Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Walnuts are a favorite here along with, mature Cheddar Cheese, Grapes that grow on the vines here which are wine grapes rather than eating grapes, cooked sardines or any cooked fish. They prefer cooked meat to raw although the pullets seem pretty keen on the raw stuff.
Fat Bird loves a bit of pizza.
There is one thing that makes a couple of evenings a year very tiresome. There is a species of ant here that takes wing to leave the nest. You can get thousands funnel out of a hole in the ground and settle on whatever surface it lands on. The chickens go mad. It's a complete feeding frenzy. You can't get them to go to roost!

Mine simply will not eat ants. They ignore them completely. So funny.

 

[MaryJanet]

Ants are on the dislike list here too. Tomatoes are a big hit with Mary.

Here's an interesting bit of information: I bought some live crickets (I won't be doing it again because I felt sorry for the crickets) for them on Thursday as a special treat for Sandy. I'd never tried providing crickets before and simply assumed all three hens would go crazy for them because that's what everyone says will happen. The good news is, Sandy loved them and gobbled most of them up. I think Mary got one. Janet tried one, considered it really rather awful and gave up.

Not one hen chased the crickets.

But I'm glad Sandy ate most of the treat. I think it cheered her up.

 

[Shadrach]

Mine simply will not eat ants. They ignore them completely. So funny.

The chickens here won't eat any other ants apart from these. I believe chickens don't like 'ordinary' ants because of the acid content. Maybe these flying ants don't have it.

 

[MaryJanet]

There are 3 Doors!

I was not home last night when the ladies went to bed. Therefore my dear wife needed to close things up. Especially so since we're are not going to be home today and I did not want to have to wrangle them back in the coop. She sent me a text, everyone in bed, all closed up.

The view from our coffee pot is the coop. So I got up this morning and looked out at the coop as I poured my coffee. Usually I can see them milling around either under the coop or out on the porch. No sign of them when I got my first cup. Must be in the big run.

At my second cup, still no sign of them. Maybe they are all bathing together again.

When I saw no one with my third cup, I got curious. So I looked on the camera. No one anywhere on any camera.

My heart starts beating a little faster. Where are they?

I open the window. They are not by the bushes next to the house, so I call out "chook chook".

Instantly two bearded heads pop up and head for the deck from the side of the yard. Next thing I know all 4 are at the back door.

I called them, they came, therefore they must be rewarded.

So how did they get out?

My wife got the side door by the porch, the door to the big run, but she forgot the 1/2 to under the coop. She practically had to trip over it to get to the big run but she forgot there were 3 doors.

I still had to get them back in. In this instance the weather camer to my rescue. A little freezing rain and they ran in on their own. Close the doors and they are safely tucked away.

Easy peasy.

I like the ground level perspective! I'd give that a try one day except here it would be a great way to get sand in the little crevices of the phone. The whole suburb is on a sandy peninsula.

 

[MaryJanet]

Daisy, the greatest hen ever, Meets Elphie

After getting reminded that I had not continued this series, I am going to try again. Thank you for the reminder @Aussie-Chookmum . My goal is to try and heal my heart by celebrating her all too short life. I am also afraid that I may start to forget the stories of her life before I record them. By doing this I am hoping that someday Eve will learn of Daisy.

Please feel free to remind me if I do not get back to her story. I really do want to do this.

So many mistakes were made in the early days of our flock. Yes, I had raised chickens on the homestead but on the homestead we followed no rules of chicken keeping outside of survival of the fittest. There were so many things I did not understand and it would be some time until I even found this website.

On Thanksgiving my Dad and I were reminiscing about the old flock. Amazingly, all we ever fed the chickens, as feed goes, was whole kernel field corn. That was seriously all we ever provided along with water. They had to find their own protein. How they were able to do that is a testament what great foragers chickens are. What a terrible diet we provided for them.

So when I got Daisy as a young pullet I followed none of the best practices that I now know. Daisy was an emergency replacement for Trisha who had succumbed to complications from egg binding and prolapse.

So thinking nothing of it, I took a young pullet and put her in a coop with full grown hen. I thought that Elphie needed a friend and would simply adopt Daisy as her new bestie.

Here they are in the nesting box meeting for the first time.
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Of course, Elphie did NOT accept Daisy with open wings. Elphie was quite mean to Daisy. Constantly pecking her and chasing her away, especially when Daisy tried to roost with her at night. In fact, I had to intervene a few times on the roost when it seemed Elphie was a bit too vicious. I would remove Daisy until it got dark and then place her back on the roost.

The pecking as so bad that Daisy started roosting outside the coop on the roof of the run or coop itself. Of course, trying to force a flock, I would move her back to the roost at dark. Here is poor Daisy roosting outside to get away from Elphie’s pecking as well as them on the roost together.
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Despite all of this, Daisy followed Elphie around like a little sister following her older teenage sister. She idolized Elphie. Nearly all my pictures of Elphie from this time have Daisy somewhere in the background. In fact, the one I use here is Elphie with Daisy watching her from the background. Here are some pictures of the two of them out and about.
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Naaawww poor baby Daisy, she was only trying to be friendly.

 

[Don 27]

Mine simply will not eat ants. They ignore them completely. So funny.

I was reading some of the older posts and it's really addicting! I'm going to finish the whole thread soon! I liked how you described what the chickens were doing during the cold months and how they began to forage more as the snow melted away. Also the parts about the roster was really interesting and how he slowly worked his way up the pecking order. To bad he had to go .. I was reading about the ducks do you mind telling me a little bit about them. DId the pool cover attract them to your property?

 

[BY Bob]

I was reading some of the older posts and it's really addicting! I'm going to finish the whole thread soon! I liked how you described what the chickens were doing during the cold months and how they began to forage more as the snow melted away. Also the parts about the roster was really interesting and how he slowly worked his way up the pecking order. To bad he had to go .. I was reading about the ducks do you mind telling me a little bit about them. DId the pool cover attract them to your property?

I'm so glad you like it.

I'm not sure what initially drew the wild ducks to the pool. I know that by spring I have algae growing in the water on top of the pool so it does start to seem similar to a pond. I know they come every year and usually leave about the time I remove the cover. There have been times they have come back after the pool is open. It is a real challenge getting rid of them then and they do things in the pool that is not cool.

 

[BY Bob]

I think your diary/event type posts are a great thing Bob. It's a pity that they don't reach a wider audience

@Shadrach , this one of the nicer things that people have said to me. You are most kind.

 

[BlueBaby]

Wow, all of this and I didn't get my notification. None of my flock will eat ant's neither. I did have a pullet that was trying to catch a bee this afternoon though.

 

[LozzyR]

Daisy, the greatest hen ever, Meets Elphie

After getting reminded that I had not continued this series, I am going to try again. Thank you for the reminder @Aussie-Chookmum . My goal is to try and heal my heart by celebrating her all too short life. I am also afraid that I may start to forget the stories of her life before I record them. By doing this I am hoping that someday Eve will learn of Daisy.

Please feel free to remind me if I do not get back to her story. I really do want to do this.

So many mistakes were made in the early days of our flock. Yes, I had raised chickens on the homestead but on the homestead we followed no rules of chicken keeping outside of survival of the fittest. There were so many things I did not understand and it would be some time until I even found this website.

On Thanksgiving my Dad and I were reminiscing about the old flock. Amazingly, all we ever fed the chickens, as feed goes, was whole kernel field corn. That was seriously all we ever provided along with water. They had to find their own protein. How they were able to do that is a testament what great foragers chickens are. What a terrible diet we provided for them.

So when I got Daisy as a young pullet I followed none of the best practices that I now know. Daisy was an emergency replacement for Trisha who had succumbed to complications from egg binding and prolapse.

So thinking nothing of it, I took a young pullet and put her in a coop with full grown hen. I thought that Elphie needed a friend and would simply adopt Daisy as her new bestie.

Here they are in the nesting box meeting for the first time.
View attachment 1981315

View attachment 1981314

Of course, Elphie did NOT accept Daisy with open wings. Elphie was quite mean to Daisy. Constantly pecking her and chasing her away, especially when Daisy tried to roost with her at night. In fact, I had to intervene a few times on the roost when it seemed Elphie was a bit too vicious. I would remove Daisy until it got dark and then place her back on the roost.

The pecking as so bad that Daisy started roosting outside the coop on the roof of the run or coop itself. Of course, trying to force a flock, I would move her back to the roost at dark. Here is poor Daisy roosting outside to get away from Elphie’s pecking as well as them on the roost together.
View attachment 1981320

View attachment 1981316
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Despite all of this, Daisy followed Elphie around like a little sister following her older teenage sister. She idolized Elphie. Nearly all my pictures of Elphie from this time have Daisy somewhere in the background. In fact, the one I use here is Elphie with Daisy watching her from the background. Here are some pictures of the two of them out and about.
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My heart aches for baby Daisy. She was so gorgeous and I have a younger sister that used to follow me around like Daisy followed Elphie (she doesn’t any more! ) I can see why she touched your heart so much and why you were so devastated when she passed.