The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Cinisajoy said:
Totally off topic:
I just discovered you can use food coloring to paint on wood. Do not use them straight but dilute with water to get the color you desire.
Have a scrap piece of wood to get the colors right.
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Don't know what to say to that. But why not? You could also use spices such as turmeric...
 
morning glory said:
Don't know what to say to that. But why not? You could also use spices such as turmeric...
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Are you serious? Turmeric would be gorgeous on the wings. I was painting some wooden angels and didn't have a peach water color paint.
 
epicuric said:
Your avatar... that really is you, isn't it?
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I used to think it was @SatNavSaysStraightOn myself but she declared it was not her some time back before you were here.
Lullabelle said:
@winterybella those we dined with yesterday are the fun members of the family and I love spending time with them.
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I am glad it was the fun part of the family. I usually have the most fun with most of my family, but I have heard quite a few horror stories from some.
 
Cinisajoy said:
Totally off topic:
I just discovered you can use food coloring to paint on wood. Do not use them straight but dilute with water to get the color you desire.
Have a scrap piece of wood to get the colors right.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Never really thought about this but as you can use many vegetables for colouring cloth [I suppose woad is the obvious one but such things as onion skin can also be used - makes a nice yellow I believe] I guess such a thing is only to be expected.
 
winterybella said:
I used to think it was @SatNavSaysStraightOn myself but she declared it was not her some time back before you were here.

I am glad it was the fun part of the family. I usually have the most fun with most of my family, but I have heard quite a few horror stories from some.
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My sister doesn't get many invites
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
We are not breeding hens. We never intended for this. It was our only option. I had a feeling you had completely forgotten the very reason our hen is sitting on eggs. I'll cover it one last time and then that is it.

It wasn't our choice. it was hers. the problem we have and which I have covered previously in this thread (or another one here with you) is that she went broody overnight. She didn't slowly go broody, she suddenly went broody, totally broody, 100% with no out option, like a light switch. One morning she was acting weirdly, that night she got into a nesting box and hasn't left it since. I didn't miss any warning signs. There were none. The others I have managed to prevent or stop, breaking the cycle simply by ensuring they didn't sit in the nesting box after the eggs had been removed, but with this chook it wasn't the case. My only options to save her life and it is that serious because of her age and the temperature at present, and she will sit there until she gets chicks or dies trying, was to allow this to happen naturally. My only other option was to try to dunk her and hold her in cold water 4 or 5 times a day to lower her body temperature to break the cycle. I would need to do this for roughly a week! She is a seriously large hen. I have 4 broken ribs. I struggle to hold her without broken ribs. I can't even pick her up with them. So my options were to let her sit on eggs or let her die. There is also no guarantee that the cold water treatment would actually work. its a 50:50 option and I would end up with a very large hen whose trust I would have broken and with me doing something I would hate myself for and put bluntly didn't want to do and would physically and mentally hurt me to do.

Dunk her regularly in icy cold water for 1 week (50/50 chance of success), let her sit on eggs for 3 weeks, or let her die starve herself indefinitely? Not great options.

We chose the kindest one we could. We let her sit on eggs for the first time in her life once we knew she was committed to it, which she has proven. So we find ourselves with not being able to go away over Christmas and the New Year, not being able to go away for our 20th wedding anniversary and not being able to go away for my birthday. We have given all of that up and a lot more (not visiting relatives in Australia, not exploring at all etc), we have given it all up, just for her, so that she lives because it is very hot here and the longer she sits on eggs the hotter it is getting (we started summer 6 days ago apparently - toady is the first day it has dropped below 28-30C in the last 2 weeks during the day). Broodies effectively go on a starvation diet once they start sitting on eggs until something hatches. No-one ever expected 9 eggs still be viable at this late stage. I hadn't expected more than a couple of chicks from this at best. 9 eggs that are clearly alive at Day 17 has stunned everyone. With her size and her deformed feet we had expected most eggs to be crushed. Even the lady breeder who gave her to us has been surprised at how good a mother she is turning out to be.

We didn't want or need the extra expense of this either. It would have been cheaper all round just to have killed her but I couldn't. Money for our holiday has been spent on her. Fertile eggs for her to sit on. A separate area created for her. New wood and expensive new netting purchased to protect her and the chicks from attack - rodents, birds of prey aplenty, snakes etc. More netting purchased after I ran out, to make the outer run chick proof and safe for them once they are old enough to be out. Expensive non-medicated chick feed, twice the cost of medicated stuff, purchased for them. New feeders, new water containers, new... and the list goes on. The holiday fund spent on a 6 year old chicken just so that she doesn't starve herself to death trying to hatch eggs that would never hatch. It was not for us. It was all for her. We now have to deal with the consequences.
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We appear to have another outbreak of avian flu, all birds are supposed to be kept inside and away from wild birds. On the news this morning they are reporting a problem in Poland, a lot of birds have died and others have been destroyed. Not good for poultry farmers especially at this time of year :(
 
morning glory said:
Of course I'm serious. I still have turmeric stains on my bamboo kitchen work surface which won't come off!.
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A tradition here in Nakhorn Nowhere is to present people with silk strands tied around their wrists to wish them good luck during certain ceremonies. A load of hocus pocus of course but normally the silk has been soaked in turmeric water. I still have jeans with yellow traces from 10 years ago!
 
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