Criminalising fetuses

Tony Blair is at it again. This time he has decided to identify and tackle problem children before they born.

The Prime Minister says the Government must intervene much earlier to prevent children becoming troublemakers when they are old and threatens sanctions against parents who refuse to take government advice.

According to the BBC News report, “Blair to tackle ‘menace’ children”, Mr Blair said there had to be intervention “pre-birth even”.

Joining the flock

Having reached the grand old age of 12 weeks, our latest four Scots Grey hens are ready to join the main flock in the big hen house.

I’ve written before about how we introduce new birds to the flock, so I won’t repeat myself but I have taken a photo that illustrates what we do.

The new birds have their brooder house and run placed in the middle of the main run for several days.

They are fed at the same time as the existing birds and everyone gets to know each other.

Then, waiting until after dark, the Other Half and I remove the sleeping new birds from their house and place them on the perches in the big hen house, ensuring they are up against or close to the “boss girls”.

There’s still some pecking for a day or two, but the new order gets established easily and without major squabbles.

Shhh! I might be a terrorist, too.

I was idly reading through the reports of the latest terrorist trials and investigations in the UK when I suddenly realised there is plenty of evidence around our croft that could be used against me in a court of law.

Consider the evidence from some of the trials:

1. One of seven men accused of plotting to blow up a gas pipeline in the UK was said to have a CD on his computer with details of the UK’s gas pipeline network. (He was a contractor for gas maintenance company Transco.)

What to do with extra eggs?

My little sisterback in Australia emailed me to say that her family’s hens are laying more eggs than she can eat and asked for recipe ideas.

Well, there are a lot of egg recipes out there but one thing I find very useful for times when you’re out of eggs is a jar or two of pickled eggs.

They’re great with cold roast meat, salads or fish and chips. They also taste good sliced and made into sandwiches.