The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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cookieee said:
This little girl, human or chicken?
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Sorry, a chicken. She's a blue egg layer. The last one of 6. They came to me as rescues several years ago. Ex breeding stock. Barely a few between them from over crowding and over mating. Literally looked like a plucked supermarket chicken walking around alive. Lost one last year in a tragic accident. Then another 3 to a fox attack where someone deliberately opened my chicken coop during the night presumably something to do with the previous tenant. That left her and a friend, until our trip to the UK. Her friend (called Rosemary) was our only loss whilst we were away, duo from that aspect we were lucky but not for her. Chickens have been shown in studies to be able to recognise over 100 other chickens and form lasting bonds for life. She will have known that her friend came with her from the breeder. All 6 were from the same pen. Our survivor Thyme, had lost so much weight that we are genuinely concerned about her. We can see her feeding but we don't know what or why she's lost so much. I guess she's pining the loss of her friend. For now, she's down closer by the house, until we know whats going on. She needs to make friends with another chook for her own sake.
 
Oh how sad. I didn't know that about chooks. Hope she finds a new friend. Thank you for answering.
(I love how you named them after herbs. Were the other 4 named after herbs also?)
 
cookieee said:
Oh how sad. I didn't know that about chooks. Hope she finds a new friend. Thank you for answering.
(I love how you named them after herbs. Were the other 4 named after herbs also?)
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Yes, it's our sense of humor. Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, Sage, Coriander and Lavendar because they all loved my herb patch so much. They would gorge themselves on my fresh herbs and walking around looking like preplucked supermarket chickens... it seemed obvious.

Right now all but 3 identical Lavender Sussex girls have names. We've yet to decide on names for the large trio. We just haven't managed too find anything that fits. They are very big, very fluffy birds that have needed ankle bands so that we can tell them apart (black & blue go around together, white tends to be on her own). They all hatched around the same time but blue had issues from day 1 and was in serious risk of dying. She was that large that one of her legs was dislocated at the hip. Her yolk sac was in the way. It took almost a week for her to learn to move around to feed. I was moving her over to food and water 3 or 4 times a day. We didn't think she'd survive, but I could see tiny improvements every time so we spared her. By 6 weeks old you couldn't tell she had had problems from hatching but I can see a slight waddle in her walking now that the other 2 don't have. I'm hoping its not a sign that she's going to have painful hip problems later on in life but I fear she will.
 
Craving Pastitsio. Planning on going Greek tonight, to a restaurant with singing & dancing Greek waiters. Hope they sing Never On Sunday, and break some plates. (Maybe that will ward off the evil spirit that keeps following me around.) OPA!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Yes, it's our sense of humor. Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, Sage, Coriander and Lavendar because they all loved my herb patch so much. They would gorge themselves on my fresh herbs and walking around looking like preplucked supermarket chickens... it seemed obvious.

Right now all but 3 identical Lavender Sussex girls have names. We've yet to decide on names for the large trio. We just haven't managed too find anything that fits. They are very big, very fluffy birds that have needed ankle bands so that we can tell them apart (black & blue go around together, white tends to be on her own). They all hatched around the same time but blue had issues from day 1 and was in serious risk of dying. She was that large that one of her legs was dislocated at the hip. Her yolk sac was in the way. It took almost a week for her to learn to move around to feed. I was moving her over to food and water 3 or 4 times a day. We didn't think she'd survive, but I could see tiny improvements every time so we spared her. By 6 weeks old you couldn't tell she had had problems from hatching but I can see a slight waddle in her walking now that the other 2 don't have. I'm hoping its not a sign that she's going to have painful hip problems later on in life but I fear she will.
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It's obvious how much you really love your chooks. I think it is wonderful.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Just gone up to check on my chooks (8pm at night, dark for last 2 hours) and to bring down a little girl we're rather concerned about. She lost her friend whilst we were away and in the space of 6 weeks had list roughly ⅓ of her body weight.
On Saturday we got home from shopping to find her hunched over in the garden, lethargic and generally not looking good. Plus she had a filthy backside. So it was an emergency wash of and blow dry of a chook and her in for the night with us in the mud room to make sure she was totally dry (chickens are really hard to blow dry even with a hairdryer). This morning we put her in one of the spare cages in the sunshine whilst we were out swimming. She was eating happily so we ley her out with the small flock we have down her near the house (the bantams and those needing extra care) but she hasn't got the idea yet that that is her new home, so I had to go and get her from the main coop this evening...

Get there to find that the automated door is open and flashing red, not closed and flashing green. Only reason I'd gone up was to bring her down. Seems that the brand new batteries I put in just before going to the UK had failed. Usually they last me 6 months but these haven't lasted 1 month. Not impressed because I swapped out the batteries on the other automated door as well, just to ensure they didn't fail whilst we were away. Now I need new urgently and hubby is away from home from tomorrow. Closest shops selling batteries are, well, not close and neither door will take rechargeable. They are the only things in the house that don't work off rechargeable batteries... grrr (oh three smoke alarm won't either, but that's not ours. It's part of the rental package and we're not even meant to change its battery (its currently on a shelf with no battery... don't ask) ).

Had to relight the fire as well. Couple of nights of frosts now so my seedlings are all covered over and against the house to protect them.
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Wife still has mesh on some plants .......just in case of frosts.

Rus
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I'll be at risk of them here until mid November! They say not to plant anything tender out until after the Melbourne Cup (first Tuesday in November).
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I know that date too well, it's party fortnight here. Our nz trotting cup is exactly always a week later. I'm a horsey guy if you didn't know. We start racing fortnight on the Saturday before Melbourne cup. We start with kaikoura cup then Melbourne then a week later with nz cup. It's bigger than Texas here.

Russ
 
Bad luck: we have a leak between the water pump and the house; not excessive but the pump works intermittently to maintain the pressure. 90% of the downstream pipework in under the house concrete floor slab.

Good luck: after it ceased raining for 36 hours it was apparent that the leak was in the 10% of the pipework not under the slab. Fault located, excavated and repaired.
 
Yorky said:
Bad luck: we have a leak between the water pump and the house; not excessive but the pump works intermittently to maintain the pressure. 90% of the downstream pipework in under the house concrete floor slab.

Good luck: after it ceased raining for 36 hours it was apparent that the leak was in the 10% of the pipework not under the slab. Fault located, excavated and repaired.
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It's a pain isn't it.... but you're getting rain? That is always something to be thankful for.
 
When we left work yesterday it was pouring with rain, today it is sunny. No doubt it will rain later.
 
Just over 5 months ago my brother was rushed into hospital-we nearly lost him. Thankfully he got through it and has been moved between 4 different hospitals since for various reasons. We went to see him last night, he is looking so much better and, fingers crossed, he will be going home over the weekend. He will have to live downstairs so a bed, commode and walker frame have been delivered to his house and he will have carers 4 times a day. Due to his health he will end up back in hospital at some point but at least he will be home. The relief is rather overwhelming-I couldn't be happier right now
 
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