Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RebeccaBoyd]

She is her own lady for sure!

I want to see what Aster will look like when she is about 1 1/2 years old. I know right now she is slender and looking un-orpingtonish.

It is her face, leg color and now egg color that still sways me in that direction. Now, I know she is slender, and not looking like a orp.

Let me give you Siri.

Siri is a orp, but I would consider her a outlier for the breed. Siri is petite and she may weigh 4 pounds when she is soaking wet. My speckled sussex are bigger then she is. Her first year she was very slender, she did not widen through her chest and back until she was over a year old. Siri's siblings who I lost to the coyote about the time I lost Butter were 3 times her size. They were the traditional big broad fluffy orps you think of. I picked her out as a couple days old chick along with her siblings from Rural king. At that age I would not have thought she would be smaller, she was the same size as her siblings. She never gave any clue she would be different until about 2 to 3 months old. Then I had 2 giant girls and a tiny girl. Her eggs started out small as well and were the longest of the 3 to come up to normal orp size. She started laying around 6ish months old and she was closer to a year before she started laying larger eggs.

Again, I'm not saying Aster is for sure a orp, but, having siri and knowing what she is, not all orps become the big broad girls.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yes, but in the US????

Who knows? I just looked for pictures.

 

[Sylvester017]

My experience with Hatchery BOs is that they aren't as big as they should be. Still fairly fluffy (as opposed to hatchery PBR, which I think lost a bit of fluffieness along with overall size, some mod of shape, smaller heads and less 'crisp' barring - I suspect as they were 'improved' for better production. It is almost like they were crossed with a hard feathered breed like DC - versus the few heritage PBRs I had - which had way more fluffieness, larger overall, bigger head, smaller comb - and they were even more 'even tempered' than the 'production PBR'. SO SWEET! I find similar changes to the BOs versus standard of perfection in terms of overall body size and fluffieness - but the hatchery BOs are super sweet - I can't imagine if SOP BO were even more laid back!!!

It's so unlikely when breeds go contrary to normal temperament. A chicken neighbor had a Buff Orp that was top of the pecking order in her layer flock & not exactly "sweet" as she lorded over the other hens.

 

[Marie2020]

Look at the sweetheart. Imagine the book she could write about her life.

The book I should have written about all of them. May princess and I will write it together

 

[ChicoryBlue]

If she considers the buffs as red chickens you cannot go wrong with a Buff orpington hen.

Umm, I give you Diane Ida-Biter Crazy Eyes.

Diane is why I was seriously looking at a few Bielefelder hens this year. Or two of them and two Buckeyes. Bielefelders - "docile"? That sounds great, no drama, yes please! But I want to keep Buckeyes too, and Hazel is the only one left, who knows how much longer, and then I ran into difficulties trying to get two of each. I don't want more than 9-10 hens, I have four now, and I have the idea of staggering the ages, so I went with three Buckeyes for this year.

However, the BO's Tedi and Annie ARE indeed very, very sweet. And lap chickens. Tedi will walk up to me and stand next to my knee, very obviously looking to be picked up and set on my lap. Or she will jump up by herself. I can pick them up one-handed underneath most days. They both seem to like or tolerate being pet on the wing when held, and will take naps on my lap. Tedi leans her head and neck against my shoulder and sometimes is an armpit warrior.

Diane has napped a little on my lap too though. Either she was exhausted from her nerves or she feels safe, or both? She will readily try to bite any hand within striking distance when she wakes up though!

When I check Diane's feet I hold her like a football under my arm with her head behind me. Once she understands what I'm doing, she relaxes and lets me hold each leg and extend it and gently open up the folds of her relaxed feet. She was almost great indoors recently (but of course, that's out of her comfort zone) - she did try a half-hearted bite once or twice when a hand was in front of her - but she more or less stood in place when I bathed her feet and one leg for painted-on crusted poo recently. In other words she didn't reach down to peck my hand under there, which she easily could have done.

Oh yes my buff Orps are snuggle bugs! They follow me around want me to pet them snuggle them carry them (lazy beasts hahaha). I think I spoiled them when they were babies

Tedi and Annie yes, but Diane proves the rule about Buff Orps...She pushes everyone's limits. Hazel and Tedi correct her a lot, even meek Annie will at times. She might be trending more rational lately, but some days I have my doubts, haha!

I might move my rhododendron bushes up to the Rooster Run, has anyone used them around chooks? I don’t think they would try to eat the leaves do you?

Nobody has ever tried to eat any of the rhododendron leaves here, though they are interested in the bugs on the underside of the bushes. They love the shelter under them. This is a large tough-leaved variety that came direct from the Catskill Mountains.

They do like the soft-leaved dock-type plant (looks like horseradish) that you can see growing next to it above and below the two pullets with their heads under the bush. They nipped at that, and the BO's also will eat a little.

I can't say whether scratching around under rhododendrons exposed them to the bad substance from decomposed leaves at a dangerous level. Does it persist in the soil? Now I'm wondering, could it have caused the early deaths? Peanut had cancer. Butters was't clear, but had a digestive issue prior to death. Popcorn probably had EYP or a reproductive cancer (was iin the nestbox a lot without laying), but I don't know. Hazel is still going, with a respiratory problem that persists at a low level.

Here are the Buckeye pullets (two months old) their first Fall (Sept 2020).

Does this source help? I've used this list for years. Helped me plan the kind of plants to avoid. Chickens will chew on anything green so I planned our foliage according to this list.

https://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

Rhododendron spp. (AZALEAS, LAUREL, RHODODENDRON); leaves; cardiovascular system affected by the resinoid andromedotoxin.

Splash is 2 copies of the diluted black gene. 1 copy makes blue View attachment 4019486splash (2 copies)

Crossed with the little orange roo in the backgroundView attachment 4019487makes the blue of the little lady in front (yes the offspring). She does have orange leakage around her face, but otherwise is entirely blue.

Black crossed with ANYTHING else CANNOT make splash. It doesn't have the restricted black gene that make the blue tone. Blue crossed with another blue can make blue 50% of the time by getting 1 blue gene from either parent. It makes BLACK 25% time when the offspring gets the not restricted gene from BOTH parents. It makes SPLASH 25% of the time by getting BOTH restricted genes from the parents.

@BY Bob if I recall correctly, she was supposed to be a lavender orpington? Lavender and self-blue are genetically the same while Blue-black-splash (bbs) is the SAME gene, different twist on it, so I don't think can be on the same bird (75% sure on that part).


2016 thread on this, also has links (haven't checked to see if those still work) to more info on lavender.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/difference-between-blue-and-self-blue.1105880/

Basically (I think) lavender washes the same black gene as the BBS does. However, lavender is recessive while BBS is dominate. So, in order for lavender to show, it MUST have 2 copies, otherwise the bird will be "black split to lavender" so can produce lavender offspring when crossed with another bird also lavender or split to lav. The ratio comes out to the same as the blue to blue producing splash or black. Where it differs is the other 75%. Those babies will ALL be black. 50% (of the original total) will also be split to lav, while the remains 25% will be black. Those black (like the black of BBS) will NEVER produce lavender offspring as they lack the gene entirely. The 50% that are split to lav function like the blue of BBS and carry the trait without showing it.

Based upon this, it's possible the original breeder got what THEY thought were lavender birds that were actually BBS without knowing enough to tell the difference (BBS tends to have a darker head and a hint of darker lacing on the feathers. Lavender is called self-blue due to the more uniform color and is usually lighter than BBS blue.)

Interestingly, both porcelain (mostly found in bantam breeds) and Isabella colors use LAVENDER to get the light blue tones combined with superwashed golds. BBS is too dominate (and unpredictable) to get the consistency most breeders are looking for when developing colors.

Build wise, Aster exhibits so much Mediterranean body shape, that it's pretty much a guarantee that she's got leghorn in her. The white legs make me think a leghorn roo got to an orpington hen and things progressed much like Cheetah's offspring: body build of father, egg color of mother. Blue or splash leghorn rooster went avisiting....blue orpington (lighter shade, breeder thinking was lavender instead) mother reaped the benefits and produced a daughter built just like daddy with mommy's brown egg (dominate over white eggs). Now, wandering daddy could just as easily have been a blue Andalusian (also a Mediterranean frame) with the same results.

Excellent breakdown of this, @rural mouse !

I have called and left two emails in hope of any updates on princess
Hopefully they will get back soon. I do miss her
View attachment 4019663

Remember the holidays have slowed everything down, including returning calls and emails...

 

[TOMTE]

Another random question for fun:

How do we all say good morning and good night to our chickens?

Morning: as I'm walking up to the run/coop I say "Good moooorniiing! Are we ready to have a good daaay?!" and then as I'm letting them out of the coop I tell them "go get your breakfast!"

Evening: I do a little sleepy chicken chatter with them first (soft "brbrbrbr"s). After they're all up on their roosts, as I'm closing up the coop and run, I say "goodnight, stay warm, sleep tight, don't let anything bite!"

 

[SimpleJenn]

Another random question for fun:

How do we all say good morning and good night to our chickens?

Morning: as I'm walking up to the run/coop I say "Good moooorniiing! Are we ready to have a good daaay?!" and then as I'm letting them out of the coop I tell them "go get your breakfast!"

Evening: I do a little sleepy chicken chatter with them first (soft "brbrbrbr"s). After they're all up on their roosts, as I'm closing up the coop and run, I say "goodnight, stay warm, sleep tight, don't let anything bite!"

I always said "Good morning chicky birds! Time to wake up and face the day!" And at bedtime "Goodnight, sleep tight, dream of nice things tonight"

 

[SimpleJenn]

Feeling a bit better today. Neck is still pretty swollen. Now that I'm off the steroids it doesn't hurt as much. My mom has the same problem when she takes steroids, they make her jaw and neck hurt really bad.

I posted the red polish in a facebook group and she caused quite a stir! Two people posted that they are working on reds, and a bunch of people were talking about how pretty she is. But it's definitely a brand new project for anyone in the US. If I had the money and coops I'd start trying to breed them too haha.

 

[TOMTE]

I always said "Good morning chicky birds! Time to wake up and face the day!" And at bedtime "Goodnight, sleep tight, dream of nice things tonight"

So similar to me. Aww... I can't wait for you to get your chickies! I'm so excited for you!

 

[Ponypoor]

@bgmathteach

2025 is a perfect square yr

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/2025-i...at-so-interesting-to-mathematicians-1.7163598