Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

Need to get some pics up or go elsewhere......
Each of these is worth three pics of 'ordinary' chickens. They also get another free picture for controversy value and a free rainbow to go with it.
This is Lock. She's a transgender chicken. She doesn't lay eggs and behaves much like a junior rooster.
I think she's gorgeous and on top of this, she isn't the slightest bit wary of me. I was very naughty and picked her up today and put her on the steps in order to get a decent shot of her/him/it.
None of the pictures I've posted before were 'arranged' in any way so this is a first.
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Lock is quite stunning, I think the PC thing now for transgender is to say: they are a beautiful chicken!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Updates for the Buckeyes & me -

I have been gathering dry material for the run floor and finishing weatherizing it all in anticipation of the cold front that was coming. Wood chips, oak & maple leaves, pine needles built up to three inches thick. Messing with clear tarps and shower curtains, zip ties, bungee cords, and old house construction wood. Hauling concrete blocks to the base it so it doesn't blow over in the wind gusts. Driving 10" stakes in a few key spots to help (more to do there). It looks bad all cobbed together but it held up well for this latest. I will take pictures tomorrow. My concern is ventilation for the run while keeping the floor dry for them, and without having major drafts on the inhabitants. The chicken inspectors were pretty tough however, carefully inspecting every nook and cranny (there are many of those) as it went up. Treats and gossiping and tidbitting greenery won them over. Also, they really enjoyed the leaves.

I have missed a lot in the meantime. So I jumped ahead. What is this about a Chicken Tax? Discussions of very dark and intense subjects & existential worries, such as poo. Interspersed with hot chicken pics. The moderators are probably having their minds blown, algorithms flagging suspect items, yet there are beautiful pictures of beautiful chickens. And some posers called Giant Land Chickens.

What are Giant Land Chickens doing on this site? Don't they have their own forum? And who let them call themselves Chickens??? This must be flagged for the moderators.

Buckeye Chickens do not like being condescendingly compared to other beings (even if favorably), and being compared to sheep in particular. I have been instructed to tell everyone, these exact words: "Bok-kawk, bok bok, baaawwwk....baaaaawwwwk, bok-kawk!! [translation: There IS NO COMPARISON!].

So in regards to sheep vs. chicken poo: let us not even go there, down into the gutter, so far down there, where the sheep are. Chicken poo is obviously pristine. Let us not sully the Majesty of Chickendom!

Just look at these beauties enjoying the sun and barely one inch of wood chips. See that Half-Twist Neck-Spin? What natural flexibility!

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Can one honestly compare them with this admittedly very nice, very handsome (and very flexible) but decidedly un-Chicken-like being? He lives in the Big Coop here, and his name is Big Boy. He likes boxes. He is way bigger than that box. It didn't stop him though. I give him points for thinking "outside the box", even if it is halfway.

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[micstrachan]

I have that problem now with Maggie.
Ever since the vet handed down her death sentence I have been giving special treats just for her by letting her into the people only part of the Chicken Palace (i.e., the servants quarters) and we share a moment. Now she expects to be let in there for special treats every time I go in - even if I am just stacking feed bins or collecting eggs.

I just love this.

 

[micstrachan]

Need to get some pics up or go elsewhere......
Each of these is worth three pics of 'ordinary' chickens. They also get another free picture for controversy value and a free rainbow to go with it.
This is Lock. She's a transgender chicken. She doesn't lay eggs and behaves much like a junior rooster.
I think she's gorgeous and on top of this, she isn't the slightest bit wary of me. I was very naughty and picked her up today and put her on the steps in order to get a decent shot of her/him/it.
None of the pictures I've posted before were 'arranged' in any way so this is a first.
View attachment 2413475View attachment 2413476

Lock is so special AND beautiful!

 

[Kris5902]

Updates for the Buckeyes & me -

I have been gathering dry material for the run floor and finishing weatherizing it all in anticipation of the cold front that was coming. Wood chips, oak & maple leaves, pine needles built up to three inches thick. Messing with clear tarps and shower curtains, zip ties, bungee cords, and old house construction wood. Hauling concrete blocks to the base it so it doesn't blow over in the wind gusts. Driving 10" stakes in a few key spots to help (more to do there). It looks bad all cobbed together but it held up well for this latest. I will take pictures tomorrow. My concern is ventilation for the run while keeping the floor dry for them, and without having major drafts on the inhabitants. The chicken inspectors were pretty tough however, carefully inspecting every nook and cranny (there are many of those) as it went up. Treats and gossiping and tidbitting greenery won them over. Also, they really enjoyed the leaves.

I have missed a lot in the meantime. So I jumped ahead. What is this about a Chicken Tax? Discussions of very dark and intense subjects & existential worries, such as poo. Interspersed with hot chicken pics. The moderators are probably having their minds blown, algorithms flagging suspect items, yet there are beautiful pictures of beautiful chickens. And some posers called Giant Land Chickens.

What are Giant Land Chickens doing on this site? Don't they have their own forum? And who let them call themselves Chickens??? This must be flagged for the moderators.

Buckeye Chickens do not like being condescendingly compared to other beings (even if favorably), and being compared to sheep in particular. I have been instructed to tell everyone, these exact words: "Bok-kawk, bok bok, baaawwwk....baaaaawwwwk, bok-kawk!! [translation: There IS NO COMPARISON!].

So in regards to sheep vs. chicken poo: let us not even go there, down into the gutter, so far down there, where the sheep are. Chicken poo is obviously pristine. Let us not sully the Majesty of Chickendom!

Just look at these beauties enjoying the sun and barely one inch of wood chips. See that Half-Twist Neck-Spin? What natural flexibility!

View attachment 2413905

Can one honestly compare them with this admittedly very nice, very handsome (and very flexible) but decidedly un-Chicken-like being? He lives in the Big Coop here, and his name is Big Boy. He likes boxes. He is way bigger than that box. It didn't stop him though. I give him points for thinking "outside the box", even if it is halfway.

View attachment 2413920

I can’t see your photos... not sure why, could be my connection here.

As to Giant Land Chickens, they are right Here along with the Marine Chickens, sunsets, and rainbows! Can’t ignore natural beauty when it’s there! My actual Chickens are hiding from winter weather, smart little birdies, so I’m just doing my best to pay the chicken tax with what I have on hand...

As to Chicken Photo Tax, we are trying to at least post pictures of our chickens when we get off topic, considering our tendency to chat randomly this is certainly adding to the chicken-ness of the thread again!

Giant Land Chickens are just not to be confused with the evil woolly monsters (sheep)!

Hoppy and I (rip)

ok, size reduction comes with weird rotation

 

[micstrachan]

Hopefully this will help.
So far nobody has dug under the skirt. They find little gaps where the horizontal skirt joins the vertical hardware cloth. They are fixed together but not tightly enough it seems.
In terms of the hot wire set up it is still a bit temporary but here are the parts.
1) This is where the juice comes from. It is the only expensive part of the set-up. It is a solar panel fixed to a 6 Volt battery.
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2) This is the hot wire. I set it up as a loop with one low down and one higher up. I set the heights after observing the raccoon behavior. They poke their nose low down and stand up and lean their paws higher up.

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3) Then I ran a ground (earth) wire to a ground rod. I need to bury that part so I can landscape over it and plant some shrubs. The ground wire is on the top of the pasture run because that is where the raccoons jump up. When I extend the hot wire to areas where there isn’t a pasture run lid to stand on, I will rely on the actual earth to complete the circuit back to the ground rod.
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it all sounds more complicated than it actually is. I read up a lot before buying anything and was still a bit unsure. But the charger came with reasonably good instructions and I just jumped in.
I am pretty pleased with the set up. The charger can charge 2 miles of wire so I could create a nice safe zone for the ladies to free range with a 2 mile perimeter.

This is great! Thank you!

 

[micstrachan]

Lol, I also wanted to spare everyone my sordid and drama filled education history. TLDR but the summary goes: intelligent youth drops out of high school to avoid becoming violent, almost finished high school eduction at a college, quits for well paying job, loses job, digs in heels and refuses to complete education, regrets this for multiple reasons. Education doesn’t equal intelligence, but opens many more opportunities in life and reduces discrimination.

not a chicken photo but... why I’m catching up so much today, and don’t have any chicken pics recently.View attachment 2412584

That ember pile is downright scary.

 

[micstrachan]

Yep, no pics today! Data choke sucks... also ,Everyone is hiding (mostly) from the rain and HAIL. I’ve had to rescue a few birds from hail (4xnow)! So, on Friday, DH’s cousin’s Husband was over doing some “clean up” And being oh so awesome, so he started a burn pile on a stump/rootball of a fallen giant Douglas for with a 3.5-4’ diameter Trunk. Then left the island on the 4:00 ferry. Friday night it appeared to be mostly out, with just some light smoke rising from the remains... it’s across a field and we can’t get to it with the truck. It was just a little burn, so nothing to really worry about right? (Note: we didn’t know it was at the base of the tree)

Saturday morning, 10 am, we get the panicked phone call that his fire is now out of control. It Doesn’t look like much from the road, so I hop out and start the walk over to the pile, DH has to drive further down to turn the truck around, surely this is an exaggeration? No, the fire is traveling along the in ground roots and the uprooted rootball is smoldering with crazy embers at the center, and there’s a slow burn traveling along under the old fallen tree between the thick bark and punky wood.

With help from the ex fire chief, a big chainsaw, both tractors, and six hours of digging, making fire breaks, and stopping the spread, it was back under control, as you can see in the pic I shared previously. My first task in fire control was getting the herd of cattle relocated, so I led them into our area, about a 15 minute walk in each direction, a little longer with leading the cows, as they are now unused to following me on command. Aunt in law had already “driven them away twice with a switch” to great effect.

By the time we picked up milk, gas, dinner, and my mother to head up to the chickens/trailer it was almost full dark, the wind was picking up and it was raining fiercely. It had whipped the door to the chicken trailer closed, and only 3 chickens were in, one little black, Two Dot and a very dejected looking Sammy. They were hiding everywhere, and it was now pitch black out. DH and I began the relocation process which took over an hour. As the flock began arriving in twos and threes Sammy perked up and Roosting began to look more normal. Only a few birds were exceptionally soggy.

Gus that “dangerous bull” they were beating with a stick earlier, that I led off like a tame puppy dog to the confusion of all the in-laws, was being a big black shadow in the midst of our frantic chicken hunt. Well I’ve mentioned before that he is a sweet and empathetic bull, who gets quite distressed by dead animals (including the chickens!) and he was still upset from the days events, so the squawking, soggy panicked chickens we were putting in the trailer had him quite confused. Add in the darkness, and this is a recipe for disaster. I was down to the last (I thought) two little black pullets and there he was, planted right at the door and refusing to budge, with a look of concern on his face. He did drop his head in threat when DH tried to gently turn him away. We eventually got him moved away, but it was a struggle. This morning I found one Confused little black pullet loose. I have no idea where she hid overnight, but she was dry and safe and that is most important.

I have my fingers crossed for a cow/rain free and better roosting experience tonight, as DH is in town picking up feed and I will be all on my own.

It’s just all in a day of the crazy life of Kris! But seriously, I can’t believe how hard you work and all of the amazing skills you have. You, GO, Girl!

 

[micstrachan]

Not a very good quality picture because of all the glare but I love Diana’s outline and the brilliant red of her comb.
this is about an hour after she was eating the mouse this morning and felt the need for a second breakfast!
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Fabulous!

 

[Ribh]

I never thought about this. How did this happen? I guess Bill Clinton solved this problem and the world moved on.


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You may blame Henry VIII ~ & I love the action shot.