Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

I’m surprised the trampoline is still in your garden .

It was carefully located for the storm (like the ramshackle feed station made of leftovers): the shelter belt is 6 layers deep there. The chickens choose that part of that border to shelter from strong Sou-westerlies and westerlies, and it's good for the rarer nor-westerlies too, so I followed the chickens' advice, and thus had this storm covered from all expected angles as it passed.

The trampoline is also weighted down. The alder branch weighs a lot more than one would guess, and there's a large square of sopping wet axminster carpet laid on it too. Plus some heavy tiles, and some rebar. But it's positioning that matters most. As they say in real estate, only 3 things really matter: location, location, and location.

 

[notabitail]

It was carefully located for the storm (like the ramshackle feed station made of leftovers): the shelter belt is 6 layers deep there. The chickens choose that part of that border to shelter from strong Sou-westerlies and westerlies, and it's good for the rarer nor-westerlies too, so I followed the chickens' advice, and thus had this storm covered from all expected angles as it passed.

The trampoline is also weighted down. The alder branch weighs a lot more than one would guess, and there's a large square of sopping wet axminster carpet laid on it too. Plus some heavy tiles, and some rebar. But it's positioning that matters most. As they say in real estate, only 3 things really matter: location, location, and location.

If you put a few children on the trampoline it can't fly away. Children are sometimes loud enough to scare the wind away.

 

[BDutch]

If you put a few children on the trampoline it can't fly away. Children are sometimes loud enough to scare the wind away.

If this is true. I suppose roosters could scare a hurricane.

 

[Shadrach]

It's still windy at the field and it's got a few degrees colder and that's without the ENE wind chill. We all got out for an hour or so. I need to break open the front of a couple of the large compost piles for the chickens. Sylph is forage mad, mainly because she is now laying eggs and Mow I think is laying and has also stepped up her foraging. One more egg today which unfortunately was in the middle of the coop floor cracked. It may be that someone laid while on the roost bar. Going by her comb I think Tull will be laying soon.
I find it rather sad watching Fret take a back seat while her daughters take up Henry's time. She does join in for a while then more often than not comes and stays close by me if I'm sitting. Her leg still gives her occasional problems. She's not laying eggs and I doubt she will until spring. She knows this and so does Henry.

Fret coming to settle by my chair.

Freet did have a brief forage in the compost heaps I want to open up and in the large run where I built a small compost pile which I took the top off today.

 

[Perris]

My pain is almost gone now. Last night was the first night I didn’t take paracetamol.

Glad to read this; it seems a long time since you broke that collar bone.

 

[Perris]

https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2013/08/should-you-take-dietary-supplements

Be careful with the vitamin K Shad.

There is a chapter in Simpson and Raubenheimer The Nature of Nutrition on the relationship between nutrients and toxins, structured "around three interlinked themes: 1) the distinction between 'nutrient' and 'toxin' is fuzzy and sometimes imaginary; 2) the phenomenon of 'self-medication' in nonhuman animals can involve compounds that are conventionally classified either as nutrients or natural 'medicines'; and 3) even when a compelling case can be made for distinguishing a 'toxin' from a 'nutrient', the biological impacts of the toxin depend on the levels of nutrients in the food relative to the intake target for those nutrients."

The discussion of course builds on 'the dose makes the poison' idea and Bertrand's rule that at low doses of a nutrient, increased intake is associated with increasing benefits, but beyond an optimal intake, any further increase has health costs (forming an inverted U shaped curve). It concludes that 'toxins', 'medicines', and 'nutrients' are closely and sometimes inseparably interrelated, because the consequences of ingesting various compounds are massively contingent not just on the details of the compound, but also on the consuming organism's taxon, life stage, nutritional state, health; the dose; the balance of other compounds ingested; and the host immune state and response, and so on.

 

[Perris]

Given we don't have the education nor common sense to regulate our own diets one can't help wondering how we can believe we know how to feed chickens properly.

I assume this is why some people buy ready-made poultry feed; it relieves them of decisions which they feel ill-equipped to make. Plus convenience, of course.

But one of the things on the NIH page RC linked to on supplements applies also to convenience chicken feed: "Manufacturers are also responsible for the product’s purity, and they must accurately list ingredients and their amounts. But there’s no regulatory agency that makes sure that labels match what’s in the bottles. You risk getting less, or sometimes more, of the listed ingredients. All of the ingredients may not even be listed. A few independent organizations conduct quality tests ... and offer seals of approval. This doesn’t guarantee the product works or is safe; it just assures the product was properly made and contains the listed ingredients."

 

[Perris]

While it's true it is handy to know if a major storm is on its way the government warning on the phone came the day of the event.

No smartphone, no issue for me! Here they all went off with sirens surprising their owners Apparently it was the first real run since they trialled the system.

What I liked about the 'red warning' was the elaboration that 'red' meant not only did they forecast 'risk to life' conditions, but that they were 'sure' about the forecast

Now if they could let us know a week or so before those of us who have chickens or other pets and livestock have time to do something to secure coops etc.

To be fair, the Met Office had been warning on radio and TV for days before that this was coming. Plenty of time for me to make suitable arrangements, i.e. shift chicken stuff to the most sheltered bits of the garden.

And fwiw, 3 days without power is enough to drive the last nail in the coffin of the idea of an electric car as far as I'm concerned. It was a timely reminder of how fragile and un-resilient our modern lives have become, and making everything electric-dependent is just plain stupid.

 

[BDutch]

Glad to read this; it seems a long time since you broke that collar bone.

In fact it was the ball on top of the upper arm that got broken. We say a broken shoulder. Maybe I gave you a wrong bc of a poor translation previously.
It’s 3,5 months now and my movements are still improving but not completely back to normal. I need to do special exercises 3x a day and go to a physiotherapist every 2 weeks.

I started to give layer feed next to the chick crumble about two months ago. Both feeds get eaten. The chickens decide what they need. Most chickens eat from both bowls/container.

The young ladies both started to lay small brown eggs. Up til now I haven’t seen them eating or Ini mini, eat from the layer pellets.

 

[Perris]

there's a fair amount of evidence that the foods we eat do not contain as much nutritional value as a few decades ago due to depleted soils

soils are depleted because they've been fertilized over and over with just NPK, by and large (ignoring all other nutrients present in healthy soil), and also because all the organisms that live in healthy soil have been killed by chemicals sprayed on it and ploughs regularly breaking up its structure.

The nutritional values are down partly because of that, but also because for some 7+ decades, varieties have been selected that suit the needs of the growers, the shippers, the warehousers, the packers, and the retailers, with no consideration given to the nutritional values of the crop. As a result, most modern varieties have lower nutrient values than most heirloom varieties (though it's not always the case). If you are interested, Jo Robinson's Eating on the Wild Side has lots of detail on lots of fruits and veggies, plus info on the most nutritious varieties you're likely to find in shops and in street markets in the USA.