Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Pastel the Rooster]

I think RIRs have some black feathers in their tail - I can't see her tail in this picture.

Maggie's black tail feathers to show you what I mean. And thank you for the excuse to post pictures of my beloved Maggie who I miss terribly.

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Maggie is a stunning RIR. I am sorry about her passing. May I ask how she passed? BBQ does have black feathers on her tail and on the tip of her wing.

 

[RoyalChick]

Maggie is a stunning RIR. I am sorry about her passing. May I ask how she passed? BBQ does have black feathers on her tail and on the tip of her wing.

I don’t know what happened. She was going through a brutal molt and as always when molting she stopped eating properly.
She took herself off into a nest box and just gave up living.
I sat with her and chatted (chatting was our thing together) and she would nibble at things I made to tempt her, but she was just doing it to please me.
She was quite a character and a real friend.
She was three and a half.

Sounds like BBQ is indeed a RIR.

 

[micstrachan]

Love your videos! Thank you for sharing.

Poor Minnie - have you tried pain meds to see if she limps less? I know she has always had a limp, but that seems so much worse than I remember. I wonder if she has arthritis - how old is she?

I wonder, too. She will be six at the end of March. I’ve considered pain meds, but I’m not sure if there are any for long term use?

 

[micstrachan]

Love your videos! Thank you for sharing.

Poor Minnie - have you tried pain meds to see if she limps less? I know she has always had a limp, but that seems so much worse than I remember. I wonder if she has arthritis - how old is she?

Oh! And it’s actually Little Mill (Mildred/Millie) with the limp. Don’t ask how I ended up with a Millie and a Minnie, but I pretty much call her Little Mill now.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

What color are her tail feathers?

Red with black wing tips and ans black tail feathers. More of an orange/red color. She has a few white/yellow feathers. Some on her back and on her crop.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

I don’t know what happened. She was going through a brutal molt and as always when molting she stopped eating properly.
She took herself off into a nest box and just gave up living.
I sat with her and chatted (chatting was our thing together) and she would nibble at things I made to tempt her, but she was just doing it to please me.
She was quite a character and a real friend.
She was three and a half.

Sounds like BBQ is indeed a RIR.

I am so sorry! It's hard to lose animals you love. A lot of people don't realise it, but chickens can be amazing friends and pets. My dad says that chickens are dumb, stupid animals that don't have feelings. He could not be more wrong. It sounds like Maggie was a real sweetheart. RIP Maggie!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I would lean towards wind as the culprit, my horses are out in all sorts of weather without frost bite, but that one year my horse got her ears wet and the high winds we had with it caused her frost bite.

My cheeks were frosted when I was in the wind, I can be out in -38 with no wind and I am fine! But the times I got frost bite it was the wind and it was only around -10C and -15C.

I would leave them in an area without wind next time.

OK I said I would wait because I'm so behind but I can't help myself. Yes wind would have that effect if it's a direct hit but I don't think there was/is direct wind in there. Wind underneath the Hut could keep the coop temp low and counteract any body heating warmth. But nowhere is there direct wind I think?

I'm leaning towards locking the them in the main coop if this happens again right now. I am also considering a second heat panel for the roosts in the Cluckle Hut as an addition as well just to be safe with normal temps.

I think I would do the same to ease my mind and coddle Glynda's injury - using the main coop for now because that's a tried-and-true situation with proven ventilation for that number of birds.

Frankly for the Cluckle Hut I suspect the super low temp & extra humidity due to the number of birds roosting combined with the ventilation either not being enough or the direction of ventilation unfortunate. For instance Glynda was on the far end near the nestboxes? Was she at the receiving end of a bunch of humid air from the others, because of the direction of ventilation?

Another thing to consider, if this is correct, is that much of the Hut is protected because it's within the run? On three sides? I'm not clear.... My very vague, only intuitive idea is that, although the non-plastic sheeted side of the run that makes a draft below the Hut floor that could be keeping the Hut temps low, maybe you actually WANT some breezes going by to pull out out the humid warm air from the birds, right? But without drafting them directly. (I personally think with a good layer of shavings / straw the floor exposure shouldn't be a problem.)

So if your build of the Hut was similar to the main coop, maybe the main coop works well because it is more exposed to the pulling breezes, and the Cluckle Hut is not working well (for X number of birds) because it isn't as exposed, or exposed in the same ways?

Maybe furnace filters would be handy here to increase ventilation escape but stop direct drafts. A heat panel in the Hut below the roost would certainly help keep moisture from condensing out on them.

My personal experience with the pulling breezes idea is when I enclosed the Omlet run with plastic for the winter for the first time. Recall the coop itself opens into the low wire "tunnel" run. I didn't block any coop slatted vents front or back, or the side ones that are built into the construction. I covered the wire run only, on two sides fully, leaving the far end open. I also put plastic around the space under the coop (the "near" end of the run). I don't think ultimately there was any condensation in the coop itself, but I grew concerned about that possibility when I noticed condensation under the tunnel plastic near the coop side, above the coop vent slats there. That much humidity wasn't good, day or night. It occurred to me that I had lowered or eliminated the natural draw of the surrounding air with the plastic. The only really open part was the far end of the tunnel run. So I stuck a piece of PVC pipe under the plastic on the coop end, right above the coop vent there. The run now had a greatly improved through-path for fresh air and the coop vent benefited. There is a bit of a breeze on my head when I'm sitting in the tunnel close to the coop but that is way above chicken height.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Whenever I tell people that I have a chicken named BBQ, they say, "Oh, well I know that chickens future." But that is not the case! I used to ( and occasionally still do) watch a You Tuber who has chickens, ducks, horses, cows, pigs, etc. She had a RIR hen named BBQ, who got attacked by a coyote. Her BBQ survived the attack, and was featured on her channel for quite some time. She later got killed by a predator. Most likely the coyote that got her. I made and oath to myself that when I get my RIR hen, she would be named BBQ. So, when I though I had got a RIR, I named her BBQ. Sure enough, now we all think she is a RIR. Lucky me!!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I will try to tell his story some day soon. Can’t handle it right now, especially when Miss Z (our only other llama who is also about 20 years old) just realized she can’t find him. She is giving their warning call.

I'm so sorry for your and Miss Z's loss, that is heartbreaking.

 

[Ponypoor]

Wishing everyone & their flocks a Happy New Year! May 2023 be your best year yet

Happy New Year to you too!