Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fuzzi]

Dunk her in water.

I just know her online, was horrified that she felt it was okay to do that.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Dunk her in water.

And then put her in an extra-large dog cage with a branch to roost on.

 

[rural mouse]

I WILL be the squeaky wheel that gets the oil even if it means walking into the office myself. I will also find out what they sprayed.

I'd be at the office door at opening time tomorrow. What are they spraying? Why are home owners NOT notified in advace? What sort of plan do they have for the lawsuit when someone with asthma sues the company for not notifying them before hand so they could be prepared for their reaction?

 

[notabitail]

I'd be at the office door at opening time tomorrow. What are they spraying? Why are home owners NOT notified in advace? What sort of plan do they have for the lawsuit when someone with asthma sues the company for not notifying them before hand so they could be prepared for their reaction?

Here they do mosquito spraying but at least they have the decency to let you know so your bees don't die. It's still toxic though so I wish they wouldn't do it.

 

[Perris]

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
View attachment 4195950

That's a very impressive list of insects to ID on the hoof.

My final word on the sheep
I think we all know sheep aren't indigenous to Australia. But the same British and European breeds that went into them are probably still available closer to home in (hello) Britain and Europe. And just as we took some intended and unintended species with us to Oz to cause problems to the native wildlife, so bringing animals back across the world risks bringing Antipodean faunal, floral and fungal hitchhikers here - like the NZ flatworm that has come in in plant pots, and some really problematic fungus whose name currently escapes me.

 

[Perris]

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

yes I know. But it's still the stuff easy to find and see with the naked eye that lives in the places people look. Current estimates are that we know/ recognize maybe 20% of the arthropods in the animal kingdom. According to the Guardian piece I linked on the huge stick insect, there are as many species of *ladybird* as there are of *all mammals combined*.

 

[Skyeknight]

I resisted the urge to load the shotgun because I saw the electric company truck on the road but went out and hollered “can I help you!?” He didn’t speak English. But his boss told me if I don’t want the power company spraying herbicide on my property I need to call them and let them know.

Americans sure love to trespass for a country where you can get legally shot by doing so

 

[Perris]

Americans sure love to trespass for a country where you can get legally shot by doing so

and ban books while claiming free speech is under threat here

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Good Lord. I have power poles on my property which gives the power company and all the cable companies the right to show up without notice.

We’ve had other issues as well where workers showed up, drove through our pasture and left cables all over because the guys doing the job decided to quit in the middle of it and just left cable dangling. When I lived in the city they would at least knock so I could put the dog in. They damaged my gate once in the winter by forcing it open the wrong way and I called and made them come back to fix it. It boggles the mind really that companies don’t worry about the safety of their employees more out in the sticks where there are worse things than dogs.

 

[Perris]

A propos what we were discussing yesterday, came across an interesting piece this morning on the results of an assessment of the impact of 2 or 4 degree C warming on British agriculture:
"a major study led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH). The research took a database of more than 160 food crops – encompassing the minimum and maximum temperatures at which they can survive, their water needs, soil preferences and so on – and measured their suitability for growing across every square kilometre of the UK under a 2°C and 4°C warming scenario...

Under a 2°C warming scenario, for example, the UK’s most productive arable regions, the south east and East Anglia, become significantly less suitable for wheat and strawberries. And at 4°C other major crops, including onions and oats, suffer too.

But reassuringly, the majority of crops currently grown in the UK see their suitability “stay relatively stable or increase” when still grown within these shores. The data shows a “big polarisation” where the south east of England becomes a much more brutal environment for agriculture and the north and west far more fertile. In other words, we can mostly still grow what we’re used to, but just the location will need to change."
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/analysi...e-uk-grow-as-temperatures-rise/708066.article