Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

Have you ever watched chicks hoping and jumping after a bunch of baby grasshoppers? Too funny.

Looks like a rugby scrum with the grasshopper as the ball.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Popping in to say hi, and send in a pic of Butters taken on Monday for the Mugshot. She was eating greens pretty fast and it was hard to get a pic. It's all cut off but it captures her gaze. She usually has a calm steady look in her eye, like this. It is striking. Is it the shape of her eye ring?

Better full mugshot.

 

[RoyalChick]

Just finished mixing scratch to refill my bin. Not fond of the basic scratch as it's mostly corn. Added half a bag of black oil sunflower seeds, a small bag of nut mix (has shelled sunflower seeds, peanuts, pepitas, pistachios) and a bag of basic bird seed for the millet, barley and other grains. I toss this for them outside the coop (in the forest of weeds) 1-2 cups depending upon flock size.
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I now have a couple of sunflowers growing on their own....Deer keep coming at night and eating the heads. I'm hoping next spring to get an assortment sprouting for extra feed for them. If not, they have to hunt enough to find it that they're eating plenty of the weeds, grass, and assorted bugs too. I also use it as a lure when I have a stray bird/skittish bird in need of going back to the coop (usually in the middle of winter). Mealworms get added during winter, 2nd winter, deep winter, false spring, fool's spring, and most of the rest of the bugless days. When temps are sub zero (Fahrenheit), and they stay inside, a bit gets added to the inside feed bin. Most of them only use the pellets as a before bed top up....except in winter when there's very limited forage. I think instead of trying to fence the hillside, I'm going to build some of those hawk shelters (maybe with tires for winter warmth and water?) , use the scratch mix to encourage them to get familiar with them and see how well it works. Still pondering fence ideas, but supplies are just not there and the hillside increases the challenge enough that I don't want to tackle it at this time.

I realize that I use sunflower seeds and corn etc. mainly as a bribe or as a way of luring the birds to go where I need them to go. Quite effective!
Regarding your fence I think what you could maybe do is create a fenced area just around the coop and confine them there if you are going to be off the property all day or over-night. That way you know they are safe when you can't keep an eye out for rampaging dogs. That wouldn't be too expensive because it is not like fencing your whole plot - more like giving the chickens their own back yard.
They would then still be primarily a free range flock with all the risks and freedoms that come with that but not when you are nowhere around.
Hope that helps stimulate some useful ideas for you.

 

[fuentemoon]

It is currently 79 degrees officially. My window thermometer is not quite in full sun as it is just after noon and it is behind roses and under eves, it says it is 98. The sun is HOT.

 

[RoyalChick]

It is currently 79 degrees officially. My window thermometer is not quite in full sun as it is just after noon and it is behind roses and under eves, it says it is 98. The sun is HOT.
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She is so pretty!

 

[featherhead007]

Wind is too gusty for my little airplane, so I’m chillin with my chicken friends.

 

[featherhead007]

Yep, I set Chaco up nicely with new oats and alfalfa. Hired another helper at my other farm as well

 

[MaryJanet]

Bath Time

You ever have to take a bath with your sibling? I imagine with chickens it goes something like this.

The speed with which chicks do everything! They're a blur half the time!

An adorable fuzzy blur.

 

[Shadrach]

Sometimes it is exhausting being a Roadrunner. Time for a nap.

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What a lovely picture.

 

[MaryJanet]

@Shadrach and @everyone. Has anyone tried this treatment for worming?


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Farm-Yard-...ocphy=1007452&hvtargid=pla-700198611737&psc=1

Bob or Michelle might know if there's something in it that will kill worms. I haven't tried it. Every time a float test is done on the hens poop, it comes back negative. I imagine it's because of the peculiarities of the soil at my house, which is sand. We have an hypothesis it dessicates any parasite eggs before the hens pick them up, but there's no proof of that, it's only a thought bubble.