Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[notabitail]

Well not very ladylike if we are honest. Much too much shouting and flying around.

They are little rascals. That is why I love chickens.
Even the big chickens we have are rascals. Especially In Albis. She likes to escape and put herself at risk all the time, just for food!

 

[rural mouse]

I may need chains to hold me inside today so I am not being a helicopter parent. Today is Raven's and the chicks first full day of free ranging. The chicks are older then I planned but weather is finally cooperating and it is supposed to be beautiful. I now need to let go and trust that Raven has this...and she does. I let them all loose at the sawdust pile, hovered for 10 minutes while the coffee brewed and watched the little sussex's demolish some worms I uncovered. When I came in they had made it about 5 feet to the back corner of the building. That first cup of coffee is gone and I feel the urge to go check on them.

I know the feeling. They're venturing forth....

Fortunately with babysitters.

 

[rural mouse]

A well done tribute to a special little lady. I thank you for sharing such a moment with us all.

x2

 

[rural mouse]

A beautiful tribute for a beautiful and special chicken. In her short life she got to experience many things in the "way of the chicken". Soar now little chicken, soar high with those eagles.

Edited to add.
When you need to take breaks from flying little chicken know there are 4 tiny littles waiting for you at the rainbow bridge in need of a mother.

 

[BY Bob]

A farewell to Eli: The little chicken who lived large

I am mourning the loss of my little Eli. She was only with me for a very short time, but she burrowed deep into my heart with her quirky ways.
She never showed any respect for the forces of gravity, and was always on the move, so I do not wish for her to 'rest in peace', but rather to fly to the limits of the sky.

Eli was all about food
I loved Eli and Eli loved food.
In her first few days with me she demonstrated her willingness to embrace the unconventional in order to achieve her goals: sunflower seeds were her drug of choice and there was nothing she would not do to get her beak on some.
Here she is on her first day with me tunneling under her sister Babs to reach the seeds without getting too close to me.

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Later she would burrow under my thick winter jacket to reach the seeds I kept in an inside pocket.

Let's face it, food was the way to Eli's heart!

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She was bottom of the pecking order but she was so fast and so fearless that she always got the lion share of what was on offer.

Eli was a troublemaker
She was full of mischief. You can see it in her cheeky little face.

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She led expeditions to tunnel under the fencing designed to protect the shrubs (useful fact: 3 chickens can dig up a year old, 3' shrub in under 3 hours).

And of course the first thing she did in any circumstance was go up. Here she is testing out the rafters on her first day post quarantine. Those are human sized doors and the floor is steeply sloped. She is a long way up!

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She led her sister into roosting in the rafters going up to about 11' seemingly without much effort.

Eli was a beauty queen
I have a thing for black chickens. Eli took that to a new level because she was black but with flecks of gold. Sometimes she wore green (to match her green snakeskin boots), and sometimes she wore purple, and many days she wore both. I could look at her for hours.

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Eli went broody
At the end of May she suffered some kind of neurological event - maybe even a fit - and she fell off the roost (fortunately not the rafters). Immediately afterwards she took to her nest box and became full on broody.
Every day I carried her out of her nest and she chowed down on the sunflower seeds in my hand while I took her outside for some personal care time. She flared her tail and hackles at anyone in the vicinity. Who knew such a small chicken could make herself so big? She was magnificent - like an ancient battleship in full sail!

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When her eggs didn't hatch (there weren't any eggs under her) she finally emerged but she had one more thing to do.

Eli was an Aunty
Although her eggs didn't hatch, Eli adopted the five chicks I had brought in while she was broody. They were already a month old when she first encountered them but she immediately responded to their little peeps. And maybe even more amazingly they seemed to accept her as their mother.

They were always together. She called them to her and they came. She showed them the good places to dig. They were always talking to each other so I am sure she imparted lots of chicken secrets to them. I hope so.

Here she is showing Sylvie how the worms gather in that little patch because it is usually damp.

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I know it is fanciful, but in retrospect it is hard not to believe that she knew she was dying and wanted to bring a clutch of babies into the world before she left it.

Eli's last day
Eli's last full day with us was on Sunday June 11, 2023. She sat quietly in a sheltered part of the Chicken Palace. She seemed calm and content. She was alert but napped from time to time.
I sat on a tree stump right near her so she would know I was there but not stress about me reaching for her.
Together we watched the other chickens running around and digging in the shrubs. I got lots of pictures.
Bernie stopped by and I was on high alert. Bernie was never vicious to Eli, but Bernie is a big chicken and Eli was quite small and even a well intentioned nip from Bernie can be painful. But Bernie stopped and groomed Eli's head, cleared some bits of bedding dust off her and then moved on.
Babs came by a couple of times and groomed Eli and preened herself and sat for a while.
Her brood of almost grown 'chicks' came and visited often. They are high energy and I was worried they were disturbing her - but she seemed happy to have them around her.
Here is the last picture I took of Eli - it was taken on Sunday evening just before dark. Her kids are settling in around her a bit puzzled why she is not in her usual spot.

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Also fanciful but I feel very sure that the chickens knew this was Eli's last day and they were coming to say goodbye.

Just at dark I shooed the little ones into the hen house and gently carried Eli in as well.
At 4am Babs triggered the coop cameras by coming down off the roost to visit Eli.
Eli was still alive.
An hour or so later Babs triggered the camera again coming to check on Eli, but Eli was gone.

***
It has been an emotional couple of days for me with feelings of guilt and loss, but also of awe at how these wonderful creatures behaved to her at the end.
Mostly now I am just so happy that Eli got to experience what I am sure she believed was motherhood and I hope she has passed on a lot of wisdom to the next generation.
I feel reasonably confident she didn't teach them to roost in the rafters as they never witnessed that directly, but as I am not fluent in Chicken, who knows what she might have told them!

Farewell Eli. Fly to new heights. Know you were much loved and that we all miss you.

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Just beautiful.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

I give them the whole world to explore and leave them alone. I just went out to peak at them when I did the first egg run. Where do I find them? In the coop!

 

[rural mouse]

I give them the whole world to explore and leave them alone. I just went out to peak at them when I did the first egg run. Where do I find them? In the coop!

Good. They're reassuring you.....before you find them out catching minnows....

 

[Ponypoor]

I know the feeling. They're venturing forth....View attachment 3540320View attachment 3540319View attachment 3540322View attachment 3540323Fortunately with babysitters.

They grow up sooooo fast! Just love how they are part of your gang

 

[notabitail]

I give them the whole world to explore and leave them alone. I just went out to peak at them when I did the first egg run. Where do I find them? In the coop!

On hot days mine huddle in their coop or my office. All day. Until I put then away.

 

[LhickenChicken]

Have you given any antibiotics just incase it’s a bacterial infection?

I know it’s hard to get them here in Canada but if you have a Vet for your cats maybe s/he will get you something like Baytril or tetracycline

I am trying electrolytes, coconut oil, and finally garlic spray. She's also missing feathers so I am treating for lice or mites, when I was getting the cocks butchered yesterday one of the cocks had mites, so I am treating the whole flock.