On our farm here in NSW, like many other farms in the region, we have a problem with Blackberry Bushes.
For anyone from the city who isn’t acquainted with them, Blackberry Bushes aren’t cute little shrubs that give you some delightful fruit. No, they are a noxious weed that grows out of control. There is virtually no limit to the size they grow, and they are covered in thorns ready to ensnare human and animal alike with even the slightest contact.
And that is just ONE patch!
We’ve got some whoppers of Blackberry Bushes on our land, some almost bigger than our house! They have been very hard to get rid of for two reasons:
A: We don’t like to use poisons on our property
B: Even if we did use poisons, most of the bushes are located in the middle of our shallow creek, meaning that any use of herbicides could result in them entering the water, causing major damage to other plants and the ecosystem in general.
So what were we to do?
Well, we kinda lucked out. Mick, who I buy nearly all my second-hand pots from in order to propagate plants for our Organic Plants & Produce business, runs a family business of his own. He and his wife Billie run Dry Creek Farm, and they specialize in bringing out herds of goats in order to decimate Blackberry Patches, leaving nothing but stems and fertilizer in their wake. After being impressed with the job they did on our farm, I couldn’t help but ask them for an interview and they kindly obliged:
Sustainable – and cute!
What first gave you the idea to use goats to clear huge blackberry patches?
Huge Blackberry patches on our own place and a strong desire not to spray. We have done a permaculture course and heard of people using goats for weed control. We were getting a fair bit of pressure from the weed inspectors to do something about our Blackberry so we decided we’d have to give it a go.
What made you decide that using goats to clear blackberry was a viable business?
Mostly the fact that it worked so well on our place. We knew other people were also looking to an alternative to spraying. Also, we had the goats and were running out of feed for them!
How much blackberry can a mob of your goats clear in a day?
We usually say a single car garage per day but we’ve recently experimented with using larger mobs and knocking them over a bit faster. We have found that it depends on the goats and what they’re used to eating, we’ve recently bought some goats and found they weren’t as keen on blackberry as our initial mob. Nothing a bit of competition and on the job training won’t fix. (after the goats moved from your place to join with the others they have started churning through the patches like there’s no tomorrow)
How is using goats to clear blackberry more sustainable and ecologically friendly than using traditional methods?
Spraying is very detrimental in the long run, it kills soil life and does not allow the weed to add fertility to the soil. The production and transportation of agricultural chemicals is a huge contributer to greenhouse gases and creates a cycle of chemical dependence on farms. Goats help to increase fertility by turning weeds into manure which makes it easier to break down. Treating weeds in this way also allows the plant to continue filling it’s niche in the ecosystem. For example, blackberry helps prevent erosion and having the goats treat a patch still leaves the canes and the roots to fulfill this function.
I understand something rather odd (and amusing) happened when your goats were at our place. Can you describe what happened?
We’ve well and truly learnt that not everything goes to plan when working with animals. We decided to swing via your place for an unscheduled check on the goats because we happened to be in the area. Lucky we did. When we arrived we noticed there were nine feral and stinky billygoats showing an interest in our girls. One was in the paddock with our goats and another had his horns completely tangled in the mobile fencing and was being humped from behind by another of the billies! It was not his lucky day. Mike had to get amongst it and wrestle him free of the fence then we had to draft them out of the paddock and chase them away to discourage them returning. It was all a bit dramatic but didn’t cause too much drama in the end and gives us something to have a laugh about. We were quite surprised as we had the goats working on our place for twelve months with feral goats always around and we have also done other jobs and seen billies about but never had this situation!
I’d like to thank both Michael and Billie for both their time doing this interview and the wonderful job their goats did getting rid of our blackberries. You can find the website for Dry Creek Farm HERE.
BeforeAfter
Got any questions for Mick and Billie? Pop it in the comments section below and I’m sure they will be happy to answer it.
Despite some successes, this week has not been a good week for Vegans in Australia.
One of the more militant factions of the Vegan community, in order to celebrate the anniversary of a documentary highlighting animal cruelty issues (Dominion), took actions many would consider extreme across numerous parts of the country. They did this in the hope it would make people aware of their cause and win people over to their way of thinking.
From a PR perspective it didn’t work. It really didn’t work.
Instead of people applauding the steps they took, there has been countrywide condemnation of their actions. The anger from the community expressed both in real life and on various social media platforms has been both palpable and prolific.
So why? Do people really hate animals that much?
In short, despite some successes with their personal goals, the execution left a lot to be desired. In some cases it actually highlighted how, this group which is so concerned about animal welfare, have little knowledge about the realities of dealing with actual animals rather than the ideal of them. Let’s take a look:
*The Melbourne Blockade
The Action
Without any prior conferring with any of the relevant departments or authorities, on Monday morning a group of 60+ Vegan Activist’s blockaded the intersection of Flinders and Swantson street in the CBD, many chaining themselves to vans.
The Purpose
In the numerous soundbites provided by the Activists to the media, the most common phrase was ‘We want everyone to go vegan’. They also wanted to stop ‘so called farmers’ as they stated it, exploiting livestock and instead growing grains.
The Result
Thousands of people were inconvenienced by the blockade. 16 tram routes were all but halted. 5 major trauma centre’s in the CBD had to reroute their ambulances. A large group of the activists were arrested.
The Public Reaction
Thousands of Melbournians were pissed off about being made late. Many Australians were horrified about the effect this had on the trauma centre’s as it could have resulted in a possible fatality. There was no mass conversion to Veganism and no ‘so called farmers’ released their herds of livestock into the wild.
*Abattoir Protests
The Action
Several abattoirs were targeted by Activists where they chained themselves to killing floors and refused to leave, stopping production.
The Purpose
To stop animals being killed for human consumption.
The Result
One abattoir actually negotiated the release of 3 lambs in return for the Activists leaving. Activists at other sites were arrested and removed by police. Production at all affected sites was shut down for several hours before resuming.
The Reaction
Actually quite light. Despite extensive media coverage, people seemed to be more interested in the other stories regarding the Vegan Activists that day. Positive reactions from the wider Vegan Community for saving the lives of 3 lambs.
*Invasion of Farms
Dairy farmer who had their farm invaded
The Action
Vegan Militants targeted and invaded numerous private farms around the country. One of the most notable incidents was where activists cut the wire to a dairy farmer’s gate, went onto private property and herded a small amount of cattle onto the road. They then blockaded the gate so that the farmer could not return his cattle to their paddock.
The Purpose
The freeing of livestock so that they could not be used to produce milk.
The Result
The cattle got scared at out at being out on a narrow bitumen road with lots of people, instead of in their huge paddock with plenty of food and water. They freaked out further at not being able to re-enter their home. One cow tried to break through the boundary fence in an effort to get back into her paddock and got tangled in the wire, even ending up upside down at one point. No livestock ended up ‘frolicking free’.
The Reaction
The public once again did not like it. Empathy was felt for the livestock that had been traumatized by the Activists actions. Empathy was felt for the farmer who had to deal with the horrible situation.
*The Closing of the Gippy Goat Café
Photo shared by Vegan Militants and the subsequent reaction (reaction post shared over 30K now)
The Action
Months of harassment of a Café that specialized in goat produce and also had a goat petting zoo. Actions included trespass, theft of livestock, online and phone harassment and threats against the café owners, their staff and their families. Also many reports of customers tyres being let down.
The Purpose
To close down a café that dealt in goat milk, goat meat and keeping goats in a pen for people to interact with.
The Result
The café after months of harassment did indeed close. A very public statement was made, citing all the harassment made against them, the legal powers of the country not protecting them or prosecuting the offenders, and apologies to the 8 staff they had to let go because of the closure.
The Reaction
Videos released by the Activists showing them kidnapping a goat. Instead of being ‘wowed’ by their noble actions, the public were appalled to hear the activists saying things like “Are we taking it to a vet?” “No we might get in trouble”, especially when the farm they were stealing the goat from had a vet on staff. People were appalled to see the goat stuffed into the back of a small van, when animal safety regulations say that such animals should be transported safely in appropriate trailers. Photos taken and released by the Activists showing 4 young women laughing that they received no conviction angered people at the lack of respect for the law and the lack of empathy for those they hurt, and was subsequently shared thousands of times on social media with taglines shaming them.
There were lots of other actions taken on that day by the Vegan Activists. There was a small march in Sydney, the Melbourne Aquariums main gate was shut down and so on. So if the intention had been to simply gain media, this militant subset of the Vegan community certainly succeeded. Add that to the rescuing of 3 lambs from a slaughterhouse, halting slaughterhouse production for several hours and the closing down of a Goat-themed café and you could say they had a decent amount of success with their goals.
So why do many think it was a failure?
One of a number of articles from news outlets
It’s quite simple, the actions were perceived countrywide as illegal, extreme and subsequently got the general public offside. The public at large has condemned their actions and it seems this Militant Vegan Subgroup have actively pushed people away from supporting their cause. Instead of highlighting the cruelty to animals they made themselves look like terrorists. Their actions showed a flagrant disrespect for the law, a disrespect for private property and a high level of bullying and intimidation tactics. People felt for the café owners and their employees that suffered for months to the point of receiving violent threats against both themselves and their families. People felt for the cow that nearly killed itself trying to return to its paddock and the goat that got stuffed in the back of a van. People didn’t like the way they were told to ‘Go Vegan’ rather than being convinced to go Vegan. People didn’t like the attacks on famer’s as a whole, lumping anyone with livestock in with that very tiny subset that actually do abuse their animals. People didn’t like how the Militant Activists didn’t seem to care what effects their actions had on others, only their own agenda. And that agenda was perceived as consisting of forcing society at large to conform to the Militants personal ideological beliefs via acts of criminality. It was perceived as using stand-over and fear tactics to make people adopt your ideology.
So to sum up – no sir, people didn’t like it.
And now here we are two days later, with condemnation of the Militant Vegans actions almost universal across the country. People’s social media feeds are full of pictures and platitudes calling for support for struggling Aussie Farmers and/or ‘Vegan Bashing’ memes. There has been no ‘mass conversion to Veganism’ but rather a strengthening of Anti-Veganism sentiment.
Example of popular meme doing the social media rounds
And in fact considering the above it would be remiss to not mention one other group which have suffered because of all this action. Your average, everyday Vegan. The Vegans who had nothing to do with and did not support the Militant Activists. Just like Muslims should not be targeted for the action of a few Islamic Extremists, Vegans in general should not be shamed and harassed for the actions of a few. I’ve had a Vegan friend for near 20 years and never once has she tried to convert me to Veganism and likewise I’ve never tried to turn her into a carnivore. We’ve respected each others lifestyle choices and it may behoove society at large to do the same.
What they SHOULD have done
If there is any advice to give the Militant Vegans that took the actions they did on Monday it would be this. CHANGE YOUR TACTICS! People don’t react well to bullying. People don’t react well to being shamed. People don’t react well to being told you ‘must’ do this instead of you ‘should’ do this. People don’t like the innocents being lumped in with the guilty (in this case farmers).
Next time, actually target specifically those few farms and companies that do have atrocious animal treatment records and work on bringing their actions to light. Don’t force closures of cafes and release animals into danger at places where the animals are treated properly. Farmers everywhere are struggling with drought and small business owners are struggling to stay afloat – by attacking these groups you come across as indiscriminate bullies and terrorists. Following on from this, it would be extremely foolish to follow through with the most current threat, which is to publish the personal names and addresses of every farmer in Australia. Would you enjoy 80 meat eaters invading your residence where you and your children live, demanding you conform to their way of thinking?
Next time, instead of holding up traffic for hours in the middle of a city, hold a BBQ in the middle of the city. Cook up some Vegan food and offer samples to everyone passing by to show them how good it is. And while there instead of telling them they ‘have’ to go Vegan, maybe try to persuade them to try having one Vegan day a week to test the lifestyle out.
Next time, leave animals the hell alone! On all the footage shown it was mainly young women from major cities who obviously didn’t know how to handle animals properly. You are doing more harm than good to these creatures. In fact it may do a lot of these young urban people good to go spend a month on a farm to actually see firsthand how the vast majority of farmer’s treat their livestock, rather than sitting in a café a hundred miles away from the nearest farm talking about how terrible the livestock have it with no personal experience. As Henry Rollins, a near-vegetarian, once said ‘Knowledge without Mileage equals Bullshit”.
Look at this weeks reactions to your actions with some genuine introspection. Don’t fall into the trap of saying ‘Well anyone that condemns us is a animal hater and an idiot”. If the vast majority of the public is condemning your actions, and even many moderate Vegans are not in support, really try to look at why. Can it truly be that everyone in society except those that agree with you are completely wrong?
Next time try conversation instead of confrontation. On a personal note, I’m a hobby farmer and confirmed meat eater, however years ago I was convinced of the merits of vegetarianism by a vegetarian friend who simply had me over for dinner, then afterwards had a discussion with me about how much more food can be produced per acre by using the land for crops rather than grazing livestock. While it didn’t convince me to become a vegetarian, it gave me a newfound respect for the lifestyle choice and made me much more open and un-judgmental of people having different dietary lifestyles to my own. So if any ‘militant vegan’ reads this blog, I heartily encourage you to pop links in the comments section below talking about the merits of the Vegan lifestyle. I’ll happily read them and read them with an open mind, whereas if all you do is post pictures of dead animals or tell me how horrible a person I am for eating meat and having a different point of view to yours, I’ll probably dismiss anything you say out of hand. Convince me rather than condemn me.
But in the end, to any Militant Vegan reading this, please realize that this weeks actions this week did not work to win the public to your side. A hefty proportion of country is demonstrably pissed off with you. It is doubtful you made a single convert but not doubtful that did create a lot of Vegan-Haters. And a friendly reminder that the ends do not justify the means. Simply because you think your cause is just, it doesn’t give you the right to do whatever the hell you like with no regard for the consequences of your actions. Learn this, take it on board, and maybe next time you have your country wide protests, you may find them far more well received and who knows, actually maybe make a difference to the national psyche regarding animal product usage and consumption.
Got anything (respectful) to add? Pop it in the comments section below!
Never in all our years together have I felt such a sense of betrayal resulting from the actions of my spouse.
No, she didn’t cheat on me. No, she didn’t spend our savings on something extravagant for herself. No she hasn’t been saying awful things about me behind my back to her friends and family. She hasn’t even stopped me ordering this months shipment of Transformers.
The near-unspeakable act she committed was…. wait for it…. telling our son we could have at least one vegetarian dinner a week!
I know – pretty shameful behaviour right?
“What did she just say?!”
We are a decision sharing household and whilst both my wife and I have autonomy to make decisions, we usually do so safe in the knowledge that the other would agree with our actions.
But the other night when we were eating dinner, my son asked what vegetarianism is, as he has encountered the concept since starting Primary School. So we explained to him what it was. He then asked if we could have a vegetarian dinner. Without batting an eyelid, without looking to me to see if I was on board, she replied “Yeah we can have a vegetarian dinner. In fact we can have one every week”.
My jaw hit the dinner table, and not simply because I was stuffing rissoles into it. Did she just say what I thought she said?! Did she just make a unilateral decision regarding our family’s dietary requirements without consulting with me?
“Um… dear…” I said is a very guarded tone.
She looked at me, subtle amusement clear on her face, then repeated herself to our son that “yes, lets have vegetarian once a week”.
I was shocked! I was flabbergasted. And I tell you one thing…. this will not stand!
Now, let me say something from the outset – I have nothing against vegetarians. My entire adult life I have had vegetarian friends and sometimes eaten at their houses. Even went to a vegetarian restaurant in Melbourne for one of their birthdays once. The tofu tasted like bloody awful warmed-up gelatin but I still ate it.
From a sustainability viewpoint I think vegetarianism has a lot going for it, given you can generate a lot more food per acre from growing crops than from grazing livestock. You are going to feed the starving masses around the world a lot easier with rice than you are with lamb.
Plus I’ve always looked at Vegetarians the same way when young I looked at Gay Guys. Every two guys that decided to get together meant that there was two more women available for me to pursue. And like that, every person that decides to become a vegetarian means one less person competing for that prime steak in the butchers shop. Homosexuality, Vegetarianism – not lifestyles I subscribe to but of which I heartily approve.
But this is my dinnertable. And by gawd in this household at dinnertime we eat MEAT!
Try getting this level of satisfaction from a bowl of alfalfa sprouts
For those of you thinking I am being draconian in my viewpoint, consider the following:
Breakfast
We technically have vegetarian for breakfast 6 days a week. My son and wife have porridge, my daughter has toast and I have fruit. It’s only on a Sunday when I cook a big breakfast for the family that meat enters the realm of breakfast in our household.
Lunch
At lunchtime my kids have hardly any meat. My daughter has one slice of shaved ham in her ham-and-cheese sandwich. My son has two slices. Besides that it’s all cheese, bread, fruit, crackers and my wife’s home-baked goods like banana bread. In fact, sometimes we make the kids organic free-range duck egg sandwiches which cuts out that bit of meat all together!
My wife packs salads for her lunch so she usually eats vegetarian, unless she puts some lean chicken in or something.
I usually take a frozen meal to work, as since I am so rushed making my kids lunches for Preschool & Primary School in the morning, I don’t have time to make any for myself. And anyone that has eaten those frozen meals know the companies are extremely frugal regarding how much meat they include.
So that is a tiny bit of meat for the family at lunchtime, vastly overshadowed by a plethora of non-meat products.
So, given that even if you combine the first two meals of the day, the meat intake of my family is miniscule, why the hell should we be eating vegetarian for our third meal as well?!
Well, I can tell ya right now – we won’t be! I never cook an all meat meal, why should I cook an all vegetarian meal? Is that fair? Is that just? Is that a balanced diet? No, no it is not!
Every meal I cook has non-meat products in it. If I cook Indian there is rice, coriander, naan bread and pappadums. If I cook Thai there are Asian vegetables and noodles. If I cook Italian there is pasta sauce, wholemeal pasta and garlic bread. If I cook your average Aussie Meat & 3 Veg, there is indeed 3 Veg. In fact I usually put in four of five!
Chef extraordinaire
And yes there is meat. And yes there is usually a lot of meat. And on my plate in particular there is admittedly a LOT of meat! But it’s not all there is. Again, as tempting as it is I never cook an all-meat meal (for a really great all-meat meal though, check out this recipe!).
So I’m putting my foot down. There will be no vegetarian meals at dinnertime in our household. None, zip, zippo, nada, naught! There will always be meat. Lamb, Pork, Venison, Chicken, Beef, Seafood – whatever. It will be there on the plate for all to enjoy. Someone doesn’t like it, they can push it to the side of their plate. Good luck with that since my daughter is a little carnivore and my son, the one who asked about having vegetarian meals in the first place, complains almost every night about having to finish his veggies. I can’t see them pushing all that meaty goodness to one side so as to have more room for broccoli.
My wife cooks about once a month. I, as the househusband(who now also works 4 days a week AND looks after the farm) am the primary chef and it will be a cold day in hades before I start cooking meals of a night that don’t have a big slab of animal flesh included! We are carnivores, our eyes are in front in order to judge the distance to our prey – eating meat is natural and healthy and it is how humanity evolved. I firmly believe we developed an opposable thumb so we could go out and club mammoths in order to have Flintstone-sized steaks back in the cave. Humanity would not have survived as a species if our ancestors had said ‘Oh I think I’ll just have a light salad’. I treat my gut like Noah’s Ark, it is my fervent hope that by the end of my life it will contain at least two of every animal. And making one 7th of my weekly dinners vegetarian may well ruin that dream. Surely my wife can’t want to destroy my dreams can she? Doesn’t she love me the way I love her?
A plate of Flying Fox in Vanuatu. It was… unique.
As far as I’m concerned my wife can cook vegetarian when it’s her turn to cook. I’ll just require adequate notice so that I can have a bunch of bacon on hand to add to mine.
Got something to add? Pop it in the comments section below!
Last week we got to have a sneak peek at the Devastator Deck, courtesy of an advance copy from Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, and look at the cards contained within in detail.
Now officially released, these are available for purchase, and over the past week I’ve gotten a chance to really put the pack through its paces. So let’s have a look at the Devastator Pack in gameplay.
And the usual spiel: Neither Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast have paid for this review nor have they tried to dictate the contents of this blog. Bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both companies for their ongoing generosity.
Since all the cards have been already examined in great detail in Part 1 of the review, we wont rehash what we already know. If you need a reminder, go check out that post. Instead I’m going to give you some top tips for using Devastator to… er… devastate! In particular we will look at pitting the Constructicons against other Combiner Teams, such as the Stunticons and Menasor.
GAMEPLAY TIPS & TRICKS
Get Scrapper into Robot Mode
This should be your very first action! Not only does it get one of the 6 characters into robot mode which you will need to make Devastator later, but it means every time another Constructicon gets KO’ed you will get a point for your Tower Card.
Get Bonecrusher in the mix
As your best offensive Constructicon, get him into Robot Mode next. You want to try and inflict a fair bit of damage with him and his Pierce 2 on your opponents cards before he gets KO’ed due to his low Health Stats.
Flip Scavenger next
You want that Bold 1 and the extra card it garners you every time you are attacked.
Keep the others in vehicle mode until KO’ed or needed
The other 3 Constructicons don’t have particularly useful Robot Mode abilities so I suggest keeping them in Vehicle Form until KO’ed. Their stats remain exactly the same and every time you attack with them it will give you another point for your tower.
If any character gets KO’ed in vehicle mode, flip them at the first opportunity.
Their ability to get you extra points for your Tower is gone once they are KO’ed, so if you come across a card like Rapid Conversion, use it to flip a KO’ed vehicle into Robot Mode so they are ready to combine when required.
Build that Tower to at least 6 before combining!
I played several games both as and against Devastator and I’ll tell ya, you will really want those extra 2 Bold points Devastator gets when his Tower is at 6. They do make a difference when trying to knock out another Combiner like Menasor or a Titan like Metroplex, characters that have huge stats. Also it means that it’s 6 damage points that you get to remove from Devastator, which also makes a huge difference!
Getting your Tower to 10 before combing is often unrealistic.
While it would be great to have your Tower at 10 before you form Devastator, unless you have a good run of luck with the cards it is probably not going to happen. If you can achieve it, great! It means you loose 10 whole damage counters and get extra attack power right off the bat, but again, it’s likely not to happen. Hope to get your tower to 8 and then pick up some Builders Tools and Enigma cards to take you the rest of the way.
If your opponent makes a Combiner first, get combining!
Gotta Combin’em all!
The likes of Menasor are pretty damn powerful and you don’t want to give them free reign for too long, because your individual Constructicons aren’t going to be very effective against the behemoth.
Keep track of your Builders Tools and Constructicon Enigma Cards
These two cards are the only way to add extra points to your Tower after you build Devastator. You get three of each card so keep track of where they are and how many you have used. Once or twice I had to form Devastator when only having 4 points on my Tower, and coming across those cards enabled me to bring my Tower up to 6, helping turn the tide of battle.
If you get your Tower to 10 – get ready to bask in victory!
If you can get that Tower up to 10, getting an extra 4 Attack Points and your overall attack rating going up to 10 means that you are going to decimate your opponent! As someone who has played both sides when this has happened, I can attest that the opposing Combiner/Titan/Team goes down very quickly under an onslaught that strong.
So there ya go, some top tips & tricks to playing as and winning with the Constructicons and Devastator. A lot of it will depend on the deck your opponent has built. Given that the other Combiners special cards are only found in Booster Packs, it’s unlikely they will have 3 of each like you will be sporting, so if you find yourself destroying every opponent in sight you might even be magnanimous and take a couple of yours out to make things more even. Until you reach that winning streak though, devastate away!
Got any other tips to playing with this pack? Would love to read them in the comments section below!
With the Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs hitting shelves all over the country, it is nearly time for the first dedicated ROTCBox Pack to hit the shelves. Due for release on March 29, this pack will have arguably the most popular and recognizable of all the Transformer Combiners – Devastator! And once again bigangrytrev.com had been lucky enough to be given a pack in advance so as to bring you all the goss regarding these new cards.
Before we continue, the usual spiel: This pack has been given to bigangrytrev.com for review purposes by Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. Neither company has paid for this review or tried to dictate the content of this blog. Bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both companies for their ongoing generosity.
Despite the average rate of finding a Combiner Character card to be 1 in 2, a lot of people have been struggling to make their first combiner, even when purchasing a whole box of the Booster Packs. Personally I was able to make Menasor and Dreadwing right off the bat but many others have not been so fortunate. So with the release of the Devastator Pack, it is going to bring a lot of joy to those yet to make one of these colossal characters! In the Devastator Pack you will find not only all the cards to go with it, but all the characters you will need. So no endless searching – all your Constructicons can be found in the same place – right here! Lets take a look at them:
Oh and another note, like when looking at the Combiner Booster Packs, there is SO MUCH information to be shared here, this will most likely be another 2-part Blog, with part one being information and the second one gameplay.
Constructicon Character Cards
Scrapper
Leader, Melee
5 Stars
Hook
Surgical Engineer, Ranged
4 Stars
Mixmaster
Materials Fabrication, Melee
4 Stars
Bonecrusher
Demolitions, Melee
4 Stars
Long Haul
Transport, Melee
4 Stars
Scavenger
Mining & Salvage, Melee
4 Stars
So we are noticing a few things straight off the bat. Firstly Scrapper as the leader has 5 stars but the rest only have four. Whilst this makes them fairly weak characters, it does mean you get to have all 6 Constructicons on the board at once. Also you will only have one ranged character, Hook, whilst the rest are melee. All characters have the same amount of damage, health and shield points in both their modes, making no difference in stats whether you be rocking a robot or construction vehicle.
Now to their special abilities. Again, nothing staggering either offensively or defensively. Bonecrusher has the best offense capability with Pierce 2 in his Robot Mode, with Hook sporting Pierce 1 and Long Haul Bold 1. The only character to be sporting anything defensively is Scavenger with Tough 1 in his robot mode. So what are nearly all the other special ablitities geared towards? Towards your Tower Card, which is going to be crucial when playing as Devastator.
The Tower Card
This seemingly innocent little card is going to dictate so much of your gameplay when playing with the Devastator Deck. It has made me extra glad that this is the first Transformers TCG pack that has come with instructions included. Unique among the Combiner Characters, Devastator’s abilities are tied directly to the height of his tower. And your individual Constructicon’s abilities are aimed towards building that tower as much as possible before combining. As well as powering up Devestator, the height of your Tower will also affect the strength of some other cards which we shall look at a bit later.
Scrapper’s abilities are both directly tied to the Tower. His alt-mode means you put your tower into the KO area at the start of the game (which you get to do anyway) and having him in robot mode means that every time a Constructicon gets KO’ed, you get to add another height counter to the tower.
All 5 other Constructicons have the same ability for their Alt-Mode
So this makes your individual Constructicons geared primarily towards construction, making that tower as big as possible! Of course there are other cards to assist them offensively and defensively, several of them exclusive to the Devestator Pack, and some of these too are geared towards your tower.
Exclusive Cards
Note: The pack contains 3 of each card.
Builders Tools
Can be used by Constructicons only. Gives you an extra counter on your Tower whenever a character sporting the card attacks. This makes this card very good to put on Bonecrusher in particular, as well as being one of only two cards that you can use to build your Tower further after combining.
Reclaim
Lets you access the scrap pile for upgrades, but ifyour Tower is 3 or higher then you get an extra card as well.
Heavy Landing
Gives you an extra point of damage to deal, but if your Tower is 6 or higher then you do 3 damage instead.
Work Overtime
The only exclusive card that does not involve the Tower, it allows you to draw extra cards until you have four in your hand. This makes this card very useful for most any deck you construct!
Constructicon Enigma
Like the Enigma cards for the other Combiners, you need this card to form Devestator and all your Consturcticons need to be in Bot Mode. Unlike the other Enigma cards however, this card does not immediately become redundant after combining. If played when you already have Devestator on the battlefield, you get to Repair 1 damage to him, as well as putting a height counter on your Tower.
Devastator
Towering Warrior, Melee
25 Stars
Here he is, the big guy! No searching through endless booster packs, you get him in one shot! His stats are similar to the likes of Metroplex and Menasor.
As you can see, his special abilities are directly related to his tower:
* When you first combine him you get to remove an amount of damage from him equal to the height of your tower. This means that you can allow your individual Constructicons to get pummelled to a certain extent, because as long as you keep that tower going higher and higher, by the time you form Devastator a lot of that damage will disappear!
* If your tower is 6 or higher you get Bold 2
* If your Tower is 10 or higher, your attack rating goes up from 6 to a whopping 10!
It is for the above abilities I highly recommend you do not combine Devestator until you have a minimum of 6 height on your Tower, because once Devestator is formed you cant make it any higher, unless employing another enigma card.
Other Cards
This pack comes with 9 other types of card, both common & uncommon and ones we have already seen before. The one of most use to you will definitely be Rapid Conversion, since you have 6 separate characters you need to get into bot mode. I find it funny we got Scrapper Gauntlets, since it doesn’t seem to be Scrapper sporting them. You get two to three of each of these 9 cards.
So is the Devestator Pack worth getting?
Yes, oh my yes! Not only do you get to make a Combiner Character in one go without having to search through endless Booster Packs, but it comes with a ton of exclusive cards that you cannot purchase anywhere else. Add to that the unique playstyle the Tower brings to the game and this really is a purchase that I can’t see any big Transformers TCG players bypassing. I highly recommend going out and picking yourself up a pack when they come out at the end of this month!
Related Articles:
Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs Part 1 and Part 2
It has been a long lament of mine that I have been unable to find a good Mexican restaurant in this country. Not having been to Mexico itself and sadly with no current overseas plans for the future, I have had to rely on what Australia has to offer.
I had fantastic Mexican when living in Edinburgh in Scotland, but that was a good 15 years ago. Every Mexican restaurant I have been to so far in this country has been a disappointment. There was one half-decent one in Melbourne, but also a slew of sub-par ones. The Tex-Mex venue in Bathurst is not what one would call proper Mexican cuisine and The Cactus Jam in Waarnambool was simply atrocious. Was I to never again sample good Mexican food?
When news got around that a Mexican restaurant was opening up in Rylstone, a town where you can count the places to go out for dinner on the fingers of a blind butcher, I was cautiously optimistic but couldn’t silence that little voice in my head that was saying ‘It’s just going to be another crappy gimmicky place with food that makes an Old El’Paso kit look good’. So along I took my family with my hopes not high.
Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong.
Subtle fashion sense
The food was excellent! Really great stuff! Not since eating atThe Kings Hotel in Bathurst have I encountered a restaurant where you get such a high level of quantity AND quality combined! Let’s have a look at what’s on offer:
As you can see from the menu pics, there are a solid seven different starters one can have, along with 5 mains and 1 salad. While 5 different mains doesn’t sound like a lot, each one can be customised to your personal tastes with a variety of fillings ranging from several meat options to those for vegetarians. Add to that over a dozen different sides and you have a lot of customisation options for your meal.
The Starter
Even casual readers of this Blog know I have a fondness for hot spicy foods, even when like the God SlayerHot Sauce they nearly kill me! So I couldn’t bypass the chance to try a plate of the Jalapeno Poppers(heat rating 2 out of 3) which I shared with my somewhat reluctant wife. Easily the best I have ever had! Stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar, then beer battered and deep fried! Yeah boi! The great thing about these were there was a good bit of heat to them, but what you tasted primarily was the excellent flavours of the food. Even my wife who is not a spice fan loved these, attesting to their quality.
The Mains
El Pepino
My wife had hers stuffed with chicken and it was damn tasty. She quite enjoyed the salsa fresca it came with too. Her plate runneth over to the point that she could not even finish her meal, as tasty as she found it.
Burrito el Grande
Fun to eat, even more fun to say!
Being a Deadpoolfan I was tempted to go the Chimichangas route, but couldn’t resist the sound of this giant Burrito. I had mine filled ground beef and blended beans. Given this meal already came with beans, I can attest that at 4am that morning they ganged up together to produce a wind that would challenge Cyclone Trevor that is currently threatening the top of the Northern Territory. So take a word from the wise, if the meal already comes with beans, don’t add more!
This meal came with plenty of sides such as rice, sour cream, guacamole and I made sure to sample everything separately before it all became one big mixed up mess. But both individually and combined this all tasted excellent and by the time I ate the last grain of rice from my plate my gut was groaning and my belt was under more tension than a Technobotat a Combaticon Convention.
Kids Meals
There are 3 different kids meals on offer. We ordered two and two extra plates so that the kids could have a Fajita each and share the Nachos.
The Fajitas were very good, but the toppings came out in tiny little shallow bowls you were supposed to tip on to your food. Given sour cream and guacamole don’t pour too well (and neither does our 4 year old) we asked for some spoons so the kids could serve themselves, like they do at home when we have tacos. Upon this request we were given two giant dessert spoons instead of teaspoons. So my wife and I ended up making the kids Fajitas for them which wasn’t a big hassle, though little spoons for kids in the future would be appreciated.
Since the kids were having beef with their Fajitas we ordered them chicken on their Nachos. At first we were taken aback by how plain the nachos looked, only having melted cheese and shredded chicken on them. But given that my kids, the little buggers, picked off all the melted cheese and chicken and just ate the corn chips underneath, more toppings would have proven a waste anyway.
Desserts
Watch this space. We had fully intended to order some Churros for dessert but all four of us were so full (again, my wife couldn’t even finish her whole meal) that none of us had space in our bellies for something sweet. So next time I hope to get a bead on what the desserts are like.
Drinks
Fruit in the glass = classy… or extra inebriating.
My wife had a couple of Sangrias which she quite enjoyed, and I tried two different Mexican beers – a Pacifico and a Negra Modelo. And these were nice Mexican beers too, actually brewed and bottled in Mexico rather than in Hobart and given a Mexican name, very tasty! Not like the ones you buy at your local Bottle-O.
Worth going?
Indeed! To feed four of us and have a few drinks for the adults it came to around $100, which is quite reasonable in this day and age. The food was great tasting and pletniful, the atmosphere was nice, there were novelty hats to wear (so commonly overlooked by eating establishments these days one finds) – all good! I had opportunity to chat with the owner before leaving and he informed me they used to run a similar restaurant in Sydney for 12 years and the experience certainly shows. So if you find yourself in the position to will be visiting the little township of Rylstone, book a table ahead of time (they seemed very busy!) and tell’em Big Angry Trev sent ya.
Have you eaten here and have anything to say? Pop it in the comments section below!
Cyberverse has been trotting out a lot of characters that originated in G1. Some of these toys could be considered an improvement on their originators, others have been woefully compromised by putting in half-arsed gimmicks (such as Acid Storm’s Toxic Slice) and being overly simplified for Warrior-Class toys.
Today we look at a character that has only cropped up in a couple of flashbacks so far in the Cyberverse cartoon, but has still warranted a toy. We look at the Autobot cop bots love to hate, we look at Prowl.
Robot Mode
A nicely proportioned figure. Much more reminiscent of G1 Prowl than either the Animated or RID(01) figures before, which are the last two times Prowl got a cartoon outing. He has ok elbow and knee movement, but all but no side movement when it comes to the shoulders or hips. He lacks neck articulation too so Prowl had better hope he is facing whoever he is fighting!
The head sculpt on Prowl looks really good here, both in the face and also his helmet horns. I quite like the stars on the shoulders too. However I find his legs quite bland and they could have used a lot more detail.
The biggest disappointment is the huge panel on the back of his head, makes him look like he is carrying the back of a chair on his shoulders. This can be mitigated somewhat by his gimmick move, which we will shortly see.
Robot Battle Mode
By pushing down on the front of Prowl’s chest, you make his shuolder cannons come down to do his ‘Jetblast’ move. Why this is called a jetblast I have no idea, I think they must have just picked a term at random. Anyways, the cannons pop down, making the back of Prowl not look nearly as bad, in fact I’m not sure why anyone would display Prowl otherwise. Also for once we are seeing a gimmick that does not compromise the toy to any great extent.
Vehicle Mode
A nicely proportioned police car. Note sure if you can tell from the photos but it is worthy of note that Prowl is not sporting his usual black but rather a very dark blue, much like Barricade in The Last Knight. It kinda suits him and modernizes him to look like police cars you would actually find on patrol in the US, rather than an old fashioned Sherrifs patrol car. Like the robot mode, this vehicle would look a lot better with some more detail put in, the very front of the car looks good but the rest is severely plain, somewhat like RID(15) Strongarm.
Battle Vehicle Mode
Not on the box and not in the instructions, but you can transform Prowl so that his guns stick out of the windscreen and rest of the bonnet, much like the G1 Triggercon Crankcase. My son discovered this so full credit to the young fella! You do this by simply not folding Prowl’s shoulder cannons back up when transforming him, this in no way affects the rest of the transformation or the formation of the vehicle mode. While it doesn’t look brilliant, it will add a lot of play value for younger fans who want to send their vehicles into battle.
Transformation
Like all the Cyberverse figures, the transformation is very simplistic. Great for younger fans but will not hold much interest for your older Transfan.
So worth a buy?
If you are after a more complex, visually pleasing and articulated Prowl then I recommend waiting until the new one in the SEIGE toyline is released (though that one lacks shoulder cannons). However if you are a collector of Prowl’s like I am, or a fan of the cartoon, or even simply looking for a toy for a younger kid, then this Prowl is worth a go.
Got something to say about this toy? Pop it in the comments section below!
Last time we looked at the plethora of new cards to be picked up from the Rise of The Combiner Booster Packs for the Transformers Trading Card Game, along with their abilities and drop rates.
Well as promised, this time we will see the cards in play! As there are already dozens of youtube videos and sites that are showing Combiners facing off against each other, and the only two Combiners I can make so far are Menasor and Dreadwing, I thought we would do something different – a Combiner vs a Titan!
Clash of the Tit… er…. big bots!
It would be a bit unfair to send ol’ Dreadwing up against Metroplex I thought, so I picked Menasor for the battle. I will be looking mainly at how the Stunticons and Menasor perform.If you would like to read more about how the Metroplex character functions, please check out my review of the Metroplex Pack here.
Before starting, it should be noted that I received these cards for review purposes from Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. Neither company has paid me nor tried to dictate the contents of this review. Bigangrytrev would like to thank both companies for their generosity.
Setting up the board
When setting up to battle with a Combiner, you will of course have all members of that team. There is little point in having 4 Stunticons on the board but leaving Drag Strip at home. All cards are (for Combiners that use 5 characters) 5 stars apiece. Pick three to shove up front and a couple to hang behind. The difference between each Stunticons stats is negligible, though Motormaster is ever so slightly stronger, so I recommend getting him ready to rock.
Making Menasor
Find this Card!
First off, don’t worry about if some of your Stunticons are KO’ed. You can still make them into Menasor.
Unlike the G1 cartoon, to join all your characters together they all need to be in robot mode, even your KO’ed ones.
You need to employ the Stunticon Enigma card. If this has been thrown to the discard pile, don’t worry. Being a green card, it can be retrieved and swapped with one of your own.
Once combined, Menasor will carry over any damage points taken by the individual Stunticons, so try to get him to combine before they get too hurt.
When combined, you will discard all the Utility, Attack and Defense cards your individual bots were sporting, except one from each catagory which can then be applied to Menasor.
Menasor vs Metroplex
Menasor Crush!
They have surprisingly similar stats:
*Both have 25 Stars.
*Metroplex has stats of 6 Attack, 35 Health and 1 Defense.
*Menasor has stats of 6 Attack, 35 Health and 2Defense.
This makes Menasor that slight bit stronger than Metroplex. As incongruous as this seems to any diehard TF fan, one must remember that Metroplex can still flip to his City Mode, as well as deploy his 3 sidekicks (presuming they are not already KO’ed), giving him the edge. So don’t get too cocky when you whip out your Stunticon combiner, you haven’t won yet!
Basic Game
The basic game is hardly worth mentioning here. Given their almost identical stats it’s simply a matter of the opponents taking turns flipping cards until one behemoth dies. Great fun for really young players, but holds little appeal for even those with a modicum of Transformers TCG experience.
Advanced Game
Find this card too!
Gameplay proceeds as usual, with you equipping your characters with different utilities, weapons etc and you and your opponent KO’ing each others cards whilst trying to save your own. A lot of it is skill, a lot of it is down to the luck of the draw. If you find any cards specific to your team however, employ them at once, they can really help!
The trick to using your Combiner Group effectively is using your individual characters in conjunction with each other, balancing their strengths and weaknesses as well as their special abilities in order to do the most damage before combining. For instance Motormaster can protect other characters from non-attack damage, Dead End will give you an extra card and Breakdown can gain you extra attack damage.
I also highly recommendgetting many of your characters into robot form as soon as possible, so when you decide to unleash your Combiner you only have one or two characters max that needs flipping. Keep your eye out for the Stunticon Enigma Card too, if you only have one in your deck and you let it get away that’s it, you may as well let your opponent walk all over you because it’s quite hard to win a game with just the individual characters, since none of them are particularly spectacular.
When playing as Menasor, you get two extra cards right off the bat for combining him. You then get Bold 1, Tough 1 and Pierce1 as well as playing an extra action on each of your turns. This means he can seriously kick Cyberarse, especially if you have the right Action Cards slotted. In fact of the 4 games with friends of Menasor vs Metroplex, Metroplex was only successful in one instance.
So yes, from actual game play I can confirm that the Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs are well worth picking up. I heartily recommend you trade cards with friends so that you can build yourself one of these awesome Combiner Characters as soon as possible!
Got any questions or anything to add? Pop them in the comments section below!
Yes kids, the wait is over! For months now we have been seeing previews of both the new Hero Cards and Battle Cards for Wave 2 of Transformers: Trading Card Game, the wave entitled Rise of the Combiners. People have been anxiously awaiting to get thier hands on these cards to see if they are as good, or even better, than the excellent cards that were released in Wave 1 last year.
Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have been kind enough to send me a box of the new Booster Packs from Wave 2, in order to review in much the same way I did the Metroplex Pack last year and the Dirge Reveal several weeks ago. Once again, it must be stated that I have not been paid to do this review nor have either company tried to dictate the contents of this blog.www.bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast for the opportunity to examine these cards.
Oh the sweet anticipation of opening!
Now, as you may have noticed from the title of this blog post, this is Part 1 of a review of these booster packs. Why am I doing it over more than one post? Because in recieving a box of the Booster Packs, each box holding 30 packs which in turn contain at least 8 cards, it means I now have over 200 cards on my billiard table (er… I mean gaming table) with at least a hundred of them different! That’s a LOT of cards to look at and a pretty big undertaking! So in Part 1 we will be examining Drop Rates, new types of cards, Combiners and new Hero & Battle Cards. In Part 2 we will look at how they perform in gameplay.
The Packs Themselves
Each Pack contains 7 Battle Cards and 1 Hero Cardor1 Pair of Combiner Character Cards. We will look at the likelihood of doubles near the end of this review.
The Cards Themselves
Note:At the end of each discussion of the new cards I will be popping in their Drop Rate. This is to signify how many times I was able to find these cards from the 30 packs contained within a single box of Booster Packs.
Combiner Cards
So many Combiners to be made!
Whereas Hero Cards have the robot on the front and the alt-mode on the back, Combiner Character Cards come in pairs. On one card you will find the robot mode and the other the alt-mode. On the back of the cards you will find artwork to join together to make the Combiner itself.
Gotta Combin’em all!
There are 5 different Combiners to make from the Booster Packs: Volcanicus, Optimus Maximus, Predaking, Superion and Menasor.
The Stunticons
I was lucky enough to find from the one box all 5 sets of Character Cards in order to make Menasor. I look forward to bringing you a review of just how he goes in actual gameplay. I was also able to form what could be termed a Mini-Combiner:
The Dreadwing PairDreadwing
First revealed exclusively by Ozformers, this pair of Decepticons – Dreadwind and Blackwing(formerly Darkwing) combine to form the Dreadwing Sky Destroyer Jet. This was a smart move on the part of the game makers, as it means you have a greater likelihood of making a Combiner sooner rather than later since he only needs two Character Card pairs instead of 5 or 6.
Drop Rate: Both the side of the box and the official website say the drop rate for Combiner Character Cards is about 50%. When opening multiple packs I was pleasantly surprised to find, for me at least, it surpassed that promise. Out of the 30 packs I opened, 20 of them had Combiner Character Cards. So rather than a drop rate of 50% it was a drop rate of 66%. That’s great considering most Combiners are made up of 5 or 6 different characters you have to collect.
Hero Cards
New Hero Cards
As well as the Combiner Cards, we have the same sort of Hero Cards that were released in Wave 1. There are quite a few new characters getting a showing, and many of the most famous characters, such as Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream, have been released again but with new artwork and stats
New Hero Cards
I got a mix of characters I had other versions of from Wave 1 along with a good dose of new guys. I was particularly pleased I was able to get Dirge since www.bigangrytrev.com was given the exlusive reveal of Dirge earlier in the year. Some Character Cards have their special abilities blank, such as Novastar and Ruckus. I have yet to figure out exactly why this is and how it will affect their gameplay value.
Drop Rate: Those packs that don’t come with a Combiner Character come with a regular Hero Card. I found the drop rate to be one in every 3 packs, which doesn’t sound great but actually is if you are after the Combiners specifically, which I believe most players will be actively seeking.
Drop rates for Ultra Rare cards are described as 50:1. You’ll note I got a King Starscream which is indeed Ultra Rare. So I got one at a ratio of 30:1 but its entirely possible I could buy 20 more packs without finding another.
Battle Cards
Before we had Battle Cards that came in a few different colours based on their ability to attack and defend, with some cards overlapping. Rise of the Combiners see’s some new categories introduced.
Star Battle Cards
Oh. My. Primus!
This cards are definitely going to be a game changer! Big time! Got a team which only uses up 22 or 23 or the 25 Star allowance. Well now there are Battle Cards that have stars! That means you can put them in as part of your team. Valued at 1 Star apiece, these are perfect for rounding up your team. I can see Bolt of Lightning being very useful but it’s Vandalize, where you can scrap all enemy Weapons, Armour or Utilities, that blows me away! I can’t think of many instances where that wont be invaluable!
Drop Rate: There are 7 Star Battle Cards, in 30 packs I obtained 6 of them.
Enigma Cards
Enigma Cards
So you have all your characters needed to create a Combiner. But you need one more thing – an Enigma Card. There is an Enigma Card for each Combiner. Being Green (discussed shortly), these cards can be rescued from the discard pile which saves a lot of heartache. The Enigma Card is used to make your Combiner Character cards join together, even if some of those characters have been previously KO’ed.
Drop Rate: In 30 packs I was able to get all 5 Enigma’s as well as a couple of spares.
Team Specific Cards
Team Specific Cards
There are specific cards that you can use with each team but no others. They can be placed on only one member of this team. I have yet to see if they can be retroactive – for instance I have a Dinobot Swoop card from Wave 1, but it does not make up the Volcanicus Team. Can I use my Electrified Spikes card on that old Swoop since he is a Dinobot and the card talks about Dinobots, not Volcanicus? Stay tuned for future reviews to find out!
Drop Rate: I was able to find cards for four of the five teams within 30 packs.
Green Battle Cards
If you get a Green Battle Card, it means that you are able to retrieve it from the discard pile. You can only do this with one card per turn. Whilst this sounds good but not game changing, it can be of extreme importance given what some of these cards (such as the Enigma’s) do.
Regular Battle Cards
White Battle Cards
We have a slew of new Battle Cards in already established catagories, so many it would take too long to list them all. Some of them we have already seen in exclusive reveals, such as those made by Lisamaree on the Life with SPROGS site, like Inferno Breath and Surprise Attack. I was a little disappointed to not get a Defensive Driving card but don’t believe it will take me long to obtain one.
Orange Battle CardsBlue Battle Cards
Drop Rate: Well you are guaranteed 7 Battle Cards per pack. I was very heartened that I never got the same two cards in the same pack.
So there ya go, a not-so-short synopsis of the new cards on offer from the Wave 2 Transformers Trading Card Game Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs. I was very pleasantly surprised that I only got two doubles of characters (Dead End and Mirage) out of the 30 packs, which made this undertaking even bigger! Stay tuned for Part 2, where we test these bad bots (now available in selected stores) out with some serious gameplay!
Your initial FB post about capturing goats was never enough of the story for me and I feel quite pleased to now have the full account.
I wish you good fortune on your future goat capturing endeavours.
So anyway as you may know I have overcome the little city kid heartbreak of losing ‘livestock’* (*pets) and have decided that contrary to what a teenage boyfriend once declared to me (I wish I had never fallen in love with you so I didn’t have to feel this heartbreak at having lost you) I can in fact go on to love again. I’ve recently acquired two new hens and did a great deal of research on breeds and temperaments and so on and so forth.
My last girl standing from my last flock is a wee little thing and has become quite dependent on me in her dotage.
Cut to the chase she has two new pals who are little silkies. They’re much younger than my last posse of backyard hens and seem to actually despise me. They’ve only known a small cage prior to coming to Casa Del Madsy but seem entirely perturbed about that whereas my last girls felt this palatial new digs was simply glorious.
Everything I read about silkies is that they’re lovely friendly hens who will tolerate children and sit on your lap and follow you about.
They have blue ears and extra toes and I’ve ruled out the idea I may have accidentally bought bunny rabbits so why do they hate me?
Will they ever come round?
They grumble at me like old men who’ve been woken from a nap in their favourite chair and the greyish one even pecks me when I put treats in their little run. I have them separated from Ponny still but she seems to be happier just knowing they’re there.
So anyway that’s my question: why do my silkies hate me and will they eventually warm to me?
Is there any more I can do to convince them I’m very nice to animals,
Thanking you in advance,
Subruban Madsy.
Thanks for all the chicken questions Maddy, keep’em coming!
In regards to why your chickens hate you – they don’t hate you. They hate humans.
‘What are you staring at you damn dirty hairless apes?’
Think about it, they have been locked in a small cage their entire lives. Pretty horrible way to spend your existence. And who put them there? Were they locked in by other chickens for crimes against poultrykind? Did they voluntarily lock themselves in the cage due to some kind of chicken-agoraphobia, fearing the idea of the outside world? Were they involved in some kind of bizarre sado-masochistic erotic chook game (involving feathers no doubt) and simply lost the key to their private sex dungeon?
Nope. Humans locked them in there. Filthy stinkin’ humans.
So despite them being usually a very friendly breed, these chookies are probably a bit traumatized. It’s going to take a while for them to adjust and even longer to trust. It’s not like when Apartheid ended that every black person in South Africa suddenly started trusting white people. Nope, it’s a long road that that country is still bravely travelling along towards a brighter future. And so it may be with your new chooks.
My advice?
Spend as much time as you can as possible in your yard with them, but without interacting. Take a chair and a book and just sit near their enclosure. This way they will slowly get used to your presence without feeling threatened or that they are about to be shoved back in a tiny cage at any moment. We have many wombats on our farm and there is a big old bugger at the moment who has taken to feasting in our front and backyards. At first every time he saw us he bolted. Now he couldn’t give a crap if we are there or not as we have never bothered him. In fact just last night he wandered to within a few meters of our dog, who was lying there idly watching him chew. We don’t bother him and in return we get a free organic lawnmower!
After the Silkies have gotten used to your presence and seem relatively unfazed by you being around as it has become part of the norm of their lives, then you can try interacting a bit. Chickens are like children – wary of adults until that adult busts out their favourite treats. Experiment with a few different things to see what your Silkies like best. Our ducklings are somewhat wary of us, until we come out with sliced watermelon and then we are likely to trampled in a stampede of webbed feet! There will be something that your Silkies can’t resist, be it a type of grain, fruit, worms or snails or even just breadcrumbs. When you find out what that special something is, throw a little of it to them from a distance each day, and each day shrink that distance by a few inches. In no time at all you will have them pecking around your feet without a care in the world.
Will your chookies ever warm to you to the point they want to sit in your lap? Hard to say. If they are young enough they may learn new behavioural patterns but if the distrust of humans is ingrained in them it may be the best you can hope for is them clucking around your feet as you potter in the backyard. Our Frizzle rooster likes us well enough that sometimes he even sneaks in the porch door, but he never wants to be picked up (unless he’s gotten into a fight with the drake that is, then he will sit in my lap sulkily for an hour while I console him on his loss and tend to his boo-boos). So don’t take it too much to heart if they never become lap-chooks, though with how fluffy Silkies are I know ya just wanna cuddle’em.
Like a poodle mated with a marshmallow
I hope this advice helps Madds. Remember:
A: Get them used to your presence
B: Find out their favourite treat
C: Slowly lure them a bit closer to you each day until they are comfortable
D: Do not mention Apartheid or eat KFC in their presence and…
E: Remember chickens are like people – sometimes you encounter some grumpy, unsociable bastards where it doesn’t matter what you do.
‘What? I’m funny to you? I make you laugh? Come closer and lets see how much you smile then’
Good luck! Let us know how things work out in the coming weeks.
Got any other advice for Maddy? Pop it in the comments section below!
