Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Anyone else having viewing issues?

Was it you warning me about sneaky egg layers?

Fluffy is gifting Curly with an egg, I told them both no way!

 

[Ponypoor]

While trying to get video of Cheetah chasing The Idiots, I caught this one. Most of the early drama is on the other side of the fenced garden, but there is a chase at the end, and I see some hope for the Idiots too. They're responding to hen "help" calls. Doesn't look like they've quite figured out what to do when they get there, nor do they seem to have a clue when they Cause the call, but they are learning!

This one was fine!

Glad to see others have drama also

 

[rural mouse]

Was it you warning me about sneaky egg layers?

Fluffy is gifting Curly with an egg, I told them both no way!

View attachment 3230623

Good girl, Fluffy!

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Near Death Experience

I almost lost either Aurora or Sydney this afternoon.

That's right, one or the other was dead meat but somehow Aurora saved them both.

Here's what happened.

It was really hot today and for once I did not have any major tasks I needed to do this weekend so I decided to take a swim in the pool. The girls were hiding in the shade under the magnolia tree and in Hattie House.

I swam over to the skimmer and decided to empty it for the ladies. Aurora and Sydney came trucking over and started to dig through the leaves for bugs. They were not more than 24 inches from me.

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Not only was I standing there half out of the pool, so was my daughter as she stood next to me as we watched them dig for bugs.

All of a sudden Aurora squawks and takes off. When Aurora moves she is going so fast she is using her wings to go faster. Sydney was head down when Aurora's wing hit her and startled she jumped straight up and took flight.

Jumping straight up likely saved her life as a very large Cooper's Hawk swooped past where Aurora had been and underneath Sydney.

That right, UNDERNEATH Sydney!

The hawk was so close to me I still can't figure out how its wing did not touch me! Here is an illustration.

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If the hawk has successfully hit one of the ladies, I could have reached out and strangled it with my bear hands. I likely would have.

I did not think I had to worry about a Cooper's Hawk trying to take out one of the big ladies. I figured they were too large for a Cooper's Hawk. Sure a Polish or Glynda. Aurora is a big lady. Similar is size to the Cooper's.

This hawk is a super threat to the girls and I don't know what to do. I had no chance of shooting it today. Éowyn was in the house at the time. Maybe her presence would have dissuaded the hawk because he would see her as a threat. It certainly has no fear of me at all.

After this attack the hawk did not return today. (I think I need to give the hawk a name. Maybe Satan.... )

I am locking the girls in all day tomorrow but that is also not the answer. I'm truly scared for them.

Wow that is scary. Thankfully Aurora saw it in time. That is a determined Hawk there and hopefully others suggestions of a Falcon club or game warden may provide you with a solution. I know these birds are protected, but, I do not feel they are endangered anymore. I personally know of 8 red-tail hawk nests on the hills in front of my house and behind it. Crows can be a nuisance tearing up garbage but I encourage them to hang around. Legally they are my best line of defense against the hawks. I have 3 big ones that like to land on one of the trees just across the creek a few times a week. When I see them, I toss a few hot dog pieces across the creek to them. I feel I'm paying them for their "hawk harassing services". I should also point out that once I started feeding them just a little bit, my garbage stopped getting tore up by them. I just have to deal with cats tearing it up now.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Was it you warning me about sneaky egg layers?

Fluffy is gifting Curly with an egg, I told them both no way!

View attachment 3230623

hehehe, I warned you when you got your boy and the ladies met him that they would start hiding their eggs. These 2 girls are the decoys. The real culprit is off somewhere out of sight finding the most out of the way spot to hide.

 

[RoyalChick]

Ok horse people out there, I have a mare who is freaking me out. She won’t lay down to sleep, and she is very sleep deprived. She has fallen in the stall a couple times. I have given her pain meds for over a month at one point to try to get her to lay down and sleep. Didn’t help. She has no issue getting down and up, in fact rolls fine in the mud . I tried leaving her out at night, but all she did was walk in circles around the manure pile - she dragged her feet so much she was so exhausted, she squared the toes off! And caused my thoroughbred mare to follow her round and round and round, both lost weight!

So back in the barn both came at night.

Last night she fell again. I am at my wits end. Any ideas?

Warning very disturbing video

Spoiler: Warning disturbing video

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Tax for off topic

I gave the kiddos more roaming room today
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That is very distressing - I know nothing about horses but that certainly didn't look good.

 

[Ponypoor]

Good girl, Fluffy!

Hey ! Stop that!
No babies allowed till I win the lottery!

 

[Ponypoor]

That is very distressing - I know nothing about horses but that certainly didn't look good.

She fell couple yrs ago and crashed through poor Sally’s stall wall! This I why she has a double sized stall now. This has been going on for a while now…. Anyways I have no ideas what to do, and live in fear of her seriously injuring herself. She certainly didn’t look overly scared when it happened, it’s a good thing she is a light breed of horse and not some huge heavy draft

Did you hear the hens start up when she did that?!! I guess her thud startled them! And poor Reenie next door! I could see her give a jump on her video feed.

Drama from equines and poultry, I might be getting too old for all this drama!

 

[Ponypoor]

hehehe, I warned you when you got your boy and the ladies met him that they would start hiding their eggs. These 2 girls are the decoys. The real culprit is off somewhere out of sight finding the most out of the way spot to hide.

Well won’t do no good! They are all locked in the hen house at night so the poor eggs will be no good

When I win the lottery they sit and hatch to their wee hearts content I will then be chicken poor not pony poor!!!

 

[Ponypoor]

Wow that is scary. Thankfully Aurora saw it in time. That is a determined Hawk there and hopefully others suggestions of a Falcon club or game warden may provide you with a solution. I know these birds are protected, but, I do not feel they are endangered anymore. I personally know of 8 red-tail hawk nests on the hills in front of my house and behind it. Crows can be a nuisance tearing up garbage but I encourage them to hang around. Legally they are my best line of defense against the hawks. I have 3 big ones that like to land on one of the trees just across the creek a few times a week. When I see them, I toss a few hot dog pieces across the creek to them. I feel I'm paying them for their "hawk harassing services". I should also point out that once I started feeding them just a little bit, my garbage stopped getting tore up by them. I just have to deal with cats tearing it up now.

I have some big ravens and lots of crows here, the blue jays harass anything that they think can be threatening, so when I hear the jays going I know there is something around. The girls hightail it under the big blue spruce at that point.

This morning a plane flying rather low and very fast caused them all to take a look and decide if they needed to take cover, they looked at me and I guess I should have called them in to take cover. When I am out there they look at me, I need them to look at Mr Pompei….