Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

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.

They either stay out late or go in first. Phyllis still goes in first.

 

[lightm]

Foxy mugs

 

[SimpleJenn]

This was rotisseried and then boiled for 8-10 hours. Every bone I touched just dissolved into mush. I think they were long past splintering and I now have a yummy chicken broth I can use for myself.
I think in future I will feel it to the cats once it is all mush rather than the chickens. Not that I have ever bought a rotisserie chicken before so the issue has never come up!

I wonder if using a potato masher or food processor/blender to really get those bones crunched would be a good idea? It would be a gross slurry but hey, my animals would all devour that.

 

[BY Bob]

The chickens are looking gourd-geous today!
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Got their coop all nice and ready for the winter...as well as I could. I even raked up a big tote full of soft pine needles for their nest boxes!

I see what you did there.

 

[Ponypoor]

Foxy mugs
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Such a beauty he colour is lovely nice and rich red

 

[Ponypoor]

They either stay out late or go in first. Phyllis still goes in first.

Penelope, Blanche and Sophia all go to roost early followed by the Silkies and Mr P. - Sophia’s chicks then come in. The rest trickle in.

In the Summer House the school chicks go to roost up on the door first, and my niece’s hens on the roosting ledge. Those Azurs are wild cards some nights they settle early some nights not. But when I go out at 8pm to do evening chores they come running out to see me and follow me around while I feed the horses they are so nosey! Everyone else stays put but them

 

[RoyalChick]

I wonder if using a potato masher or food processor/blender to really get those bones crunched would be a good idea? It would be a gross slurry but hey, my animals would all devour that.

Yup. Exactly what I had in mind.

 

[BY Bob]

I have my gang left over turkey from our thanksgiving the other day

My mum didn’t want to give it to them but I grabbed the left overs and threw it into them. Hahaha. And you know I have tossed them roast chicken mash potatoes and gravy which they loved!

One thing through, I never give bones (esp cooked ones) to the critters- they splinter too easily and can get lodged where they shouldn’t.

EDIT - I see that you said the Jones were boiled to the point of being gelatinous, which would be fine - a wonderful treat

The Jones?

 

[BY Bob]

I do not. However, it is for an entirely different reason: I do not buy store chicken. All of the chicken I eat are mine ('extra' roosters and older hens) I feel it would be wrong to feed them their friends. Besides, I eat all of what I make/cook, even making broth and/or chicken soup with the remains...so there would be little if anything nutritious left. Plus, cooked chicken bones is a bad combination with a dog. He (Elroy) does peruse the chicken run on occasion - especially in the evening - we put him on rat duty! And, he is good around the chickens - though it is still only when we are out and around that he gets to be in the chicken run!

That said, I think no less of you for doing so - nor should you think less of yourself. You and @BY Bob can choose to do what you feel is right (just as I do for myself), and no one should judge, since neither of you are neglecting nor harming your feathered friends. So, the real question is: can you live with what you have done? If so, fine - drop it. If not, okay, don't beat yourself up - what is done is done, so, drop it! (See: all is okay! Let it pass from your mind either way!)

 

[BY Bob]

Is that a lovely new feather is see poking up with Sydney she is looking good.

That's from a few weeks ago as she was regrouping her tail feathers.

This is more recent.