Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

That’s great - also as long as your food still has ice crystals in it you are safe to Re freeze but if it’s fully thawed cook or throw away.

My two pounds of shrimp is safe. The steaks should be fine. Had a steak for lunch today, and it tasted good. Even my Moca almond fudge ice cream was still good.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

Twofer Tuesday

Ruby and Crystal

Cassie and Ethel

Ivory and Cassie

Ivory and Snowball a few weeks ago

Have I mentioned that I changed Blanca’s name to Cotton? Due to a rapidly growing comb and wattles?
Snowball and Cotton a week ago. His wattles are now three times this size, I need to take another pic.

Aspen and Cypress taking an afternoon siesta on their feathers pond.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

Mr.Rat
I have a rat in the Chicken Palace. He has been there a while and appears to be solitary.
I have been watching him on cameras to try and identify how he gets in.
I have found his burrows inside the Chicken Palace. Curiously he seems to prefer tunneling from one part of the Palace to another when he could easily just walk.
But I cannot find any burrows outside.
I have been trying to capture the moment he enters to give me a clue. But so far no luck.
I have no idea what kind of rat he is but he is quite cute and has a white tip to his tail which is rather dashing.
Anyway, as he has gotten bolder - running around even when the Princesses are still up and about, I have started to worry about him nibbling on their toes or eating a chick if I ever get some for Tassels.
So with heavy heart I decided that today was the day I would dispose of him even though I haven’t yet figured out his entrance tunnel.
So I blocked off the down hill burrows I had found inside the run and poured 10lb of dry ice down the burrow where I see him disappearing just before dawn each morning.
I don’t believe all that CO2 even gave him a headache. Here he is checking things out in the cool of the evening after. He looks puzzled about the burrows I blocked off but no doubt he will reopen them during the night.
I will admit I wasn’t all sad that he survived!
View attachment 4140232

I will continue to use cameras to try and figure out how he gets in.
I was thinking I might get one of those colored smoke bombs they use at gender reveal parties to see if I can find his burrow outside the Chicken Palace.
Anyone else got any ideas?

Rat tax: Piglet has discovered the heap of wood chips I piled up to try and smother the poison ivy that has been growing up through my bench.
View attachment 4140241

We have been having an issue with mice in the coop. Bought some of those big metal live traps. Caught about 10 the first night and hauled them off. Caught a few more the next night. And not a single one since. Not in those traps. Not on glue traps inside plastic containers. Nothing. Sprayed rodent repellent and still have some, I think they must have been inside the coop somewhere. I need to check under everything and spray it a lot heavier. Plus redo
Some traps. I might have to resort to the big electric traps.
Have been locking up/closing off all the food every night. But the chickens leave soooo many crumbs.

Full Sail

In my experience, normally leghorn type chickens usually hold their tails very narrow, no more than a couple of feathers wide, like Aster in this photo.

View attachment 4140294

On rare occasions you will catch them doing "Full Sail" and spreading their tail feathers out, like Daisy, the greatest hen ever, in this photo.

View attachment 4140293

Sadly that photo was very late in the year before her molt so those tail feathers are pretty tattered and worn.

That is why it was a special moment yesterday when Aster was feeling it and decided to go Full Sail. What a beauty!

View attachment 4140287View attachment 4140288

So stunning!

Coco has always held her tail in leghorn fashion, so she must have some of that breed in her )she is an olive egger). And Cassie also does it on occasion, sometimes even in full sail but it is hard to be fast enough for a decent picture.

I’ll have to dig out some old ones of Coco, but here’s one of Cassie that almost caught her with it fully fanned.

 

[Sylvester017]

Mr.Rat
I have a rat in the Chicken Palace. He has been there a while and appears to be solitary.
I have been watching him on cameras to try and identify how he gets in.
I have found his burrows inside the Chicken Palace. Curiously he seems to prefer tunneling from one part of the Palace to another when he could easily just walk.
But I cannot find any burrows outside.
I have been trying to capture the moment he enters to give me a clue. But so far no luck.
I have no idea what kind of rat he is but he is quite cute and has a white tip to his tail which is rather dashing.
Anyway, as he has gotten bolder - running around even when the Princesses are still up and about, I have started to worry about him nibbling on their toes or eating a chick if I ever get some for Tassels.
So with heavy heart I decided that today was the day I would dispose of him even though I haven’t yet figured out his entrance tunnel.
So I blocked off the down hill burrows I had found inside the run and poured 10lb of dry ice down the burrow where I see him disappearing just before dawn each morning.
I don’t believe all that CO2 even gave him a headache. Here he is checking things out in the cool of the evening after. He looks puzzled about the burrows I blocked off but no doubt he will reopen them during the night.
I will admit I wasn’t all sad that he survived!
View attachment 4140232

I will continue to use cameras to try and figure out how he gets in.
I was thinking I might get one of those colored smoke bombs they use at gender reveal parties to see if I can find his burrow outside the Chicken Palace.
Anyone else got any ideas?

Where there's one, there's more. Put delicious bait in the trap but first do not set trap mechanism for a couple days till he gets used to it as a fixture.Then at dusk after chickens go to roost bait/set the trap w/ delicious food & he will probably get trapped by morning. Do it each night till he's trapped. We've been catching rats all year w/ this. Then DH drowns it while it's in the cage so it doesn't escape alive when the door is opened. Disgusting but it's gotta get done or we'd be overrun w/them!
https://www.amazon.com/Kensizer-Ani...1&sprefix=small+rat+traps,aps,150&sr=8-4&th=1

 

[Sylvester017]

She is adorable - and you aren't so bad yourself!. Especially since I am older - I can not cast age stones lest they come right back at me!!!

Is anyone older than me? I was born in 1944.

 

[rural mouse]

This is fun if you haven't tried it yet.

Thread ' What Kind of Chicken Parent Are You?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/-what-kind-of-chicken-parent-are-you.1665050/

Answers: F, none of the above! Or half B, half C of choices....I broke it....or just don't fit....

 

[Ponypoor]

This is fun if you haven't tried it yet.

Thread ' What Kind of Chicken Parent Are You?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/-what-kind-of-chicken-parent-are-you.1665050/

Will go through that later one, meanwhile time to put # 1 and 2 to test. Good morning chook chooks and geegees, time to wake up.

Then I feed everyone, clean stalls and hen houses.

Good morning everyone! Catch you all later!

Dorothy would like to showcase her stylish all black glorious beard and muffs.

 

[Ponypoor]

She is adorable - and you aren't so bad yourself!. Especially since I am older - I can not cast age stones lest they come right back at me!!!

This morning I feel old and achy

 

[Ponypoor]

She is adorable - and you aren't so bad yourself!. Especially since I am older - I can not cast age stones lest they come right back at me!!!

Age is a number most days.

Blanche is an old girl and so is Red. Likely same age - but Red is far more fragile then Blanche. Those production breeds don’t age well.

 

[RoyalChick]

You can't do the smoke because.....

I can’t access a burrow to put the smoke in. I can’t try with the burrow I can see in the run but what I learned last night is that is not where he goes to escape. He goes somewhere I cannot reach.

We have been having an issue with mice in the coop. Bought some of those big metal live traps. Caught about 10 the first night and hauled them off. Caught a few more the next night. And not a single one since. Not in those traps. Not on glue traps inside plastic containers. Nothing. Sprayed rodent repellent and still have some, I think they must have been inside the coop somewhere. I need to check under everything and spray it a lot heavier. Plus redo
Some traps. I might have to resort to the big electric traps.
Have been locking up/closing off all the food every night. But the chickens leave soooo many crumbs.
View attachment 4140477

Yes they do! I read about people taking away the food at night but I have been watching this rat for a while now and he never bothers to stretch up to reach into the feeders because there is so much food available on the ground. I think the Princesses prefer to eat it off the ground too so they shovel it out.

Where there's one, there's more. Put delicious bait in the trap but first do not set trap mechanism for a couple days till he gets used to it as a fixture.Then at dusk after chickens go to roost bait/set the trap w/ delicious food & he will probably get trapped by morning. Do it each night till he's trapped. We've been catching rats all year w/ this. Then DH drowns it while it's in the cage so it doesn't escape alive when the door is opened. Disgusting but it's gotta get done or we'd be overrun w/them!
https://www.amazon.com/Kensizer-Animal-Humane-Chipmunk-Outdoor/dp/B07331WZ6G/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1QF6TPL5BIQCT&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QDIMuXtjzmIcq87BY_MkQQibZetqR6tWG6Xbi9y7I_Dy_GFgYPisQyW3pue7wCzQBlVbq7YhqAoonF6kwiEmqKPCk-_TQvfV_IdOAmkmOGkJ-_nWrP8jLrocmul09uULYZf-wkWd209znuvmO1bgKv8yKGY-kSiPifW6dGR-Evtvl9_entzGxbu3GlRCIWJg2XqVgNNPswnrK5hZ1Bl06WMxJ2G0kzRm4zSsJAc-vLaxCWhC_nWfNFlTK6O3Io56EBa3gapKZrMUJSZLIqUQ4QrukN0QB63L9Vyz4O01tIY.nXu3WXgI6i76Gy9aAZ8QnD8NKgSW_dJLiUmX9T3Tlkk&dib_tag=se&keywords=harris+catch+and+release+humane+small+squirrel/rat+cage+rat+traps&qid=1712266001&sprefix=small+rat+traps,aps,150&sr=8-4&th=1

I know how to set a rat trap and I will not drown one as it is not a humane way to kill.
When I come to kill him I will use a snap trap or an electric trap.
The point however, is that once he is dead he will not be able to give me any clues as to how he is getting in. I really prefer to exclude before I kill.
Right now I am certain he is on his own - he is under constant surveillance inside the Chicken Palace - but if he has a tunnel in from the outside then something else might come in.

Rat tax: Tassels down!