Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[RoyalChick]

It's OK, Rhondda is coming out of it. Not coincidentally a gang of them went for a group bath (R right down in it centre of picture, with Fez apparently chatting to her and Paprika (another interrupted sitter) come in next to her from behind).
View attachment 4185613
Note the roos' positions; backs to the dustbath, looking out for the girls bathing, just as they should.

That is a great picture. The guys are perfectly positioned for surveillance!

 

[Shadrach]

Sorry if I read this wrong. Are the chickens at your house now? Again, sorry if you. Already said this in one of your other posts

No, the chickens are not at my flat. I live in the city in a second floor flat so having chickens here even on a temporary basis just isn't a going proposition.
As BDutch mentions further on, a lot has changed since the start of the thread.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

The surname Rosie is common here and one possible explanation for that is it's a corruption of Rossi, from Spanish and Italian sailors who landed or were wrecked here. A wrecked Spanish galleon is one possible source of the chickens that passed on the blue egg gene to what became the Shetland landrace, too. (There are also alternative and more mundane explanations for both.)

I had an interesting chat with the mum of the director of the Statsraad Lehmkuhl - one of the Norwegian tall ships - Foundation recently. He also founded the Storm Weather Shanty Choir (very different to what you're singing, I know!)

Really hope this doesn't become an ongoing issue for you and them.

In hindsight I suspect one of the local cats might be indirectly to blame for the cockerel I lost recently. One appeared outside the run that morning and another cockerel got in a huge panic about it and flew into the opposite door repeatedly, but luckily that was just windbreak mesh with some wide wire mesh a couple of inches further back and he was fine. I hadn't noticed the black cockerel doing anything like that but it's possible I missed a single collision in all the commotion, and a brain or spinal injury might explain his symptoms.

A sea shanty mass choir! That’s great!

There are a lot of shanty-type tunes interwoven through Sea Symphony, but none as fun as this.

 

[Shadrach]

The world would be a better place without that cat.

It shouldn't have to come to that. It's not really the cats fault. They're a bit like the rats in this respect apart from the rat is considerably smarter.

I don't mind the wildlife. I cannot be doing with someones pet roaming around bothering the chickens and killing the small birds at the field. It's not like they're hunting to eat.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

You're expecting them to eat the green, whereas it is a recognized food for people and livestock as *seed* (like wheat, rice etc.). It is aka Polish millet. It was deliberately imported to America as animal forage. It is better at photosynthesis than most other plants inc lawn grasses, hence takes over, even in drought or starving soils. A single crabgrass plant can produce up to 150,000 seeds. It thrives in human-altered environments. You could embrace it. Let it flower and set seed, and then see if your chickens like it.

Well, they do eat the green of the non-clumping grass types, which haven’t seeded yet, courtesy of the lawnmower. So it’s a little frustrating.

 

[Shadrach]

Poor Janeka; her nest has been predated this morning since breakfast. I tracked her back to it after breakfast, having failed to find it hitherto; maybe the predator did too, or I gave the location away inadvertently . Anyway, she was with the others when I went to look for Cadle (having missed her at breakfast [because I was stalking Janeka] and knowing she had roosted out), so I went to the nest site and found 4 eggshells . That's the 3rd hidden nest she's had predated this season.

I suppose if you count my taking eggs from the nest boxes as predation (and what else is it, really?) she's used to it, but I do feel for her. If she goes again, in a nest box, I'll let her have a few eggs of whoever's laying at the time. She is the nicest hen, and a wonderfully caring broody.

Nest predation I considered an asset in Catalonia; as long as the hen was unscathed. I can think of a few hens who would have sat and hatched in a wild nest and not survived but for a nest predation driving them back to the coop and tribe.
I found such hens got over broodiness a lot faster. There was one hen who had her nest driven over by a tractor one night as they cropped the field. I would say that would be a very powerful learning experience.

 

[thistlewick]

Wasn’t the wreck of the Spanish Armada an explanation for the sudden appearance of black-haired, brown-eyed children in the British Isles?

I don't know if this was a joke or not?


Anyway, no.

edit; I see quite a few people have already said as much.

There has been quite a lot of work done on genetics in the British Isles. Loads of books by scientists with loads of documentation to back up their findings. I've read a few of them - you have to be a little cautious of the aim of the author. Just because they are 'academics' does not mean their intentions are pure, nor is their research rigorous.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I don't know if this was a joke or not?


Anyway, no.

If you meant the Armada legend, it was not meant to be a joke. I first read mentions of it 40-50 years ago, that sailors who escaped drowning settled and married locals. It has since been disproven by DNA analysis, but that’s how legends arise, isn’t it? - attempting to explain things that puzzle people.

 

[Skyeknight]

Just because they are 'academics' does not mean their intentions are pure, nor is their research rigorous

I think the piltdown man is a prime example of this. All humans have an opinion on something and as an academic you should look at it objectively. A good article is one where you can't see their opinion in the way they write.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

If you meant the Armada legend, it was not meant to be a joke. I first read mentions of it 40-50 years ago, that sailors who escaped drowning settled and married locals. It has since been disproven by DNA analysis, but that’s how legends arise, isn’t it? - attempting to explain things that puzzle people.

Now that I think about it, writer Ann Cleves included it as part of the background for DI Jimmy Perez, a native Shetlander, in her two quartets of Shetland mysteries beginning in the early 2000’s (later a TV series.)