Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

There is a black rooster down at the barn. No getting close to him, he is very skittish. He is also not a game rooster, body shape maybe a Australop. I did not see a hen with chicks or even hear them. I went in the barn, behind the barn and walked both sides of the creek bank and around the house. I did see a small pile of black feathers outside the ring that is slightly disturbing. It did not look like enough lost though to make me think a chicken was taken. I did do a head count, all 19 of my hens accounted for in the back yard. That does not mean the hen is not down there. She could have her chicks far enough up the hill I could not see or hear or she could have gotten under the big farmhouse as there are a few openings. I scattered a coffee can full of feed behind the barn for the rooster and possible momma. I will also head back down around dusk this evening to scout around again.

Here is the rooster
View attachment 3897484View attachment 3897485View attachment 3897487

Well, no feathered legs so not a Marans so Australorp it seems . You get the luck of all the gorgeous strays!

 

[Sylvester017]

I love how they bury themselves in the dirt

‘Codien’ type drugs can be very irritating to the gut. Surprised that they would give you Vicodin (hydrocodone), I am more used to it as a cough suppressant here.

Have you had Tylenol and codien before? Has that bothered your gut? I cannot take that it bothers me so.

Med Tax

Hahaha BFTP
View attachment 3897634

Thx for asking. So far I don't tolerate any pain meds -- tylenol, codeine, hydrocodone/vicadin, aspirin, acetaminephine etc. When I was getting a tooth root canal I got the usual pain med injections around the tooth but when the dentist started drilling I screamed in blinding pain and the first thing he said was, "Oh no, she's one of them." I said "What one of them?" He said I was one who had a high tolerance to pain meds and would always need more and he proceeded to double the injections before restarting the root canal.

Well, sorry, but my gut can't take the oral stuff so pain is what I'll have to tolerate in future. My orthopedist asked if ER gave me morphine. WTH? I only have a broken bone -- NOT cancer!

Since I couldn't take tylenol very well the ortho dr suggested to take Aleve/sodium naproxin since I've used that before w/ less stomach stress and alternate it every 8 hours with tylenol because the two worked synergistically to also help healing (?). I did that for 3 weeks and messed up my gut so bad I stopped it. Took me 6 weeks to get my gut back to normal. Shoot! What med school are these drs graduating from?

Tx
Picking up our Silkie chick order in December 2020 during the COVID scare -- breeder came out to our car and handed us the DNA sexed chicks thru our car window (covid were the days, eh?):

 

[Ponypoor]

Quick question: do we know what the color pattern is called on Morinth here? She's so pretty and I'd love to see other birds with the same coloring.
View attachment 3897465
View attachment 3897467
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She reminds me of a tortoiseshell cat a little.

No idea but she’s a beauty. I thin Rural Mouse will have an idea.

Now that I see her full on sideways I am wondering if she is a silkie x Cochin or polish, her tail is all wrong for a silkie. With her fuzzy legs I am thinking Cochin cross, but I have no experience with them, Alex do you know if Cochin have an upright straight tail feathers like Morinth has?

 

[Ponypoor]

Thx for asking. So far I don't tolerate any pain meds -- tylenol, codeine, hydrocodone/vicadin, aspirin, acetaminephine etc. When I was getting a tooth root canal I got the usual pain med injections around the tooth but when the dentist started drilling I screamed in blinding pain and the first thing he said was, "Oh no, she's one of them." I said "What one of them?" He said I was one who had a high tolerance to pain meds and would always need more and he proceeded to double the injections before restarting the root canal.

Well, sorry, but my gut can't take the oral stuff so pain is what I'll have to tolerate in future. My orthopedist asked if ER gave me morphine. WTH? I only have a broken bone -- NOT cancer!

Since I couldn't take tylenol very well the ortho dr suggested to take Aleve/sodium naproxin since I've used that before w/ less stomach stress and alternate it every 8 hours with tylenol because the two worked synergistically to also help healing (?). I did that for 3 weeks and messed up my gut so bad I stopped it. Took me 6 weeks to get my gut back to normal. Shoot! What med school are these drs graduating from?

Tx
Picking up our Silkie chick order in December 2020 during the COVID scare -- breeder came out to our car and handed us the DNA sexed chicks thru our car window (covid were the days, eh?):
View attachment 3897671View attachment 3897672View attachment 3897678

Next time ask for Meloxicam, it’s a Cox-2 selective, anti-inflammatory. It will protect your gut and offer pain relief.

Naproxen, aspirin, Advil are all very irritating to the gut; if you need to take them always take something like Nexium or Pepsid an hour before you take those. And always take the pain meds after you eat.

Maybe if you do have pain ask for Tramadol/Tylenol (tramacet). It will
make you drowsy and for about an hr make you very nauseated (just lay down for a couple hrs till it passes) but it is less irritating to the gut. This is what I take for my RLS. When I first took it I was miserable with nausea and dizzy. But after a few days it passed now I just lay down and let it pass.

———-

Gosh baby silkies are soooo cute - I fear my two are boys I am not going to get any closer to them, it’s too much heart ache.


Laverne having a snooze

She’s fluffy already she will be a nice lavender Orp.

 

[Ponypoor]

I do think it's a rank thing. That makes the most sense but I am open to other interpretations. With Phyllis gone the pecking order now goes....

1. Aurora
2. Hattie
3. Sydney
4. Glynda
5. Lady Featherington
6. Aster/Versace

I'm certain Sydney wants to maintain her position. I think you can see her dominance peck Glynda earlier in the video. If not, she did. Perhaps this is early enforcement.

Glynda is a fierce hen in normal circumstances, make her a mum........well I would think twice.

Then she has a large partner like Lady Featherington. I would stay clear. Perhaps Sydney learned a lesson. We shall see.

A Glynda vs Phyllis contest for third was always something I expected at some point. Phyllis was always attuned to keeping Glynda at bay. The way Glynda muscled her way past Betty was impressive. I'm sure others noticed. What a Glynda vs Sydney contest might look like is a little scary.

I find the smaller flock dynamics interesting. Here there is no linear line of command. The big boss mare is Penelope, and Raven would be next, but my grey girls put Ravin in her place but not Penelope. It’s all over the place here, very convoluted.

The babies are the bottom but can go eat and drink with the bigs…. I find it very interesting that the babies can get away with so much! I have said it before and will say it again, my hand raised babies are integrated far faster in the flock than my broody raised babies.

My youngest chicks are out with the flock all the time now, but curly keeps her babies away from everyone. I am sure they would love to be out with the other babies but curly wants to be off on her own with them.

Backwards!

 

[Ponypoor]

Hattie seems a bit stiff in her effort to 'walk the chick off'. Have you given up on the daily dosing of ?metcam? [Sorry, I don't remember the exact name of the pet pain med.]

I suppose it was hard with her fighting you - I wish they could understand it was in their best interest to take the meds!

I much prefer giving a pill than liquid meds to chickens. Freaks me out !

 

[Ponypoor]

The following pics go together right to left

View attachment 3897622Raw ends from where we stopped cutting last week
View attachment 3897623View attachment 3897625The char is from controlled burns the forest service does when conditions will allow and they can be certain of getting them out.

Zoom in on pics. EVERY horizontal line is 1 (or more) downed tree. We got the charred ones cut, stacked out of the way and through to the next band of timber. Many of these have been down for years.

View attachment 3897626And my son, working on cutting the log in front of him.

Helicopter flights started about 11am. Ground crew was gathered to head in when we were heading past to get to this area. Saw 2 helicopters, 1 a double prop. They had suction hoses hanging from their bellies, so draw up water anywhere they could drop in and hover. They kept sweeping over the forest, ranging passes as they headed around to drop the water. We're speculating they had infrared going to watch for stray sparks and flares even though we were on a different mountain. The wind can carry embers quite a ways.

Also dropped the dead tree that was semi-wrapping the power lineView attachment 3897635Left side, gap. Other one is on the list to drop, but the 2 biggest maybe hazards are now down and cut up.

Pony Sunday
View attachment 3897637A pair of magpies were playing on his back. By the time the camera was ready, 1 had baled.

From Wednesday's swim fest
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And spotted this as we were loading upView attachment 3897639Pelican

Oooo you get pelicans?! Nice!

Aw what’s with the poor horse, is he very old?

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Here are the pictures of the littles first trip outside. They did great today. They were scared at first but when I came out to bring them in they were zooming all over the coop. I will have video's later on tonight. I will upload after everyone is in bed, I am not fighting over the internet.

 

[BY Bob]

I find the smaller flock dynamics interesting. Here there is no linear line of command. The big boss mare is Penelope, and Raven would be next, but my grey girls put Ravin in her place but not Penelope. It’s all over the place here, very convoluted.

The babies are the bottom but can go eat and drink with the bigs…. I find it very interesting that the babies can get away with so much! I have said it before and will say it again, my hand raised babies are integrated far faster in the flock than my broody raised babies.

My youngest chicks are out with the flock all the time now, but curly keeps her babies away from everyone. I am sure they would love to be out with the other babies but curly wants to be off on her own with them.

Backwards!

The difference between smaller and larger groups when it comes to pecking order are quite real. I also think the tradition at my flock has been very linear from the first time we had 3 chickens. Some of this is likely learned behavior. Those are the rules at FBA. This is how their society is organized.

It started with Elphie putting Daisy in her place. Then Daisy put Patsy and Lilly in order. Patsy loved the pecking order in all things, including roosting. Aurora came into a world run by Lilly. That just established what has become the FBA way.

I really believe there is a learned component to how my girls have organized themselves.

If we moved Aurora to your flock I wonder what would happen? Would she organize them or give in to your socialist organization?

 

[BY Bob]

I do think it's a rank thing. That makes the most sense but I am open to other interpretations. With Phyllis gone the pecking order now goes....

1. Aurora
2. Hattie
3. Sydney
4. Glynda
5. Lady Featherington
6. Aster/Versace

I'm certain Sydney wants to maintain her position. I think you can see her dominance peck Glynda earlier in the video. If not, she did. Perhaps this is early enforcement.

Glynda is a fierce hen in normal circumstances, make her a mum........well I would think twice.

Then she has a large partner like Lady Featherington. I would stay clear. Perhaps Sydney learned a lesson. We shall see.

A Glynda vs Phyllis contest for third was always something I expected at some point. Phyllis was always attuned to keeping Glynda at bay. The way Glynda muscled her way past Betty was impressive. I'm sure others noticed. What a Glynda vs Sydney contest might look like is a little scary.

Thinking about this some more, if i was Glynda I might want to make a move while Lady Featherington was my partner.