Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Shadrach]

@Shadrach you might be interested to know there's a class called breeding trio at the big agricultural show where I live. So perhaps some of that wisdom is retained?

One of the highlights of my year is looking at all the different chickens at the show

I'm not surprised MaryJanet. There are a lot of things that were known about chicken keeping that people, particularly within the backyard chicken movement, either no longer believe, or don't find convenient or applicable given their style of chicken keeping.
Here's an example.
One of the high stress points here is when a mother hen who has laid and hatched away from her tribe coop takes her chicks back to her tribe. All the hens bar one have done this.
The coops are off the ground so they have ramps. It can take the chick a few goes before it gets the idea that it must go up the ramp into the coop when it's mother calls from inside the coop. Lots of chicks end up under the coop where mum sounds loudest.
Depending on age etc, some chicks once it gets to a certain low light level will go and hide in the best cover spots they can find in low light.
I/you have to help the chicks up the ramp. This means you've got to catch them and if rushed or bodged the fear can make the chick panic and head for the bushes, not to mention having mum fire out of the coop in full battle order because her chick is making distress calls. You've seen enough pictures of the land here to see it can be very difficult to find a tiny chicks in the undergrowth. You have to find it. It is unlikely to survive the night due to not being warm enough, never mind predators.
It can be very stressful searching for chicks under these conditions.
I was talking to a friend moaning about this and he said. 'you just take a rooster off it's perch and place him on the ground near where you think the chick has gone and it will come out and get underneath him. It has worked here most times when I've tried it; not always, but enough for it not to be chance.
No chick will go to a hen that isn't its mother if it can possibly help it. It invariably gets pecked and driven away. Roosters, even stranger roosters are in general very good with chicks. It's certainly been that way here. The chick knows it's got to get warm and safe and the rooster is the only chicken it can see.

 

[ValerieJ]

I think part of the problem perception of roosters on this forum in particular, is when they are kept in a coop and run they can't show what they can do and do do day in and day out. I'm constantly amazed at how hard some of them work, especially when the hes are laying. It also gives a much better understanding of why the professional chicken tenders keep trios and quads. A single rooster just cannot look after any more properly. Many here will just not believe this but a little while spent observing roosters with larger female groups compared to a trio should show anyone why 3 hens is the magic number.
I get incredibly annoyed when the 'educators' here write complete nonsense regarding rooster behaviour and rooster to hen ratios. I find it impossible to believe they've ever seen a free range flock in action.

I think there are a lot of us who have never had the opportunity to see what you have seen with truly free range flocks. Your pictures and stories are so educational! I'm sure hoping I can keep one of my cockerels with just two pullets at least until one of them gets broody and provides a few more. If I have to I will incubate a few for him, but I prefer the chickens do all that for me. That would be the point of having cockerels. So far so good, and we are clearly into the hormonal stage.

 

[MaryJanet]

I'm not surprised MaryJanet. There are a lot of things that were known about chicken keeping that people, particularly within the backyard chicken movement, either no longer believe, or don't find convenient or applicable given their style of chicken keeping.
Here's an example.
One of the high stress points here is when a mother hen who has laid and hatched away from her tribe coop takes her chicks back to her tribe. All the hens bar one have done this.
The coops are off the ground so they have ramps. It can take the chick a few goes before it gets the idea that it must go up the ramp into the coop when it's mother calls from inside the coop. Lots of chicks end up under the coop where mum sounds loudest.
Depending on age etc, some chicks once it gets to a certain low light level will go and hide in the best cover spots they can find in low light.
I/you have to help the chicks up the ramp. This means you've got to catch them and if rushed or bodged the fear can make the chick panic and head for the bushes, not to mention having mum fire out of the coop in full battle order because her chick is making distress calls. You've seen enough pictures of the land here to see it can be very difficult to find a tiny chicks in the undergrowth. You have to find it. It is unlikely to survive the night due to not being warm enough, never mind predators.
It can be very stressful searching for chicks under these conditions.
I was talking to a friend moaning about this and he said. 'you just take a rooster off it's perch and place him on the ground near where you think the chick has gone and it will come out and get underneath him. It has worked here most times when I've tried it; not always, but enough for it not to be chance.
No chick will go to a hen that isn't its mother if it can possibly help it. It invariably gets pecked and driven away. Roosters, even stranger roosters are in general very good with chicks. It's certainly been that way here. The chick knows it's got to get warm and safe and the rooster is the only chicken it can see.

That's so sensible but also obscure - it would never have occurred to me.

 

[WhoDatChick]

Walking up the sheep field track this afternoon I see these two having a bath. This is a very dangerous spot. You can just see past the dogs and accross the field the bottom edge of the West ridge. This is where the Goshawk sits watching the field below and of course the bank opposite where the hens are bathing. I'm about to climb down and move them when I see Cillin standing guard.
View attachment 2001552
Why is he standing so far away I wondered.View attachment 2001553
View attachment 2001554
Walking a bit further I understood his problem. There are two bath sites!View attachment 2001555
Cillin shouting. View attachment 2001556
Along comes Treacle who tries to herd the hens out of the bath. View attachment 2001557
Cillin moves to the other bath and herds the hens out of that one. View attachment 2001558
View attachment 2001559
You can see from the pictures that the bank is quite steep and there are lots of trip hazards. Get it wrong and you roll on to the track at the bottom of the bank. Needless to say I've done the full journey.

Something about your chickens that I really dig... I think it’s that they just seem sooooo cool ... and your eloquent story telling doesn’t hurt

 

[Ribh]

I'm not surprised MaryJanet. There are a lot of things that were known about chicken keeping that people, particularly within the backyard chicken movement, either no longer believe, or don't find convenient or applicable given their style of chicken keeping.
Here's an example.
One of the high stress points here is when a mother hen who has laid and hatched away from her tribe coop takes her chicks back to her tribe. All the hens bar one have done this.
The coops are off the ground so they have ramps. It can take the chick a few goes before it gets the idea that it must go up the ramp into the coop when it's mother calls from inside the coop. Lots of chicks end up under the coop where mum sounds loudest.
Depending on age etc, some chicks once it gets to a certain low light level will go and hide in the best cover spots they can find in low light.
I/you have to help the chicks up the ramp. This means you've got to catch them and if rushed or bodged the fear can make the chick panic and head for the bushes, not to mention having mum fire out of the coop in full battle order because her chick is making distress calls. You've seen enough pictures of the land here to see it can be very difficult to find a tiny chicks in the undergrowth. You have to find it. It is unlikely to survive the night due to not being warm enough, never mind predators.
It can be very stressful searching for chicks under these conditions.
I was talking to a friend moaning about this and he said. 'you just take a rooster off it's perch and place him on the ground near where you think the chick has gone and it will come out and get underneath him. It has worked here most times when I've tried it; not always, but enough for it not to be chance.
No chick will go to a hen that isn't its mother if it can possibly help it. It invariably gets pecked and driven away. Roosters, even stranger roosters are in general very good with chicks. It's certainly been that way here. The chick knows it's got to get warm and safe and the rooster is the only chicken it can see.

That is absolutely fascinating! I'll remember that one!

 

[Kris5902]

I'm not surprised MaryJanet. There are a lot of things that were known about chicken keeping that people, particularly within the backyard chicken movement, either no longer believe, or don't find convenient or applicable given their style of chicken keeping.
Here's an example.
One of the high stress points here is when a mother hen who has laid and hatched away from her tribe coop takes her chicks back to her tribe. All the hens bar one have done this.
The coops are off the ground so they have ramps. It can take the chick a few goes before it gets the idea that it must go up the ramp into the coop when it's mother calls from inside the coop. Lots of chicks end up under the coop where mum sounds loudest.
Depending on age etc, some chicks once it gets to a certain low light level will go and hide in the best cover spots they can find in low light.
I/you have to help the chicks up the ramp. This means you've got to catch them and if rushed or bodged the fear can make the chick panic and head for the bushes, not to mention having mum fire out of the coop in full battle order because her chick is making distress calls. You've seen enough pictures of the land here to see it can be very difficult to find a tiny chicks in the undergrowth. You have to find it. It is unlikely to survive the night due to not being warm enough, never mind predators.
It can be very stressful searching for chicks under these conditions.
I was talking to a friend moaning about this and he said. 'you just take a rooster off it's perch and place him on the ground near where you think the chick has gone and it will come out and get underneath him. It has worked here most times when I've tried it; not always, but enough for it not to be chance.
No chick will go to a hen that isn't its mother if it can possibly help it. It invariably gets pecked and driven away. Roosters, even stranger roosters are in general very good with chicks. It's certainly been that way here. The chick knows it's got to get warm and safe and the rooster is the only chicken it can see.

I was also shocked that my roosters have been accepting of and guiding even the “troublesome teenage cockerels” towards decent behavior. The hens are far less forgiving all in all. Past even the baby chick needing heat and help phase, I’ve been integrating (not by choice, but by circumstances.@ like sudden freezing temperatures, limited pens, and owl attacks) my mature rooster with 17-20 week olds and another mature Rooster and three hens to some 10-13 week olds. And my sweet little “broken” Hoppy is the most “aggressive” of the bunch... of that teen cockerel even looks at the wrong pullet sideways he’s getting pecked back into order!

 

[BY Bob]

On Duty

Hattie spent a large part of yesterday on obvious sentinel duty. She stood on the edge of the deck keeping watch while the others roamed the yard. I gave her some Cheese Itz as a special treat.

 

[BY Bob]

Photo of the Week

I just submitted this for photo of the week.

Here is Aurora practicing the "Deep Leaves" method.

 

[WhoDatChick]

Photo of the Week

I just submitted this for photo of the week.

Here is Aurora practicing the "Deep Leaves" method.

View attachment 2002011

That is a beautiful pic! And hen

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm not surprised MaryJanet. There are a lot of things that were known about chicken keeping that people, particularly within the backyard chicken movement, either no longer believe, or don't find convenient or applicable given their style of chicken keeping.
Here's an example.
One of the high stress points here is when a mother hen who has laid and hatched away from her tribe coop takes her chicks back to her tribe. All the hens bar one have done this.
The coops are off the ground so they have ramps. It can take the chick a few goes before it gets the idea that it must go up the ramp into the coop when it's mother calls from inside the coop. Lots of chicks end up under the coop where mum sounds loudest.
Depending on age etc, some chicks once it gets to a certain low light level will go and hide in the best cover spots they can find in low light.
I/you have to help the chicks up the ramp. This means you've got to catch them and if rushed or bodged the fear can make the chick panic and head for the bushes, not to mention having mum fire out of the coop in full battle order because her chick is making distress calls. You've seen enough pictures of the land here to see it can be very difficult to find a tiny chicks in the undergrowth. You have to find it. It is unlikely to survive the night due to not being warm enough, never mind predators.
It can be very stressful searching for chicks under these conditions.
I was talking to a friend moaning about this and he said. 'you just take a rooster off it's perch and place him on the ground near where you think the chick has gone and it will come out and get underneath him. It has worked here most times when I've tried it; not always, but enough for it not to be chance.
No chick will go to a hen that isn't its mother if it can possibly help it. It invariably gets pecked and driven away. Roosters, even stranger roosters are in general very good with chicks. It's certainly been that way here. The chick knows it's got to get warm and safe and the rooster is the only chicken it can see.

Wow @Shadrach I am fascinated by your stories of your tribes and the role the roosters play. I am sadly not in a situation where I can have roosters so I am very jealous and will just have to enjoy yours on this thread. Seeing your bathing beauties I thought I would share that I am feeling proud of my chicken palace design. I planned for a bathing spot - which is of course great to plan for, but we all know they will bathe where they will bathe. Well, the palace is still not finished but they now get to use the runs (which are now fully fox-proof) and they went straight to my designated bathing beach and had a great old time bathing together. Made me so happy to see them and to know I picked a perfect spot for them.