I'm trying to make a turned heated bird bath.

Thine Alabaster Windows Shine!

Until the first big rain.

No med's, sorry. And I hardly consider calling an analogy "lousy" warrants a comparison to any form of psychosis. Only an instant bad attitude towards what I consider to be unreasoned sarcasm. Comes with age and a lifetime of dealing with people who don't fully consider their response before rebutting with sarcasm. I'm as polite in return as I'm addressed.

You apparently missed the flow of the thread due to a previous top poster. So look it over again - in order:

Therein lies the poor analogy - and the poster's apparent sarcasm. A tree isn't a heated bird bath. And it doesn't hold water - get it? It's a joke.

But I hardly think it's worth putting up a birdbath if it contributes to the spread of an avian disease. Birds are overly sensitive to bacterial infections. Any place where 50+ birds a day bathe, poop, and drink should be maintained meticulously - or what's the point?

Just as with a wooden chopping block that is used with meat, you can not remove the bacteria from the wood without sterilization - which isn't likely considering the fact that it's a backyard birdbath. And is probably one reason they are generally made of an inert material.

Want yard art? Fine - build something else. But a petri dish for avian diseases they can do without. Birds are my friends... ;-)

While a wooden birdbath certainly might be attractive, unless it were sealed with a completely cured waterproof marine epoxy, it could be harmful to the same birds you are trying to benefit. Proper maintenance by JohnQ is improbable, given the fact that my next door neighbor leaves his garbage cans in the street for a week. What are the chances he is going to sterilize a birdbath twice a week?

From the Vermont Institute of Natural Science:

----------- Select baths that are made of materials that are easy to disinfect such as plastic and glass. Wood and unglazed pottery can be hard to remove feces and can also harbor bacteria and grow algae and fungi.

------------

From an Audubon brochure:

----------- Much like a busy restaurant needs constant cleaning to maintain sanitary conditions, so does a busy bird feeder or bird bath. Left unchecked, unclean receptacles can develop fungi and bacteria, potentially causing disease and even death of your resident songbirds.

The communal feeding and bathing by your birds allows for the easy spread of disease. Contaminated food and droppings can cause a host of diseases and infections that can result in harmful effects to birds.

Depending on weather conditions, bird feeders should generally be cleaned every two weeks. Baths should be emptied and refilled every few days. For a thorough cleaning of feeders and bird baths, use 9 parts water to one part bleach, or use vinegar. Wooden baths are difficult to disinfect thoroughly.

-----------

Enough said.

FWIW,

Greg G.

Sure, fine. Jump on the bandwagon - I'll be today's target. ;-) Even more confusing, you're not even replying to the same thread. :-o Must be some bizarre quirk with Google...

I have no severed moods. But if you mean severe, then read my response to Chuck - I think that about covers it. It's back there in the original thread...

Probably too much of an association with lawyers - who could suck your soul barren in a month. Otherwise, probably a too long association with people who respond with sarcasm to a well intentioned post. But since you bother to call me out of the crowd, have you read some of the bickering over in the Wreck? Cripes, I don't hold a candle to some of those guys... A week-long argument as to whether a package from Lee Valley was properly packed. And you call ME a furnace? Ha!

I respond as politely as I'm addressed. I'm too old and weathered to care otherwise. Perhaps my understanding of the semantics of the English language derives sarcasm that isn't intended.

Maybe our two month ordeal with the idiots at Charter has given me very little patience to spare concerning ISP support personnel. Our service has been intermittent for months, and after hours and hours of attempting to teach their personnel how to service their own equipment, I'm a little peeved...

Or possibly I'm just a very unpleasant person. ;-)

FWIW,

Greg G.

While I agree that bird baths should be maintained and that wood is a poor choice for bird bath material, I will point out that these are Wild birds. There are lots of Bad Things in the wild and the birds seem to do just fine. I live about a quarter mile from an urban refuge of sorts. I regularly see birds eating, drinking and bathing in stagnant little ponds or puddles. Including geese and ducks (all winter) - their bowel habits are legendary. I would not drink the water - they do.

Greg G wrote:

Well, you have far more experience that I do. Although I've been a hobbyist woodworker on and off since childhood, I've only pursued it semi-seriously for the past 5 years or so... And I've yet had to hang cove molding!

But this is what happens when you have a well established coterie of knowledgeable people who are then inundated with newbies who think they know everything, but in actuality, don't have a freaking clue!

Yes, as a source of raw data - Usenet excels! You just have to separate the wheat from the chaff - which is a daunting task at times.

Thanks. I'm sure I come off as an opinionated arse occasionally, but hey, that's life! Personal redemption arrives when times proves me to be correct about a point of contention. Don't compare me to either a liberal or a neo-con - or imply, with a misplaced self-righteous tone, that I'm a liar or an idiot and everything is usually cool. ;-)

Well, I've rambled enough this chilly morning - I've got more jigs and bowls to make!

Later,

Greg G.

Not trying to start anything here, but only to make a point.

Africans drink bad water as well. And they still get Guinea Worms. Many die. Many spend painful months dealing with the infections. Yet there are still many people who flock to contaminated water holes to drink the water. This doesn't make it healthy or desirable.

Captive (pet) birds are actually far less likely to suffer from the spread of disease than wild birds - unless it's a breeders' enterprise. You don't generally pass a disease to yourself. I know of no individuals who contracted Aids from self-abuse. ;-) Avian Influenza (Bird flu) is reaching epidemic proportions in parts of the world - and is gaining a foothold in the US as well. It is well known in Canada.

Unless you are banding the birds and tracking which ones may or may not succumb to disease, you cannot confirm that they aren't suffering from the act of drinking bad water. Songbirds are far more delicate and susceptible than ducks, geese, and pigeons. Additionally, many people (like us), live on migration routes, and birds who come to drink from our bird ponds can be infected by diseases they aren't normally exposed to, and have no natural immunity to contradict a swift death. Some become carriers, thereby transporting the disease across thousands of miles before infecting the local population of yet another region.

Naturally, all of this is going to happen on it's own over time, by virtue of the disease's own survival devices. But it certainly doesn't need our inadvertent help in spreading, either.

Remember, the Native Indians of this country weren't wiped out by guns as much as by the diseases brought from Europe by the white-man.

And the plague... well... what can I say?

FWIW,

Greg G.

'Bout a thousand or so geese went over the house early this am. Heading south somewhere for breakfast. They'll pass over again this evening. Those as drank the bad water will be crapping along the way from a great height - amazing what that does on a Vertical surface. :o)

Like oh, say... the freshly washed car. A 1 lb. diarrhea bomb. We get geese twice a year, and last week were the sandhill cranes. What a racket - and what a mess. ;-)

Greg G.

We have the geese all winter and they fly over the house a couple times a day. I swear some of them must have Norden bombsights. Perfect patterns!

When I was younger and more foolish I did some work for a friend who owned a laying farm, among other types of farming enterprises. We had to move new layers from the brood barn to the laying barn and then clean the brood barn. I thought we were on the concrete floor and then found out it was 2 to 2

1/2' down. Hen manure, pick axes and shovels to the conveyer. Do not complain about a lousy thousand geese for a fly over :-) Did I ever tell you about Uncle Merritt's bird farm? Beauty is in the "eye" not the "nose" of the beholder :-)

I'll assume you are referring to lazy brained people who either don't care or who toast abundance. :)

Ricky

Ever see the PBS (IIRC) show on the Guano Islands off Chile?

2' is nothing. :o)

Speaking of Uncle Merritt, I once had to do a survey of the Turkey Farm at Oregon State. Wading through a 1000 or so Turkeys with a transit ain't a lot of fun - oops pardon me - coming through - giddyup - shoo - Bugger OFF! (trying to shake turkey loose from pantleg) ...

Hahaha...too-shay!

Lobby God made turkeys to make sheep look smart. :-)

How lame - I need a proofreader. To/Too, bad structure, etc.

I suppose this makes me one of them. :-\ Argh...

Greg G.

Actually, it would be people who send emails like the following. (Names revealing the guilty have been XXX'd out - otherwise pasted verbatim.) This is from the Manager of a large dealer in CA:

------------- I am with a Office supply dealer in xxxxxx Ca.We get your name from a gentelmen at the XXXX show in Las vegas. We have XX/XXX software- but have not use it to its fullest, As we do can have a Expert on site- I do, do some reporting from it. I would love to do more. Iam very interested in what you do, Right now our need is for a Catalog.Maybe we can talk- i think there are about 50-100 items some are in our database- some we have download pictures.

----------

Not simply a typo - but all that I described heretofore. This person is white, US born and educated. Is this the product of a bilingual education in Southern, CA? Scary!

Touché.

FWIW,

Greg G.

Got that right!

Greg,

Your moment of accepting humility was appreciated. Your example is unbelievable..

Merry Christmas TomNie t>