Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

Blue. no red.

 

[drstratton]

I have an Australorp that goes broody, but Ribh’s don’t.

You just never know from bird to bird, they are all different and not all will follow what is deemed to be the normal path!

 

[drstratton]

I have a trio, 1 boy 2 girls, and they have matured VERY slowly. The girls will not be laying before Spring. I'm ok with that because it gives me extra time to build their coop and run. Right now they are in with Stanley and my layer flock.

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The 2 girls, Lily and Rose, are in the front. Oakley, the boy, is on the far right.

They are so beautiful...

 

[drstratton]

It really is an individual thing. I've had several supposedly broody breeds: BRs, Aracauna's & Wyandottes. 1 out of 3 BRs is chronic all summer; 1 out of 2 Aracaunas went broody as soon as she started laying. The other has no inclinations that way; 2 out of 3 Wyandottes are constantly broody. The other one never was. On the other hand Campines are supposedly non~ broody & I've had 1 try twice & another once. My Australorps never went broody @ all.

Yep, yours definitely fall into the category of...they do what they want, when they want and if you expect one thing from them, they are going to do the complete opposite!!!

 

[drstratton]

The Trap is Set

Thanks to @ChicoryBlue I have deployed the Have-A-Heart trap with a snap rat trap inside. Here is the setup.

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I went to TSC and purchased a "short snap" trap so the arm would not have far to travel = less chance of getting caught up inside the trap.

I placed the trap in the run.
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And Hattie had to check out what I was doing.

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Now I can leave them out in the run with the trap. Here's hoping I start to get some results.

Of course she had to check it out...quality control Bob...quality control!!!

I hope you catch the nasty critter! I say that, but we bought our youngest son a pet rat, he named her pokey, because the first time he held her, she went up on his shoulder and her whiskers got his face...his comment "she's pokety, tickleitey (not a word, I know )", he was 6!

 

[BY Bob]

Grrrr no! I am working my way systematically round the outside to look for entrances - but it takes a while as I have to leave a camera in a place for a week to feel really sure nobody was getting in at that spot.
Then move camera, rinse and repeat.
It is still possible that nobody is getting in and I still have residents to eliminate, but this one was strange in that it came from the opposite direction from the normal pattern. So I need to hone in on where I saw it coming from (if you see what I mean).
One issue with my approach is that the cameras take a second or so to trigger - and it turns out that mice move really fast! So I don't always catch them at the right point if you see what I mean.
But I have come too far to give up now!

That's it! Stay strong. Determination will win the day.

 

[BY Bob]

My Buffy is only six months old so she’s probably too young to go broody. She lays eggs regularly though.
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She may not too young to go broody, Sydney was 8 months old went she went broody.

 

[drstratton]

That is one chicken lineup there. Are they the usual suspects?

Yep, every single one of them...

 

[BY Bob]

I have never even seen purple corn!

My tractor Supply sells cracked corn with purple in it. The first time I got it Maleficent and Hattie picked through it eating the purple kernels first. In fact, there were times when Maleficent would only eat the purple ones and she would through the yellow ones on the ground.

Hence the phrase, "Purple corn tastes better".

Right now, it looks like Sydney is on the bag!

 

[BY Bob]

Folks, I am caught up!!!

Congratulations!!!