Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Nice door!
And it’s great you played rooster and helped to show her other nests.

Ya but she ignores me just like she does Mr P!!!

 

[Ponypoor]

I am on it - camera and spreadsheet to the ready!


She is totally playing with me. Today she went in at 7am and came out at 7.45am. In the 15 minutes it took me to rinse my breakfast plate and put on boots and coat against the snow she had gone back in and came out again 45 mins later. So I counted the egg as from the later time, but really it could have been earlier.
I cottoned on to one of her games because at 3am she goes into the lower level boxes, but she lays her egg in the upper level. So I realize the 3am visit was probably just a squabble with Bernie that resulted in Babs going to sleep on the sofa!


So maybe last week was more than usually disrupted because of the foxes and the hawk. So we will see how it goes from here. She doesn't seem stressed or flustered. One thing I have noticed about her is that she can be all settled in a nest box and when I rattle the seed cup she shoots out and grabs some seeds and then goes back to her box. She is not one to miss out!
Her eggs seem normal. They have been fading over the last year so it feels like she needs to top up the ink - but shells are fine and she is a voracious eater of crunched up egg shells. Well a voracious eater period.

I really want her to take a break - I hate that she is exhausting herself. She is such a poppet.

Looking like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. But yet, she is playing games!
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Such lovely feather colouring - I really love the two toned feathers.

 

[ManueB]

And Gaston sure did a good job of alerting you, glad your chooks are ok.

I make a point of checking at least through the window and most often going down to see what's up every time I hear him calling an alarm. My hope is that he understands that I will come if he calls. Very often it's for nothing serious but a few times like this one, he likely saved lives.

It doesn't matter since both are fairly similar.

I wonder how many wars and conflicts could be avoided if more people saw things like this!

That Lilly is well named. What a beauty.

We have grown very fond of her, especially my partner . Her name suits her well though she has a very different temper than your Lilly did.
Sadly we can't seem to get her foot abscess to heal, even though she has been through an operation and three antibiotics course.

I'm very interested in this. It is not as easy to tell as one might think. I usually check this in the summer because I start bumping into them laying over a couple of days and randomly grab a few data points then work to complete the data set.

I track my chicken's laying time. Not by the minute, but close to half hour.
(I do realise that is a luxury most chicken keepers can't afford !).
My ex-battery hens only laid in the morning, including very early morning, at 4 am, during their first two years, and their cycle was 24 hours, not 25. In fact the first year they laid almost exactly at the same time every day. When they got older they began extending their cycle and laying a bit later, until two pm. This also meant they wouldn't lay every day.

My one year old leghorns now do something quite similar, laying only in the morning. It has varied only slightly with the shortening of the days. But about once or twice a month, one of them lays toward noon and doesn't lay the next day. So they lay 29 to 30 eggs per month .
(I'm curious to know if those of you who have leghorns have noticed the same thing in their first year.)

All my other hens lay throughout the day, from morning until about an hour and a half before roosting. Some have a regular cycle (25, or 26 hours) and for some it's completely random or erratic.
Some take only 20 mn to lay and some take nearly three hours, but it's hard to tell when exactly the eggs come out. Possibly they spend some time in the nest after laying. So I'm not sure if one should take into account the time they walk in the nest or the time they come out to track the cycle.

Anyway to me, it seems that the 25 hour cycle rule is an over simplification, or maybe it's true for a small majority of chickens but definitely not for all !
*********
Twofers :
Cannelle and Piou-piou

Nieva and Annette

Lulu and Kara.

 

[Ponypoor]

What on earth is wrong with Sheba now?

First, I apologize. Seems like I only post problems.

After Randy was rehomed last week I came down with the flu and was pretty out of commission. My husband has done all the chicken tending in until today, and he's not very observant. He doesn't get in the run like I do. Today I took them some warm treats and saw Sheba in daylight for the first time in ages.

The other hens look 100% fine and healthy!

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She acts fine. She eats fine. Surely that's not all from Randy? It looks like her head is losing all its feathers and I'm not sure what's going on with her comb.

Again, everyone else is healthy.

She has finally stopped laying. Maybe moulting is finally happening?

I agree with you and I think RC has also commented, she is likely moulting. Her comb I cannot say, maybe some frostbite? Maybe an injury? Who knows with chickens. Keep it dry and as long as she’s eating and pooping it’s all good!

Input, output, make sure it’s all equal

 

[RoyalChick]

Ya but she ignores me just like she does Mr P!!!

Oh poor guy - his girls are so rude to ignore his best efforts like that!

 

[ManueB]

What on earth is wrong with Sheba now?

First, I apologize. Seems like I only post problems.

After Randy was rehomed last week I came down with the flu and was pretty out of commission. My husband has done all the chicken tending in until today, and he's not very observant. He doesn't get in the run like I do. Today I took them some warm treats and saw Sheba in daylight for the first time in ages.

The other hens look 100% fine and healthy!

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She acts fine. She eats fine. Surely that's not all from Randy? It looks like her head is losing all its feathers and I'm not sure what's going on with her comb.

Again, everyone else is healthy.

She has finally stopped laying. Maybe moulting is finally happening?

It's hard to see on the pictures but it looks maybe more like broken feathers than molting.
With molting, you would see pin feathers full of blood underneath her normal feathers. And those don't look like they are broken ; they have a keratin sheath over them and their end is very regular.
If they are broken feathers, these don't really seem to bother the hens. They are a problem with a rooster because they won't protect the skin from his claws and spurs. Otherwise the hens don't care.
However they will not grow back until she actually molts.
Her comb was most likely pecked, but that should heal very well.

I would try to check if she is being still bullied by the other hens.

 

[Ponypoor]

Oh poor guy - his girls are so rude to ignore his best efforts like that!

Ya seriously!

But I have seen him make a nest and then turn to show the girls and fall off the top of the box - gosh I almost busted a gut at that one!

The hen looked over - he was gone! She looked down…. And there he was - I could almost see her eyes rolling

 

[Ponypoor]

Oh poor guy - his girls are so rude to ignore his best efforts like that!

But you know he tries hard!

 

[RoyalChick]

But you know he tries hard!

But that just makes it worse. Poor little guy. He seems to pick out good places and makes them nice and comfy and nobody appreciates them!
Here is a for Mr P.

 

[Ponypoor]

But that just makes it worse. Poor little guy. He seems to pick out good places and makes them nice and comfy and nobody appreciates them!
Here is a for Mr P.

Ya seriously! I many times feel for him, but what do I know ? I am not a chicken. Wish o could find the video where he falls off the top of the nestbox…. Poor wee fella all us hens laughing at him good thing he knows he’s handsome!