Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Beetov-Hen’s not good. She has that breath smell, and she’s shaking as I am holding her. Any support would be appreciated. (I have been through this before and said goodbye to my hen)

So sorry Alex. The hugs are coming thick and fast today.

 

[Shadrach]

Attack Thwarted

I just stopped the Cooper's Hawk. The girls were out gathered around me like this.
View attachment 2943403

The Hawk was coming in from the left, above the shed.

View attachment 2943405
I saw it and took two steps forward to put myself between it and the ladies. It aborted and flew off to the right.

It is NOT gone.

Not a song bird to be found today.

@Shadrach @MaryJanet @Ribh

I stay out with the Ex Batts. They are not, and their keeping arrangements are not, suitable for free ranging. We hardly have any day time predators, perhaps a fox getting hungry enough to hunt in daylight, or a Kite that just has a go.
In Catalonia I made a decision to free range all the chickens. This meant some were going to get predated. It doesn't matter in the end how you keep chickens eventually for the vast majority of keepers something is going to get the chickens.
Because of the environment in Catalonia which was reasonably good for free ranging including temperatures and forage I was able to do this. I was also able to let the chickens breed and replace the losses from within a closed group arrangement. The losses were terrible before I got there because there was this half hearted semi free range add to tribes through incubation and lots other practices that are common to the standard backyard chicken keeping model.
As the chickens adapted to being fully free range they learn't how to make use of the available cover, how to move from one area to another by the safest routes and many other skills that free range chickens need to learn to survive.
For the first three years most days I was outside with them, plus there were dogs and other farm animals. All these factors helped to reduce the losses while they and I learn't how to deal with freedom.
Your keeping arrangements and many if not most backyard chicken keepers are never going to be able to do this. The backyard chicken keeping model doesn't allow for chicken freedom. Most backyards don't even have enough space to allow for this and it seems many do not allow for roosters so the celf replicating group isn't possible either.
People who have dogs for example should accept that for a period of time each day they need to devote that time to walkiing the dog. Responsible dog keepers who have active intelligent dogs may spend two or three hours a day taking thier dogs out if they do not have sufficient acreage for the dog to wander. My daughter here has a Husky. He's old now but he is still a two hour daily commitment. Chickens, if you don't want to keep them prisoners in the coops and runs are the same.
So there is part of my answer. You can get your tribe out of their run every day if you are prepared to be out there with them concentrating on the chickens and not trying to do other things as well.
Some people go about the problem by actively eradicating local predators. Most do not post about how they "got rid of" some hawk or fox that was taking their chickens but they do it.
I've mentioned before that a sling shot using clay balls will keep you out of trouble if some common sense is used. I realise you may not like this option but if one wants to keep chickens one has to deal with the more unpleasant aspects as well as the better bits. I didn't like having to kill the chickens that got hatched that I couldn't house, or the chicks that the mums abandoned at the nest hanging half alive out of their shells, or killing the sick or too badly injured that I may have known for more years. These things have to be done.
The propoganda that chickens are easy to keep only holds true if one is prepared to lock them in cages, deny them their basic instincts to breed and forage and roam along with the many other activities that single sex groups kept contained are never going to learn and experience.
So, get yourself a slingshot. Learn how to use it and "discourage" the hawk.
Put a couple of hours aside every day to be with your hens and supervise their time out of the run. Even prisoners get an hour a day in a yard these days.

 

[Marie2020]

Sansa? Oh no. Sorry Bob. Beethov-Hen, is having trouble today too. (Problems swallowing her food) I’m watching her very close now.

Try some unsweetened yogurt Alex

 

[Shadrach]

but she headed straight for the coop

Why didn't you let her stay with her friends if that is where she wanted to be?

 

[Marie2020]

I am. She’s right here (but I’m not sure if she is going to make it tonight)

 

[Marie2020]

I'm starting another fermented feed today
Alex try that my friend.

Fermented feed.
I don't know if what I have read is accurate information but within 12 hours it's supposed to begin to ferment.
My problem was after a couple of days it started too attract files, so I'm trying to make fresh every 48 hours from now on instead of keep on adding to the layers

 

[Shadrach]

A couple weeks ago I tried the chickies with broccoli, they were totally freaked out by the broccoli florets. Needless to say it went uneaten hahaha.

Today I got an Acorn Squash, seems that they like that .

I also bought some scratch grain, but have never feed this before. Any words of wisdom from anyone on how much to feed?

Yeah, don't feed them scratch grain are my words of wisdom.
There is an almost endless list of things chickens will eat that are far better for them than scratch grains or mealy worms.
Today for example I'll be taking chopped cabbage, a handful of good quality cracked corn and some cooked coconut rice to the Ex Batts.
Chickens are omniverous. Fish, lean meat and vegetables are fine for them and many keepers I knew in Catalonia never fed their chickens commercial feed and their chickens lived into double figures if a predator didn't get them.
The whole commercial advice is just plain wrong. It's mostly poor quility grain designed to keep batttery hens alive and laying eggs for a couple of years. It isn't what a chicken would choose given the choice and does nothing to promote long term good health.
The best thing is to let them forage on unmanaged waste ground. I don't know what you call such patches in the US.
The difference in the Ex Batts health that I get out of their muddy squalid run every day isn't so much the commercial feed I take them, it's the foraging they can do on thhe waste ground at the allotment. It's not just what you feed them it's how they get fed. Handing them some scratch on a plate doesn't provide anything like the level of exercise and entertainment that digging out some large worm from a hole in the ground provides. Even the Ex Batts who knew almost nothing about the delights of the edible things in the grass and under the ground picke up foraging in a few days. They all eat the grass and tiny roots in preference to the commercial feed during thier pre roosting forage.

 

[Shadrach]

Not ever having experienced a chicken molting, when my cousin's hen Sophia did so at my place she stopped eating had these clear watery poops.

Really freaked me out, I found that she would eat scrambled eggs and toast (my homemade bread specifically), and water sugar water. She immediately had more energy and perked up, but wouldn't eat regular food, not even the morning porridge I make for them. Took about 6 weeks of this pampering, before she started eating regularly. Then another few weeks for her stools to stabilize.

I was told this is normal for a hard molt. But it sure freaked me out.i feel she would have died of I hadn't pampered her with eggs, she was definitely not eating, and her crop all mushy at night.

Ok well keep us apprised, hopefully just a hard molt.

They don't die if they can forage for what they believe they need. If they can't then yes, you may have to help them by providing foodstuffs that they will eat.

 

[Shadrach]

yes! Thanks a bunch. We actually just got some earlier today and seems to be helping. I went on a chicken aid spree so im gonna be stocked with all this random stuff.

Amprolium works pretty quickly assuming you give the correct dose. You should see some improvement with 12 hours if the probllem is coccidiosis.

 

[Ponypoor]

Yeah, don't feed them scratch grain are my words of wisdom.
There is an almost endless list of things chickens will eat that are far better for them than scratch grains or mealy worms.
Today for example I'll be taking chopped cabbage, a handful of good quality cracked corn and some cooked coconut rice to the Ex Batts.
Chickens are omniverous. Fish, lean meat and vegetables are fine for them and many keepers I knew in Catalonia never fed their chickens commercial feed and their chickens lived into double figures if a predator didn't get them.
The whole commercial advice is just plain wrong. It's mostly poor quility grain designed to keep batttery hens alive and laying eggs for a couple of years. It isn't what a chicken would choose given the choice and does nothing to promote long term good health.
The best thing is to let them forage on unmanaged waste ground. I don't know what you call such patches in the US.
The difference in the Ex Batts health that I get out of their muddy squalid run every day isn't so much the commercial feed I take them, it's the foraging they can do on thhe waste ground at the allotment. It's not just what you feed them it's how they get fed. Handing them some scratch on a plate doesn't provide anything like the level of exercise and entertainment that digging out some large worm from a hole in the ground provides. Even the Ex Batts who knew almost nothing about the delights of the edible things in the grass and under the ground picke up foraging in a few days. They all eat the grass and tiny roots in preference to the commercial feed during thier pre roosting forage.

I threw the scratch out on the grass and dirt - holy cow!!!! Hahaha feeding frenzy galore!!!!

Squabbling, running, chasing too funny.

Next time I fed them inside I threw it onto the brick floor in the barn, the brats dug the kernels out from between my bricks - will have to put more limestone screenings down to fill the cracks now

Today I am going to throw it in the horses' stalls onto the shavings, sit back and watch the show!

Also have some left over turkey mash potatoes, broccoli, carrots that should cause a big feeding frenzy.

It's a wonder I get anything done these days I spend too much time watching those clucks