Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

Do your the large comb roosters have frostbite issues?

Right now it's 16f with 87% humidity and freezing fog. Difficult to prevent frostbite on big combs here. They lose the points.
I have been trying to breed for small wattles and pea combs. But still get a few blade combs.

not here, it doesn't get that cold.

Ditto. If it doesn’t get cold enough in Wales, it definitely doesn’t get cold enough here.
The contest I remember it being the last five years is around -4C (~28f, I think?) during the night. Those temps lasted for two nights, during February. We usually get one or two really cold weeks during that time (sometimes even snow), but it’s nothing compared to what some of you deal with.

Certainly not cold enough for frost bitten combs

 

[Skyeknight]

Time for some education. Point out on the harmless birds , for whom he can stay put. With lots of reassuring sounds.

And its okay for him call the alarm and to run if he sees one of these:

I will be sure to also lecture my rooster on this. I mean you never know when a turkey vulture might show up in the Netherlands!

On a more serious note I do have a common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), tawny owl (Strix aluco), western barn owl (Tyto alba) and a pair of common buzzards (Buteo buteo) flying around. At least if I managed to correctly identify them based on sounds and sight.

 

[BDutch]

I will be sure to also lecture my rooster on this. I mean you never know when a turkey vulture might show up in the Netherlands!

I remember there was one a few years ago. Probably lost. He didn’t settle. Our ‘mountains’ were probably not impressive enough.

On a more serious note I do have a common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), tawny owl (Strix aluco), western barn owl (Tyto alba) and a pair of common buzzards (Buteo buteo) flying around. At least if I managed to correctly identify them based on sounds and sight.

One of my first chickens was taken by a buzzard. I didn’t see it happening but after she was lost , I did see a buzzard circling in the sky above our house for several days. I locked the flock inside the netted run. After a week he didn’t return anymore. Buzzards are very common in the Netherlands. Most are real scavengers and don’t hunt. But unfortunately some do hunt birds up to the size of pigeons and bantams. Im not sure about larger fowl.

Other birds of pray I have seen in our garden are a sparrow-hawk (small type of hawk that hunts pigeons and small bantams too) and a red kite (very rare here).

 

[BDutch]

A large article in our newspaper today that a lot of chicken farmers have stopped, because the get paid well by the government if they do (amongst other reasons).

We have a problem in our country with air pollution (NOx) and we also have too much dung (water quality) from all the cattle kept in our country.

10% of the industrial chicken farms (244) stopped or are stopping at the moment. Besides the payment they often have no children who want to take over the company. And the bird flu (stress) is another important reason.

PS maybe i should have added this is good news bc its necessary for the health of the people in our country that we stop being an export country for eggs, meat and other animal products from factory farming.

Another fact: people within a range of 500 meters from goat stables, have twice as often pneumonia than people who live more than 1 km from a goat stables (factory farming).

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Although any and all of these would have my flock diving for cover, I’m very happy to leave the skywatching to experts like Glais. What a time that must have been to be alive

My first husband and son were (are) warbird junkies, fascinated by military aircraft, especially WWII era.

I was always fascinated by the fighter aircraft, especially the ME-109 and Spitfire. Deadly, of course, but gorgeous design, like that of a mountain lion or broadtail hawk, every element shaped exactly for its purpose of hunting and killing.

I wonder if any civilian population has ever had to be so intimately involved in its country’s defense as the British were in the Battle of Britain. When even a small child could identify the types of bombers on their nightly attacks by their engine sounds (and later the V-1 and V-2 rocket missiles), you know how immediate and endless the war on civilians was.

 

[Skyeknight]

I remember there was one a few years ago. Probably lost. He didn’t settle. Our ‘mountains’ were probably not impressive enough.

I think you are either talking about the Eurasian griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) which is witnessed in the Netherlands sometimes, or maybe the monk vulture (Aegypius monachus). But the turkey vulture is only in the Americas. Unless you are talking an escaped one. Don't know any organization that owns them around here though

 

[kattabelly]

My first husband and son were (are) warbird junkies, fascinated by military aircraft, especially WWII era.

I was always fascinated by the fighter aircraft, especially the ME-109 and Spitfire. Deadly, of course, but gorgeous design, like that of a mountain lion or broadtail hawk, every element shaped exactly for its purpose of hunting and killing.

I wonder if any civilian population has ever had to be so intimately involved in its country’s defense as the British were in the Battle of Britain. When even a small child could identify the types of bombers on their nightly attacks by their engine sounds (and later the V-1 and V-2 rocket missiles), you know how immediate and endless the war on civilians was.

There's a spitfire that flies over my mum's house in SE England all the time. I think it's based at an airfield nearby that does some kind of experience days letting people fly it / fly in it.

It's one of those things that just seems totally normal and unremarkable until you stop and think about it, like the fact that she can sometimes hear gibbons singing from the small wildlife park outside the next village over.

 

[BDutch]

I think you are either talking about the Eurasian griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) which is witnessed in the Netherlands sometimes, or maybe the monk vulture (Aegypius monachus). But the turkey vulture is only in the Americas. Unless you are talking an escaped one. Don't know any organization that owns them around here though

You are right. I assumed the vulture you mentioned was the European vulture.

 

[Vulpes vulpes]

I was always fascinated by the fighter aircraft, especially the ME-109 and Spitfire. Deadly, of course, but gorgeous design, like that of a mountain lion or broadtail hawk, every element shaped exactly for its purpose of hunting and killing.

I am one of the most vehemently anti-war people I know, and yet I too am transfixed by old warbirds. We (humans) haven't built aircraft like that in a long time. In fact, the airspeed record for piston-engined aircraft is currently held by a heavily modified p51 mustang, which hit 554 mph (892kmh) back in 2018. Not bad for a 74 year old airframe.

Also among my favorites is the A6M Zero, which is a total work of art designed by an interesting person. I could go on about this, but I've been a terrible freeloader who hasn't paid my taxes.

I haven't visited the in laws chickens in a while, but I'll be going over there today to hopefully take a few pictures.

 

[fuzzi]

Thinned turnips and cabbage, yum!