This is as clear as mud . . .???

If you're going to keep chickens, first check with DEFRA about precautions for avian flu.

Resin

I think you missed my point. The question is about mushrooms. Chicken of the woods is a native mushroom in the uk that is good for eating but I am unsure if it will grow on hawthorn logs. They grow on broad leaf trees

"Chicken of the woods is a native mushroom in the uk"

Never heard of it, and it isn't listed in the index in my Collins Field Guide of British / N European fungi . . . what's its real name? (as used in books about fungi, not books of poetry)

Resin

Sulphur Polypore,Laetiporus sulphureus. sorry for using the common name. thought more people would know it as this. do you grow mushrooms and experimented with different woods to be able to give me an informed answer to my first question. I have only just started growing them. At the moment I am trying Pleurotus ostreatus, Lentinula edodes, Flammulina velutipes and Hericium erinaceus. I am trying these on Fraxinus excelsior. but as i said i can only find Crataegus oxyacantha.

Thanks! I'd call Sulphur Polypore the common name (had you used that, I'd have known what was meant!). "Chicken of the woods" definitely isn't a commonly used name, sounds more like someone's attempt at pretentious poetic invention to me, decidedly phoney :-)

Looked up in Phillips & Burdekin Diseases of Forest and Ornamental Trees, and Laetiporus sulphureus is listed as an occasional cause of wood decay in hawthorn, so it should work. However, as it is listed as only occasional, it may be a difficult wood for it to use, perhaps with very slow growth in it.

Other woods it utilises include oak, chestnut (Castanea, not Aesculus), cherry, and occasionall on pine, larch and beech. "... is commonly found causing serious decay in open-grown oaks and also in larger structural timbers. Even small traces of infection can continue their development in sawn timber, particularly if the wood remains moist" (so might be best not to try growing it indoors!!).

No, never grown fungi myself, my interests are in trees, including fungal decay and disease aspects (hence the info sources I use!).

Resin

resin - I think you have been rather sniffy with whiteleaf. Chicken of the woods is a name I have heard from various people, including woodland workers, who are interested in funghi from a culinary rather than a disease point of view. See also Pegler, D The easy edible mushroom guide. Aurum Press p.140. David Pegler was until recently Head of Mycology at Kew Gardens, and he calls it chicken of the woods. Presumably he knows what he's talking about, or is HE being pretentious do you think yet?

thank you Flora uk. i did feel he was a bit off.