Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

@lightm ~ synop was an easy read for me ole' eyeballs

 

[Sally PB]

How/where do you keep them?

Eggshells from my ladies:
I wash the egg white out of the shells under running water, and leave them to dry. When dry, I put them in a bowl and crush them to small pieces with the bottom of a drinking glass. Then they go into a coffee can that has a tight fitting lid. I leave that with all the "chicken stuff" in the mudroom.

Eggshells donated from neighbors and friends:
They aren't washed, so they are spread out on a baking sheet and baked at 250-ish or whatever temp I have going for something else for 10-15 minutes. Then crushed and stored as above.

 

[SimpleJenn]

You still have live chicken judging with AI? We haven't had live chicken judging at fairs in years in PA.

No idea. I haven't looked into it at all yet.
I wouldn't be surprised, swaps, meets, and auctions are all happening all the time out here.

 

[fuentemoon]

I am not up at all onn the various reptiles - but she was quite old for them, yes? I know it doesn't make losing her any easier - but she has a very good, loooonnnggg life with you

They can make it to 30, but most don't. She spent her first few years as a frat house mascot/pet. The last year or two she battled with a fungal infection we couldn't seem to get rid of. Not uncommon unfortunately. Overall she had a good and happy life and I loved being her person.

 

[Sylvester017]

Those of you who stock up on eggshells for your hens... How/where do you keep them? Do you rince them and keep them in the fridge? Or just a cool, dry place? I'm going to ask my grandma to start keeping the shells when she uses eggs, just as an extra sort of supplement/treat. My girls like the OS so I don't need to supplement with egg shells but they like to eat them so I want to

Like Edit @RoyalChick ~ we sometimes keep the shells on the counter in metal. But like you we have only a few hens so we didn't need a big metal bowl.

We put the air-dried broken shells on a smaller metal pie or cake tin inside the oven. We mash up the shells so they fit nice in the tin. We remove the tin from the oven whenever we bake something.

After we bake we turn off the oven & put the egg tin back in the oven to heatup the shells (it's said the heat kills any bacteria). We take the tin out of the oven when cool & use our old Magic Bullet blender & grind the treated shells down to a very fine powder ~ then store the powder in a container. When we fill up the container we store the powder away in a garden box to use the following year as an added fertilizer mulch in the raised garden beds.

We don't feed egg shells directly back to the chickens since they use oyster shell. But the following garden season when harvest is over & the hens dig thru the mulch I'm sure they find some shell powder. Sometimes I don't have time to Magic Bullet grind the shells out of the oven so we toss the treated shell pieces into a baggie to accumulate till I have enough to grind up a batch but only heat treated go into a closed baggie or closed container.

Coarsely hand-crushed egg shells sprinkled around vegetable or flower plants deter snails & slugs who don't like to crawl over the sharp edges of egg shells but I personally don't do it cuz of the aesthetics. (I use Sluggo against snails/slugs which is pet safe).

Amazon.com : Monterey LG6515 Sluggo Snail Bait


Magic Bullet blender/grinder

 

[Sylvester017]

You still have live chicken judging with AI? We haven't had live chicken judging at fairs in years in PA.

Our County fair grounds have curtailed poultry displays too. Curious if this Autumn they have any poultry at all outdoors tented for judging like in years past. I don't attend fairs any more. Just not fun w/it being more of a carnival/food fest rather than about the animals

 

[Sylvester017]

Pony Sunday

Today I give you an article on the dinosaur extinction. Very interesting.


https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art...e-asteroid-strike-scientists-offer-new-clues/

Views keep changing on dinosaurs for sure. I just watched another view on youtube. So fun to see other views:

 

[Ponypoor]

Views keep changing on dinosaurs for sure. I just watched another view on youtube. So fun to see other views:

I will have to watch that. Now that I can stream stuff I can watch all
Sorts of interesting stuff.

 

[Ponypoor]

It’s a gorgeous day!

Vultures are back - and like to zoom over the chooks making them scatter.

I think they are Black Vultures not Turkey Vultures.

And then it’s time for some snoozing

 

[Grandma The Chicken]

Grandma is trying to get her Mother's Day shopping over with even though Mother's Day is a month from now and I'm questioning her purchase options...
Looks like Grandma wanted to get her Father's Day shopping over with as well...

This face reads, "I'm happy with my purchase that I haven't made yet."
Grandma, are you sure he's going to like it?
"I want him to smell like a tree, not motor oil."

Grandma, are you sure you can afford ANY of this? Then proceeds to look at me and ask "So, are you going to pay for this? Count your money." Grandma, I shouldn't be counting money, I should be counting your days because you look exhausted.

That almond eye reads, "Of course I can" and proceeds to say "I left my wallet somewhere" when she has never even had a wallet in the first place. She looks absolutely fed up and annoyed in this photo.

Okay, Grandma. I guess it's back to shopping... See, you can't even take it anymore. Your eyes are about to close.