Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Catching up later…
And a little tax paid by French chickens.

 

[saysfaa]

...Eating less meat (no need of so much land for feeding farm animals ) contributes enough to make a more sustainable way of agriculture possible. ...

That is one way, perhaps.

Another sustainable way is pasturing the land that is too dry and has limestone too close to the surface to be sustainably farmed other ways. It is similar to how it was when the buffalo roamed it. Not exactly, they roamed in herds of millions that moved hundreds of miles over the seasons vs today's cattle in herds of hundreds that move dozens of miles over the seasons.

Like these (Flint Hills of Oklahoma and Kansas; Red Hills of Kansas. Sand Hills of Nebraska)
View attachment 3486292

And one of the pictures I took when I lived on the Great Plains, it was a little too late in the day for a good look.

I think there are other ways too. A few chickens and a garden works well. A few cattle can do much the same for a little bit bigger scale of agriculture. Maybe rotate the garden across a bigger area to keep the plant diseases down and not need to move the fertilizer the cattle leave. They add a lot of diversity to the diets of people and of chickens. And diversity to the farm as a whole - that adds a buffer to bad weather or maybe bird flu causing governments to require flocks be kept under a roof

Tax later, I haven't been taking my phone into the garden lately.

Edit to add, the pictures didn't load as I expected. I guess they are close enough to leave them since a few tried to fix them failed.

 

[Perris]

Another sustainable way is pasturing the land that is too dry and has limestone too close to the surface to be sustainably farmed other ways.

or too wet or steep for cereal or veg cultivation; much of Wales is like that, hence all the sheep (or woodland) here.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/countryside-woodland

Where it is possible, I think mixed farming, with some plant crops, and some livestock, each supporting or providing something for the other (crop residues to feed animals, manure to feed plants), has a lot to recommend it, not least from a sustainability and resilience viewpoint.

 

[Perris]

Tax: eating grass (and what grows in it) after breakfast

 

[BDutch]

I have one gooseberry plant and rarely get any fruit since the wild birds pick them off just as they get ripe. I'll need to rig up some sort of netting that won't get caught in the plant.

Or wild birds.
The reason I quit with fruit netting was that too many songbirds got caught in the netting. Mostly blackbirds, but even a blue jay.
Now I gladly share the fruit with my chickens and flying visitors.

 

[Molpet]

Or wild birds.
The reason I quit with fruit netting was that too many songbirds got caught in the netting. Mostly blackbirds, but even a blue jay.
Now I gladly share the fruit with my chickens and flying visitors.

Never thought about the netting catching song birds.

 

[Shadrach]

Well, I'm glad that's all sorted then. I'll just rustle up the £500,000 needed to buy an acre of land in the area I live in and start keeping chickens and growing my own food.

I'll let you lot deal with those who consider eating an 80z steak an absolute right and consuming enough protein for the daily allowance for two people in one meal.

I'll let you all deal with those who believe they have the right to consume in all form of products that 10 people might survive on because they have the freedom to make the choice.

You stand a better chance of making the required changes to society by resurecting Pol Pot.

Not that I want to be making with those negative waves man.

 

[Perris]

I think that's a shame, because you're a lot more tactful than some of us... I've just read the latest VIP/member interview. Explains and exemplifies a lot.

 

[BDutch]

Looks like Germany is importing eating eggs because of law of not killing cockerel chicks.

https://www.poultryworld.net/the-in...2/germany-only-a-few-hatcheries-will-survive/

I wonder if everything they say is true. Enlarging the scale is probably one of the reasons there are less hatcheries.

Another thing what is not true is that there are 14 days required begore they can make an accurate selection male/female.

From a dutch site (translated one part): https://reportersonline.nl/een-eitj...e-geweten-met-de-eieren-van-respeggt-kan-het/
“
SELEGGT method
The sex determination in Respeggt's hatching egg is called the SELEGGT method. On day 9 of the incubation process, a small drop of liquid is removed from the hatching eggs. This is done in a non-invasive way. The inside of the hatching egg is therefore not touched and remains intact. This endocrine sex determination has been specially developed by the scientists of the Respeggt group.”

So innovation techniques are allmost there with one week. And why shouldn’t it be possible to afjudt the regulation from 7 to 10 days?

One more thing that crosses my mind, on this (wider) subject. Last year there was a proposal about animal welfare that was accepted by our government.
It orders that all animals should have a descent life according to natural behaviour of the species. It was said the acceptance was a mistake. Because there were a lot of chamber members not present at the vote and the board of ministers/agricultural minister claims
this new law is impossible because animals within the farming business never had or will have a life were they can live in a natural behaviour way. Now the date for this law is postponed. And they are trying to change it, in a way the farmers can keep on doing what they do know: go on with animal abuse to sell cheap meat.

From NOS (national) news - translated intro.
https://nos.nl/l/2461513
(It really is true we have a party for the animals in our national second chambers, it has 2 or 3 seats of the 150 available) . Our first chamber is not as important (mainly for check/legislation).

The cabinet is not implementing an amendment to the law adopted by the Party for the Animals on animal welfare, because it would be 'impracticable'. Instead, the cabinet wants agreements to be made for animal-worthy livestock farming, in which the welfare of broilers, dairy cows and other farm animals is central.

Agriculture minister Piet Adema requires farmers' advocates and animal protection to record the agreements in a covenant, he gave them strict and far-reaching starting points. Animal organizations are dissatisfied with this, they believe that only experts should sit at the table.

 

[Shadrach]

I think that's a shame, because you're a lot more tactful than some of us... I've just read the latest VIP/member interview. Explains and exemplifies a lot.

I don't read them usually.