Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[pennyJo1960]

Glad to hear Henry is looking better ... I spent the day inthe car. There was a big rig bad accident up here the driver did die.

 

[MaryJanet]

I'm rarely convinced by that we need time to adjust arguement. They pass the cost to the consumer evenually.

Agreed .

 

[Perris]

There was a big rig bad accident up here

was it caused by the weather there Penny or something else? And were you stuck in a resulting traffic jam for the whole day? Sounds awful in any case. RIP the driver.

 

[ManueB]

I knew about the rat experiment. I think a precise was published in the paper @ the time & I have used it for years to argue against big, centralised schools, inner city high rises & other forms of population overcrowding. It is one of the scariest things I've ever read but the sad part is we've not learned anything from these experiments.

We have claimed one of our specie's strength was it's ability to adapt, but I think these ten last year's are showing how restricted we are in that regard.

I never heard of high rise and the Ballard trilogy, strangely I grew up in a family that lived all things science fiction and dystopia, and I will add it on my list to read.
I was strongly impressed when I read a few years ago (even though it has lots of factual inaccuracies) Collapse from Jared Diamond and I think it fits in many ways what we are seeing.

It's one thing that makes me really, really angry. We know accessibility to nature has healing benefits but guess what is lacking in every hospital I've ever been in?

My stepmother has been hospitalized for almost three weeks now, first in ICU then in the cardio/pulmonary unit.I mentioned that because there was no place in Nice she was taken to a much further hospital, in a little town. It's a much smaller hospital, that has a campus like feeling- little buildings that include materials such as wood and stone, lots of trees and plants, a nice place for coffee...and even though she may not have had the highly competent doctors she would have seen in Nice it has been a much better experience. The environment really made her want to be able to get up and walk around. She is recovering, which no one expected.

Damp and drizzely today.
I've been cleaning and assessing what needs to be done to the small coop. It was completely mite ridden. I've had three goes at treaating it for mites so far and I still haven't got them all. I've beenusing this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Net-Tex-Ready-Total-Liquid/dp/B003L6LUIQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13NM0Q1CXY19C&keywords=net+tex+chickens&qid=1661207132&sprefix=Net+Tex,aps,121&sr=8-1
It's Permethrin based and it works on contact.
There are still mites in the top edge of the wall below the ceiling. It needs a new roof. It's quite a decent coop.

My friend has done a great job in shifting the stuff I've thrown out of the run and getting the rubble out of the wire cage that stands in the allotment run.
I'm a bit stuck waiting for some washers to pin the hardware cloth down with.

The Allotment Crew, as I have now named them looked pretty healthy today. One of the Golden Comets isn't getting enough to eat. She's not starving but she isn't carrying the weight she should be. This seems to be more to do with being I think the lowest ranking hen and timid with it.

Henry is back to his usual handsome self as you can see.View attachment 3232535View attachment 3232536View attachment 3232538View attachment 3232542

I'm really happy to hear good news from Henry. Don't want to get overexcited too soon but it's so hard to imagine the allotment crew without him! And good that you had your friend working with you. Many things that could be done alone, are much less of a hassle with another pair of hands!
On the third photo is a chicken drinking from a plant waterer ?

 

[ManueB]

Out of subject rambling tax.

 

[MaryJanet]

On the third photo is a chicken drinking from a plant waterer ?

So she is! I didn't even notice until you pointed her out.

 

[pennyJo1960]

was it caused by the weather there Penny or something else? And were you stuck in a resulting traffic jam for the whole day? Sounds awful in any case. RIP the driver.

Going up traffic moved at freeway speed it was coming back. We did hit one spot no one was moving. Turned around went back to Tenino headed south to Bucoda but clear sailing to Centralia. Then the bread store and lunch before going home.
Morning X Batts staying home today.

 

[Shadrach]

Sulfur in the dust baths http://entomologytoday.org/2016/07/18/battling-chicken-mites-with-bags-of-brimstone/

In the paper they mention that they don't know why treating birds with sulpher dust works at reducing the mite population on a bird. Rather important that bit.

They imply that Northern Fowl has become resistant to Permethrin. Well, some strains of mites perhaps, but I could prove this wrong in five minutes. It isn't a fair trial. Permethrin is a depends on contact with the mite. It just kills the mites it touches (I can't find the strength required to kill a single mite)
If one hangs Permethrin strips at the height of the chicken and rely on the chicken rubbing against it I can't see that killing many mites. In fact it would be a rather unlucky mite that even got close to where the Permethrin strip touched the chicken. When I spray a chicken I lift the feathers up and make sure most of what I spray makes contact with the chickens skin.

I think I've understood this right that they only tested this sulpher mite treatment in the lab on caged chickens. This is a problem that I find often crops up in such studies; none of this is valid for any other conditions.
They bag is hung in the chickens cage. The caged chicken would spend far more time in contact with the bag. If the bag is sensitve enough to let sulpher dust through on contact then I imagine that cage looks like dust bath if the chicken flapped it's wings.

One thing that annoyed me, is they seem to think the primary purpose of dustbathing is to remove parasites.

I am tempted to try it but I would want to know a few things first.
By what mechanism does it kill the mites.
What damage to a chickens lungs is done by the inhalation.
What damage exposre to fine particles does to the chickens eyes, ears and throat.
I would also want to know what risks there may be to my health by breathing in sulpher dust.

 

[Shadrach]

We have claimed one of our specie's strength was it's ability to adapt, but I think these ten last year's are showing how restricted we are in that regard.

We've claimed a lot of stuff. Most of it unjustified.
Don't we adapt our environment more than adapt ourselves?

 

[Shadrach]

On the third photo is a chicken drinking from a plant waterer ?

Yup.
The chickens have a large plastic tub in their run. I use the watering cans to fetch water from the tap at the bottom of the allotments to fill the chickens bowl at the top of the allotment. One doesn't spill so much as one would using buckets.
I get through the allotment run and put the two watering cans down. Almost immediately a couple of hens will come over and drink from one or other of them. Most have a go at drinking from the watering cans while I clean out the water containor in the run. Two in particular try to drink from the watering can spout as i pour it in to the run containor.