Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RebeccaBoyd]

I have to brag on Mrs. E for a minute. She has been here 5 full days now and I have never, ever, had a chicken integrate themselves so seamlessly into a flock before. Especially a lone chicken. I did have to show her where to roost the first 2 nights as she thought she should sleep on the porch. That 3rd night she went straight to the coop and got up on the roost in-between Goose and Lilly. No one ever gets in-between those girls without fear of getting pecked from both sides. Get pecked she did, but she stayed put and pecked them both back that first night. They leave her alone now. She has to be very close to George and his crew's age. During the day she is now right in the middle of the silkie army. They are her peeps. She is also getting better about being handled. I do not have to herd her all over creation to get my hands on her. She still comes right up to mom and Rosie though no problem. I do have to work just a bit. Randy still insists on pestering her and she avoids him. He is not aggressive towards her or pushy but he has been dancing up a storm around her. It is for that reason alone I am checking all possible nest spots each evening. She may not be close to laying, but, Randy is giving signals that she is.

 

[Debbie292d]

Do people raise turkeys WITH chickens, same pasture?? A moderator on a Facebook chicken vet page said told me they shouldn't be together (I was raising the possibility of gapeworm in a sick hen case, which runs with turkeys a lot). Aso no peafowl with chickens either. Anyone heard of this before?

Our neighbors have three older pheasants that come here on occasion. They live about 1/4 mile away. Our chickens are afraid of them and hide. I asked about this, a couple of years ago, being afraid of diseases, and it sounded like they should be more worried about their pheasants. They have chickens, ducks, and pheasants all living together, except the pheasants sleep on top of their house.

I've been there to take care of their animals a couple of times, and whilst they are both medical doctors, they know little about caring for poultry. Kind of a messy setup. They don't mind their pheasants wandering all this way either which is weird. I guess I won't worry about it either since our chickens don't mingle with them.