Cube mk2 and WIR

[Egluntyne]

**This** was in the Daily Mail this morning. Very interesting.

[Cinnamon]

I know - just read it while having my lunchtime sarnie

 

We have lots of balloons here, as there is a balloon launch field just down the way - in fact we had 17 Virgin balloons go over all at the same time just a month or so ago,which was cool as they were all identical

 

Either my chickens are tough,thick, or the roof works because they were not bothered at all, unlike the dog who went bananas

[Clash City Rocker]

Worcester race course is about a 200 yards from my house (as the balloon flies!!). It is in regular use by hot air balloons through the Summer months. My chickens freak everytime the wind blows one our way. I've never noticed my chickens react to anything else in the way they behave when there is a hot air balloon appearing over the house.

[Guest]

Funny really. I have a chap who does aerobatics over our house- he is often flying very low as he noisily loops the loop - sometimes he brings his friends and there are 3 of them

 

But the girls don't take any notice!

[Snowy]

Poor chooks

 

Anyone read that first comment? Never heard that one before!

[The Dogmother]

I saw that, we get a few balloons here, but the chooks never seem bothered.

 

One summer evening, on the way back from a BBQ, we chased one that was descending; it nearly landed on the M40 Great fun to watch it come down and the support vehicle arrive.

[Egluntyne]

We had one brush the tops of our trees a few years ago...they were chucking sand out for all they were worth.

 

It was before I had chickens.

[Ardene5]

If the farmer contact The BBAC ( British Balloon & Airship Club) or Cameron Balloons at Bristol.

She can have a PCZ marked on a O.S MAP and the AIrWave Maps to stop Hot Air Balloons giving her problems minimum ht over her property say 800 ft.

What Balloonists do not know is what is the building marked on a map, it can be anything and when looking for a place to land, a very large field is the safest place to land then explain to the land owner why they are there, most land owners are very helpful and welcome hot air balloons and retrieve vans onto their land.

Hot air balloons are both privately owners as well as commercially the photo in the mail is of hot air balloon in USA.

 

Retired owner and pilot of a privately owned hot air balloon.

 

Gas Balloons are the type that throw out sand, Hot air balloons have a big flame , when on is approx. 10 ft longand they stand about 70 ft high, sound good when you chat about their size as they talk about volume in 1000 cu Ft , my was 77,000 cu ft.

 

Best regards

 

Ian

Edited November 6, 2008 by Guest

[hilda-and-evadne]

**This** was in the Daily Mail this morning. Very interesting.

 

That report caught my eye, too, because I have been wondering if my neighbour sawing an oil barrel in half recently was the reason Hilda was so unwell for two days. My neighbour seems to have decided that commercially-available barbeque sets are too inadequate, so he procured an whole oil barrel from somewhere and cut it in half one Saturday afternoon. He used a powered circular saw, and the noise was hellish.

 

I didn't think to check how the hens were reacting but when I went out in the evening to give them their treat, Hilda was looking very unwell (although Evadne was showing her normal good spirits). Hilda subsequently laid two shell-less eggs and then nothing for a week. I happened to be with them on one day that week, after the oil-barrel-sawing-up, when the neighbour came out into his garden and banged or dropped something: both hens reacted as if there was a threat expected from that direction.

 

Perhaps it's a chicken folk memory of pterodactyls' hunting cry: a noise like a balloon releasing gas or an oil drum being cut in half.

[Cinnamon]

[ he procured an whole oil barrel from somewhere and cut it in half one Saturday afternoon. He used a powered circular saw, and the noise was hellish.

 

 

 

A friend of ours did that & it exploded,blowing off half his ear & igniting his hair

Apparantly a spark lit some oil residue in the drum.....

[hilda-and-evadne]

A friend of ours did that & it exploded,blowing off half his ear & igniting his hair Apparantly a spark lit some oil residue in the drum.....

 

I don't know what to say except

 

Seems my neighbour might have been lucky this time.

[Cate in NZ]

A few years ago I went for a ride in a hot air balloon, flew from Headcorn in Kent . I remember seeing a load of chickens scattering when we flew over them, people commented on it because they looked kind of funny running every which way. I kind of imagined that the shadow of the balloon above had spooked them a bit. Now I feel a bit , maybe those hens were terrified . I hope not.

[chocchick]

OH told me about this. The image of 600 chickens trying to hide in the chicken shed was amusing and very chickeny. Upsetting about some dying. I think the farm has been taken out of the flight path.

[bluekarin]

They do seem to get frightened about lots of things. Washing hanging on the line, the new compost bin we bought being chucked over the garden fence (was funny, until we realised that Moonshine bashed her beak when they all rushed into their house) oops. And they really don't like the big birds that fly over our house like crows and seagulls.

 

And don't get me started in the invisible things that spook them. You know, when they suddenly leap up and flap around the garden for no reason whatsoever. Are they like cats and can see 'the other side'?