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

Eggs, eggs and more eggs

Wow, We have so far had 370 eggs this month....and may get more this afternoon!
Unbelieveable.
We had so many earlier, I actually made scrambled egg for the chooks as a treat (they love it) I added some garlic powder and poultry spice too. It smelt like Foo Yung from the chinese when it was ready....only thing missing were peas, lol
We really do have to start selling them again. I've made a new sign advertising them at a pound a box (they were previously 60p BUT my friend Karen who lives opposite is selling hers for a pound to benefit Great Ormond Street Hospital so I didn't want to undercut her or I'd have felt guilty.
All our proceeds go to the food for the hens though so we need it too!
Of course our regulars will still get theirs at 60p and the neighbours get free ones. We want to ensure people don't buy battery eggs.

I've been looking on Ellys blog at making mayonnaise and meringues. May have a go one day. I hate mayo but Mank likes it. Ellys blog>> http://kitchen-scraps.livejournal.com/
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Lincs Little Hens

HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

BLANCHE AND LAURA HAVE ARRIVED :-)

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Lincs Little Hens

HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

LHR HQ'S NEW WORKHORSE

My lot took themselves away for the weekend to LHR HQ in "NAR-RIDGE" (aka Norwich) and here are some pics of them enjoying themselves on the new workhorse which has made life so much easier. The field itself must be over a mile in length with hen enclosures at both ends and carting food/ bedding and muck after mucking out WAS quite a major job.....Now the workhorse is carrying the stuff instead. It even has a tipper back so it's fantastic. Click to enlarge the pix















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HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

Random Little Hen Rescue pics

Here are a few random pictures from Little Hen rescue's headquarters in Flordon, Norfolk
As you can see there is plenty of land, lots of enclosures and room for more enclosures and hens.
We also have a stable block where the poorly girls sleep.
We have many coops, sheds and Chicubes on the field but if ever you have a surplus hen house, please let us know as we can always use more.
Click pics to enlarge them.
























HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

Amy and todays jobs

Little Amy Henhouse doesn't seem to be doing too well with the flock so she is in the hospital pen outside today. She's lost quite a bit of weight and wonder if she was getting bullied although I never witnessed it, she was very thirsty when I put her to water so she still needs some extra care.

Todays major job is adding brushwood screening down the whole length of the chook pen. We did one area before but then the chook pen grew so I got some more screening as it was reduced in Argos. It's starting to look good although the colour difference between the original stuff and the new stuff is very obvious.

I'm back indoors. The Air Con is on with the huge pipe hanging out the window (like a tumble dryer pipe) but at least it keeps the 'tiels, budgies and parrot cool.

I'm getting 2 Pekin Bantam Hens to add to our daughters personal flock next week. I just got an email to say they are ready. Getting a white one and a lemon one and I'm so excited.



HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

No upcoming rescues planned....yet

Just in case anyone is desperate for some hens, we have no upcoming rescues planned and as soon as I know a date I will be contacting everyone whose details I hold already. If you want to get on the list for future rescues, email lincslittlehens@aol.com

I meant to say, look at the videos at the bottom of this page. One is of the hens in a battery farn filmed by Animal Aid and the others are of Jo @ Little Hen rescue and one is of our mascot, Tiny.



HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

Mislabelled eggs scam

Copied from the Daily Mail so it doesn't eventually vanish into Cyber-Space.
This is DISGUSTING!!
I am so glad we don't rely on commercially farmed eggs but this has been happening over a 5 year period at least so we could have unknowingly bought some in the past which is disturbing as we bought Free Range so as not to subject hens to a battery farm existence. It makes my blood boil.

A scam involving eggs laid by battery hens in Europe being sold as free-range or organic in UK supermarkets is 10 times bigger than previously feared.

Consumers may have been duped into paying higher prices for more than 500 million mislabelled eggs over five years.

Investigators from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are continuing their investigation into the scale of egg fraud in Britain.

In a fresh twist, they released CCTV images on Monday of a man they suspect may be a UK broker in the international swindle. The man, aged in his 50s or 60s, is pictured attempting to access a postal safety deposit box in Kensington, west London.

The box was rented in the name of Heinz Bernstein, who gave an address in Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, but officers believe both are false.

A Defra spokesman said investigators do not believe mislabelled eggs are still being traded.

He said: "Whilst it would appear from the inquiries that this particular aspect of the alleged fraud has ceased, our investigation team are very keen to identify this individual and establish his innocence or otherwise in connection with this particular line of inquiry.

"It is important to note that this is an alleged fraud against the public and the rest of the British egg industry and it is important we get to the bottom of this."

An investigation into the mislabelling of eggs was launched last November. More than two million imported battery eggs may have been misleadingly labelled and sold as free-range or organic every week over five years in the UK.

Enforcement officers are trying to unravel a complex supply network to find out who masterminded the operation.

HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

Our Mascot, Tiny

During one of the rescues in May I spotted Tiny in one of the stables. She was so dinky, in her dark greeny brown fleece and she had knees that knocked together. I HAD TO HAVE HER!
I brought her home, excitedly and as she was to be in the hospital wing aka my lounge while she recovered, we removed her fleece to see a little bag of bones underneath. She was healthy and eating well, just bald.
The day after we got her, we put her in the garden hospital pen where she could peck the ground but not be bullied by the flock. It was such a hot day I made her a T shirt so she didn't get sunburnt.
During that same week, Lexi came back to us as she was having trouble walking so I put them together knowing Tiny would be gentle and maybe teach Lexi to walk again. They have stayed together since. Lexi was VERY oven ready, totally bald on her back and is only just growing her feathers back.
Tiny has regrown speckled feathers which we didn't expect, but she looks gorgeous.
This week I asked Jill (who Lexi belonged to) to see if she could stay as I am really attached to her and Jill agreed so it looks as though they will be lifelong companions and I couldn't be happier.
I have just made a montage of all the photographs we have of Tiny so far. AS you'll see, we will be happy when new wing feathers grow as currently she has a fan of daggers.



However can farmers allow hens to get in such a state sickens me. I've seen so much worse. One hen had 1 of her legs twisted up her back and she hopped on one leg. She must've had either a birth defect or a break which had set in completely the wrong way.
WE didn't bring that hen home BUT we did bring Amy home with a swollen mass on her comb. Jo sent me with Anti Biotics and gradually they worked to a certain extent. Amy's comb is probably a quarter of the size it was and no longer interferes with the opening of her eyes. It doesn't even reach to her eyes.

We took Annalise back from our friend, Karen as we think she may have been squashed in the hen house over night and got a leg injury as a result as she had bruising. She is going to stay now too. She improved all of a sudden and although not 100%, it makes no difference to us so long as she isn't in pain and eats, drinks and behaves like other hens.

I always sympathise with the hens, knowing what a crap body I have regarding my disability makes me more compassionate and sensitive to how they must be feeling.



HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS

The Peek Inn

Mark recently built "The Peek Inn" and a fun day was had by all of us and especially the Pekins at bedtime who had to sleep in the same hut for the first time. It started out as a brand new garden store. We've already got one for the ex batts but that is at ground level rather than being raised like the bantams one has been. It's customised to suit them. Roosting bars, cat litter trays as nest boxes in case of chicks, correx floor for easy cleaning and it'll hopefully soon be painted on the week and look like a Southwold Beach Hut along with the Des Res too ;-)
The chicks have now moved in too. Bob-the lavender has a home lined up (in Manchester I think) A friend of Anna wants him and Anna is a friend of Jo at LHR. Hope they make a donation to LHR for him as he's adorable.
There is also a bell on the front now (for last orders, lol) I thought Newton may see the "donger" as a worm and jump up and twang it.