Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[GregnLety]

So sweet

Is that a river or a lake to be fishing in?

It's a half acre pond in our front yard

 

[Sylvester017]

Come over

I have 3 for you to deal with.

They are just so randy.

Personally I would put those three in the summer house and let Mr P out with the whole gang, but there are some out there that like to pick his blood feathers making them bleed.

What I should do is make another pen for the 3 nutters - but I don’t want to do that.

I would shudder to see Mr P put together w/ fighting roos & hate to see him pecked apart w/ the picky hens. It's like where to put him w/o being harassed by anyone? Isolation would certainly not be just either, poor sweetie.

 

[featherhead007]

Nope! A neighbor took Lucifer and renamed him. She put him with her Brahmas. He learned to ride.

The other two satanic roosters are history. I don't want to pass those genes on to my flock or anyone else's. One murdered a hen and was in process of killing another.

My worst roosters wouldn’t do that.

 

[rural mouse]

As long as he's not bred w/another frizzle as that is lethal? It'll be cute to see what happens in his offspring ~ gorgeous fellow!

He's definitely got the V shape black/silver Cuckoo feather stripes. As for his Splash that's a result of BBS chart history.

Maybe don't cross him w/ any Gold or Buff or Partridge to keep his offspring White (silver) so there's no unwanted leaking gold in his offspring.

Maybe cross him w/ a Blue hen to create a Blue Cuckoo? Dunno ~ just thinking out loud about keeping the offspring genetics in the BBS history ~ not sure what will happen w/the Cuckoo pattern if it will show strong or weaker w/a BBS hen ~ maybe stay away from a Splash hen to strengthen the Cuckoo pattern otherwise the Splash may override getting any Cuckoo?

Wow! You got me curious!

I don't breed so I'm not a genetic enthusiast. Rural mouse may have some good breeding suggestions? or one of the BYC genetic articles?

Frizzle to frizzle isn't lethal....but the feathers are called frazzle and are so fragile that the break from just looking at them.

 

[Sylvester017]

Need advice
I may make a thread on this in the illnesses forum, but I am guessing this crowd has experience.

I am worried about Bernie.

I think I have posted pictures before of how Bernie can stuff herself to the point you cannot believe she can stand upright with the size of her crop.
This picture is from August, 2023 as an example.

View attachment 3995449

Anyway, her crop really was huge yesterday afternoon when she was torturing the pumpkin, but because she is molting heavily on her body I thought maybe it just looked more prominent without a nice covering of feathers.

She is behaving normally - not acting ill at all.

Anyway, I am a worrier, so I got up at an unholy hour this morning to examine her on the roost and was disturbed to see that her crop had not gone down overnight.

I wasn't prepared with my frozen coconut oil 'pills' so I gave her a vigorous massage which maybe helped a bit but certainly didn't empty her crop.

It feels quite firm but not rock hard - a bit like dough - and I didn't feel any fibrous lumps. Her breath does not smell sour. She delivered a slightly loose poop onto my foot during this procedure - loose but not alarmingly so.

I will prepare coconut oil pills to pop in her beak tonight after dark and will do some night time and early morning massages and will keep sniffing for signs of sour crop.

My question to all of you is whether hens are more susceptible to crop issues when they molt? I wonder if I am worrying too much, or maybe not enough.
I worry that crop issues are usually a sign of other underlying disease and Bernie may actually be seriously ill. I have had one girl who clearly just ate too much long grass - but all my other crop issues have been the start of a decline for some other reason.

Any thoughts or advice?

I'm no expert. I gloss read somewhere that crop issues like bumblefoot can be reoccurring issues once they've started ~ come & go issues to deal w/ as they occur. But again, I'm no expert. Chickens are the best ever pets/utility & yet one of our most problematic livestock w/health issues. Not fair. Hope it clears w/ your good care . I'm gonna check "chicklandia" ~ she's had about every chicken issue in her flocks.

 

[Debbie292d]

As long as he's not bred w/another frizzle as that is lethal? It'll be cute to see what happens in his offspring ~ gorgeous fellow!

He's definitely got the V shape black/silver Cuckoo feather stripes. As for his Splash that's a result of BBS chart history.

Maybe don't cross him w/ any Gold or Buff or Partridge to keep his offspring White (silver) so there's no unwanted leaking gold in his offspring.

Maybe cross him w/ a Blue hen to create a Blue Cuckoo? Dunno ~ just thinking out loud about keeping the offspring genetics in the BBS history ~ not sure what will happen w/the Cuckoo pattern if it will show strong or weaker w/a BBS hen ~ maybe stay away from a Splash hen to strengthen the Cuckoo pattern otherwise the Splash may override getting any Cuckoo?

Wow! You got me curious!

I don't breed so I'm not a genetic enthusiast. Rural mouse may have some good breeding suggestions? or one of the BYC genetic articles?

I appreciate your insight and ideas! Thank you!

No blue hen though nor cuckoo hen, yet. I believe I could get a blue pullet out of state, but I haven't checked what she's got in ages. (indigo egg).

My hen choices are/soon to be are (non-frizzle): black, white, paint, splash, buff, and chocolate.

Here's Buddy the cuckoo and his offspring, Louie, who is 10 weeks old. I assume one of the black hens is the mother. The cuckoo hen was killed by another rooster, so I believe Louie has no choice but to be single-gened. But if he's a she, maybe could breed her next summer to MB, the one we're talking about.



Don't know if Louie is a Louise yet or not.

 

[Debbie292d]

Frizzle to frizzle isn't lethal....but the feathers are called frazzle and are so fragile that the break from just looking at them.

Yes, and my understanding is they don't live very long either as they have heart/kidney issues, so in a way it could be thought of as lethal. We only have three frizzles and wouldn't breed them together, but I've seen some "accidents," and it's not pretty!

 

[featherhead007]

Frizzle to frizzle isn't lethal....but the feathers are called frazzle and are so fragile that the break from just looking at them.

My thoughts

 

[Sylvester017]

Need advice
I may make a thread on this in the illnesses forum, but I am guessing this crowd has experience.

I am worried about Bernie.

I think I have posted pictures before of how Bernie can stuff herself to the point you cannot believe she can stand upright with the size of her crop.
This picture is from August, 2023 as an example.

View attachment 3995449

Anyway, her crop really was huge yesterday afternoon when she was torturing the pumpkin, but because she is molting heavily on her body I thought maybe it just looked more prominent without a nice covering of feathers.

She is behaving normally - not acting ill at all.

Anyway, I am a worrier, so I got up at an unholy hour this morning to examine her on the roost and was disturbed to see that her crop had not gone down overnight.

I wasn't prepared with my frozen coconut oil 'pills' so I gave her a vigorous massage which maybe helped a bit but certainly didn't empty her crop.

It feels quite firm but not rock hard - a bit like dough - and I didn't feel any fibrous lumps. Her breath does not smell sour. She delivered a slightly loose poop onto my foot during this procedure - loose but not alarmingly so.

I will prepare coconut oil pills to pop in her beak tonight after dark and will do some night time and early morning massages and will keep sniffing for signs of sour crop.

My question to all of you is whether hens are more susceptible to crop issues when they molt? I wonder if I am worrying too much, or maybe not enough.
I worry that crop issues are usually a sign of other underlying disease and Bernie may actually be seriously ill. I have had one girl who clearly just ate too much long grass - but all my other crop issues have been the start of a decline for some other reason.

Any thoughts or advice?

Chickenlandia is very chatty but she does cover impacted crop if you have the patience to watch it.

 

[Debbie292d]

My worst roosters wouldn’t do that.

It was a cuckoo hen, different from all the other hens around here so we wondered if that was the cause for the attack. Whatever the reason, he had to go. I was devasted by what he did.