Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Sleepy Legertha

Watch as Legertha fights off sleep as Sylvie grooms. Then I startle them by talking through the camera. Sylvie's headdress is pretty silly right now.

She's really fighting against sleep isn't she? Those hairdos!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Happy FBF from Edwina and Pepper

 

[BY Bob]

She's really fighting against sleep isn't she? Those hairdos!

Yes, Phyllis does exactly the same thing at night.

Her head droops

She shakes herself awake

Her head droops again, a little further.

She shakes herself awake

Her head droops further each time and she keeps shaking herself awake each time until she finally tucks it in. It's adorable.

 

[BY Bob]

Happy FBF from Edwina and Pepper
View attachment 2851990

Outstanding!

 

[RoyalChick]

Sleepy Legertha

Watch as Legertha fights off sleep as Sylvie grooms. Then I startle them by talking through the camera. Sylvie's headdress is pretty silly right now.

Sooooo sleeeepy and that head dress is soooo heavy. Zzzzz.
I am rather a fan of Sylvie's head dress!

 

[RoyalChick]

Congratulations Lozzy!

Our friend Lozzy has an interview on BYC. It is lovely! Go check it out:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/byc-member-interview-lozzyr.1495646/

 

[BY Bob]

Travel Update

Surgery is Thursday. His father is a nurse and will come down for the surgery.

I will be headed home today to see my ladies.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

This from the Smithsonian Magazine

Here’s how you do it:
All you have to do is hold the chicken's head down against the ground, and draw a straight line using a stick, a finger, chalk or whatever.
The line should start at the beak and extend straight outward in front of the chicken. If done properly, the chicken -or rooster- will be put into a state of trance and lie still for anywhere between 30 seconds to 30 minutes! To de-hypnotize the chicken just clap your hands or give it a gentle push. It may take a few tries to awaken the bird.

Tonic immobility is what researchers call "a fear-potentiated response” to being restrained. In other words, the chicken (or any other animal that exhibits this response) is convinced that it is going to die and goes into a kind of cationic state. According to Beredimas, farmers have known about this trick at least since 1646, when Athanasius Kircher published "Mirabile Experimentum de Imaginatione Gallinae.” The reaction seems to be most commonly reported in domesticated birds like chickens and quail, but other species seem to demonstrate tonic immobility as well. One study from 1928 looked at the response in lizards. Another watched the brains of rabbits during movement, rest, sleep and tonic immobility.

Here is the full article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/can-you-hypnotize-chicken-180949940/

Interesting but not something I'd want to put my feathered friends through. It is somewhat of a comfort to know this, as someone consoled me with when Queenie was killed (@MaryJanet ?). Hopefully the horrible fear is very brief and then they don't feel anything anymore.

I've witnessed something like this state in chickadees when there's been a hawk threat, and it's usually very brief - they go absolutely still on their perch, head tilted up and back. I saw a close call on a chickadee which dodged it by flying, but a nearby chickadee went catatonic. It slowly fell backwards, rotating on the twig it was tightly clutching, until it was hanging upside down. It stayed there a long time.

 

[Blazinga]

Oh my heart that’s adorable!!!
Also, how did you attach a video that wasn’t via YouTube?!

I made it into a gif so no sound.

 

[Marie2020]

Stroke my Beard
View attachment 2851821

This is so beautiful