Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ValerieJ]

That’s because she is the one that crawled under Muffy!

Poor Muffy was not at all impressed.

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Awe, looking for a warm place to take a nap.

 

[SimpleJenn]

That is because I have not had a second to mention it.

The "Great Silkie Escape" happened Sunday afternoon.

I went out knowing I had to refill their waterer. I should have been ready for a stampede but I was not. The second I barely opened up the door Barbosa led the charge. I spun to catch him as he went between my legs and ended up knocking the door wide open in the process allowing them all out in a flash. They scattered in all directions. George was was in the midst of it in a split second. All I could do was snatch him up before he finished his rooster dance towards one of the girls. Thankfully he dances first and then hops on to breed, he was not successful. George was carried to the other coop and locked in, very unhappily I might add poor boy. The silkies are everywhere, in the creek, the stalls and sawdust pile by now. I gave in and went ahead and filled the feeder, water and raked out the coop and then proceeded to round them up. 30 minutes, I was herding cats*silkies* for 30 minutes. Barbosa, who was being called Hector at this point was the last to be wrangled.

I have since learned, refill the feeder, waterer and rake out the coop at night. They are asleep and do not rush the door.

Brats, they are brats.

Would it work to make a 2ft tall "break board" in the doorway to slow them down?

We had a 2ft high steel panel we used for the chickens growing up, they were slowed down just enough when we opened the door we could keep them in. Well, until they got big enough to fly at least, but then they were allowed to range during the day.
I imagine if you aren't worried about tripping or make it moveable it could be low enough for a big step over.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Welp, my dad looked into the coop, took a good look at each chick, and deemed them old enough to stay outside. I asked him about Slowpoke and he agrees they need a bit longer. But the oldest 8, they get to stay outside. When I close them up tonight I will make sure they know where the brooder plate is.

Periwinkle is very daring

They are super happy, they complained when I shoved their beaks in the waterer to show them how it works. I probably would complain too if someone shoved my face into a water bottle too.

 

[Sylvester017]

I use metal garbage cans with bungee straps looped through the handles and lid handle to keep raccoons away from my feed.

We over-compensated in the beginning getting so many metal lidded cans. We never kept feed storage outdoors anywhere & most feed is refrigerated in a locked garage. A lot of our metal cans are used for yard trash or recycled stuff now. This will be our last flock so we won't need all the chicken stuff we used in the past. I'm so handicapped I'm even downsizing the gardening tools too heavy to deal with. In the house I may start downsizing excess chicken decor too.

 

[Sylvester017]

What is wrong with Poooh?
Since her molt she has some feathers on each side that seem to be growing in the wrong direction and sticking out. Kind of below her shoulders on each side.
What’s that all about?
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She is creating a new breed w/ tufted wings much like tufted ears of Araucanas...

 

[Sylvester017]

It’s been a rough winter with snow from Dec till just last week. Yuck!

Meanwhile I checked the gang, Mr P is roosting out of range of the ladies.
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And Clyde was running around doing his thing.
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I will make sure to dose him directly tonight to give him a bolus of the Tylosin.

Is it so ~ if one chicken has a mycoplasma symptom than all the flock is exposed but don't all display symptoms as some are more immune than others...& should all birds be treated whether showing symptoms or not anyway?

 

[Sylvester017]

That’s like Rose’s tail feathers - I thought they were damaged and would grow in normally next moult - but when she moulted a few months ago they came back in twisted and sticking out still - and added two more to the inventory!!

Our twisted tail Buff Leghorn 1-yr-old "Danni"

 

[Sylvester017]

That would be none other than Lilly
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She was named in honor of @BY Bob former Queen of Fluffly Butt Acres at a few days old. He will have to share some photo's of her. She has grown up to look so much like her. I hope she is doing the "Iron Beak" very proud.

Those brown layers tend to lay a variety of solid brown to many varied speckles/splotches. Our Marans was like that ~ day to day it was a different shell pigmentation. The brown layers used for Olive Egger breeding throw off speckled olive eggs too. So many chicken breeds & egg colors nowadays makes my head spin!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Mr. Marble is lonely
I brought Red out to visit, he perked right up. Didn't tidbit but he started eating and drinking. He seemed pretty happy to see her, kept looking her over.
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Hubby says I should take each of the older four out for a bit of time hanging out with Marble.
They spent a couple minutes on the same side of the fence, he did the whole body shake a couple times, watched Red, and gave a warning call when the dog wandered over.

If you don’t mind my asking, I’m not clear on something. This lovely rooster is with you temporarily I think? A ,onto or so? But if you’re not quarantining him, why is he separated away from the others?

 

[ValerieJ]

We over-compensated in the beginning getting so many metal lidded cans. We never kept feed storage outdoors anywhere & most feed is refrigerated in a locked garage. A lot of our metal cans are used for yard trash or recycled stuff now. This will be our last flock so we won't need all the chicken stuff we used in the past. I'm so handicapped I'm even downsizing the gardening tools too heavy to deal with. In the house I may start downsizing excess chicken decor too.
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