Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Marie2020]

@BY Bob

I'm having seriously bad problems with my internet. Please know I'm not ignoring you

 

[Marie2020]

The Guardian

I was watching the tribe on camera the other day while on an excruciating conference call that would not end. And I caught this fascinating behavior.

Aurora got up onto Maleficent's old roost in the run and did what I can only describe as "watched over" the tribe. She did not do extensive grooming or anything really other than stand on the roost with an almost rooster like stance. It was really interesting to see.

@Ribh @micstrachan @MaryJanet @LozzyR @Aussie-Chookmum @Shadrach @Marie2020 @ChicoryBlue

I finally managed too play this clip

 

[BY Bob]

What a great start to a video! It seemed as though Aurora was relieving Hattie, is that your understanding too?

By Hattie, do you mean the hen that flew down from the back of the chair at the start of the video?

 

[BY Bob]

She may well be dreaming up a revenge this very moment.

Made me squat. The cheek of her. I'll show her. Jump on me, will she? Not again she won'ts. I bite her. Or maybe poops her. Or flick dirts her. Or eats her treats. Or chasey. Or put bugs in hair. mmmm bugs.

Exactly! Ivy must be very worried at this point.

 

[MaryJanet]

By Hattie, do you mean the hen that flew down from the back of the chair at the start of the video?

I thought Hattie could be seen lower left of the video, but it is 5am ish and there's more than a slight chance I'm too sleepy to see things clearly

 

[BY Bob]

Lol Sammy is like that with his girls too, and I have watched mama hens teach their chicks this. It is alarming how well trained to the phrase “outside chickens!” My hens are. I live in an RV, they live in and RV… really what’s the difference? I take in rescues, accidentally ended up with 9 extra red production type girls, and have the the Four half leghorns that are in the breeding program, too. I’m crossing out to more robust longer lives heritage breeds and it seems to be working well balance wise. No massive eggs yet, and about 4/week in season.

Hawk’s babies are all part production hen on their mama’s side, and do fairly well. Much like the intensive genetic work that’s gone into breeding the meat birds, the offspring’s traits aren’t true to their parent. I like to use the labradoodle example.

A lab and a poodle = labradoodle: a relatively consistent and reliable hybrid with stable known traits, this is a F1 hybrid. You start crossing labradoodles back to a parent breed and you get something more resembling that parent breed, but in outcrossing to different genetics, you get more wild results because although the F1 Hybrid is consistent in its characteristics, the genetics it passes on are actually very random from whichever parent, so breeding two Labradoodles gets you dogs that are anywhere between a poodle and a Labrador, not more labradoodles. Generally you need to selectively line breed and backcross to parents to stabilize the traits you want to a F4 before a hybrid is anywhere near reliable for breeding purposes. I used to work in growing indoor “tomatoes” here in BC, where that is legal, and this light background brought my natural interests in reptiles to the ball python genetic morph breeding world, which is quite sophisticated in breeding for different patterns. I’m now taking this experience into trying to bring my flock to a good stable productive point without the exploitative negatives of only caring about the production levels and feed conversion rates that has brought us the production layers and CX/meat Hybrids.

Even more interesting, aside from Chunk, all the (few) hens produced from my Curvy girl crew (various ranger type Meat hybrid holdbacks I’m trying to breed into my flock) the growth rate is
quite a bit slower, and they have way less overall size, but a Lot of their parents conformation in body type (square, broad, etc) just much smaller and at a Slower growth rate.

I find all of this fascinating. Do you maintain breeding charts? I assume a lot of what you do is intentional but there must be happy accidents too, right?

 

[BY Bob]

I thought Hattie could be seen lower left of the video, but it is 5am ish and there's more than a slight chance I'm too sleepy to see things clearly

I did not notice Hattie and did not see it as anything other than Aurora "doing her job" as she sees it. She is number 2 hen and sentinel. She started out watching from the porch and then moved to higher ground.

Aurora likes to watch from the foot rest or my chair when outside. I think she really likes the elevation for some reason.

 

[micstrachan]

That's way too many for a legbar. They are not supposed to be prodigious layers.

Poor girl is back in the box right now.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

While trying to get a fluffy butt picture yesterday I could not resist taking one of my 2 favorite boys Bubba and Branch. They will be 9 months old in just over a week.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

I also snapped a pic of the lazy horse in his breakfast coma but saving that one for tomorrow.