Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

Well, when it rains... stay inside.
Roostie’s foot has been pushed back to Monday now, the cows are being pests, Arduinna is adorable but getting into everything, and I just got a call from a neighbor who is culling his flock of over 150 birds. He has been hit with Mareks (most likely based on some of his birds symptoms, others are just looking puffy then dying overnight without the classic paralysis or stargazing symptoms). This is where my last set of rescues came from. So far there have been no signs of any illness in my flocks, including the rescues. The other neighbor who shared in my purchase of the Red Rock Chicks late last summer has lost one randomly. She puffed up looked “un thrifty” and was dead two days later. With just two weeks before my first set of Meat Bird chicks are set to arrive, I’m concerned.

38 of my birds total were vaccinated for Marek’s as chicks. Roostie, Little Red, all the meat ladies and the Red Rocks. I believe that the rescues from the farm coop here and the three from my other friend were as well, that brings me to 46 likely vaccinated birds. My meat birds coming in April are vaccinated, I’m not sure about the ones coming in two weeks. I just did some math. 94 for my layers and their roosters, with 40 Mistral Gris meat birds maybe arriving February 22, and 60 Weatern Rustics coming in April 15th. This is why I wanted to do closed flocks and home hatched meat birds.

I am also thinking husbandry and living conditions could be a contributing factor. So fingers crossed, and obviously I’m not going to be returning those crates for a while! The other guy is saying he thinks a farm visit by some new island residents from Alberta (that also did chickens there) could have contaminated his flock. He also thinks you can cure Covid with ivomec oral horse paste, so grain of salt. And yes I know “Quarantine”! My meat chicks are going to spend their first month on my friends farm in his coop I’m cleaning out, the place I garden at.

If I lose my flock to Mareks I’m not sure what I would do here, or if I will stay.

Oh no. I can only imagine how worrying that is.

 

[RoyalChick]

Well, do chickens do this when they're not feeling well?

If she's okay, then she prefers it maybe because she can't get the spot she wants? How do we know she's not having a GREAT time being Queen Of Her Very Own Roost?

I hope that is it. I do think that favored spot on the big roost could be the issue because she and Dotty are always unsatisfied with their relative positions (even though those change). So maybe she is indeed enjoying her very own roost. It is well below freezing at night but not single digits so I think she is OK all puffed up like that.

 

[BY Bob]

Well I think so!

Obviously!

 

[BY Bob]

I might be channeling @featherhead007 here. The name Mudd immediately brings to mind what? Hints: That's it, can't find any more emojis...Maybe you guys are too young?

Harcourt Fenton.....

 

[BY Bob]

Another double-emoji requiring post. and .
Love the pizza box. Very clever.

I do make use of what is at hand. It will do until the big porch expansion of 2021.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

During the day she seems completely normal and isn't avoiding the others. She and Dotty sit there and when it gets to be bed-time Dotty flies down and then up to the main roost and Minnie settles in where she is. So strange.
I thought about drafts and it is true that the two roosts are in very different places in the Palace so no doubt the air circulation is different. In general however, the Chicken Palace isn't drafty at chicken-height and has lots of air flow 8' and up, so I am surprised there is much to choose on that basis. But I am definitely not a chicken so who knows?!

A possible clue here is time of day. Something hurts enough by the end of the day that she doesn't want to fly and land on the ground again, or fly up again? Less pain to just stay where she is. Maybe wing pain as @MaryJanet writes, but more likely it could be pain in her legbones & tendons, or her feet. Is there a way to test that, like give her a pain med for a couple of days and see what she does?

 

[BY Bob]

Another double-emoji requiring post. and .
Love the pizza box. Very clever.

You're not laughing at Phyllis are you? The pizza box was first.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Well, when it rains... stay inside.
Roostie’s foot has been pushed back to Monday now, the cows are being pests, Arduinna is adorable but getting into everything, and I just got a call from a neighbor who is culling his flock of over 150 birds. He has been hit with Mareks (most likely based on some of his birds symptoms, others are just looking puffy then dying overnight without the classic paralysis or stargazing symptoms). This is where my last set of rescues came from. So far there have been no signs of any illness in my flocks, including the rescues. The other neighbor who shared in my purchase of the Red Rock Chicks late last summer has lost one randomly. She puffed up looked “un thrifty” and was dead two days later. With just two weeks before my first set of Meat Bird chicks are set to arrive, I’m concerned.

38 of my birds total were vaccinated for Marek’s as chicks. Roostie, Little Red, all the meat ladies and the Red Rocks. I believe that the rescues from the farm coop here and the three from my other friend were as well, that brings me to 46 likely vaccinated birds. My meat birds coming in April are vaccinated, I’m not sure about the ones coming in two weeks. I just did some math. 94 for my layers and their roosters, with 40 Mistral Gris meat birds maybe arriving February 22, and 60 Weatern Rustics coming in April 15th. This is why I wanted to do closed flocks and home hatched meat birds.

I am also thinking husbandry and living conditions could be a contributing factor. So fingers crossed, and obviously I’m not going to be returning those crates for a while! The other guy is saying he thinks a farm visit by some new island residents from Alberta (that also did chickens there) could have contaminated his flock. He also thinks you can cure Covid with ivomec oral horse paste, so grain of salt. And yes I know “Quarantine”! My meat chicks are going to spend their first month on my friends farm in his coop I’m cleaning out, the place I garden at.

If I lose my flock to Mareks I’m not sure what I would do here, or if I will stay.

 

[RoyalChick]

I do make use of what is at hand. It will do until the big porch expansion of 2021.

I am looking forward to seeing that.

 

[BY Bob]

I don’t normally see the Chicken Palace with the light on because I turn it off when I walk out, but tonight I forgot to bring new batteries for the cameras so I ‘popped back’ (by popped I mean balanced on my board walk over the snow). I thought it looked pretty.

View attachment 2519493

Inside there is a spherical and lonely Minnie.
Why Minnie? Why won’t you snuggle up to the others?

View attachment 2519497

The others have their backs to her.


View attachment 2519508

It seems to be her choice, but it looks sad to me.
Any ideas why?

I wish I could provide some guidance. Put the camera on at roosting time and make certain how she is winding up there. I know you watched once. I think I would watch several times. Frankly it feels like her choice.