Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

One of the great things about BYC is one can with a bit of work put forward a proposition on behaviour and given that proposition is clear and enough people read it, one gets feedback.
When I write an article part of my interest isn't so much trying to educate anyone, it's a test of how strong a theory may be. If for example, as with the egg song article people comment that they have seen similar behaviour in their chickens and their keeping arrangements are not too dissimilar then given enough positive resposnes I can be more certain that my theory is sound for those similar conditions.
An academic writing a paper doesn't get that kind of feedback. They experiment, write and publish. Their peers are not even particularly interested in whether the paper represnts fact as long as the auther has carried out the experiment in an acceptable fashion and presented it correctly. It is peer reviewing and later the passage of time that decides whether the study represents a reality or fact.

 

[RoyalChick]

People reading and not understanding the limits to studies is an ongoing problem, even with well educated people.
Lab studies in particular have a set of very strict conditions. Many people don't bother reading the conditions or methodology. All studies should have in big bold lettering at the top, this is what we found under the conditions of the study and here are those conditions. The study is only relevant to exactly these conditions and any changes in the stated conditions are likely to yield a different result.

Believe it or not I have a book - a whole book - on ‘how to read a scientific paper’. And yes, I have read it!
Not as I recall a riveting page-turner, but useful nonetheless.

 

[Shadrach]

Short day today as I'm still under unaviodable (if I want any of my friends and relatives to speak to me again) social pressure. Split shift of five hours, two and a half either side of tea break.
There isn't much to write and I'm not expecting any drama now until Fret stops being broody and goes back to laying eggs. I am slightly concerend that Fret isn't eating enough but I found this fairly common with broodies with chicks for the first couple of weeks. I did feel her crop this evening (I get the usual why are you always feeling my chest at bedtime look) and there was stuff in it, not much but stuff. She looks and acts fine and I can't help wondering where she finds the energy to cope with the chicks even though there are only two of them. For those of you who have kept puppies, the chicks activity behaviour is markedely similar. Flat out activity for a while and then they fall asleep for a while and the cycle starts all over again.

I've adjusted my weeding time to try and coincide with their natural forage an hour or so before going to roost time. They all join me, even Henry who has a look what a wonderfull dad and provider I am five minutes, shifting an amazing amount of ground in his burst of enthusiasm only to wander off for a bit of a rest once he thinks we are all suitably impressed. Truth is I am impressed. When he gets going he does shift an incredibel amount of foliage and soil. It's rather like standing behind a wood chipper when he gets going. The chicks hide under Fret. There is far too much stuff flying everywhere for them to feel safe.
The chick without the dark head patch has become very bold and gets in front of my hand to the point that unless I'm carefull I'll pull a chick along with a bunch of weeds. I've had to give it a few bum taps now just so I can get on with the job.

Henry has adopted the habit of sitting down when I sit down. I'm not sure it's fair and he may just be laying the blame on his lack of productive fathering on my sitting habits.

 

[Sally PB]

Believe it or not I have a book - a whole book - on ‘how to read a scientific paper’.

Title??? Do tell!

 

[MrsNorthie]

Almonds and walnuts are insanely expensive here and there's no way I could afford to include them as a regular foodstuff.

We planted a couple of almond trees, but one did not make it, so I think that we are going to need another. I have them with my apple trees, but we need a good crabapple tree or two, for cross pollination. We are getting some apples but I suspect they would do much better with pollinators. I would also like a couple of walnut trees.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Truth is I am impressed.

Henry truly is magnificent! They are all doing so well.

 

[MrsNorthie]

An academic writing a paper doesn't get that kind of feedback.

I do not feel that many academics, their experiments, or their conclusions could necessarily stand up to deep scrutiny. I don't think many expect to face questions, they just publish x number of papers to meet some quota and to be able to say that they were published. Most of the people who actually live what they write about, may have a certain bias, but I feel that the hands-on knowledge is far more valuable and most have a genuine passion for the subject.

 

[Perris]

I do not feel that many academics, their experiments, or their conclusions could necessarily stand up to deep scrutiny. I don't think many expect to face questions, they just publish x number of papers to meet some quota and to be able to say that they were published. Most of the people who actually live what they write about, may have a certain bias, but I feel that the hands-on knowledge is far more valuable and most have a genuine passion for the subject.

This isn't my experience. Questions are the daily bread and butter of an academic. Getting published in a refereed journal requires one to write something that passes the scrutiny first of the editor, then, if it passes that hurdle, of however many referees s/he sends it to for comment (and those referees are other academics, some of whom will ask very difficult questions about it just to show how much they know and how clever they are ), then back to the editor with the referees' comments, for a final decision after however many revisions have been made, and then it goes through a copy editor who picks up any remaining flaws, faux pas and stylistic infelicities. The best journals have very skilled people doing each and every job on this journey that a paper published in it has to take. Journals are ranked by how hard (or not) it is to get published in them, since there is this quality control (unlike the internet, where any old rubbish can get published - without the platforms actually admitting it is publishing such nonsense to the world).

And getting to be an academic is such a long, hard and expensive journey, nobody gets into it without a passion for their work. That passion may be killed by the journey, or the people met on the journey of course. Few make it to a permanent post, which is rarely achieved before they get to 30.

 

[RoyalChick]

Title??? Do tell!

I will have to find it among the heaps of books.
I am sure it had an imaginative title like ‘How to read a scientific paper’!

 

[tranquiliti]

That passion may be killed by the journey,

…oh, and… Tax.

Top right = 1st pearl gray guinea keet to hatch this year; nicknamed Spaz because whilst candling the embryo looked like it was having a seizure. Behaves fairly normal now, however!
Center right = final hatchling of 2023, nicknamed Fuzzball (Fuzz for short) because all ten older keets had feathers, and he was just this ball of fuzz.
Bottom right = only surviving keet from June; the only fitting nickname was Junior.
3 keets on the left are all closely-spaced pearl gray hatchlings from early August.