Daydream thread continues.....

rhiwfield

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, my Cochins Laid good quality eggs, and into great old age. not huge numbers as they got older off course but still got seasonal gluts, and the occasional winter egg.

Drat, winged me, didnt move fast enough

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Rhiwie, no need to get your coat,

In This day and age with the price of feed, and the price of food going up in general, You def got to weigh up the pro's and con's of hybred v's traditional breeds.

I agree with LIR our cochins even though they didnt lay as many eggs as the hybreds, they went on to lay longer.

You could think of dual utility breeds like light sussex or Rhode Island Reds, so you can have eggs and meat.

What ever you buy, buy point of lays, so you know you got young adult birds.

Fencing guy came over yesturday, so he is going to mark out the area we need fencing ( 2 piggie paddocks) and work out how many posts etc we need ( plenty of fencing left) we havent got tome to go and buy the posts etc, so will leave it all to him.

So next auction we will be able to buy the next lot of piggies:T

rhiwfield

So for an apocalyptic vision of what we'll eat in 2035 (only 23 years away) read this in the Guardian on 5th Jan.

Not at all sure I'll be around to see it, though I'm reminded of the Tomorrows World programme with Raymond Baxter.....did any of their predictions actually happen?:rotfl::rotfl:

Itismehonest

Yes, as CTC says, always buy in POL whatever hens you get.
It's very easy to stick eggs under any broody bird (hen or duck), rozee. We've had hens raise ducklings & ducks raise chicks.
Sometimes incubated chicks can be bullied initially when they are put with the other birds but it is all part of the pecking order.


:rotfl: Rhiw. I've never read anything so ridiculous (& scare-mongering) in all my life. Yes, I remember Tomorrow's World being sure we would all be living on pills with no real food long before now.

I have a question for everyone that seems to be completely overlooked.

If the price of food goes up (in part because of climatic condition & weather extremes) how do they think that the food grown in gardens will escape when the food grown in fields won't?

The commercial growers are always first to get the new varieties of things which are 'resistant'. It's often them that trial them.

As far as I can see, if the country is flooded, frozen or burnt dry it doesn't much matter whether it's a commercial crop or a hobby one it's equally at risk.
In fact, when it comes to things like hosepipe bans, the commercial side is allowed much more leeway than the individual.
So, while growing your own can be argued for on cost, choice, knowing what has been put on the crop etc. if nature doesn't want us to grow something we can seldom make a great success of it.

RAS

rhiwfield wrote: »

So for an apocalyptic vision of what we'll eat in 2035 (only 23 years away) read this in the Guardian on 5th Jan.

Not at all sure I'll be around to see it, though I'm reminded of the Tomorrows World programme with Raymond Baxter.....did any of their predictions actually happen?:rotfl::rotfl:

Hmm. read that too. Not impressed; quoting a lot of really dodgy statistics a good few of which only relate to American feedlots on irrigated land (and assume that every single drop of water that lands there is consumed by the livestock).

Anyone interested in decent stats might want to read Simon Fairlie's book Meat. The other people I find interesting on livestock and dry lands are http://www.savoryinstitute.com/

Given what they have done on their original ranch in Zim, there is a lot to learn from them.

rhiwfield

Itismehonest wrote: »

I have a question for everyone that seems to be completely overlooked.

If the price of food goes up (in part because of climatic condition & weather extremes) how do they think that the food grown in gardens will escape when the food grown in fields won't?

The commercial growers are always first to get the new varieties of things which are 'resistant'. It's often them that trial them.

As far as I can see, if the country is flooded, frozen or burnt dry it doesn't much matter whether it's a commercial crop or a hobby one it's equally at risk.
In fact, when it comes to things like hosepipe bans, the commercial side is allowed much more leeway than the individual.
So, while growing your own can be argued for on cost, choice, knowing what has been put on the crop etc. if nature doesn't want us to grow something we can seldom make a great success of it.

Its very unlikely that we will be flooded (sorry for those more vulnerable) and we can cope with drought to some extent with our three water butts.

Whereas some farmers just have to accept lack of rain/flooding as a hazard.

But the last summer, with low light and persistent wet conditions seemed to take its toll and really impacted on garden crops. So I half agree with you, and half disagree

Itismehonest

rhiwfield wrote: »

Its very unlikely that we will be flooded (sorry for those more vulnerable) and we can cope with drought to some extent with our three water butts.

Whereas some farmers just have to accept lack of rain/flooding as a hazard.

But the last summer, with low light and persistent wet conditions seemed to take its toll and really impacted on garden crops. So I half agree with you, and half disagree

True, but it was the extremes I was referring to, rhiw. Like this year's wet weather. When I said flooded I included water-logged. One washes the seeds away the other just rots them Either way it means a vastly reduced or non-existent crop.
The gardener/smallholder will in large part continue to rely on the commercial grower to come up with the strains which are resistant to the various diseases & more extreme weather conditions. That means waiting for these things to be tried & tested.

lostinrates

I totally see where it's me is coming from, and reading people's optimistic posts (and overly pessimistic if growing for the first time in the last year) have felt something similar.



On another note, I think I should think about sowing my limited window ails inside now. I hadn't even thought of it.

It's amazing the difference even not the best ch makes. Cut flowers used to last weeks, even a month here, now I am struggling to get a week from them!

And little pots of hyacinths and paper whites gifted as tight closed things I thought would be ready in a few weeks have JUMPED open! Sadly, they won't last as long.

rhiwfield

lostinrates wrote: »

I totally see where it's me is coming from, and reading people's optimistic posts (and overly pessimistic if growing for the first time in the last year) have felt something similar.

Yes! Growing food crops seems to be a matter of huge expectations, followed by abject failure, then acceptance of reality, then gradual improvement with experience

Re CH, we've just moved our veg containers to the utility room (it has the boiler but is the coldest room in the house) and the veg last twice as long.

Itsme, With all this wet weather I might just patent my idea of miniature brollies to protect worried gardeners' tender plants. Make a fortune . They wont work of course but thats on a par with a lot of garden gadgets!

Itismehonest

rhiwfield wrote: »

Itsme, With all this wet weather I might just patent my idea of miniature brollies to protect worried gardeners' tender plants. Make a fortune . They wont work of course but thats on a par with a lot of garden gadgets!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: