Confounded by Sicilian buttercup chicks shunning their heat cave

[azygous]

It may not be easy to see, but Scotty is wearing pinless peepers. Shorty was looking pretty frowsy before Scotty had her feather picking short circuited with the peepers.

 

[AntiqueB]

You are so observant with your girls, and so inventive. Who would have thought to do this?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I've hired the Buttercups as assistant care givers to April, who is losing her battle with ALV. April doesn't have much of an appetite, and she's lost so much weight, she has no reserves. So some mornings, April is too weak to eat.

April needs an incentive. That's where the Buttercups come into the picture. Not only are they at the rock bottom of the social order in my flock, giving April a boost of self worth, they are also little pigs with outsized appetites.

The Buttercups, Scotty and Shorty, know the drill. I walk into the run with April's hot breakfast of rice with raw egg stirred in and holler for April to meet me in the jail. By the time I get to the jail enclosure, all three are inside waiting for me. The Buttercups pounce on the rice and April's competitive instinct kicks in and she dives in, giving each Buttercup a stern peck as they come at the food from each side.

By the time the Buttercups have finished off the rice and egg, April has managed to eat enough to revive her for the day ahead, and she manages to eat enough feed to survive another day. View attachment 3538672

Great idea Carol!
I'm sorry to hear April is declining.
Buttercup team are beautiful!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You are so observant with your girls, and so inventive. Who would have thought to do this?

'Zygous, 'zygous, she's our gal!
If she can't do it, nobody shall!

 

[azygous]

Buttercup update!

First of all, the Buttercups are having a tough molt. I have to confess that I missed Shorty's early weeks of molt because she's always looked rather ratty since her sister Scotty has always picked and plucked her as a matter of course. So, the other day, I was looking at a very ragged Buttercup and was surprised that it was Scotty. Shorty has gotten most of her new feathers in and I was thinking it was the other one I was seeing.

Scotty has also lost weight from molting and now she's the smaller of the two, further throwing me off. So, in the photos attached, the larger, better kept one is Shorty and the raggedy one is Scotty. It really doesn't matter, and I'll tell you why.

Both Buttercups are terrors. They are such terrors that, although they hang together during the day, they split up at night so each can terrorize one of the two coops. I may have mentioned that Shorty split quite awhile ago because Scotty pestered her too much at roosting time. So now Shorty is making life miserable at roosting time for the youngest EEs still roosting in the smaller coop opposite the partition from the two roosters. And Scotty is in charge of making roosting time miserable in the larger coop.

Today I had to put up a partition on the perch in the smaller coop because last night Shorty knocked everyone off. Tonight, Shorty wouldn't hear of using the smaller partitioned space, and letting the three EEs have the other two-thirds. So, only one EE remained in the coop with Shorty, each on one side of the lattice partition, Shorty commanding the larger space. The two roosters are oblivious to all the drama.

No one, but NO ONE picks on these two little shrimps. While they are not necessarily very high up the social order, it is irrelevant. They still have their way when and how they want it. The rest of the flock puts up with the behavior.

In the photos, they are eating Chinese leftovers. That is, a few EEs and the two Buttercups are since they're all needing the extra protein and veggies due to hard molts.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Both Buttercups are terrors.

No one, but NO ONE picks on these two little shrimps. While they are not necessarily very high up the social order, it is irrelevant. They still have their way when and how they want it. The rest of the flock puts up with the behavior.

Maybe it's a breed thing! Personally I'll never choose to get a Buttercup again. Mine is a sh*t stirrer for sure. Anyone below her she goes out of her way to mess with, and anyone above her she antagonizes and then acts like they started it. Plus she's a lifelong freeloader.

I blame hubby, he wanted one so much just because of their little crowns!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

THanks for posting pics of your Scotty in the throes of her hard molt. I have a Dom hen that looks, if anything, even worse than Scotty. She also has lost weight, to the point that when I posted her pic last night on Granny's thread, folks there asked of she was a Bantam. She is limping a bit but I think it's just bc the pinfeathers around her legs are irritating her. I've been bringing her in at night because she's so bare in places. She should be as big as the other hens.

 

[AntiqueB]

Poor things. Molting season is so hard for them.

 

[azygous]

That poor little Dom looks more like a little barn owl than a hen. These hard molters can sure look pathetic.

 

[azygous]

I just want to be clear that I still absolutely love these two little dynamos. Most of the time they're racing around the run like the wind up toy I got for Christmas as a small child in the late 40s that would change direction every second. They are as entertaining as that toy was. The rest of the flock all just keep out of their way, accepting these little high energy life forms as something that simply just is.

But two of them are plenty.