Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Shadrach]

Annie this morning watching me very carefully
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She's lovely.

 

[Shadrach]

Your girls eat rather delicately compared to my little savages!

I was thinking much the same.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

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I have been wanting to do this for some time now. I knew once I started doing this there would be no going back. So I am now diving in and I hope you all enjoy coming along for the ride.

First of all let me tell you how we view our flock as that will help you to understand why we treat them like we do.

Our birds are our pets and we treat them as such. We do not care if someone is not laying eggs. They are welcome to stay at Fluffy Butt Acres until they pass naturally. (Now don't go telling them that! I would hate for word to get out) We do thoroughly enjoy the fresh eggs.

I plan to tell stories from the past as well as from today. I hope you all enjoy and will share stories of your flocks as well.

Hello! My family is all new to chickens except my husband was somewhat exposed a very little bit as a child. His Dad was actually a chicken catcher for a poultry a very big time meat bird raising company in the Deep South. This allowed him to bring home a few birds off of the chicken truck whenever he wanted at his on discretion. The good animal husbandry really never got to take place long at their house before the birds were made into dinner so his teaching opportunities for his Dad were not many to take use of or rather he did not choose to take them at best. So our knowledge base is new for chicks and only on what I have read and researched basically which is quite a lot but you can never beat hands on experience in my book especially for comfort in what you are doing. So far we have nice sweet healthy chicks about 12 days old. I do like your coop, your flock name, and your hen’s names. We asked for the most part very friendly birds and one specific breed which were the Buff Orpingtons. The hatchery was out of those so we got a lavender-black cross Orpington Which is both an egg layer or a meat eater but such a sweet personable hen. Then our more heat tolerant lighter weight birds are our full egg layers. Three Swedish flower hens, and three Creme Legbars. Now personally I think they sent 4 Creme Legbars and 2 Swedish Flower Hens. I know that flower hens can have very different coloring but this fourth one is a shade lighter but looks almost exactly like the Legbars and nothing like a Flower Hen. I want to call and ask the hatchery but all were expensive and she is my favorite bird and I’m not going to part with her unless she turns out to be a rooster but I don’t think she will. She is so friendly. We have names for all our girls too. Tina for our tiniest bird. Matcha for our lead girl or unsure origin, Poppie- the other flower Hen And Verbena. There is Thelma and Louise Betty, Onyx, and Jemima. We will plan to paint our coop yellow based on what my husband says because we need some brightness around here so we were all over that. I love the color you used on the Fluffy Acres Coop. Good Job! Today I have to chick proof the sides of our dog kennel so that I can take down the cardboard around the sides. I want them to be able to see the world around them but not fly through the side when they see me coming to try and get to me first ahead of everyone else. They are love bugs already but too fast for me to catch 9 at one time off the top of my head to keep baby chick poop off of it when they get all excited that’s what they do. Especially whe they are proud of themselves or excited.

Have a great day!

Pam

View attachment 1633786

I have been wanting to do this for some time now. I knew once I started doing this there would be no going back. So I am now diving in and I hope you all enjoy coming along for the ride.

First of all let me tell you how we view our flock as that will help you to understand why we treat them like we do.

Our birds are our pets and we treat them as such. We do not care if someone is not laying eggs. They are welcome to stay at Fluffy Butt Acres until they pass naturally. (Now don't go telling them that! I would hate for word to get out) We do thoroughly enjoy the fresh eggs.

I plan to tell stories from the past as well as from today. I hope you all enjoy and will share stories of your flocks as well.

 

[BY Bob]

OMG, OMG, OMG!!! This is so very exciting! Are those eggs from one breed or multiple breeds? Not that it really matters. Sydney’s going to be a mama!

They are mutt eggs. The rooster is a barred rock and the hens are varied.

 

[BY Bob]

Such sweet babies! Both of them! Both Aurora and Sydney. You know what? Cashew didn’t accept a move either. Granted, the eggs under her weren’t fertile. But I had to let her choose the spot. And then I put the baby chicks under her. It was in the main coop and run with the big girls. And she kicked ass defending her checks against them. Pardon my French.

edited to add: Don’t feel like a failure. You really had no say in the matter. You should actually feel like you’ve done the right thing… You let her make the decision.

The hard part was seeing the panic in her yesterday. She was so frantic. I've never seen any of them upset like that.

 

[BY Bob]

Can I have the ice cream ?

Instead of pickles! What are you thinking?

 

[BY Bob]

Annie this morning watching me very carefully
View attachment 2164096

She sure is giving you the eye. What were you doing?

 

[BY Bob]

I'm really against this candling business.
It's something that seems to be popular with the incubator crowd but in reality for a broody hen serves no purpose other than human entertainment.
This is particularly true with such a small clutch.
My view, she hatches what she hatches. Any interference with the nest and eggs poses a risk, not just of damaging the eggs but also introducing contamination. After all, there isn't anything you can do if the eggs aren't developing. It's a chance you take and a chance they take.
This link will take you to the best chicken site on the web. I've met Tim Daniels and a couple of his more learned contributors. This is a good overview of setting up for broody hens. It is however for free range hens; most of the UK specialists are free rangers. Note in the article how he builds the broody nests. Also note he doesn't mantion anything about candling, egg washing, showing the eggs to his mates, or having hysterics on a social media platform if the hen gets off the nest.
Note also that the "experts" are mostly men.
Ahhemm...
https://poultrykeeper.com/incubating-and-hatching-eggs/hatching-chicks-natures-way/

Thanks!

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

She sure is giving you the eye. What were you doing?

Crouching down in the gateway of the coop. Omw this hen is really sassy. I mean all my other chickens come up to me (well except her two followers Daisy and Ash) but she really is stand-offish

 

[BY Bob]

Hello! My family is all new to chickens except my husband was somewhat exposed a very little bit as a child. His Dad was actually a chicken catcher for a poultry a very big time meat bird raising company in the Deep South. This allowed him to bring home a few birds off of the chicken truck whenever he wanted at his on discretion. The good animal husbandry really never got to take place long at their house before the birds were made into dinner so his teaching opportunities for his Dad were not many to take use of or rather he did not choose to take them at best. So our knowledge base is new for chicks and only on what I have read and researched basically which is quite a lot but you can never beat hands on experience in my book especially for comfort in what you are doing. So far we have nice sweet healthy chicks about 12 days old. I do like your coop, your flock name, and your hen’s names. We asked for the most part very friendly birds and one specific breed which were the Buff Orpingtons. The hatchery was out of those so we got a lavender-black cross Orpington Which is both an egg layer or a meat eater but such a sweet personable hen. Then our more heat tolerant lighter weight birds are our full egg layers. Three Swedish flower hens, and three Creme Legbars. Now personally I think they sent 4 Creme Legbars and 2 Swedish Flower Hens. I know that flower hens can have very different coloring but this fourth one is a shade lighter but looks almost exactly like the Legbars and nothing like a Flower Hen. I want to call and ask the hatchery but all were expensive and she is my favorite bird and I’m not going to part with her unless she turns out to be a rooster but I don’t think she will. She is so friendly. We have names for all our girls too. Tina for our tiniest bird. Matcha for our lead girl or unsure origin, Poppie- the other flower Hen And Verbena. There is Thelma and Louise Betty, Onyx, and Jemima. We will plan to paint our coop yellow based on what my husband says because we need some brightness around here so we were all over that. I love the color you used on the Fluffy Acres Coop. Good Job! Today I have to chick proof the sides of our dog kennel so that I can take down the cardboard around the sides. I want them to be able to see the world around them but not fly through the side when they see me coming to try and get to me first ahead of everyone else. They are love bugs already but too fast for me to catch 9 at one time off the top of my head to keep baby chick poop off of it when they get all excited that’s what they do. Especially whe they are proud of themselves or excited.

Have a great day!

Pam

Welcome Pam. Sounds like you have a beautiful flock. I'd love to see some pictures.

I love the color yellow for a coop. Your coop can be a beautiful part of your landscape if you want. That is what my wife wanted when she chose the color.