Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Mother of Chaos]

Weather and climate are two different things. And the climate changes predicted (from models) for my area are true so far: warmer, obviously, and much wetter, and unpredictable weather, that which happens on a day-to-day basis, being more unstable. Daily summer afternoon rainstorms did not used to happen here, even when we first moved here. Yet here we are.

 

[Perris]

the astonishing decline in the insect population

I do think people are beginning to notice this at last. But it's a very data poor area - new species are being identified and described all the time. We can hardly make comparisons if we don't have historic data. Car number plates is a useful index, but only of insects that are relatively big, black, and inhabit places where roads go through, together with old people's memories of having to wash squished insects off car windscreens more or less frequently, compared with no longer finding that necessary. It's not a great baseline.

Hitherto bigger animals have hogged most zoological attention (and funding) and most invertebrates are damned difficult to spot - they've been perfecting their camouflage for hundreds of millions of years, because they're food for so many other species, including chickens - how many of us have commented on this thread that despite our best efforts, we can't see what exactly the chickens are eating when they forage? The recent finding of an enormous 41 cm long, 44g weight stick insect in Australia really displays the level of oversight and ignorance the entire invertebrate kingdom has suffered.

It's quite sobering. Since I have been trying to identify all the flora, fauna and funga in the garden, I have discovered that most of what I hitherto thought were bees are, in fact, other things mimicking bees, including a fly that's bigger than any bumble bee here, and all predatory wasps I've found were only in the 'I was here' form of what they leave behind.

This insect population decline is in part why the field looks so brown; we haven't cut the grass much anywhere. Not cutting will hopefully help with insect habitat

Yes. Don't clear it all away in autumn. It's essential overwinter habitat. Short grass is necessary for some species. Variety is the key to success, as usual.

eight to twelve inches of soil and then it's rocks

This can build up quite quickly with leaf litter left in situ. And it helps with moisture retention. Rain is held temporarily, better allowing it to seep into the ground, instead of flowing off as it does in areas left without leaf litter, often taking the topsoil with it. It's leaf litter that sustains the decomposers and detritivores that recycle the nutrients that went into the plant. 'Tidying up', an autumn gardening ritual I was brought up with, turns out to be really detrimental to the garden, stripping off nutrients and microlife essential to soil health, which then requires imported fertilizers of some sort to replace what was already there, before it was 'tidied' away. I have found you can get a good growing medium in just 2 years *just on tarmac* if you leave the autumn leaves where they fall. It has made me question the extraordinarily long timespans said to be required to 'make' soil. They must be counting from igneous rock simply exposed to the weather I think. Organic matter creates humus annually and once something has a foothold, it makes it easier for others to follow.

It's all incredibly complicated this environment we live in and we have not got a clue about what we are doing and the long term consequences of our doings.

Yes. Absolutely.

 

[Perris]

When we lived in California, our (rental) house was on the edge of the San Francisco Bay. We would go for months without rain, but the fogs kept everything green and cool. Especially in July, when I had to fight myself to keep from turning on the heat. Just a few miles inland, all was tan and brown.

I tried growing tomatoes, but it was too cool for them to ripen.

I really miss living in the Bay Area, but OMG not the traffic.

I visited the cloud forest garden in SF about 10 years ago; very beautiful, fantastic plants. The only traffic we enjoyed was, of course, the streetcars

We don't get the sort of fog SF is famous for, but being on the coast keeps the temperatures a bit more temperate than inland, and there's just more moisture in the air so dew occurs regularly even in dry spells (and the Lady's mantle is very good at trapping it; that plant's leaves are one of the chickens' favourite sources of drinking water).

In north Wales (among other places) there are temperate rainforests, which might interest you as a student of ecology
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/07/welsh-rainforest-british-adventure-walking

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Those of us in the Southeastern US states of Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida can participate in this year’s Great Southeast Pollinator Census, a yearly citizen-science project to help capture some of these numbers.

This year’s count dates are Friday, 22 Aug and Saturday, 23 Aug. It’s 15 minutes of sitting by a plant with insect activity and ticking off a count sheet, then uploading the data.

It’s straightforward and might catch the attention of a third or fourth grader on up to help count.

It’s not super-specific, but it’s a start! Check for similar projects in your region.

https://gsepc.org/

Handy insect ID guide: https://gsepc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/GSePC-Counting-Guide.pdf

 

[kattabelly]

This page from the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme contains links to various ways people can help monitor pollinating insects here.

 

[fluffycrow]

That sort of approach is the problem. Why do people not recognize the value of the local? why is the preferred solution always exotic? Grass greener on the other side? It's just too stupid.

That is what drew me to the Tsouloufates in the first place. So far I have had absolutely no complaints there, they keep surprising me with their weather/temperature tolerance. Zero losses from the heat, whereas a few acquaintances in the area have had one or more.

Not that I’m against using something that isn’t local; there are many reasons and needs for having, using or tending to, animals, plants, products, etc that are “exotic”.
There is a happy medium to be found, but that sometimes takes more time than what a farmer whose livelihood depends on their animals has to give

 

[Perris]

I'll take the liberty of answering this as it's only about 100 miles east of here. No. Grasslands and cereal fields are usually brown by mid August but this year most of England has had an exceptionally dry spring and summer.

We get more rain in the west, i.e. in Wales, and we've also had some coastal fog and mist when England was baking dry in one or another (of now the 4th) summer heatwave, so it's still nice and green here. That's partly why my chickens, sheep and other pastured livestock do well here; green grass all year round.

further to this, there's a piece on it with facts and figures in this morning's Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-worsen-across-england-national-drought-group

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Well, one reason to look beyond local flora and fauna is because they might not do so well in the next 10 or 20 years. Plants and animals (and microorganisms) in the wild are migrating to higher (closer to poles) latitudes and higher elevations in search of conditions they’re used to - food, water sources, temperatures, nesting conditions. One term for these organisms when they pop up in a new environment is “Neo-natives”, as opposed to non-natives.

Maybe looking at South African or Australian breeds is an overshoot, but our loved locals might not thrive in these changing conditions -become more vulnerable to diseases, etc.

 

[Perris]

Not that I’m against using something that isn’t local; there are many reasons and needs for having, using or tending to, animals, plants, products, etc that are “exotic”.

me neither - I have Swedish Flowers, Spanish Penedesencas, South American Araucana, Dutch Welsumer, and now Egyptian Fayoumis in my mix.

I think I phrased my objections to importing sheep from South Africa or Australia to deal with anticipated climate change in Sussex badly; seems to have muddied rather than clarified the waters.

sometimes takes more time than what a farmer whose livelihood depends on their animals has to give

I think this is a big driver: people want quick, simple fixes, silver bullets that will deliver immediate solutions. Novelty ('exotic') attracts lots of us, and tends to come from far away places; a phenomenon encapsulated in the adage that 'familiarity breeds contempt'. And changing things seems to be easier than changing actions; new products trump new techniques, and the new usually trumps the old, so those who promote old techniques are often engaged in a Sisyphean task. So if the answer to dry spells in Sussex is switching sheep breeds from long-established local ones to others from hot and dry but otherwise completely alien Antipodean environments (rather than, say, France, just south of Sussex), I think the analysis must have been swift and shallow.

Farming is tough and I have huge sympathy for people trying to make a living from the land in an ethical way. But too much modern farming (like other business) is organised around maximising short term profit, without adequate (or any) allowance for the medium or longer term consequences. The battle over pesticides is an obvious example; a decline in insects is what they aim to achieve.

eta just read Mother of Chaos' post and it seems to echo.

 

[fluffycrow]

And they are finally out! Day five and six for the little ones, and mum decided it was time. Now the real fun begins!

Mum having a well earned dust bath, with some of the chicks joining her soon after the photos were taken