#bantam group

[kifu]

So i finally made one decision and bought a pound of Magic Sculpt epoxy. End goal is to sculpt a traditional sized unicorn, ofc, but in the meantime I'm gonna dick around with the classic bodies I have on hand. Then move my way up to buying cheap traditional drafters and customizing them.

Gonna need to learn to paint better, and work with the oil paints I bought on my shopping spree with the cousin.

[homeofhousechickens]

If you had to make a guess based off your experience, how long is the lifespan of a production hatchery bird versus a heritage bird from a breeder? (currently begging my mom to stop buying hatchery birds as pets, none of us can take the loss but she keeps doing it)

To use leghorns as an example it's very common for hatchery/production types to die due to reproductive or heart issues before their 4th birthday. In the leghorn group I'm in these hatchery type birds can die from these issues even as young as two years old.

Meanwhile a well bred heritage type seems to have an easier time making it to 10 years old or more. Considering even heritage leghorns are still some of the best egg layers in the world I feel like this is a pretty significant jump in longevity compared to the production type.

Another breed example I'll use is typical production oriented hatchery Easter eggers. These birds have an average lifespans similar to other production bred birds around 4-6 years but it's not uncommon for them to pass away due to health complications earlier than that. I feel like this is a tragic average lifespan for birds that are supposed to be bred to be personable and friendly.

Their pure breed counterpart the Ameraucana has a much longer average lifespan, especially if they are from good lines. My landlady has some well bred Ameraucana, and they are very healthy and robust dual-purpose birds with a lifespan of 7-10 years.

Another thing to keep in mind is if hatchery birds die sooner on average that's less eggs you get over time. In a way it can be a pretty big money sink to keep buying hatchery birds if they struggle and die early. It can be more cost effective in the long run to get well bred birds because they will be healthier and less susceptible to illness.

Its also important to note that a lot of hatcheries (there are some exceptions) do not care about long term preservation of breeds. They select for what lays the most eggs and what sells the most and that can be at the detriment of the breed they are trying to sell. Breeders are usually working to better the breed of their choice or they are working with that breed because they enjoy the traits of that breed and want to keep replicating it.

Maybe showing her what a hatcher breeding flock looks like compared to a breeders flock might help change her mind.

Here is one of Cackle Hatcheries bantam brahma breeder flocks

And here is a random breeders blue brahma flock. Notice how they have plenty of space and are not overcrowded cowering in the corner away from the picture taker

[dinodorks]

[ Fujianvenator prodigiosus, illustrated by Mr. Chuang Zhao. ]

"One hundred and fifty million years ago, a young, bantam-sized, bird-like dinosaur became mired in a swamp in what is now southeastern China, and succumbed. Its fossilized remains, unearthed in 2022 and named Fujianvenator prodigiosus, show it to be one of the earliest bird-like dinosaurs to date from the Jurassic period. The researchers describe their discovery in a paper published today in Nature. “This is really a weird animal within the group of birds,” says Mark Loewen, a palaeontologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who was not involved in the discovery. The creature had oddly lanky legs and might have lacked the ability to fly. It also doesn't seem to conform to the accepted bird-evolution story. Although dinosaurs were largely extinct by 66 million years ago, therapods, the three-clawed, hollow-boned group that included Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex, had started to evolve into today’s birds. Many palaeontologists consider the first bird to be a 150-million-year-old feathered dinosaur called Archaeopteryx, fossils of which were found in Germany. But this study adds to mounting evidence that by the time of Archaeopteryx, dinosaurs had already diversified into different kinds of birds, Loewen says. Hailu You, a palaeontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and one of the co-authors of the paper, says that in the Jurassic, bird-like dinosaurs might have been occupying different ecological niches. “Early bird evolution is complicated,” he says. Fujianvenator’s fossil lacks a head or a complete tail, but its body and limbs show a medley of traits similar to those of other bird-like dinosaurs, such as the relative lengths of the fingers, and details of the pelvis and vertebrae. But it didn’t have many modifications that would contribute to flight."

Read more: "‘Weird’ dinosaur prompts rethink of bird evolution" by Jude Coleman.

[creaturefeaster]

I'M TOTALLY INTERESTED IN THE NAMES OF YOUR ANIMALS 😆

I'll seperate them by the groups they're kept in.

MAIN FLOCK: Homerun (rooster), Stella, Nova, Gravy, Biscuit, Petra, Domino, Her Royal Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese, Naughty, Nice, Eggman (Robotnik), Budge.

BANTAM FLOCK: Bandito (rooster), Sneeze, Tonta, Sloppy Joe, Paprika, Bug.

WATERFOWL: Sebastian (gander), Humphrey, Gertrude, Lottie, Louie, Puddles (duck)

Autumn is my dog, and we have another dog that's my husband's parent's named Misty.

And then Pepper (tarantula).

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

rhubarbes: ArtStation - Turret, by Kait Kybar

* * *

"Back in the mid-sixties, I lived for six months in a Lower East Side commune, called Heavenly Breakfast, named after a rock group I was part of, that lived and rehearsed there. I kept a journal at the time, and a few years later, after he’d accepted a short story of mine, Theodore Solotaroff, the editor of The New American Review, suggested I next write a nonfiction article for him about commune life. I broke out my old notebooks, and soon I had a ninety-five-page article on life in and around Heavenly Breakfast. It took about a year to assemble, but by the time I’d finished, New American Review had gone under. There was no chance of its appearing there. I didn’t show it to anyone for a couple of years after that. When I did, I had moved back to New York City. More on a lark than anything else, I showed it to my editor at Bantam Books, at that time a young woman named Karen. I was surprised when she announced that she’d fallen in love with it and wanted to publish it.

Much of Heavenly Breakfast deals with the day-to-day minutiae of minor drug sales. As much or more deals with sex, much of it polymorphous. Since much of that was illegal, as a matter of course I changed the names. Besides, as I made clear in the introduction, I had not kept characters strictly apart. There’d been a fair amount of fictive mixing and amalgamating.

I was a little surprised, then, when I ran into a woman who had been a character in the narrative and who, as we stood on the corner of Sixth Street, somewhere in Alphabet City, told me how much she’d enjoyed the book. Then, after a moment’s pensive silence, she added, “I wished you’d used my real name. That way I could prove to some of the people I know now that we really did things like that.”

Not long after that, I ran into Eeyore, called Grendel in the first edition. He was still selling pot off this bench or that in Tompkins Square Park. “Hey, man—that was a really cool book you wrote.”

“You read it?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure. But how come you called me Grendel? Nobody believes it was me.” He, too, grew pensive. “You know, I ain’t done a lot to be famous for. About the only thing anybody could know about me who ain’t one of my customers is being in your book. It would be nice if I could point to that and say, Hey, that’s me. People who read it would see my name and know.” So when I next got the chance to change it, I did. [from Interview with Samuel Delaney in Paris Review]

[nicohischierz]

dad every day, coach on sunday: nolan moyle au

all credit to @power2myheart and her suggestion that nolan looks like a real estate agent 

tani speaks: also this is an au and like if the teams and things don’t make sense just ignore it and pretend it does 

“alex-james moyle, if you don’t come downstairs right now we’re going to be late!“ nolan yelled for his son. your husband was the coach of your children’s bantam team. 

you helped your daughter load her bags into the car as your son ran out the door. nolan locked your front door and made his way to the car as you got in the passenger seat. 

“you know AJ, back in michigan if any of the boys were late they had to find their own way to the rink,” nolan recalled. your son rolled his eyes as you prepared for the chaos of the rink. 

once your family reached the rink, nolan gave you a kiss before heading off to get things ready for the game. your daughter, nicole, gave you a small hug before heading off to the locker room and your son just waved before walking with his friends. 

“y/n!” you heard your name being called and turned to find nick blankenburg. nick gave you a hug and the two of you made your way to your seats by the glass. 

after nick graduated from michigan, he had gone to play for the columbus blue jackets whilst nolan stayed to get his real estate certificate. it was in your senior year that you fell pregnant with AJ. 

“hey blanks, is KJ coming as well?” you asked. it was tradition for nolan’s old teammates to come watch the first game of the season if they could. nick nodded “he and owen are on the way. i’m pretty sure briss is coming with bords and luca,” he added. 

you smiled at him and nodded turning your attention to the ice. you watched as your children warmed up together and watched as nolan adjusted his tie. “has AJ been practicing the tricks i taught him?” kent asked as he and owen sat next to you. 

owen came around and gave you a hug before urging kent to do the same thing. “of course he has, he wants to be just like his uncle kent,” you answered. owen explained that victoria couldn’t come because his daughter was unwell. 

“the party has arrived!” brendan announced. trailing after him was bords, luca, mackie, mark and eddy. “duker and luke are in the parking lot. mini duker and mini hughes had a little bit of a shoving match,” mark explained. 

it was clear to everyone in the group that luke’s son had the biggest crush on dylan’s daughter. but the two fathers would always deny the statement. luke’s son would do anything for duker’s daughter and she would get mad at him for helping her. 

only once the game had started did dylan and luke come in with their children. dylan’s wife was pregnant with their second child and luke’s wife was working on another movie. 

“woah is that little nicole? she’s really fast,” the boys mumbled as your daughter skated up the ice. “come on nicole.”  “go mini moyle!” “go nikki!” your group cheered as nicole neared the net. 

however, just as she was about the put the puck past the goalie one of the players from the opposing team checked her hard into the goal post squashing her shoulder in the process. 

you watched as the same guy said something to your daughter as she cradled her arm in pain. your son was there in minutes shoving the guy away from his sister. AJ was never one to start a fight and win so when he dropped his gloves you knew this was going to be terrible. 

“oh shit, AJ can fight,” brendan mumbled as everyone watched your son punch the guy. the referees were quick to break up the fight before anyone could land another punch. 

the game ended with your children’s team winning and your son going to the box three times. nicole had joined you and the others in the stand after the first period she sat next to layla and enzo. 

“hey nikki, how’s the arm?” nick asked your daughter. the group of you were waiting for nolan and AJ to join you for lunch. nicole didn’t look up from her phone as she shrugged “it’s okay uncle nick,” 

when mark saw AJ he started clapping “look at my favourite nephew. he’s coming after my penalty minutes record,” he teased. AJ shook his head as he sat next to enzo giving the younger boy a fist bump. 

nolan gave you a kiss before sitting next to you. “i think i might revoke mark’s visiting rights if AJ turns out like him,” nolan remarked. the boys laughed and continued talking amongst each other. ethan’s fiancee had joined you guys for lunch and the two of you were sat next to the children. 

“nini, i swear if you don’t tell andrew what his cousin did i’ll tell him myself,” AJ announced out loud. everyone stopped their conversations and looked to your children. “who’s andrew?” nolan asked. 

nicole glared at her brother before replying “no one dad. it doesn’t matter because nothing is happening,” 

nolan gave nicole his dad stare but your daughter just turned to you. “mom,” she pleaded. “andrew larkin. he’s in nicole’s year and they’re just friends alex-james so don’t try starting things,” you warned. 

“his cousin is the player that hit me. but he was trying to apologise before mr hot-head punched him,” she spat. when nolan realised who the kid was his face paled before he turned to his son “AJ i love you, but i cannot believe you punched my clients child. i have to see his dad tomorrow dude,” nolan groaned. 

your son shrugged and continued eating his pizza as nicole returned to typing on her phone. the boys teased nolan about his meeting tomorrow until nick put a stop to it. no matter what happened captain nick always had to interfere. 

ethan’s fiancee smiled over at you “i think it’s that time of year where we all go on a girls trip,” she suggested. 

[electronickingdomfox]

"The Abode of Life" review

If Kirk was a Republican...

Novel from 1982, by Lee Correy (actually a pseudonym for model rocket technician G. Harry Stine). Despite the cover, it's set during the five year mission, and not the TMP era.

There are many problems with this novel. For starters, it's really, REALLY boring and dry. Everyone talks in this same scientific, over-expository tone (Spock doubly so, to annoying levels), and there's little in the way of characterization and giving the crew their distinctive voices. My impression is that the author wasn't very familiar with the series, having just a shallow understanding of it, and was using the Star Trek setting as a mere vehicle for his ideas. The fact that Janice Rand is there, despite the stardate being quite late in the mission, reinforces this impression.

Another problem is the lack of tension and real danger. And sometimes it seems it's Kirk the one complicating matters to have an adventure where there's really no such thing. Rather than action, the story is more focused on examining the alien culture of the Mercans, and the dilemma between respecting the Prime Directive and saving the ship. Which in itself is a perfectly valid theme, but I don't think it was handled well. In particular, Kirk ended up doing everything in his hands to violate the Directive in the worst way possible, when there were other options. And the way he maneuvers the Mercans into reaching an agreement that is most beneficial to him and his ship, is uncharacteristically forceful. Using even propagandistic tricks and psychological manipulation.

The author was a libertarian and some themes in the book reflect this. I'm not familiar enough with the ideology to pinpoint every instance, but there's a certain admiration of the Mercan custom to always carry a gun in public, as a way to ensure "everyone behaves politely". Also, "Mercan" is likely a reference to "American".

Overall, I didn't enjoy this novel much. "World Without End", from the Bantam line, has the similar premise of an isolated and stratified society. But the aliens are more interesting, and the story is much more fun.

Spoilers below the cut:

The plot has the Enterprise lost in an empty sector of space, outside the Orion arm of the galaxy, after encountering a gravitational anomaly. The warp drive is badly damaged, but it STILL functions with limitations (more on this later). The only way to make the necessary repairs to return to Federation space in a reasonable time, is getting help from the only planet that exists in that void: Mercan.

So the usual landing party of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and... Janice Rand, beam down and contact the humanoid inhabitants. The Mercans have a highly developed transporter system that they use for everything (but somehow they all carry ancient guns?). They believe their planet is the only "abode of life" in the universe, due to their isolation. And they're subject to periodic and lethal flare-ups from their sun, which they call the Ordeals. Under these conditions, three social groups have developed: the Guardians hold the political power, due to their ability to predict the Ordeals, and give (or deny) protection from them in their keeps. The Proctors are law enforcers for the Guardians. And the Technic are scientists, opposed to the other two groups because of their belief that there's life in other places as well.

The landing party gets in trouble with the Guardians, who don't believe they came from outside, and they're captured and put in a lot of danger. (Actually not. They just leave them free to roam around an island). Kirk, however, doesn't want to return to the ship, since he needs to negotiate with the locals to repair the warp drive. Until the Guardians decide to experiment with them, and expose them to the soon-to-happen Ordeal. At this point, Kirk is like "uh, oh, massive radiation, no thanks". And they finally beam up to the ship.

However, the Enterprise shields can't protect the crew from the flare-up, and everyone's gonna die... Well, the ship has limited warp, remember? So it'd be just as easy as warp away from the star, and return once things have calmed down, right? Of course not! Spock has a more logical plan: send two photon torpedoes into the star. This could have two similarly probable outcomes: 1) The star goes nova and everyone dies (not just the crew, mind you, but also the millions of Mercans, who are safe in their keeps now). 2) The star becomes stable (but the Mercan society becomes destabilized instead, since the Ordeals were a pillar of their culture). Anyway, there go the torpedoes... Yeehaw! Of course, the result is option 2.

Now that Kirk and co. have completely fucked up Mercan society, the locals will need to establish a new status quo, to adapt to the Ordeal-free situation. Then Kirk "amicably" offers to mediate between them at gunpoint, so they can reach an agreement. And one that benefits the Federation and the Enterprise's need for dilithium, to boot. Hooray! Good job, Jim! (and the Federation anthem starts in the background). The End.

Spirk Meter: 6/10*: Incredible, but even in this novel there's a bit of it. Kirk is pondering in his cabin about how to deal with the new situation in Mercan, when his "very close friend" Spock comes in. Spock starts addressing him as "Jim", and soothes his worries about the terrible way he handled the whole thing. Ah! We're also reminded that Jim is the only human that Spock considers his t'hy'la. And Kirk tells him how much he values their relationship, which makes Spock hesitate, saying he's just doing... his duty. Then McCoy comes in as well (jealous? suspicious?), and Kirk feels irritated and is a jerk to him, because the doctor broke his useful rapport with Spock. And McCoy wonders if he's interrupting something...

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[falmerbrook]

Hiii I love your blog and I love phylogeny so I am so excited for the classification you said you were making! I wanted to ask how you were gonna do the reptils and adjacent? Because i don't think there are many examples of skulls in the games (I might be wrong i don't know much about eso in particular) so what basis are you going on to separate like diapsids/anapsids/dinosauria/etc? I know we can see dragons skulls in Skyrim (but i don't remember their morphology) but what about Alit and Guar and Kagouti and cliff racers and such? And Argonians? Are you putting them in the same group or does the Hist cause a bug enough divergence that they get their own?

Sorry if I come off as pushy or rude, it's not my intention. I'm just very enthusiastic about this topic :D

aaaaaa thank you!! And you're no bother at all, I love talking about this stuff!

So, confession: most of my classes were focused on mammals, so my understanding of sauropsida isn't as detailed. I haven't gotten super into sorting through the messiness of the Morrowind reptilians-esque creatures yet, but right now I'm sort of leaning on them being similar to early therapsids (which would probably make them synapsids). I like the idea of them being more like reptilian pre-early mammals, and maybe having branched off there to be there own group (not necessarily comparable to any modern clades to emphasize how unique their evolution is) rather than actually being reptiles (although perhaps in-universe they would be classed as such despite not being in that clade. The irl classification of "reptiles" is already messy as is anyway). I'm open to them being more dinosaur-like though too. Skulls would definitely help, but even if we had them I'm not sure I'd trust the artists to have given it this degree of thought anyway lol. I'll just have to muse on it more.

Interestingly, ESO makes the distinction that alit, kagouti, guar, and wormmouth (which is apparently a thing from Shadowkey) are all closely related, while cliff racers, cliff striders, scuttlers, and bantam guar are closely related and not related to that first group. Maybe that second group are diapsids and more similar to non-avian dinosaurs? idk. Like I said, i still gotta wrap my head around it all.

I'm actually avoiding using any humanoid races for the most part, partially because in-universe sources on their origins are probably largely biased (either in religious or mythological viewpoints, or because of in-universe racism), and partly because it kinda becomes a mess when i started looking at it, so I figured I'd give myself less work. Like, do I trust the accounts that Argonians are related to guar, or do I trust the accounts that they were made out of thin air by the Hist? I have my own ideas in the back of my head for mer and man phylogenies, but those are their own things. I'm also not including dragons since they're basically demigods and I'm not actually sure they would be able to breed or fit into any evolution.

[kayssweetdreams]

Billy Hatcher Headcannons!

General:

All 4 kids have kept their adventures in Morning Land Secret, but everyone once in a while, they end up doing something that gets some stares (Billy still goes Cock-a-doodle-doo at eggs sometimes)

The 4 of them always meet up in the forest. The reason why is because there is one tree there that they all worked together to grow (they even carved their names in the bark!)

Menie-Funie still talks to all of them, but only through dreams, since he isn't as powerful in the human world as he is in Morning Land

After getting back home, All 4 of them never trusted crows again (Chick even chucked a rock at one, getting him scolded by a few adults)

The kids do have A way back to Morning Land, that they called “Menie-Funie's Blessing”. What it requires them to do, is to go back to that tree in the forest, and rooster crow at it at the same time

When they first got there, they had a shared hut in Morning Land in between Forest Village and Pirates Island (after Billy rescued them of course.) This was due to the fact that the crows were still present, and they couldn't sleep out in the open

All 4 of them love dumplings! So much so that when they get down to one left, it's a full on fight for it. (It gets intense!)

All 4 of them cannot swim (Rolly is trying to learn, and Bantam can float on his back at best, Billy absolutely despises water, and Chick cannot get close to water without his parents panicking and giving him at least a boat's worth of floaties.

Billy Hatcher:

He is the ULTIMATE late sleeper. Alarm Clocks, Roosters, Sunshine, all don't work. Nothing wakes this kid up, unless your forcibly get him up

Parents have a small chicken coop, and when he was very young, he named one of the eggs “Eggy”

Has an older sister named Bailey Hatcher, who is an animal activist, and a vegan (she HATES eating eggs)

That one kid that everyone knows, and everyone likes (Despite a small few that don't)

His home is close to the forest that he meets his friends at.

Mom works at a animal shelter, Dad works as a farmer near the forest.

Is an ANIMAL MAGNET. If he was a girl, he could he classified as a Disney Princess. Whether it's birds, or dogs, or CHICKENS, animals will LOVE HIM. it's more obvious in Morning Land when he hatches the eggs

Has a sweet tooth! He absolutely LOVES deserts, which is how he met Rolly at her mom's bakery.

Rolly Roll:

Has a green thumb, so much so that she and Bantam grew a garden in Morning Land

Despite being the only girl in the group, she's actually really strong, and doesn't take crap from anyone.

Usually volunteers around her home with any task she can do.

Has an older brother that loves her, but doesn't trust the boys (he threatened if they so much as made Rolly cry, he would hunt them down personally)

Loves the beach! And is the only one making an effort to try and swim (since none of them can)

Mom is a baker, and she makes the BEST deserts! Rolly's favorite is cookies

Does a delivery service for her mom's bakery, which is how she met Billy

Is VERY sensitive, and sometimes her feelings

overwhelm her common sense

Bantam Scrambled:

Despite being the biggest one, He's the most sensitive one (next to Rolly)

He helps around at an animal shelter, and all the animals there LOVE him

Born and Raised in a family of fighters. And his mom currently is the one teaching Rolly how to fight

Billy, Rolly and Chick approached him when no one else would, due to his size and strength, other kids his age were afraid of him. Rolly came to him first, and shared a cinnamon roll with him

Knows how to hold his own in the woods. He even knows how to hunt if needed. He can garden as well (He and Rolly grew a garden in Morning Land)

He absolutely LOVES snow! Every winter he's always out there doing everything he possibly can

BIG family. Sisters and Brothers, Uncles and Aunts all live under the same roof. (One of Bantam's uncles actually gave him his egg watch)

He acts as Chick’ surrogate brother, sometimes keeping him from making crazy decisions and covering his mouth when he starts to swear like crazy.

Likes to arm wrestle, but when it's with Billy Rolly and Chick, it's 3 against 1…and He doesn't even TRY.

Chick Poacher:

SWEARS LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW.

Despite being the smallest one, he is still also the fastest and quickest of the 4

He and Billy are currently locked in a prank war, with no end in sight

Despite this, he and Billy are partners in crime, the two of them usually jump headfirst into any situation, good or bad.

Lives in a richer part of town, and his parents are EXTREMELY wealthy.

Has his own way of getting around his shortness. Whether it be having extra steps to get higher, or knocking things down to his level

His parents are EXTREMELY over protective of him, due to his size, but they do love him very much

Many people have tried to suck up to him, in order to get closer to the Poacher Fortune. This ends very badly for anyone who is not Chick.

Thanks to getting lessons on how to fight, Chick has been able to defend himself against anyone who tries to push him around (A few jerks had tried to pick on him due to his size, so he cussed them out. And when they tried to get physical and hurt him, Chick sent them ALL to the hospital)

Met Rolly and Billy on his birthday, when Rolly and Billy delivered a cake to him, but due to him not having friends that were after his fortune, it was just him and his family, so the two of them stayed with him and played the whole day

Has a high heat tolerance. Can handle spice Like it's nothing and can wear a hoodie on the hottest day of summer

Still has the goggles from his Legendary Chicken Suit, his parents don't know where he got them, but he always wears them around his neck

[musingsofmonica]

Fall 2024 Diverse Reads

Fall 2024 Diverse Reads:   

•”Heir” by Sabaa Tahir, October 01, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, Fantasy/Action & Adventure/Epic/Romance

•”The City and Its Uncertain Walls” by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel, November 19, Knopf Publishing Group, Literary/Fantasy/Magical Realism/Science fiction/Gothic/Mystery/Horror

•”Masquerade” by Mike Fu, October 29, Tin House Books, Literary/Coming of Age/World Literature/China/21st Century/LGBTQ

•”The Mighty Red” by Louise Erdrich, October 01, Harper, Literary/Contemporary/Coming of Age/Thriller/Suspense/Romance/Cultural Heritage

Native American & Aboriginal

•”Society of Lies” by Lauren Ling Brown, October 01, Bantam, Dark Academia/Thriller/Suspense/Mystery & Detective/Women Sleuth/Cultural Heritage/African American & Black/Asian American/Women

•”The City in Glass” by Nghi Vo, October 01, Tordotcom, Fantasy/Epic/Fairy Tale/Folk Tale/Legends & Mythology

•”A Song to Drown Rivers” by Ann Liang, October 01, St. Martin's Press, Historical/Ancient/Fantasy/Fairy Tales/Folk Tale/Legends & Mythology/Romance/Women

•”The Witches of El Paso” by Luis Jaramillo, October 08, Atria/Primero Sueno Press, Historical/Fantasy/Magical Realism/Family/Saga/Cultural Heritage/Hispanic & Latino

•”Blood of the Old Kings” by Sung-Il Kim, translated by Anton Hur, October 08, Tor Books, Fantasy/Epic/World Literature/Korea

•”This Motherless Land” by Nikki May, October 29, Mariner Books, Literary/Family Life/Adaptations & Pastiche/Diversity & Multicultural/Cultural Heritage/African American & Black/Women/World Literature/Nigeria/England 

•”The Most Wonderful Time” by Jayne Allen, October 08, Harper, /Contemporary/Romance/Romantic Comedy/Multicultural & Interracial/Diversity & Multicultural/Cultural Heritage/African American & Black/Holiday/Friendship/Women/Own Voice

.”Twenty-Four Seconds from Now” by Jason Reynolds, October 08, Atheneum Books, YA/Contemporary/Romance/Boys & Men/Social Themes/Emotions & Feelings/Cultural Heritage/African American & Black

•”Something Close to Nothing” by Tom Pyun, November 12, Bywater Books, Literary/Family Life/Adoption/Identity/Multicultural & Interracial/Diversity & Multicultural/Cultural Heritage/Asian American/LGBTQ

•”The Burrow” by Melanie Cheng, November 12, Tin House Books, Literary/Family Life/Animal/World Literature/Australia

•”Sand-Catcher” by Omar Khalifah, translated by Barbara Romaine, December 03, By Coffee House Press, Literary/Political/Absurdist/Cultural Heritage/Arab/Palestinian/World Literature/Middle East/Israel/Jordan

•”City of Night Birds” by Juhea Kim, November 26, Ecco Press, Literary/Coming of Age/Performing Arts/Dance, Theater & Musicals

•”The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World” by Tiffany Yu, October 08, Hachette Go, People with Disabilities/Disabilities/Disability Studies/Interpersonal Relations/Discrimination & Race/Social/Political 

•”The Message” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, October 01, One World, Essays/Current Events/American Government/Discrimination & Race Relations/Violence in Society/Writing/World Travels

•”Brown Women Have Everything: Essays on (Dis)comfort and Delight” by Sayantani Dasgupta, October 01, University of North Carolina Press, Essays/Women's Studies/Feminist/Cultural, Ethnic & Regional/Ethnic Studies/Asian Studies

•”Taiwan Travelogue” by Shuang-Zi Yang, November 12, Graywolf Press, Literary/Historical/World Literature/Japan/Taiwan/LGBTQ

[aserranopepper]

Things I've manifested this month

A bunny hutch. So months ago we got scammed out of the chicken coop. Whenever I'd look online for small bunny hutches or small coops, they'd be $299 and too big for my mom's car to pick up. The other day I imagined a bunny hutch the right size for my 2 little bantam hens and that could fit in my mom's car. Then I opened fb and there was one free exactly how I imagined it on the buy nothing group I'm in for our city. It was a perfect fit for my mom's car and fit my little mini hens perfectly and they love it. My mom told me I manifested it.

After that I won a free water bottle in that group that I've been visualizing lately.

Then after that we both found a cool 2 pack of air purifiers on Amazon, which arrived early the next day.

Same day I also won a free reading from someone using a tarot deck and connecting to higher beings/spirit. So I asked about why I'm feeling in limbo regarding my manifestation and I got a response, and I believe it was after that when I got lucky and manifested all this stuff

Today I saw the response on how my thoughts are messy and letting go of the past, moving forward. Which makes sense, I would constantly think about bad stuff from the past. So I played reiki healing videos for this. Had some interesting dreams about the magical things I'd buy, magical powers I'd have.

And then also today I was feeling frustrated, one of the magical shops I buy from was taking forever to ship. It's been weeks still being left on the unfulfilled status (when it hasn't shipped yet) so I visualized it saying fulfilled. Then I fell asleep with those reiki videos and when I wokeup I got messages that they've been shipped, and now it says fulfilled.

I'm feeling lucky! I'll have to see what else I manifest.

Also, recently when I wokeup I saw the ceiling of my wr for a few seconds. And now whenever I'm sleepy or waking up, or just when I'm sleeping - everytime I blink - I see something else for a split second. Like something I want to manifest or my wr. It I want something, I see floating there infront of me at my bed for a second. I thought there was something wrong with my eyes since I have vision problems.

[madnessofmen]

Okay here it is: The War Below teardown.

For a movie ostensibly about tunneling operations in WWI, literally nothing about said tunneling operations is accurate.

The movie implies that the first use of mining was the battle of Messines (1917), and there were only a couple specialists to test the effectiveness; when irl it was already huge by that time.

Like literally what about the fucking Somme????? The movie acknowledges the Somme while ignoring the mining that happened there I guess???

And I haaaate the way this small group of miners is framed as like,,, civilian special ops. They are treated as Not Real Soldiers who don't understand military discipline because apparently they didn't get soldier training??? Why??? Again, totally ignoring the fact that the tunneling corps were, you know, a corps of soldiers. So the miners in the movie are consultants. Who wear uniforms and are subject to military rules and discipline. So they're not soldiers but they are soldiers but they aren't but they are.

The film also takes the struggles of bantam (5'-5'3") soldiers (initially rejected from service and then ostracized/demeaned by the other soldiers when they were accepted) and gives them to the miners. But without the height thing. Like. they should have at least made the miners bantam height. At least. Lots of bantam soldiers were miners before enlisting, and many became tunnelers afterwards because they could fit in confined spaces.

Another aspect of the civilian special ops framing is that apparently this handful of miners is the Only group of people that know how to mine. They outright reject the raising of hundreds of trained mining men, saying soldiers don't have the experience to know Real mining. Okay. As if the tunnels weren't built on the backs of tens of thousands of men. Fucking Randian great man bullshit. Terminal CEO brain.

Look at all the people involved in just the Messines mining operation!

And because the main cast/crew is only like five people, the plot demands that they only dig one tunnel with one explosive charge, when irl there were 26 tunnels+mines (of which 19 were detonated)!!

I hate this movie!!!

[homeofhousechickens]

Update on the sick bantam I wrote about to you earlier. I decided to try medication before euthanising. She has been responding super well to the antibiotics. The vet decided to try another type of antibiotics than last time and it seems like it did the trick. After two days she was already improving significantly and seemed even livelier than before. So perhaps she had been suffering with stuff in the background for a while which does make me feel pretty bad.

It's been a week since the antibiotics where stopped and she is super lively and hopping around like when she was young. She does make a little spin every once in a while when she gets excited, which is something I'll keep an eye on. But she is back in business as the leading lady of the group and very chatty and demanding. So as far as I'm concerned she gets to stick around for a while longer. :)

Glad to hear she is doing better!

[kedreeva]

Can I ask what happens to the pheasant hen chicks after sunday? Also is it different from taking care of chicken chicks?

Love seeing you animal stories! Thanks for sharing! 💙🐥

You can! This group is being taken to a reptile expo as feeder chicks saturday and sunday. Any that don't sell, I will euthanize sunday evening, and freeze to sell as f/t feeders. Next week's will be largely the same, although since they're all supposed to be hens, I am considering holding back 20-25 or so from that group, and selling them as subadult hens, since folks are always looking for them at swaps.

It's not really that different than chicken chicks at this stage! They just want food, water, and heat. They run around and peep and not much else. They're about the size of a fresh bantam chick, of a true bantam breed, so not as small or fragile as the quail, but definitely less hardy looking than chicken chicks. Once pheasants get older, they are game birds and the boys usually have to get blinders put on so they don't hurt each other, but I don't think that's as much of a problem with just the hens, and not a problem with the very very young chicks.

[pennaraptor]

@homeofhousechickens for fun (if you want) this is another hen sold as a black breasted red bantam cubalaya (i Lol because they dont look anything like the breed) same as arthur, compared in the last pic to another hen from the group, that looks normal.

[kifu]

Long chicken rambles with pictures as I try to figure out what I'm doing next year.

My biggest problem that I'm encountering is I have so many ideas and so little space, right? I have the pen that I built this fall, that's to be sectioned off into two separate sections that can hold about five to six chickens each. It's currently my overcrowded oldest grow-out pen that I need to dig out all the straw from so that the ground can actually drain. It's a mess in there and straw is detrimental, just fyi.

That's two larger breeding groups. I also have my cock block pen in the barn, which can hold around seven or eight birds. That's my younger grow-out pen at the moment, also where all the birds that for some reason can't brave the grow-out pen go so that they can get some fluff back to their feathers. Originally, the cock block was designed to be split in half, but I will not be doing that. I kind of like it just the way it is.

I have a chicken tractor that I built a few years ago. It can hold about a trio. It currently has my bantam hold backs.

I miiiiiight be able to make room for two or three pairs and maybe another trio. Maybe. Bantams go in rabbit cages for breeding season, so they're not an issue.

So first project bird that I have is with my big boy. I love love love this cockerel. He's half cochin, half sussex. I have one matching pullet to go with him, and if I have the room, another younger pair of him with shitty quality black. The purpose of this project next year is to create a speckled sussex pattern onto large fowl cochin - or a proper mille fluer cochin. I believe when I did the math, I have a one in eleven? chance of hatching out just the chicken from him and his lady. They're both mottled, so that's one less recessive that I have to worry about. They carry for partridge. They both also have one copy of columbian pattern AND mahogany, it just doesn't express on black.

Honestly, thinking of it now, I think I'm wrong in my earlier math. Chicks have a 25% chance of hatching out partridge, and then a 75% chance of at least one copy of columbian and then of mahogany. I certainly don't need them to be homozygous in either of the dominant expressing genes. That's a mere 14% chance of hatching out the visual color I'm after. That's a one in seven chance.

I might have issues with foot feathering, putting f1 birds together instead of back to a cochin, but that theoretically puts me at a 10.5% chance of hatching the color with foot feathers, which is still better than one in eleven. (Though I explicitly remembering coming up with 14% so I think I just remember the fraction math wrong. I don't think my math was wrong, just faulty memory.)

ALL THIS TO SAY - I want no less than a trio of phenetically mille fluer cochin out of this pen. Then I say goodbye to all my f1s. *cry*

Because ohmydear just look at that cockerel. He's gorgeous. Very striking, even if he makes a shitty cochin.

Next project that is of utmost importance involves Mr. Wyandotte sir. This cockerel - oh I went through SO MUCH trouble to get him and he's just amazing. I LOVE how well he's growing up, especially since I got him, and I'm so so so excited for the project he'll be involved in.

So the thing is, I don't have any gold laced cochins. None. Zip. I am NOT messing with dominant white and silver so ... I'm putting him over a couple partridge hens. My partridge are not good quality, but they'll get the project started. At the very least, their offspring will have some feathers on their feet and their combs will be split to single.

Using a cock with homo dominant white will result in dominant white pullets and cockerels. I'm just going to have a mess with lacing (and breeding out leaking black). HIS lacing isn't great, but buff laced is a project in wyandotte as much as it will be for me in cochin. I'm not sure how dominant white plays in hetero form, but I'm sure I'll find out next spring.

Hopefully I get some choices in pullets and cockerels out of his pen and get to keep the best lacing, because they'll be het in EVERYTHING. Pattern, melanotic, columbian - but thankfully those are ALL dominantly expressed. What really works for me on this is that both wyandotte and cochin work their laced varieties on the partridge base, so ... I don't have to mess with extension genes on this project.

A less important project, but a project that I have an f1 cockerel for anyway, is blue laced silver. This boy is a result of a silver laced cochin over a blue laced red wyandotte. So he's het silver, which causes some CRAZY gold leakage. But considering his mother should be MAHOGANY as well, it's not gold leakage as much as RED leakage.

This boy has better lacing than ANY other laced bird with feathered feet. Quite possibly any laced bird on the property.

I know I've talked about this boy and stressed over the future possibilities with him before.

I think I want to put him over both silver laced girls that I have. Theoretically, I make half boys with his level of leakage, and half boys with the proper homo silvering and (please) no leakage. And half silver pullets, half gold pullets. Then half of ALL THOSE, blue.

So, keep anything blue and silver, of course. But I'm really tempted to keep everything not gold, but RED laced with blue as well. Which will be all pullets, but ... no, I think I will. I'll keep the blue laced red and maybe blue laced gold because THAT WAS AN ORIGINAL GOAL.

My problem with the silver laced is that my pure silver laced cock died just a couple weeks ago. Out of the blue, he just dropped dead in the main flock. So fuck - I might just keep anything silver laced, idfk. Just get rid of the yellow laced (ie het silver) cockerels, I dunno.

(By the way - that sussex hen beside the silver laced hen is one of the probable mothers to big boy. That's the color I'm seeking in that project pen.)

Next big big project is chocolate. I have one older boy growing up that is out of my mauve splash cochin hen, and I have one older boy growing up that is out of the chocolate orpington. I have my chocolate hen that's actually really nice now that she's grown her feathers in. Finally. I miiiiight have another cockerel in the youngest hatch that's out of that mauve splash hen, but it's mostly a brooder full of pullets. Which are useless to me in this project. How often do you hear complaining about hatching out a ridiculously disproportionate amount of pullets? I also miiiiight have a chocolate cockerel out of the orpington hen and then mauve bantam cochin. If that is a boy, I'll keep him on reserve.

I actually am a little impressed with how the type is coming along on this blue cockerel. He's leaky as fuck, which is incredibly annoying. For one, he's out of two solid birds, so where did it come from? And breeding out leakage is one of the last things I want to do in my chocolate project. The amount of leakage on him suggests that he's NOT from the mauve splash hen, but I have absolutely nothing else that he could be out of but an even better blue hen. Ironically enough, the black that's most likely out of the orpington is almost as leaky, so I'm not sure what's going on here.

I'll know within a couple hatches whether or not he's split for chocolate. If I hatch out zero chocolates, he gets eaten and I substitute in the orpington cross cockerel(s).

I know that I'm putting at least two of my nice hens under him. I'll probably give him the mottled hen and the typey black pullet I have growing up. I don't know if I'm going to put the chocolate hen under him. If I have the space, I'd really rather she got paired up with the nicest blue cockerel that I have. I don't want to work with mauves, but I'm not about to be a chooser. I'll be getting mauves out of the blue cockerel anyway.

I have three blue cockerels and a splash cockerel growing up. I somehow got every one in on this picture. The lovely raggedy guy front and center is the cockerel I hatched out of the blue hen this year. The other three, I bought. I technically have the one I hatched up for sale because his comb is an absolute mess, but he has some very promising type.

I don't know if I'll be using a single one of these boys next spring, but I want them around to see if I can use them to improve on the type I already have grown up. But I do know that if I have the space, the best one will get paired up with my chocolate.

My black boy is the main man from this year. He's filled out SO MUCH these past couple months since I took him out of the breeding pen. He's almost impressive. I love how much his chest comes forward, but I would like to see a lot more depth to it. His tail has filled out immensely this year, but he still needs so much more depth to it. He's still better than most cochins I see around me. But this is the boy to beat in my programs.

He's getting my barred hens, even though Basketball is probably done laying for life. He also gets my blue pullets. There's at least three really nice ones growing up. And when I say that, I think I mean that the blue hen pictured above is the best cochin I own. She also forgot what hygiene is, but the amount of mass she's gathering as she grows - and how forward and deep her breast is already - I'm excited for her specifically. And I really think my barred hen(s) have a lot to offer in the cushion department. They don't necessarily have the depth of cushion, but they're way fuller than anything else I have. The barreds just really lack foot feathering in comparison.

But his pen - his pen is where I crunch down on TYPE. No funny color business (though I would kill for a barred cockerel out of that pen ...). Just black, blue, and ... yeah that's probably all that'll hatch out of his pen.

IF I had space, I'd put the typiest cock with the blue hens. Whether that be black boy or one of the blues growing up now - even though that's really difficult to judge when cochins take tonever to grow up. And I'd put the next typiest cock with the barreds. So that I could keep it separate and actually know what the hell I was hatching out. I don't think I have that luxury.

Last big project is the partridge. And the partridge shouldn't even be a project, but their type begs it so. I have three partridge cockerels growing up - all of them better than their sire. I'll keep one. I have ... three? partridge pullets growing up. They're really just around because I haven't sold them yet. I sold all of my oldest partridge grow-outs from this year to pay for rabbit feed. I also have three partridge hens. The wyandotte gets two of those partridge. I want one or two under the partridge boy.

Because I also have a good handful of black pullets growing up out of the black boy and the partridge hens. I think I also have one cockerel, but he can go. I'm going to keep the typiest two and put them under the partridge cockerel. Sell everything that hatches out black, and hope that my partridge type improves and that the melonizers don't totally mess with the partridge pattern.

I also really would like to put the blue laced red wyandotte back under a partridge. I hatched out zero blue things out of her and my partridge from this year. My dad hatched out two. I know for a fact he's keeping the pullet, but even if he's not keeping the cockerel I can bet that he's gotten rid of him already. I really do want blue laced red cochins. So between this pen and the pen of silver laced blue things, I actually have a decent chance of making a blue laced red pen for next year.

.

OHMYDEAR. I forgot about my wheatens. Fuck. I have two gold wheaten maran pullets that I got from FFH to make wheaten cochin. I need to put THEM under one of the blue cockerels. Ha. Oh shit. They'll make 100% blue or black birds that carry for wheaten, but it'll just be like the f1 sussex cross from this year. I'm not a huge fan of gold wheaten. HOWEVER, I have a couple different directions that I can later go with wheaten: silver wheaten (or better yet, take the next step, add mahogany and have salmon cochin) AND FURNESS. Furness would be a project. A really big project by isolating the melanotic gene from the laced birds, and then adding that over top wheaten, but absolutely theoretically doable. But quite honestly, I'm ahead of myself. I'll be happy with gold wheaten in two years from now.

.

Big pens are absolutely going to the type flock and partridge flock. But I just need to figure out how I'm safely separating these guys to get started next spring.

(I just don't want to think about winter, let's be honest.)