Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ValarieF]

How do you guys take care of your single comb girls and boys in the cold winter days?

 

[knoturavggrl]

Caturday

 

[rural mouse]

How do you guys take care of your single comb girls and boys in the cold winter days?

Provide places out of the wind (preferably where the sun hits), a warming thing in the coop, some method of keeping water from freezing, and let them be. Humidity mixed with the cold temps is the biggest cause of frostbite. Around here, windburn is a bigger issue.

 

[rural mouse]

Caturday lounge (more like everyday lounge)

 

[RoyalChick]

Caturday
View attachment 3262841

Oh look! Brothers.

 

[RoyalChick]

Provide places out of the wind (preferably where the sun hits), a warming thing in the coop, some method of keeping water from freezing, and let them be. Humidity mixed with the cold temps is the biggest cause of frostbite. Around here, windburn is a bigger issue.

Yes that - lots of ventilation so they aren't in freezing damp.

 

[ValarieF]

too much cuteness this morning Zeus is showing dominance he has half white wing with light grey patch on his neck. He was really active this morning.

 

[BY Bob]

Phyllis

Phyllis is still broody. I need to break her soon. We are now in the 30s as a total number of days on the nest.

i was very excited to see her come out this morning while I was visiting with everyone. I do miss her greatly.

Of course I was glad to see her until she dropped that broody poop on my footstool! That's bad form Phyllis.

I did take the opportunity of her being off the nest to go see what she was sitting on. Last I knew she was on 2 fake eggs. Here is what I found.

Yup its been a while since I looked.

I think I found where Betty has been laying.

Out of 20 eggs, 14 are Betty's, 4 seem to be Aurora's, 2 are fake.

I took about 7 of Betty's eggs before Phyllis came storming back to the nest. I decided to leave the rest with her for now. Why not take them all and break her?

One hen started running in terror when Phyllis emerged from the nest.

The good news, Gucci was running, the bad news, it was ineffective. She was running in circles bukking is distress and still Phyllis caught her and gave her a thrashing.

We had been gone for 3 days. In those three days poor Gucci must have taken some abuse from Phyllis because she knew the sound of that broody lady emerging and it created panic. If I leave Phyllis on the nest one more week she will be out of circulation most of the time I have them locked in the complex when we go to a wedding out of state. That should help to limit the abuse that poor Gucci might have to endure. It is clear from today's poop that Phyllis is eating enough. She seems pretty healthy. I should probably weigh Phyllis tonight too be sure.

What does everyone else think?

 

[BY Bob]

Fruit fly trap

@Marie2020 I thought you might like to see my fruit fly trap in action. I set this one up late last night just before going to bed using a lemon wedge I had squeezed on salad earlier in the day.
This is the overnight haul (you can hear them drumming on the underside of the plastic) and now it is light a whole load more will join their friends.
Then I will pop the jar in the freezer for an hour or two to kill them off before bringing it back out onto the kitchen counter to start over.

For those of you (rightly) worried about my use of plastic I can tell you I only ever use plastic that has come with packaging. When the wonderful day comes that I can live without constantly finding plastic packaging then I will figure another way to handle fruit flies. Meanwhile, I celebrate the re-use option!

Fruit-fly tax. Diana taken yesterday. I think she is looking pretty!
View attachment 3262811

She is beautiful as always!

 

[BY Bob]

So pretty!
How about these.

View attachment 3262813View attachment 3262815

Gorgeous!