Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Labsandchickens8]

It appears that a snake killed Confetti, but was unable to swallow him.

That's horrible. My nightmare.
I have pictures of a giant rat snake on top of me nest box coop about 6 weeks ago. Second snake in the run in 5 days. It's now Fort Knox around that door - so bad the wire snags me most of the time - but hey, no snakes.
If you want to see a picture of a snake that swallowed 3 wooden eggs and maybe some real ones, let me know. I can post it, but I'll have nightmares again.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

That's horrible. My nightmare.
I have pictures of a giant rat snake on top of me nest box coop about 6 weeks ago. Second snake in the run in 5 days. It's now Fort Knox around that door - so bad the wire snags me most of the time - but hey, no snakes.
If you want to see a picture of a snake that swallowed 3 wooden eggs and maybe some real ones, let me know. I can post it, but I'll have nightmares again.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Talk about a food coma

 

[no fly zone]

didn't know corn snakes ate eggs

 

[kattabelly]

Last thing I'll say on the subject of sheep

Spoiler

Wish I hadn't mentioned the sheep! It was only meant as a throwaway anecdote, not a full on case study, but I can see how not giving more detail has led to people jumping to conclusions without the full picture and it's hard not to feel like I need to jump to their defence after misrepresenting them initially. Anyway, last point I'll make - Australia isn't all scorching, arid outback. Parts of the southern states have a climate that isn't nearly so different from the UK, and British and European sheep breeds played a big part in creating many of the breeds developed for those areas.

I decided to make a note of what insects I saw without going searching for them this afternoon, just during the short walk up to the plot and while I was there topping up food and collecting an egg. Didn't take the time to try and get proper IDs, but:
Honeybees
Bumblebee at least 2 species incl great yellow
Hoverfly 2 sp.
Wasp
Butterfly 3+ sp.
Caterpillar 2 sp.
Flies 5 obviously different species, in reality probably loads more
Moths 3+ sp.
Midges
Crane flies
Harvestman
Spider 2 sp.
Woodlice
Springtails
Millipedes
Slugs 2 sp.
Snail
Earthworm (nice to see as we supposedly have a lot of New Zealand flatworms here, although I've never seen one)

Sheep tax

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Last thing I'll say on the subject of sheep

Spoiler

Wish I hadn't mentioned the sheep! It was only meant as a throwaway anecdote, not a full on case study, but I can see how not giving more detail has led to people jumping to conclusions without the full picture and it's hard not to feel like I need to jump to their defence after misrepresenting them initially. Anyway, last point I'll make - Australia isn't all scorching, arid outback. Parts of the southern states have a climate that isn't nearly so different from the UK, and British and European sheep breeds played a big part in creating many of the breeds developed for those areas.

I decided to make a note of what insects I saw without going searching for them this afternoon, just during the short walk up to the plot and while I was there topping up food and collecting an egg. Didn't take the time to try and get proper IDs, but:
Honeybees
Bumblebee at least 2 species incl great yellow
Hoverfly 2 sp.
Wasp
Butterfly 3+ sp.
Caterpillar 2 sp.
Flies 5 obviously different species, in reality probably loads more
Moths 3+ sp.
Gnats
Crane flies
Harvestman
Spider 2 sp.
Woodlice
Springtails
Millipedes
Slugs 2 sp.
Snail
Earthworm (nice to see as we supposedly have a lot of New Zealand flatworms here, although I've never seen one)

Sheep tax
View attachment 4195950

Yeah, I kind of wondered where the ancestors of those Australian/NZ sheep came from…

 

[BDutch]

But it's a very data poor area - new species are being identified and described all the time.

The Germans have been counting insects since about 35 years ago and found a decline in 2017 of 76% in 27 years.

Summary in English on page 3. :
https://www.wur.nl/upload_mm/4/6/d/...ederland-trends-oorzaken-en-kennislacunes.pdf

 

[Shadrach]

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.

I've been trying to get people to bring their leaves to the field instead of putting them in a council recycling bin.

 

[rural mouse]

The newest favorite perch

the brush pile

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I've been trying to get people to bring their leaves to the field instead of putting them in a council recycling bin.

We have “Leave the Leaves” campaigns here in the fall (I don’t really see them working.) I’d imagine y’all have similar.

I start prowling around in early fall when leaf bags go out to the corner, asking if I can have the leaves. They look at me kind of crazy, and ask where I live. When I tell them the big brown house on the corner, they say, Oh right, and let me have them. (I enjoy being the neighborhood weirdo.) I give them back the empty bags.

I do ask if the bags include leaves from the street gutters, which are contaminated with hydrocarbons. I also don’t go to houses where they spray pesticides.

I’m pretty sure that this is the last source of free material for either my gardening or chickening.