Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

He may not survive if he breaks in. Not the way they treat mice.

How are they doing in the coop today?

So far so good. It is 94 at the weather station nearby; 90 in the shaded run; 88 inside the actual coop part of the Chicken Palace.
I have hosed down the dirt inside the coop part and put a big bowl of ice in the run. I also put ice cubes inside the hanging drinker.
They are open mouth breathing but not holding their wings out and they are very energetic when scrambled eggs or sunflower seeds are offered.
We have another couple of days of this and I have a big block of freshly made kefir in the freezer for an ice-cream treat tomorrow.
I wonder if I should try to hang wet sheets or towels in front of the open windows - that can have a dramatic cooling effect both by shading any sun that comes in the window and evaporating in the breeze.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

These girls are getting big too. They are all in lay or “point of lay” too.
(My rooster has his hands full)! View attachment 2739852

They are beautiful! I have enjoyed watching these chickens grow up!

 

[adwil21]

When I started the thread I had 4, Patsy, Jabber, Lilly and Hattie. Lilly and Hattie are still with me.

Lilly
View attachment 2738647

Hattie
View attachment 2738646

What breed is Lilly?

 

[RoyalChick]

Baby it's Hot Outside

I just checked the Temp Gauge that I have in the coop. Here is what it is reading. (The top temp and Humidity are from the remote sensor)
View attachment 2739926

I put that into a Heat index calculator and this is what I get.
View attachment 2739916

109 F and who is inside laying an egg!

Spoiler: Who is on the nest?

NO ONE! Thankfully!
View attachment 2739920

The rest of the tribe is hanging out where I wet down the ground earlier. I will be going out to re-wet everything around 3:00 or 4:00 pm. Everyone seems to be bearing the heat just fine so far.

To go back to the sensor above, the bottom part of the sensor displays the inside temperature and humidity. You can see that the air conditioner has lowered the humidity significantly. It states that the SE facing side of the house is 84.9 F while the thermostat in the center of the house is showing 77 F. That is from the sun baking the back of the house. You can feel how much warmer it is just by walking into the kitchen. Right now the sun is dead overhead. Once it comes over to the NW side of the house, that side will start baking and until the SE side cools down the air conditioner will struggle to cool the house.

Yup that is hot. I spend a lot of the year cursing the river birches that grow up against my house - they are the route of entry for all wildlife, they clog the gutters and throw branches onto the roof. But right now they are a complete blessing as my house is in glorious deep shade with beautiful green everywhere.
I cannot see anyone in a nest - the picture is cut off. Or is that the spoiler - to be revealed later?!

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

First thing this morning my grandmother called wanting to pick me and Rosie up to go pick some lettuce a friend was going to give her. I was finally forced after almost 2 years of avoiding it to tell her that I was not comfortable anymore with her driving. With the many health issues she has now she does not need her license but refuses to give them up. It looks like it is going to take my mom forcefully getting power of attorney over her to get them taken away. Now, I love my grandmother, and would do anything in the world for her, but dementia is setting in, and she has always been one that if you are not doing something for her she has absolutely no use for you. We also get into many arguments over how I am raising Rosie. I'm going to get her killed messing with horses, or kidnapped because I let her outside to play in our neighborhood by herself. If she had her way, and she's tried, Rosie would be afraid of her own shadow. Also she is a hoarder. Me and mom have tried for years now to go help clean her place up and just get rid of garbage and she throws fits and ends up in tears claiming we treat her like dirt.

Anyway, me and mom and Rose head down to her house, intending to pick her up and go pick this lettuce for her. Get there, and she'd had someone else go get it for her. Ok fine, you still need to go to the store and pay bills, lets go. Nope ends up sending me and mom to the store and bills can wait to the end of the month.

We get back and unload everything and convince her to let us help her by washing her dishes which had piled up. So she decides ok, she'd take a nap. While she's sleeping and mom is washing dishes me and Rose go clean her bathroom for her and do her laundry.

Due to her hoarding, she has a mouse problem. She claims she's only had a few mice for the last 2 months and has been setting traps and killing them. While yes it's true she's got traps set, and may be getting a couple here and there, but, this has been going on longer then 2 months.

Mom was almost finished with the dishes and I was waiting on the 2nd load of laundry to finish washing when we took a break and went outside to smoke. Out there maybe 5 minutes when it all went to crap. On our way back in as soon as we opened the screen door there he was. She has a 5 foot black snake in her house. Cue instant heart attack #1 for me. We scared the snake as much as he scared us so he doubled back and hid in the junk she had piled up along her living room wall.

Grandma also spotted the back end of the snake as he ran and swears she didn't know he was in there. This freaked her out so bad that for once she demanded we catch him even if it meant throwing everything along that wall away. 5 hours later, with about 10 different mice flying out at me when I'd move a box and half her living room clean. STILL NO SNAKE!! At this point me and mom are exhausted, when I came across a nest of baby mice and she had a idea. Since she refused to come home with us, her plan was to use one of her minnow traps and place the baby mice inside it to lure the snake in. I told her she's crazy but she swears it will work, she's caught copperheads before using that method. Fine, whatever, but that snake is too fat to fit through the opening. It also meant I got the lovely job of catching the baby mice. Now these were not pinkies, they had fur and could run around and jump. I hate mice almost as much as snakes and those little devils were jumping all over the box they was in so I was in the middle of heart attack 12 or 13 at that time. But I caught them, all 7 and they are now in minnow trap and its placed right beside her stove where we think maybe the snake escaped to.

It has been a long trying day and my nerves are shot. BUT, she wants all the junk out of her house now. While she is in this frame of mind me and mom plan to do as much as we can as fast as we can. Because one wrong word, or the wrong thing gets tossed she'll do a 180 and decide everything is once again useful and needs to stay.

I would have had to go home and start DRINKING! Mice and snakes and ugh!!! At least she is willing to get rid of the junk.

 

[BY Bob]

Even these two got me!!
View attachment 2740015

Leghorns are great jumpers!

 

[BY Bob]

Tear down my house?…

just a suggestion.

 

[BY Bob]

What breed is Lilly?

I believe that she is a Maran. I will never know for sure as she is a rescue of sorts.

 

[BY Bob]

Yup that is hot. I spend a lot of the year cursing the river birches that grow up against my house - they are the route of entry for all wildlife, they clog the gutters and throw branches onto the roof. But right now they are a complete blessing as my house is in glorious deep shade with beautiful green everywhere.
I cannot see anyone in a nest - the picture is cut off. Or is that the spoiler - to be revealed later?!

That is the full nest. No one is in a nest. They will avoid the coop all afternoon. If you don't lay by 11, you don't lay. You have to hold it until tomorrow.

Current coop temp at 3:25 pm is 97 F with a heat index of 114 F.

 

[Marie2020]

A return on my investment would be nice!

Get over it grumpy