Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

You could experiment. A dim night light might be fine; when in the brooder the chicks here used it, if they fell off their roosts I think it helped them find their way back. But I did dim it down a lot from what it was, the LED was really bright and I taped a piece of paper around the cover and laid a cloth over that.

A BIG CAVEAT - the darkness is what's keeping the peace in the coop here now. So if you have any coop shenanigans, darkness is best I think.

Last night, in trying to teach the pullets to go in I laid the red light inside the pop door, and it helped draw them in. But they went in and out, dawdling around, and soon Popcorn woke up enough to get annoyed, and she stood up, approached the door and pecked one (probably for disturbing her sleep!). That set everything back and put fear of staying in there into the pullets.

So I doused the light, went around and opened the back, and put them in one by one that way. I stupidly turned on the red light to see better and again they all just wanted to be with me, on me, and definitely outta there away from Popcorn. Popcorn again stood up, no pecking yet but that freaked them out even more and they started trying to scramble up and out the back door.

I doused the light again and just used my hands and arms and voice to try to calm them all down for a bit and I held Popcorn back too, and she sat down again. Then I used the phone app placed on top of the coop to see what was going on. I pushed the door closed but not locked just in case, shut my mouth and was quiet, and let them figure it out. Popcorn tucked her head in her wing, and the pullets ended up in new places. One (Anna I think) had scrambled around the nestbox divider in the panic so was in there with Hazel, who was talking quietly but moved forward a little to accommodate her. Hazel was really pretty nice when one was scrambling around her back even, just some boks. That pullet (Ida Diane I think, because she always wants to be with Anna) ended up perching on the divider between the nestbox and the roost platform facing her friend and Hazel, and the first pullet in there (Anna) snuggled her beak up into Hazel's fluffy butt and leg feathers. The third (Tedi, who often roosts more alone) was near them but on the platform right next to Popcorn. I locked the door and left as quietly as I could.

I don't know how to get them to go in to the coop voluntarily. Suggestions welcome. Tonight just stick them in the back door again, without any fanfare or "training" on where the pop door is, how to go in, etc., like the disaster last night. They'll just start understanding that's where they need to get themselves for the night?

I bet this is why young chickens stay out later - they let it get really dark, so the adults are half-asleep first. That way they don't have to run the pecking gauntlet. It took awhile for Popcorn to bother to do anything about the pullets, she was quietly sitting for most of the pop door "training." This means to me that I need to keep the auto-door timer on the late side to accommodate them.

 

[notabitail]

Now I am feeling bad about doing it.
Does anyone else let their chickens eat chicken?

The cause of the rotisserie chicken emergency
View attachment 3660886

Mine have snatched some here and there.
I was also surrounded for eating a turkey sandwich.

 

[featherhead007]

Yes. It did the trick in enticing the cat out of her hiding spot.
Out of curiosity is the line you won’t cross just the ick factor (which I am clearly feeling), or something else?

The bad tuna you ate yesterday maybe?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Does this make me a bad chicken tender?
For complicated reasons involving a cat that disappeared before her vet appointment I made an emergency purchase of a grocery store rotisserie chicken.
Well obviously the cat demanded a lot of it.
And I ate some (quite good I must confess - I have never tried one before).
But I hate food waste so naturally I boiled all the bones for hours to make bone stock.
I just gave the boiled remains to the Princesses. It was slightly unsettling to see them tuck in with such gusto. Bernie running around with a wing tip in her beak was particularly disturbing.
I mean it is just meat and bones right?
But I feel slightly off about it!

It's up to you, how you feel about it, because although you are Servant, you are paying the bills and provide the housing and are due a certain amount of say, I think.

These guys are meat-eating dinosaurs and cannibals, and no part of their Chicken Code of Morals, a sub-chapter in The Way Of The Chicken, says there's anything wrong with that.

The laugh emoji is for the picture of Bernie with a wingtip in her beak running around, obviously very happy with it.

I would give them chicken if we didn't eat all of it ourselves. We don't give anyone here the bones after soup, probably out of the cat-keeping habit of "never give a cat or dog chicken bones because it could splinter and they might choke on it" thing. Which may be an urban myth anyway. Then I'd want to clear the trash for fear of attracting bear, so there's that additional chore. It never occurred to me to try a little wing tip though!

 

[RoyalChick]

It's up to you, how you feel about it, because although you are Servant, you are paying the bills and provide the housing and are due a certain amount of say, I think.

These guys are meat-eating dinosaurs and cannibals, and no part of their Chicken Code of Morals, a sub-chapter in The Way Of The Chicken, says there's anything wrong with that.

The laugh emoji is for the picture of Bernie with a wingtip in her beak running around, obviously very happy with it.

I would give them chicken if we didn't eat all of it ourselves. We don't give anyone here the bones after soup, probably out of the cat-keeping habit of "never give a cat or dog chicken bones because it could splinter and they might choke on it" thing. Which may be an urban myth anyway. Then I'd want to clear the trash for fear of attracting bear, so there's that additional chore. It never occurred to me to try a little wing tip though!

I don’t give it to the cats for the same reason. Although after 8 hours of boiling you can smush the bones between your fingers so maybe I should have just chopped it up a bit and treated the cats.
Sigh.
The Princesses did really enjoy it though! I rarely eat meat so there aren’t many meat scraps going.

 

[SimpleJenn]

My friend's family would feed the "spent" carcasses back to the birds after they were done eating, making broth, etc. Recycling the nutrients. I would let my fish and shrimp eat the bodies of their dead too, as long as it wasn't caused by illness.

 

[featherhead007]

Didn’t Pink Floyd have a song “comfortably numb” that said “ok, ok, ok, just a little wing tip. There’ll be no more awwwwww but you might feel a little sick “

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I don’t give it to the cats for the same reason. Although after 8 hours of boiling you can smush the bones between your fingers so maybe I should have just chopped it up a bit and treated the cats.
Sigh.
The Princesses did really enjoy it though! I rarely eat meat so there aren’t many meat scraps going.

It just occurred to me - aren't poor old laying hens a big part of cat food, either dry or canned? So we're feeding chickens to cats but can't feed chickens to chicken?

Are you basically vegetarian then? To me that would mean you would find it very hard to see another animal eat an animal, much less one of their own. I'm not vegetarian and I find it hard. But once it is dead, then there's a "best use" idea that comes into play I think. The main point in the roast is we can see a whole chicken there in the carcass, we can tell it really was one of our chicken friends, and feel very badly for it. On the other hand you are making a full use of what it offers to fellow beings who will use it gladly, instead of sending the remains to a landfill.

 

[featherhead007]

It just occurred to me - aren't poor old laying hens a big part of cat food, either dry or canned? So we're feeding chickens to cats but can't feed chickens to chicken?

Are you basically vegetarian then? To me that would mean you would find it very hard to see another animal eat an animal, much less one of their own. I'm not vegetarian and I find it hard. But once it is dead, then there's a "best use" idea that comes into play I think. The main point in the roast is we can see a whole chicken there in the carcass, we can tell it really was one of our chicken friends, and feel very badly for it. On the other hand you are making a full use of what it offers to fellow beings who will use it gladly, instead of sending the remains to a landfill.

I’m not too worried about eating hamburgers either, especially the ones from the fast food restaurants ( food additives and soy fillers) hardly any meat in that. My chickens eat much more meat than I do anyway

 

[featherhead007]

I’m not too worried about eating hamburgers either, especially the ones from the fast food restaurants ( food additives and soy fillers) hardly any meat in that. My chickens eat much more meat than I do anyway

I love the shrimp fried rice or noodles with vegetables