Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Hi, guys. Remember two summers ago when I gouged my sclera (white part of the eye) while cleaning out a giant brush pile? Well, yesterday Lucky pecked me in the other eye. It hurt, but I went about my business. As the day went on, however, it got a little worse. I had some leftover erythromycin ointment from the first injury so use that a couple times and wore a patch to sleep in. Well, this morning it was swollen, pink and sore so I sought medical attention. Yep! I have a corneal abrasion. What’s with me and eye injuries?
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(if you look closely, you can see my eyes are still dilated from the ophthalmology appointment.)

Tax (the culprit)
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Oh no! That's horrible! I had same thing happen I was pulling hay bales down in the mow in the dark and poked my eye. I now have a scat running along the cornea, and a cataract starting ...

Oh I hope your better soon

 

[Ponypoor]

If anyone is interested, I have just uploaded another portrait video.

Tax:
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Both video and tax are lovely

My Frizzle silkie is still sitting on her golf ball

 

[Ponypoor]

Naww… I bet it was dominance.

I agree with Michelle, my silkie gal did that yesterday to one of the young pullets... Who screamed murder !!

 

[ManueB]

Lovely cats!
A couple of mine are hunters so although I see other people letting cats and chicks interact I keep mine strictly separate.

Beautiful cats. I have cats, and almost every neighbor I have has cats. My boy Jack is a very accomplished hunter. I do not fear the cats going after my chicks though. My momma's are very protective. Even when there are not chicks involved mine like to terrorize the cats. Truthfully my game hen has put the fear of god into all the cats, and my dogs. They know to give any of the momma's a wide berth and it is best not to even look in their direction.

I can't advise as I've never had tiny ones but I personally wouldn't risk them being alone with them. If anything I would try to introduce them when I was with them in hope they would learn to understand through you that at they should protect them rather than hunt them

Cute cats

Our cat is afraud of the chickens...standard size. With the first batch of chicks, we supervized carefully their meetings, and not until chicks were at least 2 weeks old. Multiple people, 2 chicks at a time. The 2nd batch of chicks, we started the outside exposures much younger and had an odd number of chicks. With the last 3 to go outside, we took the 2 smallest and the largest together. Cheetah was one of those. Sadly the other 2 didn't make it to adulthood (not because of the cat). The trio managed to get away from us and hid in the Siberian pea tree hedgerow. Once they got hidden, they went silent too. Castor was hanging back, curious but giving WIDE space to them. He fit better into the hedge than we did, so we encouraged him to go looking for the littles (less than a week old). By careful watching of both him and areas babies were in, we found and caught them. None were harmed then and Castor didn't get close enough to do more than sniff them. Since then all babies have been either raised by broody or inside and moved into the coop at the earliest possible opportunity. The ones raised by broodies have generated some curiosity in the cat, but he stays a respectful distance away from the babies with the rest of the flock keeping watchful eyes on him. The occassional visit by other cats generates a persistent alarm squawk for a human to come deal with it. The most notable was Silver, the lead hen out watching the cat closely while Rusty, my Jersey giant Roo (RIP) who was almost 13 pounds (dunno kilo conversion) came up to the open kitchen window to echo her call for help rousting the cat and sending it home.


All this to say it depends upon the cats and the chickens. If the broody banty is with a flock/tribe, then chicks are likely safe. with 2 cats, they could pull a distract/attack manoeuvre and get a baby. if the mama has intimidated them in the past, then likely will again. supervised introductions would be the route I would take, but much depends upon all animals involved.

I have both, and it has worked well. The first time I had baby chicks, I introduced the cat by holding a chick and bringing it out of their 'safe' room, sat on the couch and called the cat over. I held it almost completely in my hand, letting it smell the chick's butt. she initially was very tentative, then started getting 'too interested'. I said a very stern 'NO'. Did this a number of times...better each time, but I still wouldn't trust her at that point. When the chickens were full size chickens & out...one day when free ranging (1 Roo & 7 hens) and the cat was out prowling, the roo didn't like where she was going/looking/something...sounded an alarm and next thing you know - ALL 8 started charging the cat! They ran her up a tree and stood their for about 5 minutes chastizing her. I have never had a problem since. She gives the adults a wide berth. I always introduce her to my new groups of chicks supervised and will pick one up in front of her and 'make of it' to reinforce that they are 'moms pets'. She has never bothered them since. She even got locked in the mudroom overnight once (where the chicks brood, with no cover on the brooder (thanks, hubby!), and she did not bother them...and they were exactly at songbird size at that time (about 4-5 weeks old) She has never been a problem with them...and she is an EXCELLENT hunter...squirrels, mice chipmunks, song birds, even rabbits!

I don't know if all cats can be trusted - even with the introduction/training...however, once you have full sized chickens, USUALLY the cat will pay them respect...and that plus training should cement as well as possible the chick's as 'no touch' for the cat. Again, know your cat, though!

I don’t have cats, but there is no way I’d let them near baby chicks.

Thanks for all your advice and opinions, obviously there are different ways of coping!
Chipie, the mother hen, is a bantam rejected by all the other hens, so there's no way the flock will protect the chicks. I will try to show the chicks to the cats while they are in the dog crate where we've set them and explain that they are not food, in a week or so.
I'm not too worried about the female Hibou as she has always tried to become friend with the hens. Grochatila, the male, is terrified of the standards, but I've seen him a few times look at Chipie wondering if she was food or not.
We call him "tiger of the Sauches" (our place's name).

 

[Ponypoor]

Too late for that, but….View attachment 3132380

A colour coordinated hen that's awesome

 

[Ponypoor]

Two for Tuesday
I am up having another miserable night so catching up here...

Two pics of egg mamas and their daughters.

Penelope and Dorothy sunbathing

Blanche and Rose checking on nest boxes

 

[townchicks]

I wasn't getting anywhere with Nevada's bumble foot last week, so I bailed and called the vet. Turns out I wasn't doing so badly, she has what the vet called a grade one bumble. She doesn't think it's major infection. She wants me to keep soaking it but otherwise leave it alone.But she's fat and the vet wants her food restricted. Yeah, that's going to go over well. She also has a heart murmur and arthritis, for which she gave us carprofen. I hate when they get old! Not the greatest pics but tax for whineing.

 

[Marie2020]

Thanks for all your advice and opinions, obviously there are different ways of coping!
Chipie, the mother hen, is a bantam rejected by all the other hens, so there's no way the flock will protect the chicks. I will try to show the chicks to the cats while they are in the dog crate where we've set them and explain that they are not food, in a week or so.
I'm not too worried about the female Hibou as she has always tried to become friend with the hens. Grochatila, the male, is terrified of the standards, but I've seen him a few times look at Chipie wondering if she was food or not.
We call him "tiger of the Sauches" (our place's name).
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Grochatilia, i would think will take a very long time to learn the difference in that case .

My chickens arrived at 3 and 4 months so we're much bigger

When Amber was around a year and a half I found my cat curled up in the coop fast asleep with her .
My heart was in my mouth. I told the cat off and he's never done this since. It was risky and really sweet at the same time.
Even though this cat was ferrol he's so cuddly with my dog and myself, the chickens too if they would give him the chance

 

[Marie2020]

Good morning everyone

Hi @Ribh I can see you

 

[LozzyR]

It’s so clever how you share your drawings!

Thanks Michelle!