Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Mother of Chaos]

Do you squawk, yelp or swear like @kattabelly? I need to get ahead of this because my reaction is to withdraw my fingers into my sleeves which is probably not a sustainable approach.

I can testify that this does NOT work with cats. Ouch!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

View attachment 4252789
The pullet's reaction to a juvenile crow...

Caption contest.

"What was THAT?!".

"Do WHAT?"

 

[rural mouse]

I will practice my ‘that hurt’ squawk this evening and deploy it tomorrow.

Oh, I think a loud, dramatic "Owwwww!" With the shake the injured appendage would garner similar reactions.

 

[Perris]

Oh, I think a loud, dramatic "Owwwww!" With the shake the injured appendage would garner similar reactions.

That's what I do; works for me.
edited to add, hope that answers your question @RoyalChick

 

[Perris]

Yes but they perch in trees unlike other ducks
Muscovy Duck Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology https://share.google/KfJjwNVHeA6o9XJT7
View attachment 4252690

apparently there are a few other species of duck apt to perch too
http://www.wildfowl-photography.co.uk/identification/identperching-duck.htm

Digging a bit more, I find the classification of passeriformes, commonly known as perching birds, seems initially to have turned on their foot being specialized for gripping twigs and suchlike, rather than just being capable of it, plus some other physical characteristics. This is an easy overview https://www.birdful.org/what-is-the-difference-between-passerines-and-non-passerine-birds/

 

[Perris]

I found a few others while I was looking.

Hopefully they'll bring back memories of happy days, and not just remind you of what was lost.

 

[BDutch]

Back to less happy days to come.
We have several announcements of Avian flu in poultry farms every week since it started again October 7.

This was on the Dutch national news this morning.:

Avian influenza has been confirmed on a laying hen farm in Terschuur. The 62,000 hens on the farm will be culled, the Ministry of Agriculture has announced.

Terschuur is located in the heart of the Gelderse Vallei, an area with many poultry farms. There are no fewer than 182 of them within a ten-kilometer radius of the affected farm.

A transport ban is in effect immediately in the area. This means that chickens and eggs are no longer permitted to be transported.

The same ban is effective where I live too because avian influenza has been confirmed just 1 mile from where I live less than a week ago.

The contaminations spread much faster than last year when only 2 large chicken companies were infected. The vaccination pilot lasts till 2027. Hopefully these yearly massacres and the obligations to take so much precautions comes to an end in a few years time.

FYI: Page published by our government with a table of numbers of birds culled since 2023. : ( go to the 3rd paragraph ) https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/vogelgriep/besmettingen-vogelgriep-bij-bedrijven
Since October 2025 they registered 13 contaminated poultry farms/poultry keepers. It concerns locations of companies or private individuals with more than 50 birds.

 

[Perris]

Back to less happy days to come.
We have several announcements of Avian flu in poultry farms every week since it started again October 7.

This was on the Dutch national news this morning.:

Avian influenza has been confirmed on a laying hen farm in Terschuur. The 62,000 hens on the farm will be culled, the Ministry of Agriculture has announced.

Terschuur is located in the heart of the Gelderse Vallei, an area with many poultry farms. There are no fewer than 182 of them within a ten-kilometer radius of the affected farm.

A transport ban is in effect immediately in the area. This means that chickens and eggs are no longer permitted to be transported.

The same ban is effective where I live too because avian influenza has been confirmed just 1 mile from where I live less than a week ago.

The contaminations spread much faster than last year when only 2 large chicken companies were infected. The vaccination pilot lasts till 2027. Hopefully these yearly massacres and the obligations to take so much precautions comes to an end in a few years time.

FYI: Page published by our government with a table of numbers of birds culled since 2023. : ( go to the 3rd paragraph ) https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/vogelgriep/besmettingen-vogelgriep-bij-bedrijven
Since October 2025 they registered 13 contaminated poultry farms/poultry keepers. It concerns locations of companies or private individuals with more than 50 birds.

There was a relevant paper just published in Nature (a flagship science journal); it points up the differences between earlier outbreaks and this one, and the role of *migratory* wild birds (if you read the article it is abundantly clear that this means, principally, *ducks*, especially mallards, not garden birds) in continually reseeding it now. It also emphasises that the current policy in the USA and Canada (and most other countries, but the former were the focus of the article) of treating this as a foreign disease and tackling it by aggressive culling, is not obviously still appropriate, since it now has resident population reservoirs.

"These results imply that continuous surveillance in wild birds, particularly Anseriformes, may now be critical for viral tracking and outbreak reconstruction. As the primary source of transmission shifts from poultry to wild migratory birds, the ecology of clade 2.3.4.4b viruses in North America may now follow patterns unfolding globally, whereby evolution is increasingly governed by wild bird movement, ecology and reassortment. Recent modelling of HPAI risk in Europe identified Anatinae and Anserinae Anseriformes prevalence as consistent predictors of HPAI detection, supporting wildlife surveillance for outbreak forecasting and risk assessment...

We find that outbreaks in agriculture were seeded by repeated introductions from wild birds, a pattern that held true regardless of sampling regime, and that aligns with global observations that clade 2.3.4.4b viruses are increasingly spread by wild birds. These findings contrast with the epizootic in 2014/2015, in which a small number of introductions spread efficiently between commercial poultry operations. As the viruses circulating in 2014/2015 did not establish in local wild bird populations, that epizootic subsided following aggressive culling. Since 2014/2015, biosecurity plans have improved and depopulation occurs more rapidly, potentially contributing to the shorter domestic persistence and limited transmission back to wild birds we observe. Despite these improvements, efficient transmission in wild birds probably allowed for rapid dispersal and continuous outbreak reseeding, making this epizootic far more challenging to control. US and Canadian policy currently classifies H5N1 as a foreign animal disease, meaning that biosecurity to reduce spread between farms and rapid culling are prioritized for outbreak control. Although these control measures will probably remain important, our results suggest that reducing future spillovers into agriculture may now necessitate changes in management priorities...

Taken together, we show that wild birds played the central role in dispersal of the 2021–2023 H5N1 epizootic. Transmission in wild birds provides an explanation for the rapid cross-continental spread and continued agricultural outbreaks despite aggressive culling. Our results highlight the utility of wild-bird surveillance for accurately distinguishing hypotheses of epizootic spread, and suggest that continuous surveillance is critical for preventing and dissecting future outbreaks. Our data underscore that continued establishment of H5N1 in North American wildlife may necessitate a shift in risk management and mitigation, with interventions focused on reducing risk within the context of enzootic circulation in wild birds."
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09737-x
open access

 

[fuzzi]

There was a relevant paper just published in Nature (a flagship science journal); it points up the differences between earlier outbreaks and this one, and the role of *migratory* wild birds (if you read the article it is abundantly clear that this means, principally, *ducks*, especially mallards, not garden birds) in continually reseeding it now. It also emphasises that the current policy in the USA and Canada (and most other countries, but the former were the focus of the article) of treating this as a foreign disease and tackling it by aggressive culling, is not obviously still appropriate, since it now has resident population reservoirs.

"These results imply that continuous surveillance in wild birds, particularly Anseriformes, may now be critical for viral tracking and outbreak reconstruction. As the primary source of transmission shifts from poultry to wild migratory birds, the ecology of clade 2.3.4.4b viruses in North America may now follow patterns unfolding globally, whereby evolution is increasingly governed by wild bird movement, ecology and reassortment. Recent modelling of HPAI risk in Europe identified Anatinae and Anserinae Anseriformes prevalence as consistent predictors of HPAI detection, supporting wildlife surveillance for outbreak forecasting and risk assessment...

We find that outbreaks in agriculture were seeded by repeated introductions from wild birds, a pattern that held true regardless of sampling regime, and that aligns with global observations that clade 2.3.4.4b viruses are increasingly spread by wild birds. These findings contrast with the epizootic in 2014/2015, in which a small number of introductions spread efficiently between commercial poultry operations. As the viruses circulating in 2014/2015 did not establish in local wild bird populations, that epizootic subsided following aggressive culling. Since 2014/2015, biosecurity plans have improved and depopulation occurs more rapidly, potentially contributing to the shorter domestic persistence and limited transmission back to wild birds we observe. Despite these improvements, efficient transmission in wild birds probably allowed for rapid dispersal and continuous outbreak reseeding, making this epizootic far more challenging to control. US and Canadian policy currently classifies H5N1 as a foreign animal disease, meaning that biosecurity to reduce spread between farms and rapid culling are prioritized for outbreak control. Although these control measures will probably remain important, our results suggest that reducing future spillovers into agriculture may now necessitate changes in management priorities...

Taken together, we show that wild birds played the central role in dispersal of the 2021–2023 H5N1 epizootic. Transmission in wild birds provides an explanation for the rapid cross-continental spread and continued agricultural outbreaks despite aggressive culling. Our results highlight the utility of wild-bird surveillance for accurately distinguishing hypotheses of epizootic spread, and suggest that continuous surveillance is critical for preventing and dissecting future outbreaks. Our data underscore that continued establishment of H5N1 in North American wildlife may necessitate a shift in risk management and mitigation, with interventions focused on reducing risk within the context of enzootic circulation in wild birds."
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09737-x
open access

And so the culling of farmed ostriches that had AI, recovered, and were thriving almost a year later makes no sense.

Another reason why some of us don't put our faith in bureaucracy.

 

[Perris]

And so the culling of farmed ostriches that had AI, recovered, and were thriving almost a year later makes no sense.

Another reason why some of us don't put our faith in bureaucracy.

The history of science and medicine is replete with stories that send shivers down the spine because what used to be thought the right thing to do turns out to be not so. But usually there is some reason behind it, and in some cases it may even have helped. Bloodletting with leeches is making a comeback for that reason. Even cranial trepanning could have improved things for some prehistoric people on which it was performed, and not just as a placebo. I think I'd pass on that one though