Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

we've had some rain at last.

here too - I've woken to rain - the first we've had since before Polka started sitting!!! And thankfully its steady and modest, so some will penetrate the dried-hard ground and not just run off downhill. And maybe she will take Fez to roost in a coop tonight...

Trying to squeeze a handfull of fruit and vegetables out of a tiny amount of land I wouldn't consider big enough to range a single chicken on and pretending I'm saving the world by feeding myself is a new experience. It's a bit of fun though and it gives me further appreciation of just what a struggle it can be for those whose livelyhoods depend on farming.

Indeed, though if the chickens, the bugs, the diseases and the weather don't get your harvests first, they should be tasty and nutritious . I once grew purple sprouting broccoli, only to watch a pheasant consume it as it was ripening 11 months later . Decided then not to grow any more veg with such a long growing season, and since converted to trying to grow some perennial veg, with mixed results.

I seem to have managed a plastic ban at the allotments. The only new plastic allowed is water butts. The plastic compost bins are being phased out and the plan is for two general use compost site; one at each side of the field. Just getting a ban on new plastic gardening crap is a result.

Yay! Though can't help noticing that this follows discussion of the merits of plastic chicken coops Generalisations get us all in the end We need new words for 'good plastics' and 'bad plastics', ideally words that are easy to remember and don't involve poly- ethyl- or other chemical terms that induce brain freeze in most of us.

It's Sunday and the trains stop early and the buses are less frequent. It took an hour and a half to get home this evening.

Other days do they run late enough for you, now we're near the solstice?

 

[ManueB]

@Iluveggers I'm sorry for your chickens.
I hope you are not feeling too angry at the dog and guilty at yourself. I don't think you could have foreseen this.

Trying to squeeze a handfull of fruit and vegetables out of a tiny amount of land I wouldn't consider big enough to range a single chicken on and pretending I'm saving the world by feeding myself is a new experience. It's a bit of fun though and it gives me further appreciation of just what a struggle it can be for those whose livelyhoods depend on farming.

I seem to have managed a plastic ban at the allotments. The only new plastic allowed is water butts. The plastic compost bins are being phased out and the plan is for two general use compost site; one at each side of the field. Just getting a ban on new plastic gardening crap is a result.

Regarding plastic, I would be interested to know how you do with less plastic and replace it by other materials. For a few examples, we freeze most of our garden vegetables in plastic bags. Sure, I reuse them once or twice but no more. Don't tell me to can - we don't have the appliance necessary to heat for canning without spending way more energy than a year freezing does.
I tried to go with metal feeders and waterers for my chickens, and they rusted. I try to replace my food and storage plastic containers with glass, but glass containers have become so expensive that I can't afford to do it for all.

I don't think recycling plastic is a totally satisfying solution. Recycled plastic retains the toxic harmful chemicals from the original.
(see for ex : https://rethinkplasticalliance.eu/w...n-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-February-2019.pdf p. 48)
I do use recycled plastic whenever possible rather than new.

In the actual system, self sufficiency isn't possible for all. We would have to completely adjust our ways of living, but who is really ready to do that, apart from maybe @TropicalChickies ? And I don't think rich countries will be spared the devastation that's about to come- all the recent studies show that Europe is one of the places in the world where climate warming is going way faster that predicted.
I consider myself very lucky to have gone out of the city, we are not people who enjoy money or material things, and still we are not being sufficiently virtuous and keep consuming things we "want" but don't really "need". Just spending time on BYC is an example of this : we are all aware here I think of the environmental cost of spending time on the internet.

Last year the drought meant most of our harvest was poor. We usually grow garlic for almost the year round, but this time we had only for four months. We did make without, but ended up buying some twice : both times it came from Argentina, we just couldn't find any from France ! Logically enough the drought that caused our garden to produce less, had the same consequences for bigger AG.
I personally don't see any reason to be optimistic. Which doesn't mean I will not try to do better.

As for the coop, I don't think big sized coop are useless here. I've mentioned before that as my chickens are growing a bit older, they really appreciated hanging out in their coop in winter. It was a cold one for here, meaning mornings between -5 and -10c ( 14 / 23 f) for 2 weeks in a row three times between December and February, and my ex-batts stayed in their coop most of these mornings. Sure, they would have survived outside, but I think it was a confort for them. I get it : I love being outside and I am as soon as the weather allows it, but I'm also happy I dont have to jump from my bed directly outside in those temperatures!

4 january 2023. Chilling inside.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm curious, what would you do to me if I microwaved my tea?

Well, it's just not the done thing in refined circles. I've had this discussion with my eldest and ended up looking like a snob with a poor grasp of physics. The snob bit I can live with; the poor grasp of physics was too much for me to deal with so I let people boil their tea as they please.

 

[Shadrach]

Yay! Though can't help noticing that this follows discussion of the merits of plastic chicken coops Generalisations get us all in the end

I think I could defend this position without looking like a hypocrite on the basis that the plastic used is recycled...

Other days do they run late enough for you, now we're near the solstice?

Weekdays and Saturdays are usually fine. I have to go into the local village to catch a bus on Sundays. During the day, the village is almost bearable but at night it's plain depressing. Picture a naked tungston lightbulb behind dirty net curtains above a shop with roller shutters and an accumulation of litter outside, while a few drunks stagger around the high street and cars with loud exhausts going too fast tear past. The contrast from the peace of the allotments with late roosting birds chittering away in the trees and the smell of earth and flowers is hard to come to terms with.

 

[Perris]

that conjures up quite a different (and depressing) image of an English village from the one typically envisioned by the word, which involves thatched cottages, rose gardens, and someone wearing tweed on a bicycle and other biscuit-tin-worthy scenes. Is this village physically separate from Bristol or is it one that got swallowed up by the city? i.e. is it a rural village or an urban one?

 

[Shadrach]

@Iluveggers I'm sorry for your chickens.
I hope you are not feeling too angry at the dog and guilty at yourself. I don't think you could have foreseen this.



Regarding plastic, I would be interested to know how you do with less plastic and replace it by other materials. For a few examples, we freeze most of our garden vegetables in plastic bags. Sure, I reuse them once or twice but no more. Don't tell me to can - we don't have the appliance necessary to heat for canning without spending way more energy than a year freezing does.
I tried to go with metal feeders and waterers for my chickens, and they rusted. I try to replace my food and storage plastic containers with glass, but glass containers have become so expensive that I can't afford to do it for all.

I don't think recycling plastic is a totally satisfying solution. Recycled plastic retains the toxic harmful chemicals from the original.
(see for ex : https://rethinkplasticalliance.eu/w...n-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-February-2019.pdf p. 48)
I do use recycled plastic whenever possible rather than new.

In the actual system, self sufficiency isn't possible for all. We would have to completely adjust our ways of living, but who is really ready to do that, apart from maybe @TropicalChickies ? And I don't think rich countries will be spared the devastation that's about to come- all the recent studies show that Europe is one of the places in the world where climate warming is going way faster that predicted.
I consider myself very lucky to have gone out of the city, we are not people who enjoy money or material things, and still we are not being sufficiently virtuous and keep consuming things we "want" but don't really "need". Just spending time on BYC is an example of this : we are all aware here I think of the environmental cost of spending time on the internet.

Last year the drought meant most of our harvest was poor. We usually grow garlic for almost the year round, but this time we had only for four months. We did make without, but ended up buying some twice : both times it came from Argentina, we just couldn't find any from France ! Logically enough the drought that caused our garden to produce less, had the same consequences for bigger AG.
I personally don't see any reason to be optimistic. Which doesn't mean I will not try to do better.

As for the coop, I don't think big sized coop are useless here. I've mentioned before that as my chickens are growing a bit older, they really appreciated hanging out in their coop in winter. It was a cold one for here, meaning mornings between -5 and -10c ( 14 / 23 f) for 2 weeks in a row three times between December and February, and my ex-batts stayed in their coop most of these mornings. Sure, they would have survived outside, but I think it was a confort for them. I get it : I love being outside and I am as soon as the weather allows it, but I'm also happy I dont have to jump from my bed directly outside in those temperatures!

4 january 2023. Chilling inside.
View attachment 3538455

The problem I have with being an idealist is everything falls short, including myself. There is no acceptable way of turning back, Pol Pot had a try and despite what some may consider his initial good intentions, he's remembered by history as a bad thing.
The term coop almost always needs some clarification. I've always built what I describe as coops. The recycled plastic construction I now have is a coop. Some other people have constructions that could be described as aviaries. Some people have buildings that may be better described as sheds, or outhouses. When I write about coops I have a quite specific construction in mind. Royalchick for example has what I would describe as an aviary. You have an outhouse. It's a definition problem. Perhaps the easiest resolution to the inaccuracies of language when it comes to coops is to take the chicken bit out of the description and consider what it is one has left.

 

[RoyalChick]

The problem I have with being an idealist is everything falls short, including myself. There is no acceptable way of turning back, Pol Pot had a try and despite what some may consider his initial good intentions, he's remembered by history as a bad thing.
The term coop almost always needs some clarification. I've always built what I describe as coops. The recycled plastic construction I now have is a coop. Some other people have constructions that could be described as aviaries. Some people have buildings that may be better described as sheds, or outhouses. When I write about coops I have a quite specific construction in mind. Royalchick for example has what I would describe as an aviary. You have an outhouse. It's a definition problem. Perhaps the easiest resolution to the inaccuracies of language when it comes to coops is to take the chicken bit out of the description and consider what it is one has left.

I didn’t know I had an aviary - I always associate those with zoos! But I agree coop is not quite the right term for it.

 

[Shadrach]

that conjures up quite a different (and depressing) image of an English village from the one typically envisioned by the word, which involves thatched cottages, rose gardens, and someone wearing tweed on a bicycle and other biscuit-tin-worthy scenes. Is this village physically separate from Bristol or is it one that got swallowed up by the city? i.e. is it a rural village or an urban one?

It was a rural village. It's an urban village now. It's squeezed between Avonmouth docks and Bristol city.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/shirehampton-evolving-become-next-north-6491718

 

[Molpet]

Well, it's just not the done thing in refined circles. I've had this discussion with my eldest and ended up looking like a snob with a poor grasp of physics. The snob bit I can live with; the poor grasp of physics was too much for me to deal with so I let people boil their tea as they please.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...the microwave,those points to vibrate rapidly.


Uneven heating in microwave

 

[Molpet]

that conjures up quite a different (and depressing) image of an English village from the one typically envisioned by the word, which involves thatched cottages, rose gardens, and someone wearing tweed on a bicycle and other biscuit-tin-worthy scenes. Is this village physically separate from Bristol or is it one that got swallowed up by the city? i.e. is it a rural village or an urban one?

I think of English villages like the BBC shows on USA TV.
Quaint, clean and full of murderers

. https://www.pbs.org/show/midsomer-murders/