Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Look at how odd Bert’s colour is, he is definitely not white but some odd grey/lavender with orange splashes. At first I thought he was just dirty from dust bathing, but you can see next to his mum and sister he is not white.

View attachment 3745626

That is some cool coloring Bert is displaying there. Looking good Bert!

 

[RoyalChick]

I would not recommend antibiotics. If it is just a soft shelled egg she needed help clearing there is no need for antibiotics.

Sorry to misrepresent you.

 

[BY Bob]

I saw a reference to "The Ole Bat" this morning. I think it is time to do a update on her. At some point this spring she will turn at least 11 years old. She is still going strong and is in the best shape ever weight wise. She looks great, I would not think of her as a geriatric hen if I did not know her and spotted her out and about. I really do not think she has laid a egg in almost a year. To my knowledge she never picked back up laying after her last clutch late last spring. Right now, her face is reddening up fast. I would think at 11 a hen would be done laying. With Momma who knows. This girl has spent over half her life brooding chicks, she could lay again. I will say while it has been frustrating, with the excessive brooding she has taken care of herself. As of last year her eggs were fertile with really strong shells.
Here is the "Ole Bat" in all her glory this past Wednesday.
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She has been through and seen a lot in her 11 years. Oh the stories this hen could tell if she were able to.

Edited to add.
I went back and did the math. From the clutches I have allowed her to hatch willingly or surprisingly she has hatched off 47 chicks herself. This is with me limiting most of her clutches to 2 to 4 eggs.

She surely is one impressive lady!

 

[ManueB]

Hello FBA!
I haven't been posting in a while but almost always following along. It's nice to see the younger ones growing and all starting to lay, and senior hens still doing well.

How exciting that queen Aurora turned five !
Although I have to say my heart is with those who have known misery and wandering, more than with the kings and queens. Momma hen will forever be my senior chicken hero.

@Sally PB I'm hoping the best for Pip and wanted to add that while it's certainly difficult to heal completely from salpingitis, I and others have had experiences of long remissions, for many months and even years. Pip is young, healthy, and it seems you caught this very early. Had she stopped laying for a few days or did this follow right away after normal eggs ? Healthy eggs not long before would indicate this had not been brewing for much time.

I'm still dealing with some chicken health issues also. Two of my older ex-batts are very unwell, Blanche and Cannelle. It has happened before and they made it through but now they are four and four months, so that is not young for production layers. Cannelle has ascites, like @Ponypoor 's Red. But they're both still fighting so I'm trying to support them without imposing invasive treatments. Chipie, my tiny crazy bantam, has been having strange neurological issue manifesting like a seizure with wry neck, though it happens only every now and then. Lilly's abscess between two fingers is stubborn and still not healed. And we had a big hawk land yesterday right next to Piou-piou, who is quite upset at being the target twice to predators in two months !
In better news we have made our run bigger and more secure and it's now completely covered, and while it's not big enough to let 17 chickens contained for a whole day, it would allow us to lock the two roosters together for a few hours if we really needed to.

A few mugs :

Lulu. No clue why she looks so angry at me.

Laure next to her

Mélisse

Gaston

And little Théo who still believes hands are meant to be pecked and destroyed.

 

[rural mouse]

Curious mugs from yesterday. Sherlock was playing with a ball, ignoring them...si they came up to see what was going on.

Twirp, Cuckoo behind her, Whiskey on the left.

Whiskey, Cuckoo, Pear, and Maizie (or Enigma)

 

[Sally PB]

I would not recommend antibiotics. If it is just a soft shelled egg she needed help clearing there is no need for antibiotics.

The "meat bit" in the second picture was identified as lash material, so I am treating with amoxicillin. 250 mg capsules, twice a day for 10 days.

@Sally PB I'm hoping the best for Pip and wanted to add that while it's certainly difficult to heal completely from salpingitis, I and others have had experiences of long remissions, for many months and even years. Pip is young, healthy, and it seems you caught this very early. Had she stopped laying for a few days or did this follow right away after normal eggs ? Healthy eggs not long before would indicate this had not been brewing for much time.

I don't know for sure when she laid her last normal egg. I will be watching closely.

Pip was the smallest of the chicks, and she also (probably) had coccidiosis at about age 4-5 weeks. I saw dribbles of blood in bedding, and she was the one who became very lethargic. She bounced right back from that with a treatment of Corid.

She was very energetic when she came out of the coop this morning, and headed roght for the food bowl.

 

[featherhead007]

Good morning.

I wake up at the slightest sound. I'd never sleep with jaffar

Dakota ain’t no picnic either!

 

[LhickenChicken]

Go Kansas City Chiefs!!! Anyone else watching the Super Bowl?
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Actually, I'm not watching it. But that's a cute chicken!
Cute Lumina

 

[LhickenChicken]

What'd you expect?

You know, some people are right: before getting into artificial intelligence, why not deal with natural stupidity? (AI is actually stupider than people sometimes)

 

[LhickenChicken]

You know, some people are right: before getting into artificial intelligence, why not deal with natural stupidity? (AI is actually stupider than people sometimes)

Tax
Kali

(You know, I'm going to run out of tax at this rate!)