Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Hello Muffy

this is the disembodied voice again, how are you?

You look good

I see that’s you good side

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Yesterday. They found their own little spot with nice fluffy litter

Meanwhile on the other end of the main run - the Bigs hanging out. Popcorn on the cinder block perch, Hazel preening, Butters resting. The pointy end of the log by Butters points to about where the Spuds are, to my right

Today. No poops on me, how come?

 

[Ponypoor]

Yesterday. They found their own little spot with nice fluffy litter
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Meanwhile on the other end of the main run - the Bigs hanging out. Popcorn on the cinder block perch, Hazel preening, Butters resting. The pointy end of the log by Butters points to about where the Spuds are, to my right
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Today. No poops on me, how come?
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Everyone looks so content and serene

And those wee ones sure are growing, I love their colour

Edit - oh, and good choice to wear glasses - don’t want a little pecker to poke your eye out!!

 

[TX Chick Noob]

They are so adorable. I'm so sorry about the Lavender Orpingtons.

Perhaps this will help.
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Hattie pictures always help. Help me want LOs.

We will see what happens this week. If not, then there is always next year.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hattie pictures always help. Help me want LOs.

We will see what happens this week. If not, then there is always next year.

Oh chicken math

Next year I want Noirans (BCMarans hybrid), Bielefelders and dark Brahmas!! One of each is fine.

Today on my way home one of the houses has their family flock running free and there was a white with black feathers on neck hen, is that a Columbian colour?

 

[rural mouse]

Oh chicken math

Next year I want Noirans (BCMarans hybrid), Bielefelders and dark Brahmas!! One of each is fine.

Today on my way home one of the houses has their family flock running free and there was a white with black feathers on neck hen, is that a Columbian colour?

That is the Colombian color. If feathered feet. Is light Brahma. If clean feet, is likely Colombian wyandotte (like Silver was). However, other breeds also have Colombian coloring. Delaware and light sussex do. Delaware is very light on the neck ring.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

I won’t be on here much anymore. My parents saw my screen time (let’s just say it’s four hours) and so now my phone doesn’t get to be in my room at night maybe on the weekends, not sure. I’ll be on here after school- have a great day!

 

[featherhead007]

I have been researching a specific breed of chicken, and I realized that many people have not heard of BYC
So I decided to educate them on this topic as well as breeds. We should expect more chicken lovers to be joining us soon.

 

[ManueB]

I won’t be on here much anymore. My parents saw my screen time (let’s just say it’s four hours) and so now my phone doesn’t get to be in my room at night maybe on the weekends, not sure. I’ll be on here after school- have a great day!

Well, between the new phone and the chicks, you must realise they have been trying hard to make you happy. Maybe they just know you have more important things to do, than spend four hours on the phone .

@RebeccaBoyd I’m hoping to hear reassuring news from and for Grandma.
@ChicoryBlue i’m very happy to read Butters seems to be improving somewhat and that the confrontation between the spuds and the bigs is going quite well.

I have some twofer and a bunch of questions also.

Petit Blanc tries to tidbit for Alba on the other side of the netting. She seemed very surprised, like she noticed for the first time there was another white chicken . And a male!

Annette and Pied beau

Merle and Piou-piou

Now here are my questions. Sorry, i’m a bit long !
First a small rant. I had a follow up with the vet for Nieva’s bumblefoot, as it wasn't healing like it should. She asked me to drop her at the clinic when we could, saying she would debride her abscess between two appointments. Then, they called back to say we should bring her in today, as it's their planned surgery day. And my partner who took her just called me to say they are putting her on full anesthesia! I’m a bit upset the vet didn't mention that from the beginning, she made it sound like it would be just what I do for her, taking the scab off and emptying the gunk, but by a professional. Does it seem normal to you that they should do a complete anesthesia for this ? I feel like it's just confort for them so she doesn't struggle. (Which unfortunately she does a lot).

My second question relates to chickens social issues. Léa’s young chickens are now three months and a half, fully integrated, though they spend 3/4 of the day on their own outside the chicken yard on our property. One of them, Laure, is having real difficulties at roost time. She is rejected not only by the adults, but also by her siblings, both cockerels and pullets. No one will let her sleep next to them, she gets pecked hard at best, and sometimes thrown off the roost. With 19 chickens in the coop there are no free roost left and the one place where she could sleep alone is already occupied by another pullet. Usually I don't intervene directly, there is no blood drawn as she always fly off the roost before getting wounded, but sometimes I actually have to move around one or two chickens so she can finally find a safe space on one of the roost. She jumps around a lot and i’m afraid she will end up hurting herself. She has no issue whatsoever during the day, she’s more shy than the others, but she hangs out with her siblings all the time. Do you think it's just a phase and I should let them ride it out? Or should I try adding yet other sleeping commodities so they have more choices ?

Laure

And last question : entering molting and i’m really not looking forward to it if it's as bad as last year, especially for my older ladies. Do you use any supplements? Last year I fed them scrambled egg and sardine weekly but it didn't seem to help the hard molters.

 

[BY Bob]

First I hope she recovers.
Then, I don't think there is anything for God to forgive. Just the mere fact that you are not able the three of you to get her up again when she falls means she should be in a nursing home.
I wish this terrifying fall allows it to happen. You and your people have done everything you could for her, and beyond.

*****************

I don't have appropriate Sunday pony pictures but I have a sweet and sad story that fits well. This morning I decided to finally go on a longer mountain run than I have for the last months, to our nearest summit. When I passed the sheep's first altitude stables at 7.30, I noticed the ewes were still in their pen and the couple of shepherds with them, usually they would have been out right after dawn. About fifteen minutes running up, I came upon a tiny baby lamb, lying down on the trail, curled up against a rock. It was alive but not moving. I don't have the shepherds mobile number, so I called my old retired farmer friend Gaston. He asked me where it was located exactly and said the ewe must have birthed it yesterday and they didn't notice. I offered to bring him back down to the shepherds, he said if I could, that would be the best, and he would give them a call to let them know.

I wasn't sure how to carry a baby lamb, though pretty sure not like an adult sheep upside down or doing the wheel barrow... I just tried to keep it in the position it was in, all curled up. The way down seemed much slower because I was afraid to fall and hurt it.
The woman shepherd came to meet me and she was very emotional and grateful. She said they had 11 ewes that birthed lambs yesterday while in the mountains, and that many of them had not cared for their lambs, so it had been very difficult coming down and they had lost this little one. Her husband had gone back all the way up before night, but hadn't found it, likely it wasn't on the trail then. She said she had shed tears of frustration at loosing it, and that it was a miracle.
I wasn't as enthusiastic , I am not so sure it will survive. But, the baby was lucky in many ways : they have had several wolves attack in the last weeks, but obviously the wolves weren't around that night. And we have a heat wave so even in the mountains it didn't fall below 13 / 55.
And it just happened I decided to run there today ; there may have been a couple of hikers on that trail after me, but not before two or three hours and it's not certain that they would have brought it down.
It was quite warm and fully conscious so I hope it makes it.

I didn't think to take a picture of the baby lamb because I was too worried to bring it to safety. Here are some landscape pictures. The first one shows our summit and the small red arrow points to Mount Viso, the highest european summit in Italy.
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Gorgeous photos as always. So glad you found the lamb and got it back to them. Praying it recovers.