sweasel.com

It seems to be a really distressing process for chickens. I sat out on the grass this morning, in the early Spring sunshine, feeding a slice of bread to the two girls. Every now and then one or the other would let out a really distressed squuuuawk! and look sorry for herself.

My mother suggested a supply of gas and air to the coop. Sadly, I know Mapp. She’d get a habit.

Hey, those first ones are always the hardest. 🙂

But congrats to Mapp for her magnificent achievement!

Meh.. Mash up a little Percocet into their food, and they’ll never suffer again….. 😉

Its the way of the chicken….none can understand but the chicken. Hail the glory that is Chicken! I weep…. for the path of the chicken is one of sorrow and joy……but mostly sorrow.

The fish it never brags about
Its million eggs or so.
The hen is quite a different sort;
One egg, and hear her crow.

We spurn the fish, yet praise the hen,
Which leads me to surmise:
Don’t hide your light, but blow your horn –
It pays to advertise.

Congratulations, Mapp.

Congratulations, Mapp. You have become an adult. It’s all downhill from here…

Just an aside, Stoatie. Your link to weasel manor needs to be redirected to http://www.benweasel.com

Hooray for Mapp. I’d much rather read about the chickens than Obama.

Back in the dark ages, there was a young feller next door who raised Polish Crested as “pets” (to keep the frikken nanny’s bureaucrats outa his shit.) They were quiet and efficient layers. Purty eggs too.

Been working away on the wife unit to get a brace or two of laying hens….once again, as “pets” to help with insect control in the garden and to provide a few fresh eggs.

Given the price of food stuffs, “maybe next year, dear” just ain’t cuttin’ it. I already have plans and the lumber to construct a dove cote for pigeons…..HEH!
The neighbors are gonna love THAT one!

Dave in Texas from ace.mu.nu posted somethign with the photoshop. And he credited you and linked ya here.

Congratulations to Ms. Mapp! She just ought to be happy that you aren’t going to make her raise her progeny. 😉

Just flicked a nest of young ferets a couple of shot rabbits.
They seam to like them …
A comparison to Obama and KFC could be made.

In my admittedly limited experience ( a few weeks here and there), English bacon does not leave behind a large pool of grease for a very simple reason. They don’t actually cook it. Putting it under a 100 watt light bulb for a few minutes doesn’t count. Especially in these modern times when the damned bulb is probably one of those CFL abortions.

Nobody wants pork-based sushi, guys.

YAY MAPP!

The local Super Valu had Farmland ham filets on sale for a buck apiece. Ham wrapped in bacon. Life is good!

A bacon tip: Tesco sells smoked dry-cure British pancetta – seriously. And at 2 packs for £5 it’ll shrivel right down and get crispy just as you want it.

Thanks for the tip, Peter.

And thanks, Dave in Texas, wherever ye might be.

Oh, right. Texas.

so, was mapp’s egg worth the wait?

?Does Obama’s Libyan attack make him a chicken hawk? (See what I did, uh, tried to do there. ) 😉

Bacon. I love to bake bacon. Makes the best BLTs ever. Which I think I’ll fix for supper tonight.

[I assumed (my bad, I know) that when the English refer to “streaky bacon” that they were talking about American-style bacon. But apparently I am wrong?]

American-style bacon is made from pork bellies (hence the trade in futures), while English is from the sides, I believe. And Canadian, of course, is “back bacon”…

It’s American-ish, Deborah. It’s a little too thick and not quite as fatty, but it’ll do in a pinch.

We got a Hot Air link on this P’shop, ladies and gentlemen. My first. I don’t know who submitted it to them, but thanks (I never email links around. I did it when I was new to blogging a couple of times, but I felt like a prize chump).

And just as the link went up, BlueHost took my site down. I got a notice from them last night that they were going to migrate me to a new server within 24 hours.

Anyway, we’re up again and let’s hope the new server sucks less.

It should be possible to find a butcher that will cut your streaky bacon *properly thin*.

(Well, for some values of ‘properly’. I prefer the thickest bacon I can find, and should really go to a butcher to get some 1/4″…)

Personally, I like thick cut smoked bacon. Of course, if you are going to do your eggs in the grease, the cheap thin cut bacon makes the better choice….

Eggs AND potato in the grease. In the South, every halfway decent cook keeps a little jar of bacon grease next to the stove.

By the way, bantam eggs are splendid. I cracked one into a cup with a large chicken egg, and the yolk was pretty much the same size. In other words, they lay eggs with lots of yolk and very little white. Scrambled bantam eggs are vivid orange.

This had 4 comments when I last saw it yesterday…

Banti eggs are good (banti being the way my grandfather refered to his bantams), but I’ve always wanted to try cooking with Ostrich egg. I’m told that chefs swear by them for everything they can think of, and there are a couple of farms toward Canyon City that might sell some….

There were some for sale in a local shop — £20 each, if you please!

My mother pronounced it that way (I spelled it “banty” in my head). She called cocky little men “banty roosters.”

Of course, she was six feet tall and gorgeous, so she got harassed by more than her share of banty roosters.

They sell them round here, too, Scubs – in fact there’s a field of Ostriches not far from us.

You should have seen Stoaty’s eyes when we first drove past it.

I wish I’d had the presence of mind to tell her they were Yorkshire chickens 😉

I want one SO BAD.

Got the Jar of Bacon grease on the counter right next to the stove, Couldn’t live or cook with out it. YUM!

Hey, if you gets ya an ostrich pullet, I bet that neither Mapp nor Lucia will be able to do much hen pecking…
}:-]