Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[bgmathteach]

Sorry for the distance here, but I had a really hard time even getting a picture. From what I can tell, this is a Cooper's Hawk, right?
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I think it must have attacked yesterday. My chicks are absolutely terrified of everything right now and will hardly poke a beak outside their compound. This is the first time in 3.5 years of having chickens in the yard that we've had any kind of predator incident. I guess our luck could not last forever.

I can't tell what kind f hawk itis, but I sure hope it isn't a Cooper's! @ChicoryBlue , thoughts?

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Since several has posted pictures of most or all of their present and past flock members I thought I'd do the same in celebration. Keep in mind it will take several posts to get everyone as I have to go in the photo archives to 2018. I am sorting through a few thousand pictures of both the chickens and the horses to get this stuff.

In the beginning.
My current Chicken journey officially began in December of 2018. As a child we had chickens, including my special 2 Dominiques who started and cemented my love for chickens. Life happened, parents got divorced and eventually my biological dad got out of chickens and we were never in a spot to have our own chickens. Fast forward about 20 something years I have my own daughter now and starting around the age of 5 she added chickens to her wish list along with horses. I'm now in a place where technically I could have chickens, but, she was never a big egg eater, and well, as much as I wanted them I saw this just as a phase. She was about 8 when at one of the horse shows 2 chickens escaped and flew onto the hillside when they let them loose in the ring during intermission. This was for the kids called the "Chicken Chase." I will not go into detail about how I hated that, but it was a thing at the horse shows along with them trying to catch a greased piglet. The 2 chickens were a game hen and rooster. I do not know how old they were when they escaped but they were full grown. It upset the guy that owned the chickens, especially loosing the rooster as well......he was known for fighting chickens and wanted them back badly. He tried for a year to catch them and trap them unsuccessfully. They became feral. You would see them or hear them on the hill every few weeks. His brother at the time had the barn and farm leased so he was constantly there, asked me to help, I said I would, but did not. His brother eventually lost the lease to the barn and they left. About this time the Rooster was killed, and he decided to leave the hen alone and let a predator get her as well. Did I mention I did not like this guy? They were gone for about 5 months when someone else took over the barn and they gutted it and re did the thing. During this time I noticed that the hen was starting to come off the hill every few days. Rosie took notice of her and she once again started up hot and heavy on how she wanted chickens. I told her if she tamed that hen she could have chickens. Challenge accepted. She started taking scraps and putting them near the spot she was coming off the hill. The hen began watching for her and would come and eat, you could not get within 20 feet of her before she took off, but it was a start. This went on for a couple months. Rosie was eventually able to drop off the food, call for her and sit on a bucket about 5 feet away and talk to her. The barn got finished, horses moved in and we got asked to take over management and daily care of the boarded horses. That meant that we were there every day for several hours. Rosie started moving her feeding spot to inside the wash bay. The hen followed, you could not touch her yet, but you could talk to her and walk around her without her bolting. She also started laying her egg in the hayloft of the barn. This was not fun as the one thing they did not replace in the barn was the hayloft or death trap as I called it. Due to my reluctance to go find the "easter egg" daily we also discovered this hen was prone to go broody if given a chance. Even in December she tried to sit on a clutch of 10 infertile eggs and when I went to remove them tried to beat me up. You all should know by now who I'm talking about.
Here is one of my first pictures of the old bat. When we began taming her she had already lost the toes of her foot due to a hawk.

 

[Perris]

congrats on hitting the milestone Bob! Here's my favorite photo of my favorite roo to mark the occasion:

and my favorite photo of my favorite hen

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I can't tell what kind f hawk itis, but I sure hope it isn't a Cooper's! @ChicoryBlue , thoughts?

You have an aerial predator, but I can't tell from those pictures what it is, sorry @goldenfingers ! I usually go by size and markings, can't see either here. Your young chickens in particular are at risk in any case, but if it's a large hawk like a red-tail, all of your chickens are in danger, even big ones. Maybe @micstrachan can tell? She sees them high in the sky. Or @BY Bob ?

 

[ManueB]

Since several has posted pictures of most or all of their present and past flock members I thought I'd do the same in celebration. Keep in mind it will take several posts to get everyone as I have to go in the photo archives to 2018. I am sorting through a few thousand pictures of both the chickens and the horses to get this stuff.

In the beginning.
My current Chicken journey officially began in December of 2018. As a child we had chickens, including my special 2 Dominiques who started and cemented my love for chickens. Life happened, parents got divorced and eventually my biological dad got out of chickens and we were never in a spot to have our own chickens. Fast forward about 20 something years I have my own daughter now and starting around the age of 5 she added chickens to her wish list along with horses. I'm now in a place where technically I could have chickens, but, she was never a big egg eater, and well, as much as I wanted them I saw this just as a phase. She was about 8 when at one of the horse shows 2 chickens escaped and flew onto the hillside when they let them loose in the ring during intermission. This was for the kids called the "Chicken Chase." I will not go into detail about how I hated that, but it was a thing at the horse shows along with them trying to catch a greased piglet. The 2 chickens were a game hen and rooster. I do not know how old they were when they escaped but they were full grown. It upset the guy that owned the chickens, especially loosing the rooster as well......he was known for fighting chickens and wanted them back badly. He tried for a year to catch them and trap them unsuccessfully. They became feral. You would see them or hear them on the hill every few weeks. His brother at the time had the barn and farm leased so he was constantly there, asked me to help, I said I would, but did not. His brother eventually lost the lease to the barn and they left. About this time the Rooster was killed, and he decided to leave the hen alone and let a predator get her as well. Did I mention I did not like this guy? They were gone for about 5 months when someone else took over the barn and they gutted it and re did the thing. During this time I noticed that the hen was starting to come off the hill every few days. Rosie took notice of her and she once again started up hot and heavy on how she wanted chickens. I told her if she tamed that hen she could have chickens. Challenge accepted. She started taking scraps and putting them near the spot she was coming off the hill. The hen began watching for her and would come and eat, you could not get within 20 feet of her before she took off, but it was a start. This went on for a couple months. Rosie was eventually able to drop off the food, call for her and sit on a bucket about 5 feet away and talk to her. The barn got finished, horses moved in and we got asked to take over management and daily care of the boarded horses. That meant that we were there every day for several hours. Rosie started moving her feeding spot to inside the wash bay. The hen followed, you could not touch her yet, but you could talk to her and walk around her without her bolting. She also started laying her egg in the hayloft of the barn. This was not fun as the one thing they did not replace in the barn was the hayloft or death trap as I called it. Due to my reluctance to go find the "easter egg" daily we also discovered this hen was prone to go broody if given a chance. Even in December she tried to sit on a clutch of 10 infertile eggs and when I went to remove them tried to beat me up. You all should know by now who I'm talking about.
Here is one of my first pictures of the old bat. When we began taming her she had already lost the toes of her foot due to a hawk.
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What a beautiful incredible story, thank you for telling it. You must have been so proud of your daughter's persistence.

 

[bgmathteach]

Glad to hear hubby was ok and maybe learned a little something about speeding and tailgating?

Hope the COPPER learned something about tailgating, too!

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

That first year with her she went broody constantly. Same routine, find her nest, break her up and she would find a even more difficult place to hide. She did get brave enough to start eating out of our hands, but would go crazy if you tried to pick her up or touch her. For some reason and I cannot remember now why, a few bales of hay were left in the corner of the wash bay that was rarely used due to drainage issues. She started laying there and even removing the eggs daily once again she went broody. This time it is march, the hen clearly wanted chicks. Rosie had also as far as Momma Hen was concerned had tamed her. A friend offered to give us fertile eggs. We thought about it, and then decided to take her up on her offer. We got a dozen eggs for her to hatch. We told Rosie before hand we were NOT keeping a rooster. We also told her we would only keep 1 of the hens to keep momma company. HAHAHA...famous last words.

3 weeks later, 5 of them hatched.

I said before she was evil when I broke up her nests. I never truly knew just how evil this hen could be until she became a Momma. Rosie is enthralled by the chicks, wanted to hold them but was terrified of being flogged. And Momma did get her good once. Like a good mother I would end up taking the beatings to catch a chick for her to hold daily. All was going fine until around 5 weeks old she lost 2 overnight to a Raccoon. We caught and disposed of it but Rosie was heart broken anyway. Thankfully her favorite chick survived. The one that she had to hold daily was the white one. Now all along we are repeating....no boys, not keeping a rooster. I also had a favorite picked out of the 3 remaining ones.
The white chick did not stay white long, and was named Toothless. Rosie was obsessed with "how to train your dragons" then.

My favorite she named Tuffnut. See a problem developing here?

Yup, you guessed it, the 2 favorites are boys.
The only pullet who at the time was named Astrid, but was later changed to Henrietta. Who by the way, was the least social of this group and a reason she was not a favorite lol.

This also was a sign for me for the years to follow. 2 out of 3 chicks male, favorites are males. Yet I'm not keeping a boy mind you at this point.

 

[bgmathteach]

I know many places have minimum speeds posted. I'm glad Montana doesn't.

In my state, a minimum speed doesn't mean you can't go slower...it just means that if you are going slower than that you have to have your hazzards on so you aren't a hazzard to others coming up on you too quick (we only have it for highways usually 65 max, 45 min. And, if you are 'below' 45, must have hazzards on.) That said, I think it is reasonable....and it it is stormy or such, having flashers on helps for others to see you through the blizzard when traffic is inching along (rarely good visibility when everyone is down to a crawl!)

Crawling tax:

Sampson, 'honking' his horn at me

 

[bgmathteach]

Crinkle-cut is a great description of it. I may adopt that if you don’t mind!
It really is crazy trying to figure out where it is going.
Minnie has a comb that if anything is even more crazy!

Minnie’s mugshot for Monday

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My, my, the unfashionable these days. Don't you know that it is a FASHION ACCESSORY? I mean, really, mum...I do wear a facinator, too! Next thing you know, you'll be asking about my stylish bangles...oh, wait, you already have!!!

 

[bgmathteach]

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mathew my pretty boy!
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Ohhh, he looks like a Count in his regal attire! So handsome