Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

I am still earning more than I spend,

Oh! So am I. It's just that I spend it on the chickens.

I don't resent what I spend on them. At my age, they are a cheap enough hobby, if that's the right expression for what I feel is more of a passion. I live with pensioners who piss £20 a day up the wall day in day out. They're not learning anything, not doing anything, just sitting around getting pissed banging on about the good old days.

 

[Shadrach]

There is such a thing as too much protein. You'll know you're there when they leave some

There is and it's rather less than is currently popular.

 

[Shadrach]

I can’t access that article or the study it’s referring to. What methods did they use? People have been coming up with interesting (for the chimps) ways to feed captive chimps for ages. There must be piles of anecdotal data out there.

The article is largely irrelevant to the irony, the arrogance and humour.
In all my time watching other creatures, I can write that I have never noticed a creature apart from humans act on faith.

I've yet to read a study that concluded "don't bother with this one, it's as dumb as a box of rocks." Why the surprise when someone finds yet further evidence that the other creatures on this planet are intelligent.
What happens when we find out they are in fact equally intelligent but with a different skill set?

 

[Shadrach]

Two and a half dry, cold but sunny hours today. I've been a bit concerned about the water freezing. If it has, it's been a thin skin gone by mid morning I would have thought. Last year the bowl of water in the coop froze but I think that was around -6C overnight and it didn't get above freezing for a couple of days. It's supposed to warm up a bit after tonight.

 

[BDutch]

I don't resent what I spend on them. At my age, they are a cheap enough hobby, if that's the right expression for what I feel is more of a passion.

I live with pensioners who piss £20 a day up the wall day in day out. They're not learning anything, not doing anything, just sitting around getting pissed banging on about the good old days.

I presume piss = drinking ?
(Or do they get a fine for peeing against the wall. )

 

[fuzzi]

Just think of all humans ignoring climate change (IPCC) .

Some of us do look beyond bureaucratic propaganda, and see the reason for it.

Tax for being a "denier":

Poor Joanna is looking rough.

 

[Vulpes vulpes]

Oh! So am I. It's just that I spend it on the chickens.

I don't resent what I spend on them. At my age, they are a cheap enough hobby, if that's the right expression for what I feel is more of a passion. I live with pensioners who piss £20 a day up the wall day in day out. They're not learning anything, not doing anything, just sitting around getting pissed banging on about the good old days.

Could definitely be worse, you could be into cars

 

[Vulpes vulpes]

The article is largely irrelevant to the irony, the arrogance and humour.
In all my time watching other creatures, I can write that I have never noticed a creature apart from humans act on faith.

I've yet to read a study that concluded "don't bother with this one, it's as dumb as a box of rocks." Why the surprise when someone finds yet further evidence that the other creatures on this planet are intelligent.
What happens when we find out they are in fact equally intelligent but with a different skill set?

I could go on about intelligence. There's a lot wrong with how we tend to view it both casually and scientifically. Firstly it's treated as a single quintessential trait which separates us from other animals, when in reality cognition is a collection of innumerable different variables, some of which certain animals perform better at than we do. An example is that hyenas can outperform humans in cooperative problem solving tests. This leads into the fact that we tend to fall into the anthropocentric trap of "human-level intelligence" as if we are the benchmark by which everything else should be measured.

But my biggest issue is that we use intelligence as a means to quantify an organism's worth. By every available metric, a blue whale is more intelligent than a housefly, but which is more successful and prolific? Which is more likely to survive a mass extinction? Evolution lacks any end goal, it doesn't have the capacity to plan for the future and it certainly doesn't consider intelligence to be sacred. People on the animal rights side of the spectrum often cite intelligence as evidence of an animal's worth, but does that really matter? Is a less intelligent animal any less deserving of a happy life?

 

[Perris]

we tend to fall into the anthropocentric trap of "human-level intelligence" as if we are the benchmark by which everything else should be measured

or worse, e.g. thinking everything else exists for our use / abuse.

 

[Perris]

Some of us do look beyond bureaucratic propaganda, and see the reason for it.

and some of us see the reason () behind denial, led by big oil, who have sent thousands of lobbyists to recent COPs. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/07/fossil-fuel-lobbyists-cop-un-climate which gives some facts and figures to back up the claim, rather than just vague unsupported assertion.