Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

All right! I'll start off. I just recently renovated the coop with new fresh shavings, big, roomy nest boxes and new sturdy roosts. Unfortunately, they have somehow contracted Coccidiosis. I ordered Corid treatment online and spent an arm and a leg for it to get here tomorrow. I don't want to take any death risks.

Two Mockingbirds made a nest in the rosebush by my house. Long story short, they laid 4 eggs, one fell out, 3 hatched 2 were eaten by my cat and I saved the last one, Rosie. I've been taking care of her for two days and she's been doing great but today during the afternoon she started acting lethargic and soon after she died in my arms. I'm devastated.

Sorry to hear your kiddos are ill, sure hope they feel better soon.

 

[Ponypoor]

Yes! I'm a volunteer at a Pro-Life Boot Camp for middle schoolers so that has been taking up a lot of my time and it is fun. Oh, and my birthday is tomorrow.

Happy Birthday

Hope your chickens feel better that would be the best present ever

 

[Ponypoor]

Time to say good bye. Taking military son to the airport

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Have a good trip back young man and be safe!

photo: yep have a lot of those photos off disappearing chickens - darn they fly so fast!

 

[BY Bob]

Wow - that time went by very quickly - it doesn't seem like it was a full 2 weeks that I thought he had leave for! I'm sure you wish it was longer, too. I'm so glad for you that you had this time, and that he is doing well. It is amazing their growth in a year or two 'on their own' - particularly when in the service.

That is a cool picture of ?Zulu?

More pictures of Momma and the littles. Yes, there are a number of littles in that 'mighty jungle'
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What is she standing on? A limb?

 

[Ponypoor]

Broody Sophia

Today when I hauled off the nest for her drink, eat, poop session, i remover her golf ball and places it in the bottom nest box under hers. The bottom one is Marty’s so I tossed it on there.

Well Sophia went back to her nest box after her eat drink poop and checked out her nest, no golf ball! I could just see her thinking ‘WTH’. She then peeked in the bottom nest box an low and behold there it was! So she crawled into Marty’s box and settled in.

Oh she has it bad! Wonder what Marty will do when she finds out Sophia has taken over her box, I bet she hops into Sophia’s box above hers and lays her egg there.

Ugh these broodies….

 

[ChicoryBlue]

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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Beautiful.

 

[Ponypoor]

Good morning all, just thought I would share some of the gardens here, it's been so wet that everything is green and growing. Personally I would like some warmth but it's not snowing so I will take it!

Lupins are doing well, they are nice but don't last long

Giant Hosta, these like shady locations and last all summer, my cat hangs out under those leaves and plays jungle kitty

The mosquito hatchery, those 'birds' aren't doing their job

Columbine also don't last long but they are pretty

Pink Peonies

Red Peonies - neither last very long either

Petunias - chickens LOVE Petunias, which is why I don't have any at the barn anymore.

Hey what about us chikinz?

Penne sure is a boy

Foggy the little light grey silkie pullet

Frosty the little splash silkie pullet

I am sure my friend will have different names for the silkies when they go back to her place to live

 

[RoyalChick]

Good morning all, just thought I would share some of the gardens here, it's been so wet that everything is green and growing. Personally I would like some warmth but it's not snowing so I will take it!

Lupins are doing well, they are nice but don't last long
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Giant Hosta, these like shady locations and last all summer, my cat hangs out under those leaves and plays jungle kitty
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The mosquito hatchery, those 'birds' aren't doing their job
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Columbine also don't last long but they are pretty
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Pink Peonies
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Red Peonies - neither last very long either
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Petunias - chickens LOVE Petunias, which is why I don't have any at the barn anymore.
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Hey what about us chikinz?

Penne sure is a boy
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Foggy the little light grey silkie pullet
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Frosty the little splash silkie pullet
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I am sure my friend will have different names for the silkies when they go back to her place to live

Pretty (garden and chickens)!

I need to go out and see what flowers survived the downpour and high winds yesterday. I suspect the peonies are toast.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thirsty Thursday
Two ladies enjoying their pre-breakfast beverage.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

The coop is clearly Raven's base of operations. Let everyone out of the box once again at the corner of the sawdust pile. Once I place the last chick down she let out a call and they were all in the coop in under a minute. If she does what she has the last 2 morning she and the chicks will spend a good part of the morning inside the coop digging around. I really do need to fix them a spot to sleep in it tonight. I do not want to though. Decided last night around midnight I was not sleepy so I went and sat out on the front porch beside Raven. At one point I had 5 sleeping chicks piled in my lap. I cannot do that if they are locked away.