BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[BDutch]

I let them free range a few hours. Here one mama was inside the run. The other mama Katrientje and Tintin were outside.

 

[ManueB]

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I let them free range a few hours. Here one mama was inside the run. The other mama Katrientje and Tintin were outside.

Tintin makes Katrientje looks huge !
Curious to see how he turns out, he has so many different colours.

 

[BDutch]

Today I opened up the gate between the two runs. The only one who is interested in chasing Tintin is Ini mini. But she doesn’t really hurt him and there are enough hiding places yo get away.

As soon as I opened up to free range the two mothers and Tintin went to the area where we had a compost heap until a month ago.

Family picture at the old compost area.

Tintin’s mother Pearl is the greatest mother of the two mothers.

Katrientje is s good mother too as long as she doesn’t want to sand bathe.

 

[Perris]

We exercise authority over quality of life. Why not quality of death?

I hope when my time comes someone will ensure I have an easy death. That to me is an act of friendship or a service.

And maybe she was just waiting quietly to die at home when her time had come. How can we know ?

Apologies for being so late to this; I've been away and it was difficult to do anything more than like posts.

On this question, I think the difficulty for me is foresight; I'm not sure until after the death that the animal was so close to it. We beat ourselves up in hindsight, but we didn't KNOW they were going to die before, and we hope they are going to get better. Pain normally shows, but impending death doesn't, in my experience, until it really is the final moments, and what is the point of intervening then except to change what could be a peaceful slipping away into a short brutal assault? On the other hand, I am fully invested in the right to die campaign for those of sound mind. I think a person does know whether they want to live or die with whatever conditions they endure, and they alone really know and understand what that means. I think it is the worst form of bullying to force people who want to die to live.

Which leads into the related topic ManueB raised, because the one true lever the slave has over the master is the option to commit suicide.

could a slave be friend with the master ? Yes, possibly, in very exceptional circumstances. In most cases, the relationship would be too biased. If the friendship was true, the master would necessarily free the slave at some point.

I have studied slavery in great depth, and it's not as exceptional as one would initially assume. And in many slave-owning societies enslavement is temporary, not life-long. It is of course a very unequal relationship, but something said by Diogenes the Cynic, when standing on the platform being sold, bears thinking hard about: "sell me to him" said Diogenes, pointing to a man in the crowd, "he needs a master". Ancient Greek comedy is a rich source of information and insight for anyone interested in the topic.

But owning the right to decide of their life and death, for me, means I am above all a keeper of a life and that excludes a relation on an equal basis. The chickens did not choose to live with us.

Our children didn't choose us either. The relationship can change from unequal to equal and even unequal in the opposite direction. Equality is a really slippery concept. People aren't really equal, we're all different, and some dominate others by such subtle means that the dominated don't realize it. Perception matters.

 

[BDutch]

Tintin with Pearl free ranging.

We had 2 days with ‘marvellous’ summer weather that ended yesterday late afternoon with thunder, lightning, hail and lots of rain.
I knew it was expected so I closed the chickens in before 5pm.

When I checked later in the night I found the 2 mama’s and Tintin in one of the laying nests of the main coop where they hatched. Around the larger nestbox/mini coop it can get wet and the mamas must have moved to small coop with the attached run where they had more space to shelter for the nasty weather.

The large nestbox/tiny coop where the stayed in April.

The main coop with the extension

 

[BDutch]

Today is Ini mini’s birthday !

^^ Here she is with her daughter Janice and Kraai in the background.


Tintin and the 2 mothers are doing great. So fun to see them walk around in the garden. Tintin is copying his mothers behaviour and seems to get educated thoroughly.

Auntie Black joining for a while.

Sleeping arrangements. Why bother to give chickens more space.

 

[MaryJanet]

 

[Perris]

Congratulations to Ini Mini (and to you)!

 

[fluffycrow]

Happy birthday to Ini Mini!

 

[RoyalChick]

Congratulations Ini Mini!!!
What a wise old bird she must be - and she has kept her girlish figure!
Seriously, congratulations to you both. Ten years is quite an achievement.