You may remember that we bought a trio of Dorkings to start our new, naturally reared, Dinner flock. We installed the two Girls and their gorgeous cockerel in their new home on our allotment about 10 days ago.
The Girls now come running for corn whenever they see us. The Cockerel eats some corn, but chooses not to get too close. The Girls have been laying regularly and there's been no sign of fertilised eggs. Not such a bad thing as it's getting a bit late in the year for them to raise a brood, and we're happy to wait until next March.
Because they are running with a cockerel, we always take the precaution of breaking eggs into a dish before using them. What we're watching out for is that tell-tale black spot right in the egg yolk. That's a fertilised egg. We always eat the eggs when they are very fresh; I remember my biology teacher describing breaking an egg into her frying pan and it containing an embryonic chicken - it's made me very wary. Of course I now know that her eggs must have been at least a week old to have that level of development.
Anyway, I digress. We put a dustbath out for the Dorkings today, under a specailly constucted canopy. They've turned their beaks up at that so far.
But we also gave them some pasta. My Garden Girls adore pasta, and it's always fun to watch how they behave when it's on offer. The Dorkings were the exactly the same. Cap'n Flint took some persuading, but then he discovered he really liked it. And then the Girls kept stealing his from underneath him.
I already cook an extra portion for the Girls whenever we have penne or fusili; looks like it'll be two extra portions from now on.....
The Girls now come running for corn whenever they see us. The Cockerel eats some corn, but chooses not to get too close. The Girls have been laying regularly and there's been no sign of fertilised eggs. Not such a bad thing as it's getting a bit late in the year for them to raise a brood, and we're happy to wait until next March.
Because they are running with a cockerel, we always take the precaution of breaking eggs into a dish before using them. What we're watching out for is that tell-tale black spot right in the egg yolk. That's a fertilised egg. We always eat the eggs when they are very fresh; I remember my biology teacher describing breaking an egg into her frying pan and it containing an embryonic chicken - it's made me very wary. Of course I now know that her eggs must have been at least a week old to have that level of development.
Anyway, I digress. We put a dustbath out for the Dorkings today, under a specailly constucted canopy. They've turned their beaks up at that so far.
But we also gave them some pasta. My Garden Girls adore pasta, and it's always fun to watch how they behave when it's on offer. The Dorkings were the exactly the same. Cap'n Flint took some persuading, but then he discovered he really liked it. And then the Girls kept stealing his from underneath him.
I already cook an extra portion for the Girls whenever we have penne or fusili; looks like it'll be two extra portions from now on.....
