Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Everyone has been taking the chilly temperatures in stride. I have several who are moulting, but they are doing okay. It was only -12C/10F today which is not actually considered to be cold here at this time of year.

The bad news is that Cesario is limping. My husband has been away looking after a friend's dog sled team, but is coming back tomorrow so we can get a good look at it.

It was that is Edmonton the other day; I am expecting this to arrive here early next week.

Maybe Cesario has a torn nail, I had a young cockerel that tore a toenail off once - poor little man, he was limping around for a couple weeks. Sure hope it’s just a simple sprain or torn nail.

Tell your hubby to take some photos of the dogs for pony Sunday

Enjoying the dirt

 

[Ponypoor]

Tax
View attachment 3669883

I see she is now working on an AI component to her world domination of communications!

How many chooks do you have now?

 

[Ponypoor]

Don’t let some of our US politicians know that or we will have that here too.

Tax: enjoying the sunshine.
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They sure are enjoying the summer aren’t they

Today I am keeping the brats inside while I work on the brick pavers; I can’t be running back and forth chasing down those school chicks, they are flying over the horse side of the fence now. Lion and tigers and crocodiles live over there!

 

[ManueB]

Not sure on the comb....your pullets are a mite ahead of my Invasion. Chia I expect to lay any day (may 29 hatch day), although the cold and snow will likely delay that (good for her growth and development). Yours are quite the eye candy (beautiful).

Two out of four started laying, and they were the one Gaston has begun mating with about two weeks ago.
We still have very warm and beautiful weather ; last year the pullets were hatched three weeks later and Piou-piou was the first to lay on the 10 of November.
Based on comb development only, I would have thought Laure was ready to lay two weeks ago- but nothing yet ! So I guess it's not a 100% indicator (just like early popping wattles when they were two weeks old chicks didn't make them all boys thankfully!)

I don’t see anything unusual with it, maybe I don’t see the area you are asking about. At any rate he is gorgeous.

I don’t know much about combs but I don’t see a split. It flops a little one way and then flops a little the other. It looks entirely intact and he’s beautiful and fashionable. It has a little cushion in the front at the base, and goes nicely all the way back. He’s got a bump or scar on the back end there but I don’t see any split. Where are you looking?

I don't see a split either ! It's someone from our village who said that. And I have had two or three people comments on BYC about his comb. I certainly hope it's natural because I would feel bad if we had missed a wound serious enough to reshape completely his comb. Yes, he got pecked several times, and he lost a tiny bit of wattle, but it always seem to make a clean scab and heal quickly.
I like it's shape too, I think it looks like he is wearing a jester hat.

Everyone has been taking the chilly temperatures in stride. I have several who are moulting, but they are doing okay. It was only -12C/10F today which is not actually considered to be cold here at this time of year.

The bad news is that Cesario is limping. My husband has been away looking after a friend's dog sled team, but is coming back tomorrow so we can get a good look at it.

I would say exactly what we told @knoturavggrl , if he is still limping tomorrow , begin by crating him for 12 hours and assess.
If you pick him off the roost once he is asleep, you can maybe just feel if the leg and foot is swollen / hot to the touch ?

This reminds me that I haven't shared here @RoyalChick's brilliant idea for bumblefoot, which has changed my life. Well, maybe not, but really made it easier. Once the chicken is over the worse of the infection but the foot is still swollen and/or has a scab, and especially in the case when it's taking time to heal and you have many chickens to deal with, instead of the usual 20 mn soaking with Epsom salts using a corn dressing and vet wrap, we switched to a cuttable to size colloidal dressing, which keeps the wound humid. This means you don't have to soak the foot for long since the dressing will do the job of keeping it moist to draw out the yucky stuff, just wash it, apply betadine (or you can pour it in the bath which is what we did) , towel dry and put the colloidal dressing and a bit of vet wrap just to be sure it doesn't fall off. Way quicker to do, the colloidal dressing can be left on up to three days and the part covered will stay clean, and just as efficient, BUT you need to be sure that you are not dealing with staph infection anymore. I can assure you that when you have four chickens and six feet to tend it's a revolution . Thanks again RC .

Picture for a long post. My partner calls Merle petit diable, little devil, and she does look pretty demoniac today.

 

[Grandma The Chicken]

Progress so far...

Any modeling agencies out there?

 

[Ponypoor]

The courtship contest is going strong. A minute before, Whiskey was buzzing round her.View attachment 3665276View attachment 3665277Hector still has some feathers to grow in, but Chia is looking FIIINE. She's also pulling away from her hatchmates and roosting semi-solo/near the adults. She's gone from a shy pullet to a young lady gaining some self-confidence and testing her wings. No egg yet, however I'm speculating that both Whiskey and Hector spent the day swapping out courting by escorting her around looking for and trying out nest sites.

I love that last photo - POW worthy

 

[SimpleJenn]

Here in the US we censor everything. Including harmless cats. Oh, and ads on YouTube that children shouldn't see are perfectly fine.

Yep my daughter had a nightmare last night, we got up and were watching a little youtube when an unskippable horror movie jumpscare ad showed! Definitely had a hard time coming back from that one...

 

[Ponypoor]

Does anyone have any ideas on why my Brahma does not have so much fluff on her fluffy butt?

How is your chooks derriere?

 

[bgmathteach]

I feel really bad for Sylvie. She doesn’t seem to have got the hang of this broody thing at all.
When she is off the nest she runs around frantically making that broody bok-bok-bok sound. She doesn’t focus on eating, drinking or bathing (though I have seen her do all three), she just runs around aimlessly and apparently frantically. Like she lost her car keys.
When the others are peacefully napping or busy digging she charges into them at full speed. They get annoyed and beat the crap out of her.
I am hoping she will give up on her own. And I hope when she does she can reintegrate peacefully. It seems to me she has lost a lot of friends.
Babs and Bernie are more tolerant of her behavior than the other Pentagonists. You can almost feel their frustration with her!
Piglet has stopped giving her eggs and is laying elsewhere - somewhere Sylvie hasn’t discovered. Babs still supplies her an egg every day.
Poor Sylvie. I think she may be up on the roof again.


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She is lovely, though, even if she doesn't yet have the broody thing figured out. I suspect she will 'regain' her friends once this 'spell' of errant/erratic behavior 'resolves'!

Poor Sylvie!

 

[bgmathteach]

She is just finishing molting. I still see a few pin feathers. But her comb and wattles were bright red a couple days ago. Today, I saw her in the nest box, and later, sure enough! An egg on a day I wasn't expecting one.

Good for you! I have over 50 adult hens - guess how many eggs I have been getting?4-6. Yesterday only 3. i know you are molting, girls, but really???? I spend $250+ per week feeding you all - can you help with the feed bills just a bit???? At least I'm getting 5-6 duck eggs a day (out of 13 girls),

And, none of the pullets are yet laying to help with the slack. My oldest 2 groups, should be laying - or laying soon, but nope!, not yet 6 of those 4 +2 about 1.5 weeks apart.

And, for now, the young roos are still too young/skinny to process - one from the second hatch, multiple from later hatches (8, can keep at most 1)

So, at the moment, they are literally eating me out of house and home! and - at least I am hoping - the 2 older sets of chicks should start to lay this fall. I'm assuming all the others will wait until late Jan or early Feb.

Hmmm....this math just DOESN'T add up: presently about 125 birds (young, adult, chickens, ducks, geese) 6-9 eggs per day. Hmmm, maybe I need to rethink them as my retirement plan - 'cause now I am working to support THEM!

?maybe they though I said I was their retirement plan, not the other way around????