Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[16 and me]

Miss Tawny, my 3 yr old hen who was raised with Pedro my roo has just recently started rejecting his advances. He moves in for the mount and she does the shuffle at him. As he backs off she does it again. Have any of you seen this? It's spring, she's not molting, she's laying regularly and seems to be in good health. I culled a few bullies not long ago, who rejected him and it didn't go well. I'm hoping she's not next, but that this is a passing phase...

 

[Perris]

Miss Tawny, my 3 yr old hen who was raised with Pedro my roo has just recently started rejecting his advances. He moves in for the mount and she does the shuffle at him. As he backs off she does it again. Have any of you seen this? It's spring, she's not molting, she's laying regularly and seems to be in good health. I culled a few bullies not long ago, who rejected him and it didn't go well. I'm hoping she's not next, but that this is a passing phase...

Yes I have seen it often. My older hens prefer younger roos. I think they seek diversity; at least, I can see how evolution would favour such behaviour.

 

[MrsNorthie]

The stick is supposed to be melted in a line to weld metal together. I caused a short and the electrode stuck to the plate. I couldn't detach it, so i just shut the entire unit off before the whole thing melted.

yeah, I know, it was a poor attempt at humour.

 

[Perris]

look what's just opened up on my doorstep

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/bioscience/research-and-impact/natural-products-biohub-project/

hopefully chicken pests and diseases will be in their purview; I'll have to try to squeeze them in if not

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 80s mostly sunny.

Have a great day!

 

[Molpet]

look what's just opened up on my doorstep

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/bioscience/research-and-impact/natural-products-biohub-project/

hopefully chicken pests and diseases will be in their purview; I'll have to try to squeeze them in if not

I guess I should wear a tin hat because my first reaction when I read this was "what could go wrong"

Sounds good on paper but like cane toads introduced to Australia to control beetles eating crops, so much can go wrong

 

[Perris]

Sounds good on paper but like cane toads introduced to Australia to control beetles eating crops, so much can go wrong

indeed. But indiscriminate insecticides are killing enormous numbers of good insects alongside the handful of insects they are applied for. See e.g. https://beyondpesticides.org/dailyn...scalate-indiscriminate-harm-to-all-organisms/

 

[LaurenRitz]

Indiscriminate use of any technology without thought for the POSSIBLE consequences is a problem. "But" is the key to Pandora's box, and once opened it can't be closed. When humans start messing with nature, no matter their good intentions, it nearly always ends in disaster.

 

[Perris]

When humans start messing with nature, no matter their good intentions, it nearly always ends in disaster.

I'm not sure I understand the point here. The whole of human history we've been messing with nature. Pumping chemicals into land, sea and air. Building dams. Cutting down forests. Extracting minerals from land and sea. We have harnessed fungi to make bread and beer since time immemorial, and now packaging, among other things, and we harness bacteria to consume oil spills, make protein (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4993174/), and countless other uses.

The work to make the 'kissing bug' infertile seems to be just a new variety of the sterile insect technique of bug control (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique) with a higher degree of specificity precisely to avoid the sort of unintended problems created by past attempts to control one life with another. Yes there still may be unintended consequences, but there are known serious bad consequences from spraying increasingly strong chemical pesticides, the residues of which are on many of the foods that we eat.
"More than 90% of strawberry samples tested positive for residue of at least two pesticides, according to the EWG’s 2024 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. And strawberries are far from alone. More than 90% of samples of apples, cherries, spinach, nectarines and grapes also had residues of two or more pesticides.

The fruits and vegetables that made the 2024 Dirty Dozen list are:

1. Strawberries
2. Spinach
3. Kale, collard and mustard greens
4. Grapes
5. Peaches
6. Pears
7. Nectarines
8. Apples
9. Peppers (bell and hot)
10. Cherries
11. Blueberries
12. Green beans

These are the worst of 46 types of produce that the EWG scrutinized this year." https://www.moneytalksnews.com/these-fruits-and-vegetables-are-loaded-with-the-most-pesticides/

See also https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/pesticide-residues-in-food

 

[Shadrach]

I had to lift Fret off her nest today to make sure she ate etc. She would like a dustbath but even the semi covered patches of ground are wet. So nice to pick her up without her having a meltdown.
Here she is back at the nest having been off for about ten minutes which is quick for her. Maybe she knows it's cold, which it was, despite the weather forcasting optimismof higher temperatures even if it was still going to rain a lot. I'm trying to feed her roast beef which she likes a lot, but she isn't very keen on eating at the nest.

I did my bit with the students this morning. I think it went okay. They are doing a course with these people.
https://www.shiftbristol.org.uk/

On and off light rain most of the day. The grounds too wet to do much with. I did get 60 beetroot seed pods in the gound, two per hole. They may make it although for growing from seed it's still too cold and progress will be slow if at all.
We all got out for a bit but Henry had had enough by 7pm ish and Carbon shortly after. I stayed out with Mow for a bit but even she decided warm and asleep sounded good an hour before sunset which is about 8.40pm.