Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Twofer, a butterbird and Ric Flair
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Tricksy is so precious
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Hubby says he sees red wattles.
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I uh...fell through a deck today and really messed my knee up. Of course, it's the one that's already been giving me problems.
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The offending board. It's at my parent's house so thankfully dad will get it fixed right up ASAP. Hubby made me put a knee brace on and now that I'm done with chores for a while I will rest it up on the beanbag.

Oh dear hope your knee is ok.

Meanwhile your babies are so ridiculously cute

 

[Ponypoor]

Everybody’s still here, doing pretty well. All chickens alive and apparently healthy. Caught a northern fowl mites infestation very early, nipped it in the bud with two permethrin spray applications on the birds, a thorough coop spray wash & application and an under-coop litter clean out & application. I got mites on me twice when I handled Anna, and no one else. Never saw any in all my examinations anywhere except on me. I even suspected wooden deck boards at one point. Can they live there? Anyway, no recurrence yet. Did you know that you can dustbathe right after a mite spraying / massage that has you soaked to the skin, appear very muddy from all that kicking and rolling around in the dirt while wet, yet within hours look pristine again? Only chickens can do this. It is like a trip to the salon. I tried and it doesn’t work on humans! A shower for me, thank you.

I’m busy, but the editing/proofreading task is on a break, I finished the pass of my older sister’s latest mystery book, so while my project manager other sister gets the previous book out for printing I am free to roam FBA. My author sister is at a great point health-wise; her stem-the-tide last ditch chemo has been working! She’ll be on it until it doesn’t work anymore, hopefully at least several more months. Her quality of life is way better now too, that’s what counts.

The heat and humidity - sometimes 96% humidity! - is the biggest news chicken-wise. I think the heat is harder on the Buff Orpingtons than the Buckeyes. Maybe the BO’s are fluffier, the Buckeyes feathers look tighter, even their thighs don’t have the intense thick fluff the BO’s have. And they are older, less active. The frame size makes a difference. Popcorn, quite a big gal, was wing spreading along with the BO’s.

They were able to hang out in shade and lie on cool earth during the hottest parts of the day. I dampened the run litter and the dust bath, and generously sprayed the uncovered yard parts of the run with a cold-water hose. I have shade tarps strategically placed, they let some breeze through but block direct sun. They did fine except when confined in the coop at night. So I installed fans, and I tried ice bags too. The fans are very effective. Three rechargeable fans. Two small fans clipped and pointing out the upper vents helping to push the air out the back. Then a bigger fan underneath.

To assist their wing-spreading strategy I placed this 8” fan pointing up through the modified and predator-hardened poop tray (I cut a large hole and zip tied hardware cloth onto it. Also placed a mosquito netting on it except for the hottest nights). It gently blew on low usually; a few nights I had it on medium. I looked at them from under there, up through the roost bars, and found they positioned themselves right over the gentle breeze, so that was reassuring. Also a nice fluffy butt view for me, seeing their tootsies curled around the bars and their fluffy pantaloon feathers wafting in the breeze. Interestingly never got any poop on the fan, the hardware cloth caught it, and they seemed to have their chests over the fan mostly.

The second thing I did was open the back coop door during the day, to help it cool down before their evening roost and for when they were in there laying their eggs during the day. Recall there’s aviary netting over this whole area, plus a rain tarp high above the coop that blocks some view, so I felt it was secure enough, and I hung dark mosquito screening across it for any biting bugs and a flap of cloth over the top half too. So that let the coop air equal the evening air before roosting time.

Here's Anna, she is a really sweet hen, talkative, and very calm to handle - recall she was terribly sick at 7-8 weeks, which may account for that. She likes standing on my leg and getting pet. She tells me all the news then.
Plus she's got quite a jaunty comb!
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I am so glad your sister is doing better, we were just wondering a while back.

The heat and humidity here has been miserable also, poor horses and chooks. It’s decided over night Friday to become Fall, crazy! These are generally the dog days of summer here! But I am glad for the horses and chickens they were really miserable.

I too had fans blowing full tilt in the barn. Poor silkies had some issues at first with my high velocity fan for the barn aisle

 

[BY Bob]

Told her she should drop her AP Pre-calculus because she would get behind with missing a week.

This is a fire-able offense in my book. You need to take this quote to each school board member. The principal needs to answer for this.

It is their job, J O B , to see to your child's education and success. They should not be discouraging excellence but encouraging it and feeding the desire with whatever assistance they can provide. They have the absolute wrong attitude for someone in that position of power.

Angry Tax

 

[featherhead007]

This is a fire-able offense in my book. You need to take this quote to each school board member. The principal needs to answer for this.

It is their job, J O B , to see to your child's education and success. They should not be discouraging excellence but encouraging it and feeding the desire with whatever assistance they can provide. They have the absolute wrong attitude for someone in that position of power.

Angry Tax
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Well, Lady Featherington looks great when she’s angry!

 

[featherhead007]

A little CeeCee to enjoy this afternoon:

 

[Sylvester017]

Wow you have done a lot to your yard! It looks amazing now!

You're too kind

 

[BY Bob]

Then Bernie came by and threw her out of the tub.
Happy 2fer Tuesday.
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Welcome back. Bow down to me.

 

[BY Bob]

Another 2fer. This cannot be good!
Calypso came running out hotly pursued by Piglet. Calypso was carrying one of Tassels’ eggs in her mouth. The egg was broken and she was gripping it by the hole in the shell.
She then dropped it on the ground and slurped it up with great enjoyment.
How did she get a hold of one of Tassels’ egg? I hope stealing and eating eggs doesn’t become a habit!
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That is disturbing for certain. You need to keep an eye on this.

 

[SimpleJenn]

I hope your knee gets better soon.

Also, that leaf in the lower left corner of the photo of the board looks like a chicken foot. I thought for a bit that you had used one of those AI object removing tools.

Oh wow I see it now haha!

 

[CCsGarden]

Congratulations on POW another amazing photo

Thanks!