Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

thanks for your concern @L-plate chicken mum ; no hint of it yet, but the Botanic Garden has announced it'll be closed on Saturday, and a local street market, so people seem to be taking the warning seriously. I guess it'll put my recent 3rd rebuild of the feeding station to the test! It shrinks every time, as I have to cut off the rotten feet and replace sections with other bits of left over timber, and it now sports some nuisance legacy screws that I can't get out but are in the way of others going in, and there aren't many holding the onduline on anymore, so perhaps I'll add a strap while it's still calm and dry.

The other bits have now become a second rather ramshackle feeding station, to ease the pressure of nearly 30 birds trying to eat at once. I need to find some more timber to brace it, assuming it survives the coming storm...

On the other hand, if they both blow away I'll know it's time to start again and recognize that recycling has its limits

 

[Molpet]

In the mean time however, his father had freaked out seeing his face and was exhorting him to go see what we call a "magnetizer" : in old folk's lore, people who are supposed to have a special talent, one kind of which is to "take out the fire" in people, meaning cure things like warts and zona. My partner is really not open to any kind of alternative medicine, let alone

I have used magnets for pain. This sounds like what I know as energy healing. I have never tried.
https://www.everydayhealth.com/integrative-health/energy-healing/guide/

 

[BDutch]

I am also puzzled about leg/ foot feather situations on my chickens.
I can't figure out why on earth chickens grow those, they are so troublesome !

My first issue is that my rooster Theo's leg feathers almost all start as ingrown. They always raise his scales and some turn into small hard balls that look very irritated before finally coming out. This year it's getting quite bad. I've tried pulling a feather out two or three times and it just seemed to make things worse - the feather grows back and makes an even bigger ball. I've also tried coating vaseline for a few weeks and it doesn't seem to help.
Not a good picture but we're not on friendly terms these days.
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My second issue is with my hen Léa. It's her third winter, and two of her leg feathers are growing so long this molt that she actually steps on them with her other foot ! Also hesitant to trim them or just let her be.
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I have an anecdote relating to shingles I've been hesitant to share for a while. It's more a curious tale, definitely not meant to be taking seriously, so just skip it if superstition irritates you.

A few years ago my partner woke up a sunday looking like elephant man. His eyes and upper head swollen huge, a 40° fever, and terrible pain. He was supposed to work that night driving the tram in Nice. He did not feel up to it (which is totally unlike him and made me worried more than his looks). He went to the ER to know what was going on and the young intern on guard said it was just conjunctivitis and gave him eye drop and a two day off work leave.
Two days later things were getting even worse and he still did not feel up to working. He went to see his family doctor, who immediately recognized a zona and sent him straight to an ophthalmologist friend of his. He got antivirals and started taking them on wednesday.
In the mean time however, his father had freaked out seeing his face and was exhorting him to go see what we call a "magnetizer" : in old folk's lore, people who are supposed to have a special talent, one kind of which is to "take out the fire" in people, meaning cure things like warts and zona. My partner is really not open to any kind of alternative medicine, let alone something like witchcraft , so it was another sign that he felt desperate when he agreed to go. The man his father knew had retired, and sent him to his friend, who was a two hours drive away : a friend of ours took my partner there wednesday morning and the guy did his magic thing.
Coming home my partner wasn't sure at all if anything had happened, he just felt some kind of heat.
Anyway the next day he took a turn around and things began getting much better. It was another ten days before he was completely cured and feeling himself again.
I'm convinced that either the antiviral were really efficient or that his immune system was able to fight it off after the first days. But strangely my partner is absolutely firm that it was the magnetising thing that did it. He still doesn't believe in alternative treatments and swears by modern medicine but just for that one thing, he is convinced that the magical thing cured him . I personally think he was so unused to that degree of pain, to not being able to handle a health issue by acting like it was just a temporary minor problem, that it just made him open to believing anything irrational. And I'm rather open to natural alternative treatments that don't necessarily have a scientific explanation yet.
But.. who knows.
That magnétiseur has been so much in demand that he has left his full time job as a commercial a few years ago and now he makes a living of his supposed gift.

Glad he cured within a few weeks! That’s most important.

I am always a bit superstitious too about alternative healing but if someone tells me to go there bc they had the same , and it did help, I go too.
It seems to work quite often for me too.

One anecdote: Once I took (after recommendation) my son yo an Osteopath. My son was so pleased with this miracle doctor, that I asked him if he could cure a very old problem on my foot too. And he did. I was flabbergasted, that after 40 the pain from a foot injury could be cured by special massage on other parts of my body as where the actual pain was.
Pressure point treatments can be very healing if done right.

 

[fuzzi]

Glad he cured within a few weeks! That’s most important.

I am always a bit superstitious too about alternative healing but if someone tells me to go there bc they had the same , and it did help, I go too.
It seems to work quite often for me too.

One anecdote: Once I took (after recommendation) my son yo an Osteopath. My son was so pleased with this miracle doctor, that I asked him if he could cure a very old problem on my foot too. And he did. I was flabbergasted, that after 40 the pain from a foot injury could be cured by special massage on other parts of my body as where the actual pain was.
Pressure point treatments can be very healing if done right.

I was told that chiropractors were "quacks". When medical doctors couldn't help my daughter's migraines I finally tried using their services. I was so impressed with what one chiropractor accomplished with my daughter and then the whole family I continued going to him, then worked in his office and others for almost ten years! I even took classes and became a certified chiropractic assistant.

Tax: cabbage for breakfast!

 

[no fly zone]

I was told that chiropractors were "quacks". When medical doctors couldn't help my daughter's migraines I finally tried using their services. I was so impressed with what one chiropractor accomplished with my daughter and then the whole family I continued going to him, then worked in his office and others for almost ten years! I even took classes and became a certified chiropractic assistant.

Tax: cabbage for breakfast!
View attachment 4002011

Chiropractors are saints.

 

[Molpet]

I was told that chiropractors were "quacks". When medical doctors couldn't help my daughter's migraines I finally tried using their services. I was so impressed with what one chiropractor accomplished with my daughter and then the whole family I continued going to him, then worked in his office and others for almost ten years! I even took classes and became a certified chiropractic assistant.

Tax: cabbage for breakfast!
View attachment 4002011

Yes I remember when chiropractor were considered quacks. Before I retired my insurance was covering them. Helped me a lot

 

[Shadrach]

Congrats with these 2 beautiful December eggs. Never had any of my pullets starting to lay in December.
Did Tull and Sylph hatch in May?

I understand that Fret is calling it a day. But a bit strange Mow didn’t lay at all this summer don’t you think? Any idea why Mow didn’t lay any eggs? Did I miss something?

I don't know why Mow didn't lay any eggs since March.

 

[Shadrach]

thanks for your concern @L-plate chicken mum ; no hint of it yet, but the Botanic Garden has announced it'll be closed on Saturday, and a local street market, so people seem to be taking the warning seriously. I guess it'll put my recent 3rd rebuild of the feeding station to the test! It shrinks every time, as I have to cut off the rotten feet and replace sections with other bits of left over timber, and it now sports some nuisance legacy screws that I can't get out but are in the way of others going in, and there aren't many holding the onduline on anymore, so perhaps I'll add a strap while it's still calm and dry.
View attachment 4001911
The other bits have now become a second rather ramshackle feeding station, to ease the pressure of nearly 30 birds trying to eat at once. I need to find some more timber to brace it, assuming it survives the coming storm...
View attachment 4001912
On the other hand, if they both blow away I'll know it's time to start again and recognize that recycling has its limits

That lot is definitely going airborn if a 60mph gust hits them.

 

[no fly zone]

I don't know why Mow didn't lay any eggs since March.

Is there any chance of a secret nest?

 

[Shadrach]

Is there any chance of a secret nest?

Not with Mow. She laid a soft shelled egg shortly after Fret sat the last time and stopped laying. A couple of months later she started to moult and she has only recently finished.