Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[bgmathteach]

Mugshots for Monday come from Bernadette.
She is very interested in something just outside the hardware cloth.

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Hmmm, she is pretty intent there. Something must have caught her eye - hope it wasn't a fox! (nor a 'foxy' hobo Roo passing bye)

And, WOW, I guess I never realized that you had one whole wall of windows, that is wonderful! So bright! It must be another wall that had the windows that the roadrunners perched on??(I'm guessing their windows are the ones I can see through the open door?)

What are those walls made of? Are they sliding doors (that don't slide...are fixed in place?

 

[RoyalChick]

Hmmm, she is pretty intent there. Something must have caught her eye - hope it wasn't a fox! (nor a 'foxy' hobo Roo passing bye)

And, WOW, I guess I never realized that you had one whole wall of windows, that is wonderful! So bright! It must be another wall that had the windows that the roadrunners perched on??(I'm guessing their windows are the ones I can see through the open door?)

What are those walls made of? Are they sliding doors (that don't slide...are fixed in place?

Definitely something on her mind!
Through the open door (or up the blue steps and through the chicken door) is the 'coop' part of the Chicken Palace - solid walls and windows on 3 sides. Bright but out of the wind and can be closed up and cozy. The Roadrunners roosted at the top of one of those windows in the coop.
Where Bernie is standing is in the first of the covered runs - the walls are hardware cloth with the bottom 4' or so reinforced with cattle panel. It also has a human door to the outside.
I salvaged 6 doors and 5 windows and used them all in the Palace.
As well as covered runs there are two smaller pasture runs - which are really just low bins that are open to the elements protected by hardware cloth and cattle panel. I fill them up with leaves and the Princesses spend hours digging there.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Okay, I have a very serious question about my chickens health. I don't free range my chickens. They have a decent sized run. It could probably fit 8 chickens, if not more. I only have 4 chickens, but I have had 6 chickens in there. Three roos, three hens. I gave two of the roos away, they were just too aggressive towards me. Pastel is fine though. Should I start letting them out? They are all over a year old, and I am just terrified that something will happen to them. We are working on my coop, and we will have a large area to let them out during the day. They seem happy, but I live on 14 cleared acres, and I own 50 acres total. 50 - 14 = How much non-cleared land I own. I have had to chase my guineas all around in the woods to try and save their life. I love my guineas, but they are no chickens. I would die if anything were to happen to my chicks. What do you guys suggest to do? Wait until they can be let out into a big coop and stretch their legs and wings that way? Or just let them out with my guineas and hope that everyone survives? They are not trained to go back into the coop, but they could learn. I just would hate myself if a predator came and got one.
Another thing... is BBQ a RIR or a Brown Leghorn? She lays pinkish-tan eggs. Could she be a mix of both? Her comb makes me think a Leghorn, but her color makes me think RIR
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I'll ditto @RoyalChick 's reply as far as my own setup - I have a predator-proof coop where they sleep at night and an attached large-predator proof welded wire run (the run will not keep out a weasel). But I have a larger area, I think about 200 ft x 50-75 ft surrounded with electric poultry netting (which I hope would deal with a weasel). Then within there I have greenhouse frames covered in aviary (not flimsy deer) netting, and part of the netting extends to cover and surround small saplings and a lilac bush in one part.

I will let them out of the aviary netting area and out of the fence if I am with them but otherwise keep them in the fenced & netted area. When they are out they can go into the nearby barn to hide and to rest and preen and I consider that a safety feature helping us.

I lost a beloved hen to a hawk; Butters was attacked by the same hawk during that time. This the strong aviary netting. But we see fox hunting during the day, coyotes singing very close at night, and the hawks nest on this hill. Somebody's stupid dog runs through every now and then. Actually domestic dogs are the worst, they are wanton, wasteful predators. They kill for fun.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

From this post and the next I can't clearly picture your coop and run. You have no predator protection as far as I can tell from your description of your lands. It's not clear what you have for your coop. From this picture the square welded wire is probably strong enough but chicken wire is not good protection. Raccoons can open it easily.

If you have predators around, in the sky or on the ground, like neighbor's loose dogs even, and you free range your chickens without good protection, you will lose one or more sooner or later. Most folks on BYC will say: if you free range (in the true sense, without aerial nets and ground fences), be prepared for losses. It sounds like that's not what you're willing to face. So put a good system in place first. You can still lose them through a failure in a good protection system, but you're minimizing the chances with it.

It comes down to your priorities. You have guineas. I knew a fellow who "free ranges" many chickens (for meat and eggs) from a tractor and fence system. No aerial protection, but the fence is carried by and sticks out from the trailer/coop set-up so it isn't very far for the chickens to run under the big trailer when they spot something. They do have an okay daytime guard dog. He killed a couple of the chickens, but has generally helped protect them by killing anything that approaches the house and chicken tractor field (raccoons, fox) and he has kept the coyotes at bay.

Back to the guineas. They keep numerous (they don't really know how many they have) guineas loose about the place for tick control and meat. They treat the guineas basically as first-line, edge-of-property bait and do not care (that much) when they get taken. The guineas often roost in the forest edge trees instead of their coops and regularly are hit by owls at night and fox /coyotes in the morning when they come down, and other times of day too as apparently guineas have a lot of wanderlust. It generally works as far as helping take the pressure off the chickens.

I have hardware cloth around the lower sides of my coop to prevent raccoon attacks. I will try to get a picture of the coop and run soon. My coop looks shabby because of the plastic that is up from the cold snap. We don't have any neighbouring dogs around, and the dog that gets to go off leash is 13 and he is not interested in killing chickens.

 

[Marie2020]

We have no laws against fireworks they can shoot them all year around. Thank gawd they don't though. My black lab is a big baby and afraid of thunder and guns and fireworks. My chickens don't care. Think I moving the teens out to the coop today it'll be warm and time for them to join the other flock.

Same here with the fireworks, they ban guns but let idiots have these lethal dangerous things to let off any time night or day. It's sickening

 

[Marie2020]

We had a lovely day today

 

[Ponypoor]

Weather Whining Tax
Hmmm 10 here

And 2 here (didn’t count the one gal)
Where is Henny Penny?

 

[Ponypoor]

Calgary Alberta Canada
Planes for Alex

I will be taking one like this next

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Fair is where you win a blue ribbon. Sadly most of life is not fair. You have chosen an animal at the bottom of the food chain for a pet. It would not be fair to risk their life because of a misguided sense of fairness.

It takes quite a while and quite a few losses for the tribe to learn the group knowledge of everything that will kill them. Even then they will fail and a predator will succeed.

I have been free ranging for years now and there is a hawk that hunts mine. The chickens are pretty aware but I almost lost Sydney this summer despite that.

Keep them safe if you can and you can avoid the sadness and tragedy.

Thank you! I'm glad that the hawk did not get Sydney. Near where I live there are huge hawks. I have had a few attack my guineas, but they have never gotten them. The guineas ( believe it or not) are smart enough to go into bushes or their coop to get away. I am going to keep the chickens in their run, because I am not willing to risk their lives outside. I just do feel like it is not healthy for them. I have let Bolt and Pastel outside in the big area when I am working on the coop, and they just stay close to BBQ and Splotch.

 

[Ponypoor]

April? Wow, you are amazing. I’m not sure if I could do that.

Yep I miss my family, chickens and horses.

Thankfully I have the barn cams For the chickies, but I wish I had cameras where the horses are kept