Smart Feeder - Light sensor values

[ladyjulian]

I got a call from my Dad this afternoon, saying that he'd made me a present.

 

He'd baked the ladies two home made peck a blocks. When he brought them round they were still warm from the oven, and they smell way too good to give to the chooks - they smell like buns!

 

The ingredients are apparently flour, water, wild bird seed, some slightly out-of-date peanuts from the back of the cupboard, slightly out-of-date raisins ditto, and a tin of sweetcorn. Oh, and a metal hook.

 

They look like this:

 

 

And tomorrow is going to see some spoiled rotten chooks!

[Blue-DiamondChick07]

Lovely! I may try that

[Redwing]

Lovely! I may try that

 

Hopefully you mean for your chooks!

 

They look cool, clever trick with the wire

[quickcluck]

Let us know how it goes???

 

How did he get it to stick together?

[ladyjulian]

Let us know how it goes???

 

How did he get it to stick together?

 

The dough sticks it together - it's flour-and-water paste, so when it's sticky it'll hold.

 

It's been a wild and raging success; the ladies have pecked a hole almost clean through it and it's still holding together! It's not crumbled, and they have to work reasonably hard to get a treat out of it, so it should last a week or so I reckon.

[Melbourne12]

This was the basic recipe that we adapted - I think it's been posted before on this site. http://www.poultrychat.com/vb/showthread.php?14417-A-Home-made-pecka-block

 

We used heavy gauge garden wire for the hanger. An old wire coat-hanger would also do. Start by coiling it into a spiral, starting outside and working in, then twist the wire at right angles from the base to form the central spine. Finally cut the wire and turn the top over to make a hook.

 

The recipe was fairly rough and ready, and there are clearly any number of variations on the theme.

 

Put half a dozen tablespoons of plain flour into the mixer. I don't think you need the egg. Turn it on and add water a little at a time until you get a consistency stiffer than a cake mix, but slightly stickier than pastry. We added a scoop of wild bird seed, a handful of crushed peanuts, a good handful of raisins, and a small tin of sweetcorn. The major ingredient was the seed.

 

We rolled it up in oiled foil, around the wire hanger, to make a sausage, and baked it at 120C in a fan oven, After an hour, we removed the foil, and left it in the low oven for another hour to dry out further.

 

Next time we're going to use empty tin cans with both ends removed as moulds, to get a more beautiful cylindrical shape, but the slightly lumpy sausage shape is obviously effective!

 

This is much cheaper than a commercial peck a block, and very easy to make.