Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

She's not to growing pins, yet, so still very active and alert. Belladonna just looks miserable, but considering how much Kren and Horus went for her, she started with needing a HUGE number of feathers (and I suspect is a large part of the reason they're coming in so slowly). I'm hoping to get fresh pics of more of the crew on Wed. Mera's feathers are in between Maizie's and Belladonna's in growth, so she's starting to get past the uncomfortable stage.

Bernie is quite depleted and porcupine like but she seems to be coping.
She even laid an egg today - first one in several weeks.

 

[Ponypoor]

@RoyalChick, moult warning on the last pic.

Yesterday, went to close the coop.

Head count 27. Recount...27...who's missing?.....

No Chia. Go back out at nearly dark....still no Chia.....uh-oh.... what happened?

Open coop this morning, no Chia (have had them turn up inside somehow before)..... 1 thought: did she go off to lay a first egg somewhere else, have it take a while and "shelter in place"? No discernable tracks in snow. Head to work (can't get around that) while still mostly dark, so if she did shelter, wouldn't be out yet.

Temps warm up from around 12F at dawn to 38ish. Work is a free-range zoo.

Get home as sun is close to setting, shadows are long. Go to close the coop. Hector is out with Enigma, looks like she's starting to think about eggs. Shan is on the coop porch. Closing isn't happening quite yet.
View attachment 3672045Both girls on the porch. Tuff came out to check on them as Hector went in.

Meanwhile, up on the HIGH roost (where ONLY the adults are allowed to roost, and not even all of them) is Chia, all fluffed up and settled....until I pulled the camera. Then she turned elusive. At this point, I am only speculating, but I suspect she laid her first egg in a "wild" location (as yet undiscovered).


View attachment 3672050Maizie has her feathers mostly in, still some growth needed, but she's getting active again.

View attachment 3672048Storm (and her girls, Granite is on nest boxes behind my shoulder) are testing roost sites (the littles weren't allowed to stay there and Storm moved with them).

View attachment 3672051Nellie has laid a couple of eggs again (several days apart, good) and is looking great!

Primula is pretty much done, but Belladonna is still miserable and is huddled up with P.

And Indigo just turned into an explosive feather cloudView attachment 3672052They're dropping with each movement...
I'm glad the weather is warming up. The moulters need warmer weather.

Also discovered that the power to the coop isn't working, so am replacing the cords. Better to know now than in deep winter. Old ones lasted 4 years, so I can't complain...aside from the hassle of running new ones.

Soooo glad Chia showed up, I was about to cry It looks like your gang is doing well with the cold snowy weather.

 

[Ponypoor]

They've mostly been turning up their beaks at the idea of doing more than setting a toe out of the coop. Deep winter, these temps are pretty normal. At the moment, though, there's still enough feather growth that hunkering down is the preferred activity, unless adding more fuel for feather production. The temps are climbing again over the next few days, so that will start shifting again.

I don’t blame them, I am finding this damp and cold miserable myself.

 

[Ponypoor]

You mean everyone?

Oh that last photo, I had a good chuckle at the one hen peeking in the door - awesome photo

 

[rural mouse]

Bernie is quite depleted and porcupine like but she seems to be coping.
She even laid an egg today - first one in several weeks.

I was getting a few Lark/Indigo eggs and a Pippa egg routinely before the cold. Then I saw a Nellie egg and a brown egg. The brown one looked too big for a pullet, but about right for a restart. I haven't figured out who laid that one. I had 2 Pippa eggs during the storm and found a squished brown (similar to the other). Had a Nellie egg yesterday, so looks like about a week apart for both Nellie and the brown egg. Everyone else isn't laying, and Indigo, obviously, just quit. If I can find the "wild" nest, it would help. Better still, convincing the girls to lay in the coop... Pippa needs to really get going on her moult, but she's got a few pins scattered about, so

As long as I have enough eggs for a gallon of eggnog for Thanksgiving, I'd rather they have some rest. If they took turns laying so I got 1-2 eggs per day, no one would have to lay more than bi-weekly. I wouldn't have enough to sell, but they'd have a break and we'd still have eggs for home.

I'm not about to attempt to convince them of the idea, though...

 

[rural mouse]

Soooo glad Chia showed up, I was about to cry It looks like your gang is doing well with the cold snowy weather.

I was ready to cry too. No idea where she spent the night, but, considering last night's temps, she deserves to look pleased with herself.

 

[Ponypoor]

More pavers down, this pic is from standing at the door, south-west side, looking north. The trench I dug starts just a few feet to the west (left) and goes around the back, north side. Now with the sandy gravel gone in this doorway area (which was always damp) I saw some water from the recent rain seeping in here.

BTW I think that's Tedi looking around at the new pavers. Also looking at the fake eggs I just temporarily stored here while changing out the roost and nestbox materials...

The Spuds are just 13 weeks old now, and nobody is laying, Popcorn is molting and has lost her over-conditioned fat keel (maybe she gets that way because she anticipates the hard molt?) and Hazel is doing a slow molt too.

Here you can also see the dripping from the sad roof situation, I'm attempting to address it.
View attachment 3672026
Only good thing about the doorway seep is it's not a huge amount of water and it does drain away through the ground reasonably quickly. I don't think I have it in me to try to make a 20' trench going south the other way around the extended run and coop, over to the French drain, or alternatively extend the first trench up this way another five feet, is it deep enough to accommodate an extension?...I'm thinking of seeing how the pavers here at the door work for the winter and put off more major excavation. I think they will stay above the wet when it rains again, but I can deal with a bit of wet if they don't, by piling on more shavings. In the back in the picture, the north side floor, it's doing really well now with the rain because of the trench, I checked under the pavers.

Well done! That’s a lot of slugging, and it looks great. I am sure you will notice a huge difference, also enclosing the run so you don’t get rain and snow beating in will help.

 

[Ponypoor]

I was ready to cry too. No idea where she spent the night, but, considering last night's temps, she deserves to look pleased with herself.

They are darn tough that’s for sure! But gosh they make us worry

 

[featherhead007]

My beautiful Coco, is now in her molt too. Lost her whole tail in one day. Feathers falling off with every step she takes. This is horrible! She laid her last egg on Friday. So, everyone except Dakota is going through some stage of molt. (I think that I’m losing hair over this too)

 

[Ponypoor]

My beautiful Coco, is now in her molt too. Lost her whole tail in one day. Feathers falling off with every step she takes. This is horrible! She laid her last egg on Friday. So, everyone except Dakota is going through some stage of molt. (I think that I’m losing hair over this too)

Tis the season, most of mine are also in some
Stage of moulting. You’re hair is fine it’s not falling out because of chickens.