Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Aussie-Chookmum]

It is official: my chickens are pigs!
I gave them the rice from my Thai take-out dinner and they just wolfed it down. @BY Bob ‘s chicken’s seems to peck delicately at their pasta and mealy worm treats. Nothing delicate about the Princesses. I did not speed up this video.

It looks like they haven't been fed in a week! Shame on you RC!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Added a Reading Room to the Coop

Since Lilly has decided to sit in the nesting boxes while others are laying and thereby blocking access for those that actually want to lay eggs, I added another nesting box today. We are calling it Lilly's reading room. I need to put in the magazine rack for her but otherwise I got it done in one afternoon.

I'm going to just add on the side of the existing nesting boxes. So I had to remove the wall from 1 side to start.

View attachment 2098232

Of course Hattie came by to inspect the worksite
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Here are the frame boards all cut. I like 2x2s for jobs like this.
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I put 2 walls together and had this.
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And here is the framing done.
View attachment 2098238

I then cut out a wall for between the boxes and a floor.
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I then tagged the frame onto the other boxes to figure out where to cut the whole in the coop.
View attachment 2098245

Then I removed the frame and cut the hole.
View attachment 2098247

I then attached the frame permanently.
View attachment 2098253

Removed the outer wall and the inspectors returned. Worksite safety is important and it must be built to their approval of course.
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Replaced the outer wall.
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New roof and inner wall put on.
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Add straw and eggs.
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And then the final inspections
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I hope they like the added capacity.

Great series of photos Bob. ❤

You make chicken coop renovations look easy!

 

[RoyalChick]

I wouldn't worry. I feed the lot here rice a couple of times a week. I refrigerate the rice as quickly as I can after cooking and I chop it into pieces before I give it to them.
It is not a bad idea to chop up anything you give to the chickens. I even chop melon and salad into fairly small pieces.
I will write this though and it would seem to apply to quite a few; the quantity of treat foods I see being given is far too much. That block of rice I would give to 20 chickens as a treat.

I don’t really give them many treats. They get the rice every couple of weeks when I have Thai food and a few kitchen scraps like the ends of cucumbers or the outer leaves of cabbage. And I give them a sprinkling of sunflower seeds now and then when I am working in and around the Palace.
I guess if the rice is too much I could parcel it out during the week. Or even eat some of it myself!
They don’t seem fat to me. Whenever I pick them up I worry they are too skinny as you can feel their keel bone very sharply.
Is getting overweight the concern in too many treats?

 

[RoyalChick]

Added a Reading Room to the Coop

Since Lilly has decided to sit in the nesting boxes while others are laying and thereby blocking access for those that actually want to lay eggs, I added another nesting box today. We are calling it Lilly's reading room. I need to put in the magazine rack for her but otherwise I got it done in one afternoon.

I'm going to just add on the side of the existing nesting boxes. So I had to remove the wall from 1 side to start.

View attachment 2098232

Of course Hattie came by to inspect the worksite
View attachment 2098254

Here are the frame boards all cut. I like 2x2s for jobs like this.
View attachment 2098227

I put 2 walls together and had this.
View attachment 2098236

And here is the framing done.
View attachment 2098238

I then cut out a wall for between the boxes and a floor.
View attachment 2098242
View attachment 2098243

I then tagged the frame onto the other boxes to figure out where to cut the whole in the coop.
View attachment 2098245

Then I removed the frame and cut the hole.
View attachment 2098247

I then attached the frame permanently.
View attachment 2098253

Removed the outer wall and the inspectors returned. Worksite safety is important and it must be built to their approval of course.
View attachment 2098271

Replaced the outer wall.
View attachment 2098273

New roof and inner wall put on.
View attachment 2098276
View attachment 2098278

Add straw and eggs.
View attachment 2098280

And then the final inspections
View attachment 2098282
View attachment 2098284

I hope they like the added capacity.

Nicely done! You are clearly skilled at carpentry. But you may have misunderstood Lilly. I assume she was trying to mess with the others so she may not actually appreciate this ‘improvement’!

 

[RoyalChick]

Today's progress pic.
View attachment 2098568

You were right Bob! Except for her head and tail they are all starting to open up!

Oooh! I am so happy for her. So much better!

 

[Shadrach]

I don’t really give them many treats. They get the rice every couple of weeks when I have Thai food and a few kitchen scraps like the ends of cucumbers or the outer leaves of cabbage. And I give them a sprinkling of sunflower seeds now and then when I am working in and around the Palace.
I guess if the rice is too much I could parcel it out during the week. Or even eat some of it myself!
They don’t seem fat to me. Whenever I pick them up I worry they are too skinny as you can feel their keel bone very sharply.
Is getting overweight the concern in too many treats?

Overweight is one of the concerns. Plain rice is unlikely to to make them fat.
It's the accumulation of fat on the internal organs that is the problem and we don't see this until they die and a necropsy is done.
The problem with treats isn't so much that it makes the chicken fat, it's they don't eat as much of the food that provides the correct amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Diet health is about variety and balance and a little knowledge of the nutrient content of the foodstuff.
There are certain foods that give the required range of amino acids to make a complete protein.as well as the enzymes needed for digestion. Meat, fish eggs and milk are obvious ones. Dairy produce isn't something that a chicken would normally eat, so that leaves meat and fish. You could remove all the grain feeds and assuming the chicken free ranges just supply meat and they would be fine. The vegetable content they need would be acquired in forage.
Meal worms for example provide a complete protein but are very high in fat. In normal feeding for a chicken be it feral of or one of the breeds of game fowl large quantiles of any individual foodstuff are rare. Chickens are foragers and as such tend to find small amounts of whatever they eat, not a dinner plate full in one sitting.
Their digestive system is different from ours in that it is constantly on; it's designed to cope with constant input during the day and while they are resting the food in the crop drips into the digestive tract overnight.
It's about supplying a balanced food even as treats. A chicken with a crop full of rice will feel full but rice doesn't have all the essential amino acids to make a complete protein. The same applies to pasta and most other foods. They need to be mixed with something else.
I believe @micstrachan could tell you some sad stories about giving too many of the wrong kind of treats.
A little of just about anything is fine; platefuls of food that doesn't have the correct nutritional content isn't.
Unfortunately this isn't a message many want to hear. People like giving their chickens treats but the truth is they are often shortening the chickens lifespan.

 

[BY Bob]

The pictures are not showing for me until I go to reply Bob.

I wonder what that is about? Is that always our just for that post?

 

[BY Bob]

I don't know about your chickens, but I think that's a woazer!

Thank you?

 

[BY Bob]

Today's progress pic.
View attachment 2098568

You were right Bob! Except for her head and tail they are all starting to open up!

Hooray!

 

[BY Bob]

Great series of photos Bob. ❤

You make chicken coop renovations look easy!

With helpers like Hattie they are!