Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ribh]

Me too! Non of mine have eyes like that...they are so beautiful!

Australorps have eyes like that too ~ & are easier to acquire.

 

[drumstick diva]

Beautiful eyes, don't they (whomever) say eyes are the windows to the soul?

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Yes! The thought was, OMG, what's going on and what do I need to do about this???

I wonder if the height of the scratch offering makes a difference? Maybe if it's on the ground then they would have to toss it back and it might end up differently in the throat and be better, more natural? I wonder if the height of their crumbles feeder should be lower too, not at shoulder height? I've seen this once in a while after they eat there.

Then again, they grab at some tall grass or flower's seed heads and pull them sideways to get them off, and sometimes it's quite high and they stretch for it.

But I'm currently thinking that it likely has to do with pigging out and eating really fast, which maneuvers chickens supposedly have perfected....in nature though....in which case it wouldn't be the height of the food and the throwback involved but the amount they can get in their beak with one grab....which in nature wouldn't be all that much. So it may be more natural to make each bite be a regular tiny one by having them eat in bits, not whole beak-fulls.

One pullet here has perfected grabbing several mealworms out of my hand in a big cluster in her beak and taking one or two steps away from the others to eat them in a couple of gulps. She's really good at it. Another, I think is Hazel, stays right there ignoring everyone else and rapidly pecks away like a sewing machine. I might count her pecks per minute sometime! There's a lot going on at mealtimes.

I don't have enough data on this to really tell. WHEN ARE THE BOOKS GETTING HERE???

The girls' "breakfast bar" varies from about chest height to ankle height so I don't think that is what causes the problem. I think it may just be greed and gobbling down too much at once.

Here is the "breakfast bar" with chickens for scale.

Plus a belated Mugshot Monday pic for ByBob

Edit. P.S. You can see that Tsuki doesn't have those lovely dark eyes...
☹

 

[drstratton]

Australorps have eyes like that too ~ & are easier to acquire.

Well, I'm going to have to work on my chicken math....

 

[LozzyR]

Australorps have eyes like that too ~ & are easier to acquire.

My Charlie has lovely dark eyes. Pity she’s such a cow! (Without a gun, I won’t let her have one. Or a chopper for that matter!).

 

[LozzyR]

Beautiful eyes, don't they (whomever) say eyes are the windows to the soul?

Hi Diva!!

 

[drumstick diva]

Hi Lozzy

 

[RoyalChick]

Make something? Sounds intriguing. Will you be taking progress photos to share with us?

The only effort I put in to my "breakfast bar" was to drag it into the run and flip it over so most of it was off the ground. The chooks have put more effort in by "sculpting" it with their pecking. It is a slightly different shape now to what it was two years ago.

I copied your breakfast bar idea. They love it!

 

[RoyalChick]

Yeh! That's a really good one does the song come off second best amongst all those gorgeous puppers, trying so hard to get their tricks right?

Oh goodness I am missing posts and missed this the first time around. Love it!

 

[RoyalChick]

The girls' "breakfast bar" varies from about chest height to ankle height so I don't think that is what causes the problem. I think it may just be greed and gobbling down too much at once.

Here is the "breakfast bar" with chickens for scale.
View attachment 2432335

Plus a belated Mugshot Monday pic for ByBob
View attachment 2432336

Edit. P.S. You can see that Tsuki doesn't have those lovely dark eyes...
☹

I realize looking at your breakfast bar I copied it on too small a scale. I have two logs but each only about 2’ long. I chose them because they had good crevices. I need to look for something more ambitious!