Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[notabitail]

Hello everyone. I'm sorry for my absence, but I needed to step away for a bit. I am fine and well but dealing with heartbreak. My queen of my flock and a personal favorite Butter is gone. I did not realize she had been taken until it was time to put the flock up Tuesday evening. It had to have happened while I was at the dr's for my tests. Me and mom are both gutted, Butter was beyond special. I did not find a body but a mass of yellow feathers on the hillside. I have never minded the chickens being on the hill until now. This has me and mom thinking. Over half of the flock spend a majority of time on the hill. I cannot protect them when they free range on it. We are going to build a larger coop that connects to Russ's stall and free range time is going to become limited. Coyotes are taking over. I am going to be looking at a major flock reduction if this happens. I know several of them will not take kindly to being cooped up. I have a soft list of who to keep and who to place if we in fact go this route. I want to keep them all but I am thinking of what is in their best interests. I cannot kill off 3 separate packs of coyote's.

I'm sorry to hear that

 

[RoyalChick]

Hello everyone. I'm sorry for my absence, but I needed to step away for a bit. I am fine and well but dealing with heartbreak. My queen of my flock and a personal favorite Butter is gone. I did not realize she had been taken until it was time to put the flock up Tuesday evening. It had to have happened while I was at the dr's for my tests. Me and mom are both gutted, Butter was beyond special. I did not find a body but a mass of yellow feathers on the hillside. I have never minded the chickens being on the hill until now. This has me and mom thinking. Over half of the flock spend a majority of time on the hill. I cannot protect them when they free range on it. We are going to build a larger coop that connects to Russ's stall and free range time is going to become limited. Coyotes are taking over. I am going to be looking at a major flock reduction if this happens. I know several of them will not take kindly to being cooped up. I have a soft list of who to keep and who to place if we in fact go this route. I want to keep them all but I am thinking of what is in their best interests. I cannot kill off 3 separate packs of coyote's.

Oh no. So sorry.


It may not be a permanent issue though. Once they learn there aren’t easy chickens on the hill the coyotes may move on to where there is other food.
And of course you can still shoot some of them!
Maybe you need one of these. Honestly I am a cat person but I do consider it from time to time.
https://www.11alive.com/article/lif...rhood/85-4197e55d-d611-4047-a6c6-f7cbe34e43d5

 

[Bigbluefrog]

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.

Love it! Do you have photos of your coop! Looks fun and functional!
We just built ours.
Silly chickens keep us laughing!
Good medicine for the soul!

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Hello everyone. I'm sorry for my absence, but I needed to step away for a bit. I am fine and well but dealing with heartbreak. My queen of my flock and a personal favorite Butter is gone. I did not realize she had been taken until it was time to put the flock up Tuesday evening. It had to have happened while I was at the dr's for my tests. Me and mom are both gutted, Butter was beyond special. I did not find a body but a mass of yellow feathers on the hillside. I have never minded the chickens being on the hill until now. This has me and mom thinking. Over half of the flock spend a majority of time on the hill. I cannot protect them when they free range on it. We are going to build a larger coop that connects to Russ's stall and free range time is going to become limited. Coyotes are taking over. I am going to be looking at a major flock reduction if this happens. I know several of them will not take kindly to being cooped up. I have a soft list of who to keep and who to place if we in fact go this route. I want to keep them all but I am thinking of what is in their best interests. I cannot kill off 3 separate packs of coyote's.

I'm so sorry. Sending hugs.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Love it! Do you have photos of your coop! Looks fun and functional!
We just built ours.
Silly chickens keep us laughing!
Good medicine for the soul!

Welcome to Fluffy Butt Acres! I'm sure other people will tell you more about it, but we are all super happy that you are here.
Do you have pictures of your chickens?

 

[fuentemoon]

My quail eggs were delivered today. This is probably gonna sound stupid, but I had them delivered to my house. They're gonna sit out there for some while. I don't know why I didn't think about the heat, but it's about 100 F. Jeez what a dummy. I could have had them delivered to my job. I guess lessons learned, we'll just see what's what.

At least I only work until 17:00 instead of 21:00 today? Ugh!!!!

Maybe best to skip the resting period and set them right in the incubator?

My sister had some quail eggs in a carton in her laundry room
(which is a separate building from her house and generally close in temp to the outside,) she heard a cheep the other day and found one had hatched! They quickly put the rest in the incubator, they were quite surprised.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hello everyone. I'm sorry for my absence, but I needed to step away for a bit. I am fine and well but dealing with heartbreak. My queen of my flock and a personal favorite Butter is gone. I did not realize she had been taken until it was time to put the flock up Tuesday evening. It had to have happened while I was at the dr's for my tests. Me and mom are both gutted, Butter was beyond special. I did not find a body but a mass of yellow feathers on the hillside. I have never minded the chickens being on the hill until now. This has me and mom thinking. Over half of the flock spend a majority of time on the hill. I cannot protect them when they free range on it. We are going to build a larger coop that connects to Russ's stall and free range time is going to become limited. Coyotes are taking over. I am going to be looking at a major flock reduction if this happens. I know several of them will not take kindly to being cooped up. I have a soft list of who to keep and who to place if we in fact go this route. I want to keep them all but I am thinking of what is in their best interests. I cannot kill off 3 separate packs of coyote's.

Oh I am so sorry to hear about Butter. Just this morning I chased a mange-y ratty looking coyote out of the paddock when I was putting hay out for the horses.

Had me also rethinking outside time. And repairing the chicken netting, it won’t protect against hawks but it will keep the foxes and coyotes out, and stray dogs. But the kiddos sure love to run out the back door of the barn when I am cleaning stalls, it’s such a pain in the fluffy butt chasing them back inside.

Is there anyway you can put up some poultry netting and run a double strand of electric fencing around the outside perimeter?

It’s the risk we take letting them run around outside.

 

[Ponypoor]

My sister had some quail eggs in a carton in her laundry room
(which is a separate building from her house and generally close in temp to the outside,) she heard a cheep the other day and found one had hatched! They quickly put the rest in the incubator, they were quite surprised.

Really?! How odd is that! It’s must be truly hot in there

 

[RoyalChick]

Hey there FBA friends - anyone who wants to get a dose of chicken eye-candy could do worse than checking out this thread - basically a BYC on-line chicken show.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...r-contest—standard-bred-chicken-show.1589086/

It is great because people are posting some really beautiful birds with multiple shots of each one.
And for me it is great because I get to see different breeds (Bitsas are allowed too - but where it is a breed the post always says so).
Some of you guys may want to enter too!

 

[knoturavggrl]

Hello everyone. I'm sorry for my absence, but I needed to step away for a bit. I am fine and well but dealing with heartbreak. My queen of my flock and a personal favorite Butter is gone. I did not realize she had been taken until it was time to put the flock up Tuesday evening. It had to have happened while I was at the dr's for my tests. Me and mom are both gutted, Butter was beyond special. I did not find a body but a mass of yellow feathers on the hillside. I have never minded the chickens being on the hill until now. This has me and mom thinking. Over half of the flock spend a majority of time on the hill. I cannot protect them when they free range on it. We are going to build a larger coop that connects to Russ's stall and free range time is going to become limited. Coyotes are taking over. I am going to be looking at a major flock reduction if this happens. I know several of them will not take kindly to being cooped up. I have a soft list of who to keep and who to place if we in fact go this route. I want to keep them all but I am thinking of what is in their best interests. I cannot kill off 3 separate packs of coyote's.

I am so very sorry for your loss.