Speckled Chicken
Speckled Chicken Enjoy Florida's Culturally Diverse Food Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coasts and its inland waters serve up a mouth-watering menu of marine cuisine. Depending on the time of...
Speckled Chicken
Enjoy Florida's Culturally Diverse Food
Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coasts and its inland waters serve up a mouth-watering menu of marine cuisine. Depending on the time of year and where you are, you can dine on Apalachicola oysters, Fernandina Beach shrimp, St. Johns River blue crabs, Florida Bay lobsters, and Cedar Key clams, Grouper, mahi-mahi, largemouth bass, speckled perch, and trout. For Starters - here are a few; Conch Chowder - a creamy soup made with conch (a giant sea snail). Conch live in those shells that some of you buy in souvenir shops, take back home, put it to your ear and think that you can hear the ocean. The two most common ways conch is prepared is in chowder or fried. U-Peel-Shrimp This is a dish consisting of shrimp cooked in a spicy broth. Some Main Course dishes Seared Tuna may be served with a mango salsa and grilled chayote (a type of squash). For the mango salsa; Fresh mangoes are blended with herbs, spices and scotch bonnet peppers for mild heat. Chicken Tropicana This is a chicken dish with tropical fruit sauce, coconut and cashews. Dessert. Key Lime Pie - you cannot mention Florida desserts without mentioning this Florida Signature dessert. Key Lime Pie is filled with a tangy custard made from Key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and sugar. The pie is named after the small Key limes that are found throughout the Florida Keys. Key lime juice is yellow, not green - so if it is green it is not authentic. To sample a day's worth of Cuban delights (Cuban cuisine is a fusion of Spanish, African and Caribbean cuisine), begin at breakfast with a wedge of hot, buttered, Cuban bread with a cup of caf é con leche -- this is strong coffee with a some milk. Other choices include frijoles negros (black beans), arroz con pollo (chicken and yellow rice), boliche (a beef roast, stuffed with chorizo sausage), Cuban mojo-roast pork, arroz salteado (salted rice), and deviled crab with hot sauce. Feast your eyes and stomach on a heaping dish of paella -- rice mixed with a profuse amount of delights that may include mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops, lobster, oysters, stone-crab claws, chicken, and/or pork. To finish off, try flan, egg custard oozing with caramel sauce. Then go back to your Florida Vacation Rental Home and have a well earned rest. About the Author Tim Burton writes travel articles for the popular |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
What To Do With A Broody Chicken?
For every chicken keeper, trying to stop your egg layers going broody can be a constant battle. Whilst man has done their absolute best to create a species that continuously supplies us with eggs, it is in the hens deepest biology to procreate, and this means incubating. On an industrial scale, with farmers who have no time for broody hens, chickens will simply be discarded, but for those keeping poultry in a smaller or more free range setting, there are ways to break the cycle.
The battle against broody hens starts when selecting the breeds you wish to keep. Many feathered feet varieties will be likely to attempt to incubate, the Silkie being one notorious variety, whilst other bantams or showcase types also offer lower eggs yields and an increased desire to sit. If egg yield is of high importance try choosing varieties such as the Rhode Island Red, Light Speckled Sussex or perhaps the Orpington. However, every hen of any variety may wish to sit at some point and the best course of action is to catch it early.
The obvious choice for the unsentimental owner is to despatch the hen concerned. This solves the problem of the broodiness, and whilst you loose one of the egg laying birds, you acquire a bird for the table.
At the other extreme of the scale, leaving the bird to incubate can also be an option. Allowing her to hatch fertilised eggs, though loosing one of your egg layers for a number of months, will allow you to enjoy the experience that comes with raising chicks. Once matured, cockerels can then be used for meat birds, whilst hens can be passed to friends or merged with your own bustling flock.
Alternatively isolate the hen from her environment and try and break the cycle. It is important to do this as soon as possible after you start seeing broody signs such as unwillingness to leave the nest box, or a change in the hens demeanour and vocalisations. A chemical change within the birds body at the time of incubation causes her underside to become warmer than normal, and breaking this change can set your hen back to the path of laying. Isolate her in a pen with nothing but water and feed. Many keepers use wire mesh flooring so that air can circulate beneath her feet but this is not a necessity. Without a nesting box and material, and with only her basic needs met, a hens broodiness can often be broken within three to four days, whereupon she can be replaced back into the flock.
Breaking a hens broodiness is not an exact science. It can take time and perseverance that many keepers simply don’t have, but don’t think that because your hen is broody you simply have to give up. By catching it quick and taking appropriate action your hen will be laying again in no time.
About the Author
Rachel runs a farming website. Gofarmer.com offers an online classifieds for farmers and smallholders to trade farm machinery, livestock, farm land and other farm goods between each other and to trade farm produce and rural crafts directly with the public. For more information please visit Gofarmer.com
�
For more farming news and articles please visit the Gofarmer Blog.