Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Well, a first for me this morning: put down the breakfast bowls, let out the chickens, and a few minutes later that male pheasant flew in and headed straight for the feeding station. My view from the house was interrupted, but a minute or so later saw him being chased from the area by Ystrad, one of this year's pullets. They were really facing off, and she was getting the better of him. Astonishing thing was most of the rest of the flock - including roos! - all left the feeding station and were all behind her, watching proceedings.

In due course the pheasant decided discretion was the better part of valour and ducked into a border, while Ystrad headed back for a well earned (and apparently rudely interrupted) breakfast.

I am seriously wondering if that pheasant is trying to join the flock. Of course anything must be better than being shot at in the woods nearby, where he probably grew up.

 

[BDutch]

I can't answer for the yanks, but the UK started adopting decimal measures for most things in 1971.

However, while the change was made dramatic for currency, it wasn't for measures (ever the pragmatists) and e.g. miles and pints have stayed in common usage, and feet and inches too for quite a lot of us, even people born after 1971 (because our kids are surrounded by people who don't think or speak in metric measures). You might find this website entertaining https://ukma.org.uk/ - still campaigning for the change, 51 years later

Ultimately imperial measures, so called, are based on body parts, and they are easier to visualize and use than abstract measures based on once-and-ideally-but-no-longer-accurate measurements of the circumference (horizontally) of the earth. (And they were invented by the French, which doesn't help with adoption here of course.)

Yeah. Napoleon did achieve a few clever things to make live easier.
British people obvious rather listen to their belly guts then adopting the cleverness of others.
The effects of leaving the EC and all its profits ( like having no boundaries) was one of the things you probably underestimated listening to your guts. Side effects like : enormous amounts of administrative tasks for import and export, risk of new troubles in Northern Ireland , AND Shad having to leave Catalonia, where not taken enough into account (IMHO).

 

[Perris]

The effects of leaving the EC and all its profits ( like having no boundaries) was one of the things you probably underestimated listening to your guts. Side effects like : enormous amounts of administrative tasks for import and export, risk of new troubles in Northern Ireland , AND Shad having to leave Catalonia, where not taken enough into account (IMHO).

there are lots of pros and cons. But one of the biggest pros imho is that our politicians have to take responsibility for things here now. They can no longer shrug their shoulders and blame the EU for whatever.

I know the Dutch were furious about it but I hope you can forgive us in due course.

 

[Perris]

Tax for political talk: a young couple stepping out together

 

[RoyalChick]

I suspect this will fail but nonetheless I found it interesting and encouraging

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 

[Molpet]

I suspect this will fail but nonetheless I found it interesting and encouraging

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

This is behind a paywall for me

 

[Perris]

This is behind a paywall for me

ditto. I reached my limit of free articles a long time ago

 

[ManueB]

I'm 5ft 2 and this is true.
I have lived alone most of my life and the biggest thing is needing a third hand.
Until 2020 I was repairing and building everything. I did have some buddies help replace the roof.

I'm 5' 2" and y husband is 6' 3".

We do pretty good working together most of the time.

When he gets frustrated with me he just goes in the house.

5'2" is exactly the best height in my (small) opinion .
I consider myself a helper and I don't feel bad about it. I would say in 70% cases a "third hand" with some basic skills is what's needed. I would probably not be able to build on my own half of the things we have made together. My partner would have been able to in most cases, but it would have taken him twice the time. Sometimes, like when working on the roof, it would also have been a tad dangerous. So we work together because it's the most efficient way to do things.
We fight because I often don't understand his instructions. I think he's unclear ; he thinks I'm not paying attention .

It's been chucking it down on and off most of the day. Despite the downpours the chickens were determined to get out of the run the moment the rain abated.
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Sitting on the roost bar with the chickens waiting for the hail to stop.
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The state of the run.
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So much mud . It must take very long to dry..Is the rest of the allotment in a much better state and this is really due only to the mistreatment of the chicken runs soil ?

I'm missing Ribh who hasn't posted on her thread for a while.
I'm going to be around less for the next couple of weeks.
Most of my family have caught yet another bout of Covid and I need to help them out as best I can. So far 6 are down with the bug.

I also hope that Ribh hasn't had anymore stuff dropping on her .
Sorry about your family. Try not to catch it as well ; one must remain in health to take care of the others ! I wish it won't be too hard on them.

Well, a first for me this morning: put down the breakfast bowls, let out the chickens, and a few minutes later that male pheasant flew in and headed straight for the feeding station. My view from the house was interrupted, but a minute or so later saw him being chased from the area by Ystrad, one of this year's pullets. They were really facing off, and she was getting the better of him. Astonishing thing was most of the rest of the flock - including roos! - all left the feeding station and were all behind her, watching proceedings.

In due course the pheasant decided discretion was the better part of valour and ducked into a border, while Ystrad headed back for a well earned (and apparently rudely interrupted) breakfast.

I am seriously wondering if that pheasant is trying to join the flock. Of course anything must be better than being shot at in the woods nearby, where he probably grew up.

Incredible Ystrad !
Do you think he really grew up in the woods ? Here pheasants are grown domestically and released as adults to become game for hunters. Maybe if he was raised domestically he is used to eating from a feeder in a flock.

Sunshine tax for the unlucky people on the other side of the Channel. Maybe the sun would come back if you adopted a decimal system for everything ?

 

[RoyalChick]

This is behind a paywall for me

Sorry about that - hate when that happens. I couldn't figure a way around the pay wall but here is a link to the organization itself. The article was quite good. Basically they are doing research on behavior and preferences of farm animals. They are interesting because they are trying to do high quality research but in a very animal-centric ethical way based on a belief that farm animals are smart sentient beings with individual personalities.
One highlighted in the article was trying to test if learning new skills brought joy to chickens.
https://www.farmsanctuary.org/sanctuary-based-research/

 

[Perris]

Do you think he really grew up in the woods ? Here pheasants are grown domestically and released as adults to become game for hunters

it's both - the game keepers grow them in the woods, one field away, so we're discovered soon after they're released. One of our neighbours had 27 in their garden once! But I think there are also some feral ones that got away. I think this one is used to feeders, as you surmise, but we've not had any other one do this is >25 years living here.