Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Aussie-Chookmum]

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.

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

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The others have their backs to her.


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

The Palace looks really cosy with the light on.
Maybe you should change Minnie's name to Greta "I want to be alone" Garbo. I notice the other hens aren't snuggling closely together. Perhaps the palace is just so wonderfully snug?

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

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.

I'm hoping hard for you Kris.

Thank goodness you have a decent number vaccinated.

 

[Ribh]

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.

Noooooo. I've lost track of your numbers but that's about 1/2 the flock vaccinated? Hoping for the best.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Pepper is still broody.

I have closed off the coop and she has been bok bok bokking around the yard for the last three hours in a very distressed manner. I feel like such a bully.

When I come outside she does a Lassie. Runs towards me then back to the coop in "Timmy's in the well" kind of way.

Yes dear, I know the coop is closed. I did it on purpose.

Pepper running back to the coop.

 

[Ribh]

Pepper is still broody.

I have closed off the coop and she has been bok bok bokking around the yard for the last three hours in a very distressed manner. I feel like such a bully.

When I come outside she does a Lassie. Runs towards me then back to the coop in "Timmy's in the well" kind of way.

Yes dear, I know the coop is closed. I did it on purpose.

Pepper running back to the coop.
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I have Alpia in the little coop. She looks @ me so reproachfully every time I appear but she can't sit & waste away. I won't have it.

 

[micstrachan]

Yup a coming on 5 year old this spring Rocky Mountain Horse named Dirt. When he arrived at the old barn around 18 months old he still was unnamed and for sale. During that time we had around 10 horses boarded down there and we spent pretty much all day every day down there taking care of the horses, property and cleaning and mom couldn't stand that he didn't have a name. At the time, none of them were ours but we ran the place and my mom and dad were looking for the right horse. Ironically, it just so happened that Rocky and Kentucky mountain horses were exactly what they were looking at and for. My dad cannot handle to ride rough horses anymore and wanted a smother gaited horse. Now my mom can't stand common or normal names, and my dad and daughter Rosie were calling him Dusty. Nope she wouldn't have it, everyone has a horse named Dusty as she put it, his name was Dirt. My dad's jaw about hit the floor. He wanted to know what crazy person named their horse Dirt. She just gave him a look and asked, out of all the horse show's he's been to had he ever heard of one named Dirt. Then she asked how many times had he heard them announce the name Dusty. So that is how he got his name, and within a month he was ours. And I have to admit, the name has grown on me, it suits him and one of his nicknames is Dirtman.
Here is a picture of him not long after we got him.
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about 2 months later
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And my mom and her boy taken on New Years.
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Dirt is beautiful, and so is your cute mom!

 

[micstrachan]

Maggie
I said the other day Maggie got her mojo back, but I had forgotten what full-on Maggie is like.
She is loud and independent minded. She is curious and contrarian.
I love her.
Today she rushed the Palace door when I opened it to get in. Remember I am only able to get to the door by balancing on scrap plywood to get over the snow mountain. So she is immediately faced with a wall of snow which she starts eating with gusto.
I managed to coax her back in with some rice from the Thai food last night which caused her to yell at me (presumably because I ate the curry myself and didn’t share).
Oh Maggie, welcome back to your full life!

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Yay, Maggie! This is so wonderful to hear!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I have Alpia in the little coop. She looks @ me so reproachfully every time I appear but she can't sit & waste away. I won't have it.

If it wasn't for these threads I would not have known the dangers of broodiness.

Pepper has been broody for four weeks now and no-one else is laying, except Edwina occasionally, so I've opened the coop and blocked off the nest boxes.

Pepper tested the cardboard then sat on a perch to sulk.

At least she's not "bokking" around the back yard anymore.

 

[Ribh]

If it wasn't for these threads I would not have known the dangers of broodiness.

Pepper has been broody for four weeks now and no-one else is laying, except Edwina occasionally, so I've opened the coop and blocked off the nest boxes.

Pepper tested the cardboard then sat on a perch to sulk.

View attachment 2519989
At least she's not "bokking" around the back yard anymore.

I had 3 bokking away recently. It was driving me mad! I love my broody girls but they cannot sit & I wish the penny would drop! It was stinking hot today too. No weather to be sitting in a stuffy nesting box!

 

[LozzyR]

Go-go gadget neck!!!
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I used to love that show as a kid! I showed my son an episode a year or two ago and he wasn’t interested. I had to agree; it really dragged!