Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Would it help if you came and cleaned my brooder? it's a 2 person job now!

Ummmm remember I have horses - no stranger to dealing with lots of crap

 

[SimpleJenn]

Ummmm remember I have horses - no stranger to dealing with lots of crap

Horse poop is downright pleasant compared to chick cecals when they start eating other foods

 

[featherhead007]

Are you saying a hen acting like a rooster won't respond to other rooster conditioning that would otherwise keep the behaviour in line?

Totally different type of rooster training is needed if the hen wants to act like a rooster.

 

[Ponypoor]

Horse poop is downright pleasant compared to chick cecals when they start eating other foods

Yup…

Imagine 46 huge smelly cecal poops

 

[featherhead007]

Ummmm remember I have horses - no stranger to dealing with lots of crap

A full career in law enforcement, is guaranteed to have crap involved! (A lot of crap)

 

[featherhead007]

Yup…

Imagine 46 huge smelly cecal poops

Maybe if you stop feeding them cecal, they would not poop cecal.




Never mind.

 

[SimpleJenn]

I actually quite enjoyed mucking out when I was a teen helping my neighbor with her horses.

Tax
Marans cuddle puddle


Sure are a lot of popped wattles in that brooder...I was hoping the pink would encourage more girls

 

[RoyalChick]

They are quite threatened here.

They were here too. It is quite interesting - there was a grass roots campaign to install boxes. This is 29 years or so ago. I was told about it by a plumber who came to fix something.
Anyway, enough people gave them places to nest and the population is now increasing nicely.

 

[rural mouse]

Wow. She really is a tough one. You seem to be doing the right things to me. Maybe she needs to be dealt with more like a rooster. Any thoughts from the rooster owners out there?

Worth a try.

 

[rural mouse]

As soon as the snow melts, the rest of the chicklets are going outside, hubby says.
I may try to acclimate the biggest chicks to Marble and Buffy. Do old hens still attack chicks like laying hens do? I just want to know if a small dog crate would offer enough protection or if I need to do something else.
The replacement parts for the large run will be here Wednesday (which is also when the new Family Farm and Home opens!!!) So we will be repairing that and getting birds moved around.

Not always. Silver, at a year and a half, put herself into the fenced baby area and definitely told them she was in charge. Us, not knowing much about chickens, pulled her back out but left her in the garage with them. She put herself back in with them a day or 2 later. They were about a week old. We started letting them run around the garage while she was outside at around the 2 week mark. She'd come back in, march over to the chick food and help herself. We set up multiple feeding stations and kept close watch. She'd circle through the stations and chicks that didn't give way to her got a sharp peck. They squealed and moved away. She didn't pursue.

What I'm saying is...

Give it a try under close supervision, multiple feed and water stations, LOTS of space, and places babies can run to escape the adults. Do it DAILY (multiple times a day is better). Be ready to rescue and expect some pecks.