Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[WhoDatChick]

For fun... my largest egg (BLack Australorp- Maryn) and my smallest egg (one of my Cochin bantams)...

and my darkest egg (Cuckoo Marans- Mak) and my bluest egg ( EE-Poppy)...

 

[ValerieJ]

For fun... my largest egg (BLack Australorp- Maryn) and my smallest egg (one of my Cochin bantams)...View attachment 2001049and my darkest egg (Cuckoo Marans- Mak) and my bluest egg ( EE-Poppy)...View attachment 2001050

Beautiful eggs!

 

[WhoDatChick]

Beautiful eggs!

I’ll say thank you for the gals

 

[Scoggin09]

When you are asking for help sexing it is best to always have a really clear picture of the comb, the tail feathers [they will be pointier on a cockerel], the saddle feathers & the hackles. I think you have a pullet from what I can see.

Thanks but I will try to get more pictures

 

[CrazyChookChookLady]

One of the things I look forward to in the winter is not having to nest hunt. Most hens to take a winter break from laying. Most years there are one or two pullets who lay eggs over the winter and a couple is a lot easier to keep an eye on than 15 to 20 hens!

I've had the nest box in my house stripped out for the past couple of months. It saves a lot of cleaning up after the chickens have scratched about in the box.
Hurry the gray hen sitting in the nest box in the second picture has been wandering around with both Cillin and Treacle looking for nest sites. For Tribe 1 to which she belongs, there are plenty of options, tow boxes in their coop, two maternity units just outside my house and an unlimited acreage if she chose to lay outside.
Despite all the choices both Cillin and Treacle will bring her into the house and crouch under the empty nest box making nesting calls.
I gave in in the end and put some straw in the house nest box. All the senior hens came to check it out. Cillin practically bullied Hurry into the house nest box. Fat bird has driven Hurry out of both the maternity unit boxes on at least two occasions that I've seen.
Cillin has stood on the nest box edge making nesting calls for a good hour now and one by one the hens have got in and checked the box over, including Hurry.
There is absolutely nothing about this nest box that fits in with the uasual advice about what hens prefer to lay eggs in. It has virtually no privacy, it isn't that comfortable (I'm making adjustments) it's noisy, yet every hen in Tribe 1 and a couple from Tribe 3 are reluctant to lay eggs anywhere else.
Here's Cilling keeping an eye on Mel as she checks the nest.
View attachment 1999438 Even Fat Bird climbed in at one point to endorse the site and made no attempt to drive Hurry off the nest.
The noise as this goes on is incredible. All the hens call and the roosters make an incredible range of sounds from what is almost a purr to a banshee scream.
View attachment 1999437

OMG!!! I would be in 7th heaven to have my chooks able to come and go as they please. What a wonderful way to live!

 

[ValerieJ]

OMG!!! I would be in 7th heaven to have my chooks able to come and go as they please. What a wonderful way to live!

Until a predator got hold of one. I would love to raise my chickens that way too, but they wouldn't last a single season. I know. I have a neighbor who replaces his chickens every year because he free ranges.

 

[MaryJanet]

How are the residents of fluffy butt acres @BY Bob ? Is Aurora still proud of her adventures in the snow?

 

[BY Bob]

Thank you sir, as much as i love them though im not sure i can spend 20 years working with the breed, the way i know i could with my hona. I think if they weren't so gorgeous id have moved on already. I need a meaty breed.

Hes a sweet thing too yall, i regularly have him free ranging in the yard while my three toddlers play. He hasnt challenged a single one of us the first time i should have one of his sons here just in case, but last year i didnt work on the breeding of the dots, just the hona and quail.

Still hatched an absolutely insane amount of chicks for a collection of tabletop incubators. Anyone care to venture a guess how many? Before i crunched the numbers my guess was '...at least 200, maybe 3.'

Now that im done bragging on that fella, Would anyone like to see anymore pics of my flock? Im pretty proud of the birds im breeding and i hope to be able to work on improving them enough to call them my lines, one day.

Please. Let's see some more!

 

[BY Bob]

Could somebody tell me if this is a hen or rooster ?he or she is 5 months old almost six and is not crowing or doing anything and very friendly.

I say pullet but it's not the easiest picture to use for sexing.

 

[BY Bob]

I’m at 60 birds as of Thursday... so I’m not trying to get huge... and want to focus on colored eggs (sorry again @BY Bob )



definitely pullet IMO, but again better and more knowledgeable help on the what breed/gender forum

Now that I have a "pink" egg, I'm not so salty on the colored egg trail.