Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

In Connecticut (New England region of US) where I used to live I could dig out all the stones from the garden, and the next Spring there would be more.

Yep, they reproduce.

Every time it rains heavily the ground sinks and the stones rise.

 

[Shadrach]

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Got a nice picture of my bresse cockerel, Breezy. He's massive and behaves very well.

How old is he? Seven or eight months?

 

[Sally PB]

Every time it rains heavily the ground sinks and the stones rise.

I swear, stones "float" up to the surface in my garden!

 

[Shadrach]

We've got too many rocks here too.

Would a swamp cooler work? Is it too humid for that?

I don't think so.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Random, but there are so many TN/NC peeps here: I-40 is closed through the Smokies AGAIN. Flooding and mudslides at the usual place.

I think everyone else already knew this, but I don’t watch TV, so it was only when I saw traffic back to crawling up 240/26 through West Asheville that I realized. Here we go again.

At least I know the back roads.

This time, instead of the Pigeon River rising up to eat the interstate like it did after Helene, a rain shower flash-flooded creeks that rushed down Snowbird Mountain and poured over I-40 into the Pigeon.

It compromised I-40 again, took out a few more of those nice back roads in Grassy Fork, and flooded the Appalachian Trail hostel at Davenport Gap. All amid blue skies in much of the area. Flash floods are freaky that way.

Weather was pleasant enough that DH and I were vaguely planning a sunset hike at Max Patch. If I hadn't been dragging, procrastinating securing the chickens in their runs so we could leave, we'd've been driving right through the flooding as it happened

So the chickens basically saved us. Not all heroes wear capes.

Photo from the River Arts District in Asheville last fall. After helping an artist friend move back into her studio, we decided to finally walk the entire area since the flood. I've been there many times since, but that first walk after the storm was sobering.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

WNC is still trying to recover, and now of course, it appears that the promised FEMA funds are going poof.

RAD (River Arts District) is trying to rise from the ashes, but the winners appear to be condo developers. Of course.

Our Symphony Chorus director is also Canon of Music (fancy Episcopalian for Music Director) at All Souls Cathedral, originally built by the Vanderbilt family, which was nearly obliterated. They are holding services in a tiny church 7 miles away and had hoped to be back by Christmas, 15 months after Helene. Now they’re hoping for June 2026.

 

[Shadrach]

Six hours today. I went as early as possible to get Fret off her nest and keep her off until dark.
Yesterday I took her off her nest and kept her out of the coop. She did try to go back to her nest a couple of times but didn't get into the nest box mainly because I had taken the lids off both. I know she started off last night in a nest box.
When I got there today Fret was under the shade box and came out with the others when I opened them up. There were two eggs in one of the nest boxes and I half expected Fret to stay out long enough for a bath and some food and head back to the nest. She didn't, she stayed out from 4pm until 10pm. She's still making chick call noises but she isn't fluffing up and she's foraging, spending most of her time with Tull and Sylph. Mow who has been with Tull and Sylph while Fret has been sitting went of and did her own thing mostly. What was interesting is a bit before roost time Fret headed back to the extended run and Mow went with her. They both were twenty minutes or so in front of Tull and Sylph and they stated right by each other for the entire time.
Hopefully this is the end of this bout of broodiness.
It was hot again today, 28C was top temperature for the area.
They all ate and then Fret headed for the coolest spot under the apple tree by my chair. Mow went foraging and Tull and Sylph soon caught on and joined their mum under the tree. This wasn't cool enough for Fret after a while and she headed back and got under the coop for fifteen minutes. I initially thought she had head back to the nest. By around 7.30pm it had cooled down enough to let them on to the field. They hadn't shown any interest in going out on to the field until around then.

I lost track of Mow for twenty minutes and had to do a search. One might have thought a mostly white hen would be easy to spot

This is Fret eating.

Under the apple tree.

On my plot.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Six hours today. I went as early as possible to get Fret off her nest and keep her off until dark.
Yesterday I took her off her nest and kept her out of the coop. She did try to go back to her nest a couple of times but didn't get into the nest box mainly because I had taken the lids off both. I know she started off last night in a nest box.
When I got there today Fret was under the shade box and came out with the others when I opened them up. There were two eggs in one of the nest boxes and I half expected Fret to stay out long enough for a bath and some food and head back to the nest. She didn't, she stayed out from 4pm until 10pm. She's still making chick call noises but she isn't fluffing up and she's foraging, spending most of her time with Tull and Sylph. Mow who has been with Tull and Sylph while Fret has been sitting went of and did her own thing mostly. What was interesting is a bit before roost time Fret headed back to the extended run and Mow went with her. They both were twenty minutes or so in front of Tull and Sylph and they stated right by each other for the entire time.
Hopefully this is the end of this bout of broodiness.
It was hot again today, 28C was top temperature for the area.
They all ate and then Fret headed for the coolest spot under the apple tree by my chair. Mow went foraging and Tull and Sylph soon caught on and joined their mum under the tree. This wasn't cool enough for Fret after a while and she headed back and got under the coop for fifteen minutes. I initially thought she had head back to the nest. By around 7.30pm it had cooled down enough to let them on to the field. They hadn't shown any interest in going out on to the field until around then.

I lost track of Mow for twenty minutes and had to do a search. One might have thought a mostly white hen would be easy to spot

View attachment 4153637View attachment 4153639

This is Fret eating.
View attachment 4153640

Under the apple tree.
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On my plot.
View attachment 4153643View attachment 4153644View attachment 4153646
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[BlindLemonChicken]

WNC is still trying to recover, and now of course, it appears that the promised FEMA funds are going poof.

Well…there is this little glimmer of hope.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Well…there is this little glimmer of hope.
View attachment 4153724

I know, right? - so exciting!!!! It got absolutely clobbered, right there on the Swannanoa River. I'm so happy and impressed that they're ready to reopen.

It has always been a fun place to hang out, and especially to look at old-fashioned gadgets and try to figure out what they did and how they worked.