Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

I thought the bit about unihemispheric slow wave sleep was particularly interesting. USWS is something I've talked about before because I think it's really cool, but I never considered the role it could play in resting on one leg. If one leg is controlled by the "awake" hemisphere and one is controlled by the "asleep" hemisphere, it seems intuitive to balance on one leg rather than coordinate both of them together.

An interesting sidebar on this: birds are capable of unihemispheric sleep because unlike eutherian mammals, which are the only animals with a corpus callosum, birds have no equivalent structure connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. The communication between these hemispheres is much more limited than with us. It's interesting to think about how their perspectives/consciousness might differ from ours. Is each bird really a pair of intimately connected individuals? I guess nobody is sure.

Further reading if anyone's interested:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7116194/

Not too sure about the model they've constructed but nice that academia is catching up with what some of us have known for a while now.

 

[Shadrach]

Sad day here - Muffin died last night. She actually lasted longer than I expected, I probably should have culled at the end of last week but I was ill and no-one else here can/will do it. I still really struggle with the ethics of deciding when is the right time to intervene.
That's 3 of the 5 old ladies gone since we moved here 6 months ago. Sorry will stop moping now.

On the plus side, both our lovely pullets are now laying so we're finally getting 2 eggs a day after 5 months with no eggs at all
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[Shadrach]

01/03.
Stayed dry. Still rather windy but we all stayed out for a couple of hours.

 

[Shadrach]

Rather a nice day. Plenty of sunshine, light winds, 12C.

I turned over a few bits of wood as we moved around the field; slaters!

 

[BDutch]

Sad day here -

 

[fuzzi]

Sad day here - Muffin died last night. She actually lasted longer than I expected, I probably should have culled at the end of last week but I was ill and no-one else here can/will do it. I still really struggle with the ethics of deciding when is the right time to intervene.
That's 3 of the 5 old ladies gone since we moved here 6 months ago. Sorry will stop moping now.

On the plus side, both our lovely pullets are now laying so we're finally getting 2 eggs a day after 5 months with no eggs at all
View attachment 4306025

I am sorry.

I feel sad when I lose mine.

 

[fuzzi]

Bigger egg on top is from Rahab, my broody extraordinaire. She and Hannah are three years old, and the last from my original purchase of day old chicks.

She has earned a retirement home here.

 

[Vulpes vulpes]

Not too sure about the model they've constructed but nice that academia is catching up with what some of us have known for a while now.

I'm not sure about the model either, with our current scientific understanding I don't know if quantifying consciousness is feasible. The writings on the avian experience were really enlightening though. I'm still looking through all the sources they cited, I'm excited to have found it

 

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours of grey but dry at 11C.
They were waiting at the gate when I arrived and were mot put out when I went to talk to the field's horticulturalist who I hadn't seen since last autumn. I reminded them they hadn't paid their membership fees.
Their are only eight of us and the public liability insurance is £160 a year. We've got a new main gate post to pay for and we are probably going to have to pay to have the rather large pile of junk cleared from the field taken away.
I let the chickens onto the field while this person was there. Glais doesn't know them. I wasn't entirely sure how the encounters would go so I kept a close eye on the pair. Glais marched over to about a metre away from this person and just stood there looking at them as the dug a bit of their plot. He stood there for a couple of minutes just watching. He had of course heard me talking to this person and he understands human voice tones enough to know if there is any hostility involved. This person and I get on well. I think Glais went over to point out that he was the boss around here now. The person move one digging row closer to Glais and Glais moved off to join Mow and Sylph.

Yesterday a person who used to be a member who I had not met before turned up. Interesting to hear their version of events. Apparently (I've been told similar by others) that Henry did not get on with C. Henry had made this known on a few occasions drawing blood in the process. Not only that but apparently Matilda had gone for C when C had tried to take some eggs while Matilda was in the coop. It seems that Henry was a bit of a handful in his younger years. I have often wondered how he got the reputation I was warned of when I first started at the field. I know a little more now.

This is about as far as I want them to go without me being with them. Mow is making forays into the orchard which has been largely avoided since I've been at the field. At the moment I can still watch her but when the grass grows it's difficult.

 

[kcan2]

Two and a half hours of grey but dry at 11C.
They were waiting at the gate when I arrived and were mot put out when I went to talk to the field's horticulturalist who I hadn't seen since last autumn. I reminded them they hadn't paid their membership fees.
Their are only eight of us and the public liability insurance is £160 a year. We've got a new main gate post to pay for and we are probably going to have to pay to have the rather large pile of junk cleared from the field taken away.
I let the chickens onto the field while this person was there. Glais doesn't know them. I wasn't entirely sure how the encounters would go so I kept a close eye on the pair. Glais marched over to about a metre away from this person and just stood there looking at them as the dug a bit of their plot. He stood there for a couple of minutes just watching. He had of course heard me talking to this person and he understands human voice tones enough to know if there is any hostility involved. This person and I get on well. I think Glais went over to point out that he was the boss around here now. The person move one digging row closer to Glais and Glais moved off to join Mow and Sylph.

Yesterday a person who used to be a member who I had not met before turned up. Interesting to hear their version of events. Apparently (I've been told similar by others) that Henry did not get on with C. Henry had made this known on a few occasions drawing blood in the process. Not only that but apparently Matilda had gone for C when C had tried to take some eggs while Matilda was in the coop. It seems that Henry was a bit of a handful in his younger years. I have often wondered how he got the reputation I was warned of when I first started at the field. I know a little more now.

This is about as far as I want them to go without me being with them. Mow is making forays into the orchard which has been largely avoided since I've been at the field. At the moment I can still watch her but when the grass grows it's difficult.
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Glais sounds like he was very businesslike and professional in checking out the newcomer. Also interesting what you mentioned about voice tones and Glais’ interpretation thereof.

As a matter of opinion, Henry properly administered justice to well-deserving C at the receiving end of a smack or two as should be all allotment participants in arrears of payment. I wonder if Matilda still continues on somewhere? At least nice to imagine so!