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Tuesday 30 August 2016

Cooking Apples with the Queen

The apple trees are heavy with fruit and will soon need to be harvested.   Our Bramley Apple tree is always very generous with her fruit.    Making the most of this bounty calls for some serious work and a fair bit of planning.



One of our four remaining hens, Mab, is a Speckledy.  



It was difficult to get a decent photograph of her because she kept ruffling her feathers and charging anything that moved.   She is in a bit of a frustrated grump at the moment.

Every once in a while Mab, aka Queen Mab, will withdraw herself from the rest of the small flock.  She goes into hiding and with a whole wood, even a small wood, to hide in, she is not easy to find.  

Apparently,  Speckledy's are a little prone to going broody.   None of our other hens have ever shown any inclination to do this, thank goodness.

She disappeared again a few days ago and was eventually found yesterday.    

Her makeshift nest contained , not eggs, but two windfall Bramley's.





Poor Mab.


6 comments:

  1. Sad, she need a friend. Wish our apples looked like yours, we have a couple of Bramley Seedlings and one is producing apples but they look nothing like yours, we have come to the conclusion it's a different verity of apple

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    Replies
    1. Don't worry Bill, she has three companions and they all get on very well together. Mab just gets a little overheated now and then, once we cool her down she will be fine until next summer. She has just very graciously accepted a little treat of some grated cheese, she is getting back to normal, thank goodness.
      The Bramley tree on the far side of the garden doesn't produce anything like as many as this one. We lost our lovely eating apple tree (unknown variety) so it's a good job we have a wonderful fruit farm just two miles along the road. Their apples and pears are superb and so inexpensive compared to shops.

      Delete
  2. Awwww poor Mab looking after her apple babies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is a shame, in some ways i would love to let her hatch some eggs but between cats, dog and buzzards I don't think they would stand a chance. She is getting back to normal, beginning to roam with the others.

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  3. Mab is a remarkable hen. It must have taken her quite a while to move those heavy apples into her very own nest :)

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    Replies
    1. Hello Prunella,
      Of course Queen Mab is remarkable, she is the Queen of Fairies!
      Our investigations into this cute, but strange, happening led us to our four and a half year old granddaughter, Merry.

      It seems she found Mab and gave her the first apple, incase she was hungry. When that one disappeared she got her another...
      The nest was nothing more than some old cardboard and scraps of paper which were destined for the nearby compost heap, as were the apples!

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Lovely to hear from you.
I will try to answer comments in the next post.