Jake has appointed himself chief egg collector:
A task he takes very seriously:
Every day:
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I’ve been called cynical more than once. In fact, I’d go so far as to call myself cynical, and being cynical is a healthy thing if you ask me. Another thing that’s healthy, all of a sudden, and once again, according to the media, is eggs. They used to be good for you, you should have one every day. Then they were bad, you should only have your allotted quota of standard egg units per week. Now you can, and indeed should, have as many as you like again.
Of course, all reasonable people are used to this backwards and forwards nonsense with every kind of food and drink under the sun and routinely laugh it off with a good dose of “all things in moderation” common sense. Only the media seem to suck it up like a sponge, with this latest egg story apparently being headline news everywhere.
I was blissfully unaware until it was given a prime slot on the BBC evening news, the highlight being the way they managed to wheel out the amusingly named Lucy Egerton from the British Egg Information Service without cracking so much as a childish grin.
The cynical side of me though, as always, responded with a weary “who paid for this ‘research’ then?” No surprises in the answer, or the fact that you have to dig a bit deeper than the news stories (a.k.a. press releases) to find out. It was of course the egg industry, which also seems to double up as the acronym industry, what with the BEIS (British Egg Information Service), the BEIC (British Egg Industry Council), BEPA (British Egg Products Association), the BEA (British Egg Association) and many more.
None of this though, should detract from the fact that you should eat eggs. Because they’re nice. Poached, boiled, scrambled, fried or omeletted – you can’t go wrong with an egg. Ok, you could – there is eggnog, for example. But in general, my advice, which I say is just as valuable as some ‘scientific’ research paid for by a vested interest, is to eat plenty of eggs. I wouldn’t advise eating eggs produced by an industry though – instead, eat eggs produced by a free* and happy chicken, preferably your own.
*As with free software, the “free” is as in freedom, although of course if they’re your own chickens you don’t pay for the eggs)
Yesterday our ducks migrated to a pond a few miles away, not on the wing but in the back seat of a Mercedes. Only the best for our ducks. Needless to say, they took to the water like….erm… Anyway:
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They settled in well and soon joined the rest of the ducks on the pond, but I suspect that despite the safety advice I gave them before we left, they will be returning home to us in due course – riddled with bullets and oven-ready. In the meantime, the young chickens are over the moon about not having to share their shed at night.
The ducklings are now on the loose in the orchard during the day, but still going back indoors to the garage at night. Luckily this is an easy process, no sheepdog required, since all eight move as a single tightly-packed unit and can be easily ‘steered’ around.
The young chickens are not quite sure what to make of them though, and much fun was had today herding the ducks towards them and watching them scatter left, right and centre. I tried to capture the excitement on video, but I guess you had to be there:
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Talking of the young chickens, they’re doing very well. Unlike the ducklings, they’re extremely friendly and like nothing more than to be picked up and stroked. They have no idea that they’re going to end up on my dinner plate, and that’s just the way it should be. In the meantime, they’re a happy bunch, at least when the ducklings are not bearing down on them.
I haven’t done any work today. Actually, that’s a lie, I’ve poked around in Bugzilla a bit, reviewed some check-ins and discussed a few issues by IM. That probably adds up to a total of 15 minutes though, which is as near to no work as I’m ever likely to get. So, ignoring those 15 minutes, something interesting must have happened, let’s see…
Here’s another duckling picture. They’re a completely different kettle of fish to pheasant and chicken chicks. Rather than a tendency to peck at each other, the ducklings preen each other, and even help each other out of the eggs. I scoffed a bit when I read that last part somewhere, but then I saw it twice with my own eyes.
The other main non-physical difference is that they respond to quacks. I can summon the whole group by quacking, and a different tone of quack sends them away again.
One late arrival this morning makes a total of eight ducklings. There are a few more that I don’t think are going to come out, but you never know.
Here’s a fantastic picture of the first duck having just hatched at twenty to eight. A second hatched minutes later. You have to look close up to really appreciate the cuteness of this little creature – I can’t wait to see what it looks like when the feathers dry out.
This morning, baby Mia is staggering around the yard at high speed, throwing stones at the cat. Her proudest moment was two stones launched simultaneously, one from each hand, and surprisingly accurately. From a distance of at least 7 feet* they fell only about 6 inches** short, but otherwise right on target. If this is normal behaviour for an 11 month old, I’m a chinaman.
*For seafaring types, in fathoms, this is 1.16666 recurring.
**For horseracing types, in furlongs this is 0.000757575 recurring.
