Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ribh]

Oh! Gosh! That's insane!

Clever girls to come knocking on the Big Coop door.

 

[LozzyR]

That is cool, Bob.

I saw this recently too. Made me giggle.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2766956340004700

That is priceless @Ribh ! I love it!

 

[LozzyR]

Staying up Too Late

Today was prep day for the family coming for Thanksgiving. I was working on cleaning up the rec room in the basement so it was my wife's job to keep track of the free ranging girls.

A short time after darkness fell my wife started screaming down the steps that she needed my help. So up the steps I rushed to find out what could be so urgent. This is the story that awaited me.

It hard gotten dark and she assumed that the girls had successfully gone to bed so she had gone back to the spare bedroom to start getting it ready. Davis, my large nowegian forrest cat, was acting squirrely. He was standing, meowing in the hallway and trying to get her to come out to the kitchen. She assumed he wanted more food and was trying to shoo him off. He was persistent so my wife finally followed him out. When they got to the kitchen she heard this tap, tap, tap, tap on glass. Finally she went to the backdoor and there were Maleficent and Aurora. Aurora tapping on the glass. It was pitch black out and they had not gone to bed. They wanted in the big coop on this clod windy night.

I've got to get some winter clothes on and I knew it would easier to corrall them in the house than it would be with them runing in the dark outside so, "let them in" I told her. Here they are wandering through the house.
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I thought Mal was getting up on the couch for sure. My other cat Isabel was on the back of that couch. I think that held her off.
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I just found an Aurora feather next to the couch. They got through the living roomm, dining room, and kitchen. I tried to get a photo of Davis and Mal together but Davis took off when she got too close.

So I went out, opened the automated door, and placed a lantern in the coop so they could see when they got there. When I opened the door and placed the lantern, only Lilly was on the roost. Hattie was in a nesting box. While surprised, she was excited to get up on the roost.

I gathered both hens up and took them out to the porch. I placed them on the porch and they went in and roosted. I swicthed off the lantern and here is everybody safely roosted.
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It is never dull here at Fluffy Butt Acres!

My goodness! I wonder why they didn't put themselves to bed at a certain light lux? I can usually tell when my girls have gone to bed by the light and it's rare to have them wandering about when it's any darker. Does your door shut on a light sensor setting? I got my auto doors because they could do that but the opening setting is a minimum of 200 lux, which is too light. I want it to open around 150 lux but it won't let me, so I have to keep it on the timer. The close setting goes all the way to zero, I guess I could put the close setting on the light setting instead of the timer. You can set it to a particular darkness plus a bit of extra time, say 15 mins.

 

[BY Bob]

Oh! Gosh! That's insane!

Clever girls to come knocking on the Big Coop door.

It was crazy. I don't understand why they didn't roost in the run. This is new behavior. And how about that cat? It takes a village here at Fluffy Butt Acres.

 

[BY Bob]

My goodness! I wonder why they didn't put themselves to bed at a certain light lux? I can usually tell when my girls have gone to bed by the light and it's rare to have them wandering about when it's any darker. Does your door shut on a light sensor setting? I got my auto doors because they could do that but the opening setting is a minimum of 200 lux, which is too light. I want it to open around 150 lux but it won't let me, so I have to keep it on timer. The close setting goes all the way to zero, I guess I could put the close setting on the light setting instead of timer. Mine you can set it to a particular darkness plus a bit of extra time, say 15 mins.

The door closes based upon light. But it reopens 5 min later in case they are late. They were really late tonight and I have no idea why. And why was Hattie in the nesting box? So many questions and no answers.

 

[Ribh]

There are a couple of things I've noticed with the nesting boxes.

I'll sometimes have a really late layer & she'll still be in the box when everyone goes to roost & unless I move her she'll spend the night in the box.

I have @ least one idiot who roosts as late as possible, so when she finally goes into the coop it's too dark to see & she'll wander into a nesting box.

A sick chook will also go to roost in a nesting box.

I don't think you've got any sick but maybe one of the others applies...?

 

[BY Bob]

There are a couple of things I've noticed with the nesting boxes.

I'll sometimes have a really late layer & she'll still be in the box when everyone goes to roost & unless I move her she'll spend the night in the box.

I have @ least one idiot who roosts as late as possible, so when she finally goes into the coop it's too dark to see & she'll wander into a nesting box.

A sick chook will also go to roost in a nesting box.

I don't think you've got any sick but maybe one of the others applies...?

It could be that Lilly threw her off the roost and it got too dark for her to roost again. I wish I knew. In case I need to intervene at some point.

No one is sick. I know that much, thank God. And we know nobody is laying eggs.

 

[BlueBaby]

My goodness! I wonder why they didn't put themselves to bed at a certain light lux? I can usually tell when my girls have gone to bed by the light and it's rare to have them wandering about when it's any darker. Does your door shut on a light sensor setting? I got my auto doors because they could do that but the opening setting is a minimum of 200 lux, which is too light. I want it to open around 150 lux but it won't let me, so I have to keep it on timer. The close setting goes all the way to zero, I guess I could put the close setting on the light setting instead of timer. Mine you can set it to a particular darkness plus a bit of extra time, say 15 mins.

They probably wanted a bedtime snack.

 

[MaryJanet]

Adolescents! "Tap tap tap tap can we come in and go on beakbook?"
"Pleeeease!"
"oh yeh, pleeeease!"

 

[LozzyR]

I have @ least one idiot who roosts as late as possible, so when she finally goes into the coop it's too dark to see & she'll wander into a nesting box.

Actually, I think that’s pretty smart! Who wants to grip onto a stick/plank all night when you can have a nice, comfy bed?!