Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

No, in Catalonia they went under mare

La Mare, please.

 

[Shadrach]

Cold again. Barely over 6C when I left.
Fret has given up being broody for the time being at least.
The rats are back with a vengance. The female has produced another lot, or there are two females close by. If I could kill the females the problem would sort itself out.
However, the new coop will help just by being in a different place which means I can deal with the rat runs under the coop. It will look like a bomb site for a while.
Absolutley no sign the newcomers are integrating with the existing. I don't know if this a problem or not.

I've hit a problem with the transport back from the allotments. There is a train at 8.50 and the next isn't until 9.50. They are every half hour usually and after the 9.50they go back to being every half hour.
There is a bus supposedly at 8.30 and then again at 9 but it goes everywhere and by the time I get to where I live the train has already got there and gone again.
The chickens go to roost between 8.30 and 8.45. It takes ten minutes to walk to the station from the allotments. Not a problem when it's warm but tonight I just wanted to go home.

 

[Ribh]

Cold again. Barely over 6C when I left.
Fret has given up being broody for the time being at least.
The rats are back with a vengance. The female has produced another lot, or there are two females close by. If I could kill the females the problem would sort itself out.
However, the new coop will help just by being in a different place which means I can deal with the rat runs under the coop. It will look like a bomb site for a while.
Absolutley no sign the newcomers are integrating with the existing. I don't know if this a problem or not.
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I've hit a problem with the transport back from the allotments. There is a train at 8.50 and the next isn't until 9.50. They are every half hour usually and after the 9.50they go back to being every half hour.
There is a bus supposedly at 8.30 and then again at 9 but it goes everywhere and by the time I get to where I live the train has already got there and gone again.
The chickens go to roost between 8.30 and 8.45. It takes ten minutes to walk to the station from the allotments. Not a problem when it's warm but tonight I just wanted to go home.

I feel for you. Nothing worse than just missing a boat in the wind & rain knowing there's an hour to wait till the next one. why the sudden gap in timetabling? Shift changeover or something?

 

[Shadrach]

I feel for you. Nothing worse than just missing a boat in the wind & rain knowing there's an hour to wait till the next one. why the sudden gap in timetabling? Shift changeover or something?

I don't know Ribh. I guess someone decided that there wasn't much demand for a train at that time of night. The train before, the 8.50 is usually very quiet. The 9.50 picks up quite a few students going for a night out and from what I've seen some shift workers coming in from Avonmouth.

 

[Solanacae]

@Shadrach I’m so delighted that they decided the chickens deserved better food and a better coop rather than getting a shed.

I've signed the Hawaii petition, cheered on allotment coop expansion, wished good health for Shadrach and Agatha and Vanille and Skeksis offspring, ogled ManueB's spectacular view, and so on, all without commenting. So here's tax for lurking: video of Stilton acting like a gentleman at nap time, and photos of the Stilton sandwich that's typical nowadays when he decides to dustbathe.

He's worked hard on his manners as he approaches 2 years old, and the hens have noticed. More than half now groom him.

Best believe no matter how many hens try to push her out of the way, his BFF Miss Ashley still gets the roost to his right every night. That's her in the first dustbath picture wiggling her way under a Langshan to bathe next to him. By day, they aren't always together. The birds all tend to pair off in rotating buddy groups. But Stilton keeps an eye on Ashley. The other morning, a hen pecked her on the head over a bug they found. Stilton stopped what he was doing to trot over and peck that hen on the head--no treading or arguing, just a quick peck in retribution for bothering Ashley. It was funny to see.

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He’s a beautiful rooster!

If they are poisonous, just don't eat them

Yup. Venomous snakes on the other hand, gotta watch out for those! Though I’ve heard rattlesnake is rather tasty, and definitely not poisonous.

 

[Windrider]

I've got to ask you this. How does it feel being so badly in debt to the taxman.
My dad taught me to avoid credit like the plague.

Fair enough! I had a feeling you'd say that. I've been working on something I think you'll like, to pay my taxes the only way I currently can.

**** that!
Sorry, I meant that looks awfully dangerous doesn't it?

Meh. That probably wasn't even the third worst blow I've been in at sea. It was a gale, but it helps to have been on a boat that was built for that kind of thing. She was kind of a tub in light winds, but all of us were surprised what a mover she was when things got rough.

Ribh will appreciate that the second worst storm I've rode out was when I was cruising the South Pacific. We had been in New Zealand for quite a number of months and decided to head over to Australia. Found out that the Tasman Sea richly deserves its reputation as one of the most snotty seas on the planet. Kicked our butts, so we decided to head to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa instead. I regret that I was that close but have never been to Australia.

And to bring all this sailor talk back around to the subject of this thread...

Sailors probably have the dubious distinction of keeping the first "battery hens." During the golden age of sail, landlubber chickens were likely kept in a similar fashion to how Shad's Catalonia tribes were kept, since incubators and large commercial egg/meat production didn't exist at the time.

But sailors kept a surprising number of livestock aboard the great sailing ships. Hens were the most common, since a battery like coop was easier to find room for than, say, a cow. In all fairness, one could say the humans aboard were also housed in something like a battery, if you've ever visited the HMS Victory and seen the crew quarters.

This pic shows a shipboard "coop" on the far right, with turkeys below and chickens above.

About the only good thing to say about sailors and chickens is that this is how many of the Asian breeds like Cochins (Pekins) and Malays made it to Britain. I would have to assume that the Polynesians also confined their chickens similarly aboard their proas as they spread chickens all over the Pacific Islands.

 

[GregnLety]

I try not to have to kill snakes unless they are poisonous. Unfortunately we have copperhead and moccasins here. Both are aggressive.

Ironically we ran across a cottonmouth while weedeating around the pond this afternoon so I dispatched it. Saw 2 more small snakes but didn't get a good look at them .

 

[GregnLety]

If they are poisonous, just don't eat them.

And snakes are defensive, not aggressive.

I mostly agree that most snakes are defensive except I'll beg to differ where cottonmouths are concerned. The one today coiled up when he had the opportunity to escape. I've had other cottonmouths come out of the pond and right at me while I'm fishing.

 

[Ribh]

Ribh will appreciate that the second worst storm I've rode out was when I was cruising the South Pacific. We had been in New Zealand for quite a number of months and decided to head over to Australia. Found out that the Tasman Sea richly deserves its reputation as one of the most snotty seas on the planet. Kicked our butts, so we decided to head to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa instead. I regret that I was that close but have never been to Australia.

Yep, the seas around here have a rightly deserved reputation. Bass Strait is just a wind tunnel but I think overall the Indian Ocean is worst as there's absolutely nothing out there to break the force of the wind. Once you leave Africa all there is is water. My brother, who cruised round Asia for several years waited nearly 4 weeks for an opportune weather window to return to Oz via Cairns from PNG ~ & that was @ a good time of the year.

Excited to be paying tax.

 

[Ribh]

I mostly agree that most snakes are defensive except I'll beg to differ where cottonmouths are concerned. The one today coiled up when he had the opportunity to escape. I've had other cottonmouths come out of the pond and right at me while I'm fishing.

I don't know about cottonmouths but our browns are aggressive & vicious. I'm usually ok with snakes but not browns.
More tax.

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