Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Neil1366]

Great names and great looking chickens! Thanks for sharing.

You're welcome. I have more photos of my chickens on other contest threads. I posted a picture on the 2023 BYC Calendar thread. Go check it out!

 

[rural mouse]

This is just the icing on the cake for a very crappy and stressful few days. I received a phone call about 9 friday night. My biological father who while I do not have the closest relationship with I try to see at least once a month and talk to at least once a week was hospitalized Wednesday with suspected pneumonia. He took a turn for the worse, unresponsive and was transferred out to a different hospital and they were calling the family in. They think he's had a stroke but is not stable enough for a MRI to confirm even though 2 ct scans say otherwise. I had to confirm this afternoon that he does not want life support and officially sign the DNR over the phone. He is not expected to make it through the night, but due to strict covid and ICU policies I am not allowed there until 8 am in the morning.

 

[bgmathteach]

Today has been eventful as far as chicken keeping goes...

Light is not the full herself, but we really don't know what's wrong with her. She hasn't been very interested in food, is drinking some, not active since yesterday afternoon. My best guess is some kind of slow moving crop. We massaged her crop a bit and she is a little better compared to 24 hours ago. Thanks again to RC for her advice on sour crop.

Poor LightView attachment 3223419

Then some vicious chicken bullying happened today. It started this morning when ALL the chickens (except for Light who is inside) gang up on Inky, like they all piled up on her and tried to kill her. Inky eventually got out and went inside the coop. We thought this was just one incident, but this afternoon when I gave them their dinner, Inky came out of the coop and they ALL went for her again. This time I noticed there is blood on her neck, and even I had a HARD time shielding Inky from the gang. They were ruthless.

So Inky is now inside the house with veterycin applied to her... I've never seen or heard chickens being soooo bad. The gang likes to chase Light but only chase. Inky is the only gray hen we have and she is always kinda a loner+no touch chicken, but they all got along fine until this morning. Why? What happened? Inky was COMPLETELY TRAUMATIZED after the afternoon attack. I don't know what to do...

No picture of ruthless killing, but I suppose I will post some pics of Ginger, the head of bully. The other day she was dragging this straw for a long time...
View attachment 3223436View attachment 3223438View attachment 3223441

The only thing I can think of to help with this is to isolate the lead bully girl. Start with 24 hours, and reintroduce her...if that doesn't work, then do it for a couple of days. Sorry, that is all I have for suggestions

 

[ChicoryBlue]

It isn't deep enough for a true dished nest so the hen can support herself above the eggs. She ends up resting directly on them and they break. I remember @Shadrach posting about this previously. For my DC broodies that hatched, I put them in my broodie house, which has deeper nest boxes (they were fine with the move). In those nest boxes, I put a box with about 3" of slightly damp sand, made a 'dished' nest), then put straw on top....then moved their eggs then moved them. Worked wonderful. Then hens feet/legs were on the higher, supportive edge of sand with the eggs lower, so the hens weight didn't break them, but the hen could still make contact to keep the eggs warm.
These aren't deep enough for that.

Plus, these hens get booted by some of my more dominant (personality& heirarchy wise) hens...

It’s not tall enough, or it’s not front-to-back deep enough? For height or front-to-back, can you replace the roosting area with good boxes? How much roosting space do you have to have, and could those chickens be moved to another roost?

 

[Ribh]

Hope it is nothing too serious and that all goes well!

No, not really serious @ this point. Let go it could be fatal so I've had to bite the bullet. I hate hospitals. I hate Drs. I'm paranoid about needles. I don't do well with invasions of bodily autonomy or being told what to do & I need to be very well behaved & not let my paranoia get in the way of surgery.

 

[rural mouse]

Got a FB from Ash
View attachment 3223519

Bowling ball fits. She is truly fluffy!

 

[rural mouse]

Extremely soft. I think I know why Storm burrows her head into it when sunbathing. I want a pillow from it!

It may take awhile but collect when she's moulting

 

[Marie2020]

The only thing I can think of to help with this is to isolate the lead bully girl. Start with 24 hours, and reintroduce her...if that doesn't work, then do it for a couple of days. Sorry, that is all I have for suggestions

 

[rural mouse]

I clicked like but don't understand at all to be honest

I got some typos. Going to go fix. Basically find 1 injector as a replacement part and jury-rig/build a single shot one.

 

[featherhead007]

It looks like you might be able to convert it to a pinball machine when it’s offline. So that could offset the cost….