Sustainweb

This is an list from Sunstainweb about 7 principles of sustainable food.

1) Use local, seasonally available ingredients as standard, to minimise energy used in food production, transport and storage.

2) Specify food from farming systems that minimise harm to the environment, such as certified organic produce.

3) Limit foods of animal origin (meat, dairy, products and eggs) served, as livestock farming is one of the most significant contributors to climate change, and promote meals richin fruit, vegetables, pulses, wholegains and nuts. Ensure that meat, dairy products and eggs are produced to high environmental and animal welfare standards.

4) Exclude fish species identified as most at risk by the Marine Conservation Society, and choose fish only from sustainable sources- such as those acredited by the Marine Stewardship Council.

5) Choose Fairtrade-certified products for foods and drinks imported from poorer countries, to ensure a fair deal for disadvantaged producers.

6) Avoid bottled water and instead serve plain or filtered tap water in reusable jugs or bottles, to minimise transport and packaging waste.

7) Promote health and well-being by cooking with generous portions of vegetables, fruit and starchy staples like wholegrains, cutting down on salt, fats and oils, and cutting out artificial additives. 

This is Our New Chicken Rota

New Chicken Rota

We have made an new chicken rota with an new family joining are rota for the chickens at Banff Castle. The new family is Bryan, Carla, Izzy and Alex Angus who are on the rota every Wednesday of the week. Our tips to give them are to make sure the chickens have enough food and water in the cointainers, make sure inside the coop is clean, if not clean it with the equinment from the pink bin and put the poop in the big black bin and that's our tips for them.                

update from the 22/08/2011

I got the bus to Eden gardens and waited for Roger to arrive. When Roger arrived he told me that we had got things to finish in Banff Castle so I got in the van and went to Banff castle and had a warm drink before we started work. Once we finished our drink Roger put us in groups and me and James went in the van to Banff day services to pick up slabs.   There was 6 of them so me and James carried them to the van.

We drove back to Banff Castle and me and James put the slabs in a wheelbarrow and dropped them beside the chicken run. I and James had to level out the ground before we could put the slabs down.   When we did put the slabs down we had to make sure the slabs wouldn’t wobble. Roger was moving the chicken boxes to the front of the coop and making a flap so we can get the eggs out easier.

garlic for pets

Animals too benefit from garlics amazing power fedding tiny pea sized pices of raw garlic to your pets at meal times will help deterticks fleas and parasites just feed them the garlic occasionally to keep pets away or when you notice an infestatioon adding garlic to the diet of chickens will help them cintaine to lay eggs during very cold and very hot spells simpley grate pea sized pices of garlic in there water daily quanity is for 10 to 15 minutes chickens so ajust accordingly for the size of your flock make sure you observe your pets and if you notice and adverse reactions stop the garlic ttreatmenst immediatley

grants visit to the chickens

by granty

Today i went down to see the chickens.   Some people were digging and others were hammering.   James simpson got upset when he was in with the cickens because he thought that it was going to attack him.  We found three eggs inside and i got to take one home.

 i like going down because john's car was cool and so were the chickens and i like collecting eggs.

Chicken meeting 2

Just to remind you that we will have a second chicken meeting on Monday August 29th at 6.30 pm in the green tree, Banff.  Afterwards we will have an on-site visit to train new recruits!

See you there

harry and team

New Chicken Run

This is the new chicken run for Banff Castle Community Chicken Project which was made by Roger Ward who works at the Garden of Eden Project who made the run.

Meeting at Banff Castle about the Chickens

There was an meeting on Friday 12th of August at Banff castle about the chickens and how we will look after them. At the meeting there was Jay Wilson the manger of Banff castle, Mark McDermott the manger of Banff day services, Emma Watt, me (Harry Rusling), Zander Sutherland, Linda Gibson, Darius Gibson, Kaitlin Gibson, Susie Bijl, Duncan Bijl and Hamish Bijl who are all involved with the Community Chicken Project at Banff Castle. We talk about how the chickens would be kept by organising and making a bigger run for them. We also finish the chicken rota and we also tell everyone who is on the chicken rota what to do on their days. We also suggested that we can use spray for cleaning out the coop to stop the chickens from getting mites. We also agree on are agenda and aims and objectives which were to have fun, to work together as a responsible community group to learn about chicken keeping and basic animal husbandry, to encourage individuals and recognise the strengths of all involved, to run a project that the members of the group are responsible for as a collective, to ensure that everyone in the group is clear about their responsibilities and to decide on a strategy to make the project sustainable.

Like all living creatures, chickens need to be looked after and and well cared for if they are to thrive. Weekends away are usually no problem if they are in a self contained house and run unit, secure from predators. foxes are the arch enemy and the birds must be protected against them. Dogs,strangecats and evenmink, in some areas, can be a problem.Hawks can also be a problemin some regions. Large drinkers and feeders will usually last for a couple of days without supervision. longer periods will require friends family or neighbours.

Introduction to chicken keeping

We want to give you tips on how to look after the chickens at the Banff castle community chicken project and your own chickens.

These tips are from a book called Starting with Chickens A Beginner's Guide by author Katie Thear.

 Chickens will live happily in a garden, which are ideal habitats as long as there is wind shelter and from predators. They are relatively inexpensive to keep, and if managed sensibly, will not damage plants. Even the smallest garden has room for afew bantams. Provide a clean house and run, with no stale food and droppings left lying around to attract rodents. Avoid having a cockerel if you have close to neighbours who are likely to complain. It is untrue that hens lay better with one. The opposite is the case for they will not be at risk from his spurs or have infections passed to them. Some cockerels can also be dangerous to small children. Game breeds were, after all, valued for their fight to the death qualities before cock fighting was made illegel a century and ahalf ago! Males are only needed for breeding. A clean, regularly replenished feeder and drinker are essential. Chickens need a proprietary feed such as layer's pellets or mash and grain feed such as wheat. Clean fresh water is essential at all times. Inwinter when it is frosty, checks are needed to ensure this. Flower beds do need to be protected against the hens' scratching, of course. Left unrestricted, they will soon trash agarden. Bedding plants are just like weeds to chickens and are scratched up accordingly. They are no respecters of vegetable beds either, and are partial to greens. In fact, it is a good idea to hang up some garden greens such as cabbages, lettuce and home-grown parsley for them to peck at in the run. They provide added minerals in their diet, and also prevent boredom.  

Chicken keeping story link

This is the Guardian story link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/aug/01/keeping-hens?INTCMP=SRCH

And this is the Daily Mail link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2021238/Thinking-keeping-hens-garden-Heres-chicken-out.html

If you want to learn more about people keeping chickens, click this link and read the story.

Read about the hen revolution- 700000 people have joined! Arise of 80% in three years.

The Chickens Are Here!