Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Brownie hops up on my lap for a rare close up inspection of the chicken tender. Hopefully I passed her inspection.
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Marvelous!

 

[RoyalChick]

That is metal roofing for the big coop. I'm going to try and get it on tomorrow before e have any big snows. Wish me luck. This is my first time working with metal roofing.

It is unpainted so Mrs BY Bob can choose any color she wishes for the roof. Plus it was $10 cheaper per piece unpainted. That will buy a gallon of paint. I paid more for those three pieces of metal than all the wood used to build the coop the first time.

Exciting!
Good luck with it and do share pics!

Roofing tax - Eli on her way up to bed

 

[Kris5902]

My wife is a master at hiding batches of chicks. I have been feeling crappy since I returned from Japan and had not searched every room. This mom and babies are in the dog room and the other batch that I did know about is in Lety's study. Of course she has eggs in the incubator. She rehomed 2 roosters and loaned 1 of our bantam roosters. With that being said I think we have 3 dozen-ish adult chickens and 2 clutches of babies.

I like it! just be thankful you don’t have any goats nearby to “rescue”… it’s kidding season here, I’m doing my very best not to run up the mountain every time I hear babies crying. BIL just discovered the water chickens on Christmas Day… so I assume the rest of the in-laws are aware of them now. A very astute “that’s not a chicken? When did you get geese?” Did I mention the Drakes are quite large…

 

[BY Bob]

Hmmm. Frustrating!
I had not internalized that nobody will share a roost with anyone else. That is quite strange I think and definitely complicates life.
Do you think that if Betty had light after Aurora went to bed that she would hop up on Daisy's roost?
The other thing going through my head is that is a lot of roost length devoted to helping Aurora up to the high roost. Does she use it all? Could it be divided in some way so that some of it was safe to actually roost on?

I have tried a light late but that just has Aurora get down. If you remember I posted a video a while back of Aurora trying to roost at night. She got back on when I turned the light on for her. Well that was one of 6 times I turned the light on. The other 5 times she either chased Hattie or went to pull Betty off the roost. She is incorrigible when it comes to roosting.

 

[BY Bob]

A few more pictures.
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It's just so wonderful. The miracle of life!

 

[RoyalChick]

I have tried a light late but that just has Aurora get down. If you remember I posted a video a while back of Aurora trying to roost at night. She got back on when I turned the light on for her. Well that was one of 6 times I turned the light on. The other 5 times she either chased Hattie or went to pull Betty off the roost. She is incorrigible when it comes to roosting.

Yes I remembered that - but if Betty would get up on a roost then the trick is to provide shading so it doesn't light up where Aurora is - sort of a lamp shade.

 

[BY Bob]

She has 4, and a very smug proud of herself look.
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She is amazing!

 

[featherhead007]

Two eggs today! Yay difference in size (different hens)

 

[BY Bob]

Could the door roost be moved closer to the wall? Farther from the high roost? Take it down, move the food to that spot and put another roost up in the corner the food was at?

All of that could be done. Will I? I think not at this point.

 

[bgmathteach]

My little Blanche, who was attacked by the hawk the day before Christmas, is not doing well, i'm preparing myself that she may not survive. She has one eye very often closed, moves backward shaking her head every now and then, and spends most of the day lying down. She's still happily eating though. I've began giving her metacam today. Taking her to a vet is not an option I'm ready to take after my experience with Caramel, and I still dont see any visible damage to treat.

Have you carefully 'combed through' all her feathers to be sure she doesn't have a puncture wound? if she did get one, they are sometimes quite hard to clean out and she might have an infection. She also might have gotten her cornea scratched - it might not show, but it would hurt some ( @micstrachan might be able to comment on that and the healing process...unfortunately she has personal experience with that.)