"Mike" wrote in message
I give this advice as you are wishing to produce for the family, but I
feel
that 4 will NOT feed your family round the year.

Mike


Thanks Mike. Advice noted. There are only two of us to feed with eggs so I
was working on the basis of 2 eggs every three days - I think I read
somewhere that was the average? That would work out at 8 eggs every three
days which would be more than adequate. Though I understand that without
prolonging daylight during Winter that egg production can stop completely.
In your experience what laying rates would you expect at different times of
the year?
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
You have room to grow your own mulch
material (nettles, comfrey) , or use straw, grass clippings, cardboard.
Janet.

Thanks for the advice Janet. I've spent ages getting rid of nettles - I know
they are good for compost, rich in nitrogen etc, but I can't bring myself to
letting them back into the garden again. However, comfrey is worth
investigating. I think this is what used to grow in my fathers hedgerow, but
he called it "marshmallow". It fascinated me as a child because there were
often different coloured flowers on the same plant - or so it seemed -
pinks, reds, blues and purples. I seem to remember it had hairy leaves /
stems? Would that be the same plant?
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/

"David (in Normandy)" wrote in
message ...

"Mike" wrote in message
I give this advice as you are wishing to produce for the family, but I
feel
that 4 will NOT feed your family round the year.

Mike


Thanks Mike. Advice noted. There are only two of us to feed with eggs so I
was working on the basis of 2 eggs every three days - I think I read
somewhere that was the average? That would work out at 8 eggs every three
days which would be more than adequate. Though I understand that without
prolonging daylight during Winter that egg production can stop completely.
In your experience what laying rates would you expect at different times
of
the year?
--
David
... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/


David I was running Thronbers 404 and Thornbers 606 birds in a controlled
Deep Litter House, but this was in the 60's and times and birds change. The
404's were a very dark bird with a 200+ egg per year and the 606's were a
white bird with a higher laying rate 300+ but to be honest I cannot remember
the exact figures..

Summer and Winter do make a difference as does heat and cold and whilst the
quantity of birds does generate heat, so does it introduce a condensation
problem on an uninsulated house.

Another thing to remember that 2nd year birds lay less and 3rd year birds
'even lesser', (how do you like my English? ;-)), so you must be considering
either buying in chicks and bringing them on or replacing your layers with
laying birds.

Great fun and full of frustration when in a production situation, but even
more fun when you only have a few for home. After we got rid of the farm, we
just had a dozen at home, until the Fox got in and reduced the number :-((
and then we got rid of the rest when we built flats on the land. well not
'us', we sold out to a builder :-))

Hope that helps, BUT, my experiences waas the 60's ;-))

Mike


--
--------------------------------------
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com

"La Puce" wrote in message
What cockrel will you get? Can I suggest a French Maran and call it
Napoleon (we had one you see) - they're loud and bold and have a
gorgeous plumage.


We aren't planning on getting a cockerel. As far as I understand chicken
biology it is only necessary to have a cockerel if planning on having
fertile eggs from which to hatch more chickens. Otherwise the chickens still
produce unfertilised eggs anyway. But I may be wrong? Chickens are new to
me...

--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/

But hey, the man who never made a mistake, never made anything.

*ding*
--
Paul C
)
Precisely - which its why its my new allotment and not my husband's!
Three weeks in and I've had lots of advice, from the group and from
fellow allotmenteers. So far, the main on allotment advice is like
Harry Enfield's character..."you don't wanna do it like that you should
do it like this..."
which is why, I'll take a pinch of this, a pinch of that and treat the
first two years like a learning curve. And i won't forget to take a
pinch of my tomatoes when the greenhouse is finally built...
With thanks to all for the friendly advice received thus far
LW
400 miles N of anywhere warm (ish)

Steve wrote after

"Bob Hobden" wrote ...
I though I'd mention this to help any budding allotment growers.

Seen on our site this year...
1. Tomatoes not staked sufficiently strongly for the more exposed open
allotment site so they collapse when covered in fruit, it rains adding
weight and it's windy. Make a sturdy wooden/steel goal post type
structure and tie the canes to that.
2. Indeterminate Tomatoes not pinched out and allowed to do their own
thing.
3. Pumpkins and other cucurbits planted too close not realising their
ability to grow.
3. Onions planted late and not weeded so they got large spring onions in
effect as they grew to the light.
4. Tender plants bought from Garden Centres and planted immediately, much
too early. (they were very lucky we had no late frosts here) The very end
of May beginning of June is early enough.
5. Runner Beans planted up bamboo canes that are too short and again not
strong enough to take the weight and wind without sturdier help (wood or
steel poles) so they all collapse.
6. No compost bin made so weeds are thrown away on a spare plot.
7. No manure used (as far as we could see) so plot will suffer in the
long term.
8. Too much of one thing planted, probably used the whole packet of
lettuce seeds in one go, so most go to waste.


I've done several of those, especially the first year I got the plot. I
expect you did a couple yourself, no?

But hey, the man who never made a mistake, never made anything.

Yep, when we first got an allotment I did the classic of planting Tomatoes
against unsupported canes and watched them all collapse in the wind , with
canes bent and broken, when fully loaded with heavy fruit. It's easy to
forget an allotment is a lot more open and therefor exposed than a back
garden.
Too many of one type of lettuce is also one we are guilty of so we now mix
lots of different types in one bag and plant from that mixture so we get a
row of mixed types, works well. All except Romain lettuce (see Seeds of
Italy) which we like a lot and plant a few rows of seperately ( a must for a
proper Cesar salad).

--
Regards
Bob H
17mls W. of London.UK

"Paul Corfield" wrote after "Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
I though I'd mention this to help any budding allotment growers.

Seen on our site this year...
1. Tomatoes not staked sufficiently strongly for the more exposed open
allotment site so they collapse when covered in fruit, it rains adding
weight and it's windy. Make a sturdy wooden/steel goal post type
structure
and tie the canes to that.
2. Indeterminate Tomatoes not pinched out and allowed to do their own
thing.
3. Pumpkins and other cucurbits planted too close not realising their
ability to grow.
3. Onions planted late and not weeded so they got large spring onions in
effect as they grew to the light.
4. Tender plants bought from Garden Centres and planted immediately,
much
too early. (they were very lucky we had no late frosts here) The very
end
of May beginning of June is early enough.
5. Runner Beans planted up bamboo canes that are too short and again not
strong enough to take the weight and wind without sturdier help (wood or
steel poles) so they all collapse.
6. No compost bin made so weeds are thrown away on a spare plot.
7. No manure used (as far as we could see) so plot will suffer in the
long
term.
8. Too much of one thing planted, probably used the whole packet of
lettuce seeds in one go, so most go to waste.


I've done several of those, especially the first year I got the plot. I
expect you did a couple yourself, no?

Well exactly - I'm afraid I read the list as people being "told off".

Not what was intended and I can't see where you get that idea from.

There is a way to write these sorts of things which would be much more
helpful and supportive rather than condemnatory.

Where in my post was I condemnatory? Please explain.

It is unrealistic to
expect brand new allotment gardeners to avoid mistakes and to have
garnered all relevant experience.

Quite, that's the reason for my post, to help them learn from the disasters
of others.

Also who's to say there is only one
method of doing something - the GW programme on allotments showed a wide
range of practices being used and yet everyone seemed to be able to
grown the stuff they wanted. Isn't that the point?

The relevance to my post is unclear?

I don't have an allotment but I worked on my Dad's two allotments for a
number of years so I have a little bit of knowledge and experience
before I get "jumped on" as a "know nothing" person.

Who is doing that? Certainly not me. What exactly is your problem Paul?

--
Regards
Bob H
17mls W. of London.UK

In reply to La Puce ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

K wrote:

A boat? The plural of boat is boats. And they are all female,
unlike your male bateau, and your bateaux.

Ship or sheep or chip sound? I never know.

I think she means 'sheep' as the plural of 'sheep' as compared with
'sheeps' as the plural of 'sheep' = boat with a french accent ;-)

o) But no, it's the 'ship' and 'sheep' sound thing.

Sheep sounds like chips, and ship sounds like nothing French at all.

I like French accents.

In reply to Mike ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

is it penises or penie ?

Any experts in grammar/english/plurals here?

Well, I've spoken it reasonably well for 50 years, apparently.

It is clearly penises. It isn't latin, if it was it would be penius, and the
plural would be penii.

It's a silly word.

That is all.

Uncle Marvo writes
In reply to La Puce ) who wrote this in
.com, I, Marvo, say :

K wrote:

A boat? The plural of boat is boats. And they are all female,
unlike your male bateau, and your bateaux.

Ship or sheep or chip sound? I never know.

I think she means 'sheep' as the plural of 'sheep' as compared with
'sheeps' as the plural of 'sheep' = boat with a french accent ;-)

o) But no, it's the 'ship' and 'sheep' sound thing.

Sheep sounds like chips, and ship sounds like nothing French at all.

I hadn't realised till this thread that, perhaps, the short i sound
(like bit, fish, ship etc) isn't a sound used by french speakers. Rather
like we have problems with the french 'u' (eg tu) or the welsh ll or the
portuguese nasals, and have to be given anatomical descriptions of how
to produce the sound.

It's easy (well, it is for me) to take the anglocentric view that our
sounds are 'normal' and that it's other languages which have strange
sounds, and forget that probably most of our sounds are strange to
speakers of some country or other.
--
Kay

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 Mike wrote:

Now this is the problem, (disgusting yes I agree), but
is it penises or penie ?

Any experts in grammar/english/plurals here?

It can be either penises or penes.

David

--
David Rance http://www.mesnil.demon.co.uk
Fido Address: 2:252/110 writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

Uncle Marvo writes
In reply to Mike ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

is it penises or penie ?

Any experts in grammar/english/plurals here?

Well, I've spoken it reasonably well for 50 years, apparently.

It is clearly penises. It isn't latin, if it was it would be penius, and the
plural would be penii.

Why would it be 'penius'? There are plenty of latin words ending in
'is', eg civis, and the plural would be 'penes'. cf Analysis/analyses.
Browsing the OED suggests a lot of the latin -is endings are words they
got from the greek.
--
Kay

In reply to K ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

Uncle Marvo writes
In reply to La Puce ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say
:
K wrote:

A boat? The plural of boat is boats. And they are all female,
unlike your male bateau, and your bateaux.

Ship or sheep or chip sound? I never know.

I think she means 'sheep' as the plural of 'sheep' as compared with
'sheeps' as the plural of 'sheep' = boat with a french accent ;-)

o) But no, it's the 'ship' and 'sheep' sound thing.

Sheep sounds like chips, and ship sounds like nothing French at all.

I hadn't realised till this thread that, perhaps, the short i sound
(like bit, fish, ship etc) isn't a sound used by french speakers.
Rather like we have problems with the french 'u' (eg tu) or the welsh
ll or the portuguese nasals, and have to be given anatomical
descriptions of how to produce the sound.

It's easy (well, it is for me) to take the anglocentric view that our
sounds are 'normal' and that it's other languages which have strange
sounds, and forget that probably most of our sounds are strange to
speakers of some country or other.

If you watch a polyglot speak alien languages (something I do often) you
will see that their face changes completely. An indigenous Englishperson
speaking French will make his/her nose "thinner" and pout.

Really.

In reply to David Rance ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 Mike wrote:

Now this is the problem, (disgusting yes I agree), but
is it penises or penie ?

Any experts in grammar/english/plurals here?

It can be either penises or penes.

Oh no, here we go, it can't. It is archaic, because the word has been
absorbed into English. It's etymology is latin but the word no longer is,
thus its plural follows the rules of English.

Unless you read Wikipaedia which is a dreadful mistake :-)

In reply to K ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

Uncle Marvo writes
In reply to Mike ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

is it penises or penie ?

Any experts in grammar/english/plurals here?

Well, I've spoken it reasonably well for 50 years, apparently.

It is clearly penises. It isn't latin, if it was it would be penius,
and the plural would be penii.

Why would it be 'penius'? There are plenty of latin words ending in
'is', eg civis, and the plural would be 'penes'. cf Analysis/analyses.
Browsing the OED suggests a lot of the latin -is endings are words
they got from the greek.

I forgot the :-) at the end of the post

:-)