Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Kris5902]

An unwelcome visitor for Pony Sunday
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That is NOT a pony! Or welcome… but they do make very nice coats…

 

[RoyalChick]

Are the girls away safe?

He was looking over to them in the first picture but didn’t pay a visit.
They are all around my feet right now.

 

[BY Bob]

So much the quintessential hen isn’t she

They just have that look of ‘the barnyard chicken’
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She is such a treat. I think I will always have one in the tribe.

What a gorgeous picture of her!

She is a real beauty. I need a picture of her glowing in the sunlight. It's stunning when that happens.

 

[BY Bob]

I agree. @bgmathteach was incredibly brave, calm, and skilled.

It cannot be debated.

 

[BY Bob]

I'll run that when I do the buff. Likely results: blue, partial crested, possibly incomplete Colombian markings (light/partial neck ring). The black tail would still carry through to some degree. Lightly feathered legs.

What the genetic calculators cannot predict is body build. The offspring could be Mr P sized and Brahma shaped or the opposite, or somewhere in between. The reason I mention it is because of Cheetah's offspring. 1st year had 5 at in-laws and 3 here. All the girls built like Cheetah. The 2 boys were split. Both boys and 2 of the girls were from Nellie (brown leghorn). 2 girls from Thing 2, and 2 girls from PITA or Blanche (white sapphires, so leghorn build). 1 leghorn body (Horus) out of the whole lot. ALL the others were hamburg build.

Next round here had 2 more. (Dunno about at the in-laws) Zulu was very much the hamburg build (through lark/indigo) and Shan is the Brahma shape. Whether she will reach their stature or not remains to be seen. I won't see that until next fall as it can take that long for the brahmas to finish filling out.

My point: Mr P has a very different body build from a Brahma. Crosses with any of those would be interesting just to see what the results would be with multiple chicks. We already know there's a bit of odd/unexpected genetics in Mr P from the last summer and the unexpected colorings that showed up. The results of hatching his breedings with brahmas (of any color) could have some surprising results.I'm going to be watching with great interest.

This is one of the reasons you are such a great addition to the thread. The way you can figure this stuff out is awesome. I love the way your mind works.

 

[BY Bob]

With super glue. It worked well. He's in our pond now and is a strong swimmer. He likes sunning himself near our dock. I told Lety that she should be proud, she saved a life.

She most assuredly should be.

 

[BY Bob]

Thanks, I printed these off, and tried to match the font on my stamp when I changed the location the best I could… I actually got them off Etsy from a designer down in South Carolina, of all places! she has a lot of cute designs and a ton of wedding stuff as well, I think that’s where the main business was, and the chickens were a side note. She also did a matching one for Andrew’s sausage with a pig… I think it turned out so well because she had the design experience to get it all laid out perfectly, then sent me proofs. I’m now printing them out with a cheap Black and White Laser printer, don’t use inkjet, it runs and doesn’t hold up to refrigeration or freezers! I just googled “custom stamp egg labels” then went down a two day long internet cruising rabbit hole.

Arduinna certainly can and will take this dog out given the opportunity… it’s terrifying, honestly. I’ve never going to get video of her attacking him because I’m always running out trying to de-escalate it and contain the goats, then remove the dog. The littles were up on the stanchion with the adults and Ciaran in between, and she was in a full on showdown with Vladdie, stomp, charge and attack by hooking. I will say his owners are being great about it. The husband is dropping logs along their side of our fenceline to stop the digging. We actually had another incursion yesterday through another frigging hidden wire gate. And I now *officially* hate disc golf. Unfortunately (I think) yesterday the goats were all still up when he got in, and he decided to chase the chickens and Ducks instead. Feathers were lost, he caught and released a few. Everyone was traumatized.

Suggestion: if you have perimeter fencing… Don’t cut it halfway down and turn the cut wire ends into hooks and eye closures out and think it’s a “gate”. It is not. It’s a hole in your fence with any slight pressure, and it destroys the integrity of your fenceline, tension… it’s not even a proper “wire” gate ffs.
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My Uncle (in the late 70’s? Maybe early 80’s) and his raccoon “rocky”View attachment 3757046
A nice shot of our little murder-hobo goat’s pointy bits they are a bit longer now, and just as pointy!
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And for Chicken Tax… Sammy my best boy ever

Good old Sammy.

 

[BY Bob]

So, most of you know I have a mated pair of geese. The past 2 weeks, Sampson has started getting quite 'hissy' again, so I assumed Delilah was starting up again with the hormones...

Yup, yesterday we got our first goose egg of the season. I'm thinking of giving it to my neighbor who will only hard boil jumbo eggs so he only has to peel two for his breakfast on work days. (He will gladly accept our pullet eggs in exchange for his jumbo cartons - we use those for our duck eggs - as he will crack and scramble or fry the small ones - but gosh, nope, not peeling 3 regular eggs when we can peel just 2 jumbo for breakfast on the run work days!)

DH will go over today to swap an 18 pack of pullets eggs for all of his jumbo cartons - and will ask if he would like a jumbo egg for his weekday morning breakfast (he will say 'sure') and hubby will pull out this:
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for size reference, here is a picture of it next to a standard large sized chicken egg:
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They are quite large. Wow

 

[Ponypoor]

Update on broody girl:
This was what was in the nest:
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There were 14 eggs in there, and all but 2 I am pretty sure were hers.

that said, that means 3-4 weeks of laying -as she is an older girl...so all but 2 had definitely been frozen, 2 were questionable. plus, there is NO WAY she can cover 14 eggs, especially now that in her older years, her egg size has increased. Dark Cornish as squat, compact girls with hard feathering. 6 is good, 8 is an absolute max for those size eggs. I removed them, marked and replaced the 2 that might be okay, and added 5 that were laid today by other girls. We will see how she does. (btw, I'm disappointed that none of her other 2 siblings laid today - I like my DC crosses, which is why I kept the two that may well be ruined - just in case. - I'm hoping at least one hatches - and it is a girl!!!) (Oh, and yes, I added bedding - she wasn't at all happy I disturbed her nest - butI did this when she got off to eat and drink.)

I put in 2 from my EE girls who are penned with my ee boy. I put in one pale green egg, one welsummer egg, and 1 BR egg. These last 3, the girls could have been mated with any one of a number of boys (1/2 EE, 1/2 Red Star Roo; 1/2 DC/ 1/2 EE Roo; BR roo, or my newbies: blue egg layer boy (can't remember his breed? prairie blue bell egger? got him in a straight run batch for $1 clearance when I bought some to put under my broody girls) and my dark young black roo who also came in a clearance run from TSC. The straight run was marked 'Marans', but the girls, if they are marans, are not laying dark like they should, nor are they any where near as heavy as my french black copper marans (though the coloring is similar, they only weigh half what my other girls weigh - they could still put on some weight, but not that much!) So, we will see what happens. March 16th will be the day to 'watch'

Babies can’t wait!!

 

[Sally PB]

@featherhead007, do you have ceramic (or other hard surfaced) fake eggs in the nest?

I wanted to buy another pair of ceramic eggs from TSC. They had two packages of two eggs, and both had one egg in pieces. I asked if I could buy them at half price, and they said yes.

I glued the broken eggs back together, but left a hole. If I ever get a serious pecker (wow, that sounds naughty!), I'm going to try the "fill a fake egg with mustard" trick.