Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Five hours today clearing and planting a fall veg bed and then enclosing it in raccoon dental floss, aka chicken wire. This is not fun doing single-handedly.

Triple antibiotic ointment applied to the multiple puncture wounds.

Plants are Brussels sprouts, ‘Bright Fire’ chard, black-seeded Simpson lettuce, Buttercrunch lettuce, Red Sails lettuce.

It seems very weird to me to plant lettuce this time of year, but supposedly temps will have dropped by the time it wants to bolt.

Will be adding spinach in a couple of weeks, as well as seeding some cover crops on this and an additional bed.

Chicken wire is a huge PITA. Stretches like crazy, making it hard to keep the fencing straight.

The girls are mightily offended at losing one of their scratching beds!

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Looks great! Sorry about the punctures. Sounds familiar whenever I needed to cut pieces of wire.

I have been thinking about creating a small veggie garden like yours a couple of times too. Postponed it bc of work, the chickens and I don't have a good spot with plenty of sunlight right now.

Next spring I get my pension and probably stop working altogether, except for some work as a volunteer for 3 organisations. That leaves me more time to do some heavy pruning and to create garden where the chickens have no access to. Good to know I better use other wiring.

 

[RoyalChick]

I think we're only just scratching the surface with this whole area. I learned recently that some mushrooms form in a ring because their mycelium grows outwards from a single point, and exhausts the food supply as it grows, so can only carry on growing outwards as a ring. One goes further: where the mycelium is actively feeding and hoping to fruit, it produces hydrogen cyanide, which kills the grass, because, being a short mushroom, long grass would impede its spore dispersal when it sends up those fruiting bodies we call fairy ring champignon. So, sorry kids, no fairies involved

Oh yes indeed. Those of you interested in this sort of thing should read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
Despite its off putting (to me) flaky, new age sounding title, subtitle etc., the author is a forestry guy and there is some real science behind his perspectives.
I have certainly looked at trees slightly differently since reading it.
Of course I am a bit susceptible to this sort of thing as I find trees and forests to be sort of magical.
@Perris I know you have a lot of beech in your hedge - the guy’s day job in forestry management is caring for a beech forest in Germany.
https://a.co/d/hSomkzR

And because I certainly owe tax, here is Tassels with her new babies. She accepted them at just under 6 days old. She hasn’t taken them outside yet but is teaching them how to dig.

 

[BDutch]

Edit; Deleted the quote, bc it was the wrong quote. Meant to quote the ‘review’ on midsummer and paradise.

Most British crime series are great to watch. But Midsummer is of my list for several years now. I much prefer series like Happy valley.

There are also great Swedish and Danish crime series I like. These often involve politics too. Like the most recent Borgen, about oil drilling in Greenland.

 

[fluffycrow]

Oh yes indeed. Those of you interested in this sort of thing should read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
Despite its off putting (to me) flaky, new age sounding title, subtitle etc., the author is a forestry guy and there is some real science behind his perspectives.
I have certainly looked at trees slightly differently since reading it.
Of course I am a bit susceptible to this sort of thing as I find trees and forests to be sort of magical.
@Perris I know you have a lot of beech in your hedge - the guy’s day job in forestry management is caring for a beech forest in Germany.
https://a.co/d/hSomkzR

And because I certainly owe tax, here is Tassels with her new babies. She accepted them at just under 6 days old. She hasn’t taken them outside yet but is teaching them how to dig.

Pretty sure I’ve been recommended this book more than once, should definitely purchase it. Thanks!

Congratulations on Tassels! I’m sure she’s thrilled to be a mother after so many tries.

How did you end up working around the Mareks issue? Did you wait until the vaccinated chicks were old enough to have built up some immunity?

 

[RoyalChick]

Pretty sure I’ve been recommended this book more than once, should definitely purchase it. Thanks!

Congratulations on Tassels! I’m sure she’s thrilled to be a mother after so many tries.

How did you end up working around the Mareks issue? Did you wait until the vaccinated chicks were old enough to have built up some immunity?

Yes. There is data to show effectiveness of the vaccine increases from day 2 post vaccination to day 7. Then it is as good as it gets which is not perfect.
I gave them to her on day 5 (nearly day 6) post vaccination.
I also tried to reduce the viral load they would encounter on introduction by moving her into the garage with a clean pen and clean bedding and I also dusted and used the hair dryer to get dust off Tassels herself. Again not perfect, but hopefully for two days not a full onslaught of virus-containing dander like there would be in the coop.
I just have to hope it was good enough.
And I was so relieved Tassels accepted them (and they accepted her) even though they were that old.
There was a moment at first light after introduction when she clearly thought they were invaders and was ready to destroy them all. She flared up and growled and was poised to strike. Then she did a double-take and flipped the switch to proud mother hen sounds.
It was fascinating to observe.
The issue of course was that if they had just hatched they would have stayed tucked under her but this lot were keen to greet the day and came out from under her and were running around squealing.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

Depending on the phone, you absolutely have that level of control - my Pixel can capture RAW and you just tap where you want to focus - it's completely manual, with depth of field adjustments and everything. No reason to lug a big mirrored camera around anymore.

Source; professional photographer for a few years, amateur for about 15 years before that.

Anyway - all this Rooster talk!

I removed Chuck and Oscar up to the bachelor pen. Cream and Cracker now have the opportunity to rise to the occasion or.... not -- we will see. They will get a month or so to figure out how to be a leader.

But right now, they're derpy AF and haven't a single iota how to do anything and I am concerned. lol They don't tidbit, they don't escort, they don't mind hens fighting (only at roosting time it seems), they are terrified of the hens LOL

Soooooo, we will see how it goes. If they cannot muster the courage to lead, into the bachelor pen they go, and the next generation will have a chance.

One of the next generation for tax; just love this pic

View attachment 4193319

He's so gorgeous! I hope he turns out to be a great leader of the hens so he can stay.

 

[thistlewick]

Midsommar is one of those films that people like me *absolutely detest* because it just plucks fake folklore and badly researched wikipedia articles and mashes it together to make a 'fun horror film'

And I'm sitting there just noting all the discrepancies, errors, full invented BS that casual watchers believe is true.

It drives me up a wall, spread of misinformation ad nauseum.

The real problem, is you have to really dig deep and get rather academic about the research to discover just how bogus it all is -- and no one wants to do that due diligence except hyper nerds like me.




Those 19th century 'antiquarians' did folklore dirty and we are still just surfacing from all the absolute CRAP they put out.

Read Professor Ronald Hutton if you're curious about..well, facts.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Midsommar is one of those films that people like me *absolutely detest* because it just plucks fake folklore and badly researched wikipedia articles and mashes it together to make a 'fun horror film'

This must be a different show than the one I was talking about which is Midsomer Murders. I might have lost the plot between here and there

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

There are also great Swedish and Danish crime series I like

Is Wallander one of these? I have watched both versions but I can’t remember what language the not Kenneth Branagh one was in. Both so depressing but the original (non English) even more so.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I really enjoy Midsomer.
Death in paradise was another

I LOVE Death in Paradise too, I cried like a baby when Richard was killed. LOL