Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

This is Lima. She's has a defomed throat and possibly trachea. I don't think she has gapeworm. I can feel the deformation. What this seems to mean in her case is she won't eat anything much larger than 2mm diameter. She's my favourite hen.
For such a frail little thing she's super fiesty and I have no idea why, but the others, bar two, do not bother her. She's mostly on her own, or with Henry who seems to look out for her. I've watched her fight one of the other hens that do try to bully her.
We made her some quinoa soup and she ate/drank this with great enthusiasm. If I mash rather than break walnuts she'll eat that as well. She desperately needs some high carb and protein food. She's a bag of bones and moulting and regrowing feather damage I assume she got when at the battery. She forages and eats grass tips, tiny bugs and I've seen her eat a few rather thin worms. I sat her on my lap this afternoon and had an exploratory feel along her throat, her crop and gizzard. Somehow she has filled her crop. I'm going to try her on a chick feed mash.
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I am looking forward to hearing of her progress. Such an unusual handicap and yet she seems to somehow be a survivor.

By the way, is it pronounced "L(ee)ma" or "L(eye)ma"?

 

[BY Bob]

I do know it's Friday and I've got fluffy butts.
I haven't named this one yet but I've been seeing a lot of her bum since she's been out and about. Her head is usually buried down some hole or other.
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No prizes for this one. It is of course Matilda.
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No prizes for this bum either, unless it's yours of course. It's the seemingly permenatly fluffy rear end of Cloud.
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Beautiful fluffy bums.

 

[Shadrach]

I dunno Shad. You can’t interfere and then stop at some random point and ask them to sort it out.
Like it or not there is a goal here related to Phyllis.
Sorting it out for themselves could well mean Phyllis is bullied in both houses. If that were fine then so be it. But I don’t think that is fine for Bob or Mrs BY Bob.
This is a man-made situation so I think Bob has an obligation to try and solve it which he is trying to do by enabling the formation of a Polish Tribe. I suspect that will require some interference if only to keep Phyllis from the non-Polish tribe.

Yes one can, but some may think one shouldn't.

It seems to me that Bob has tried his best to resolve a problem that given a choice, he would not have had happen in the first place.
On most occasions when I've interfered in chicken politics I've made one bad decision after another. If chickens have space and resources the conflict is reduced. Bob has two coops now and if the Phyllistinies prefer to live on their own, at least for now, then he can accomodate this. Phyllis will have to make her own mind up.
Now she is the least junior of all the hens she may well feel more comfortable with the main flock. At least she isn't at the bottom of the hierachy any more and, they other hens may well adjust their behaviour towards Phylllis.

 

[BY Bob]

Yes I saw that, sorry I didn't quote it. Are your cats' play-fights really this intense to start? Though Eowyn is new to your house, that may influence things. The expression on this cat I've not seen in ordinary play-fights in my experience, I've never had housecats look quite so mean! That really fierce look was always reserved for intruding cats.

Davis will put on that face sometimes. Éowyn always wants to play. They are pretty rough and tumble when they go. I'll try and get video next time.

Tax (from 5 years ago)

 

[BY Bob]

Rarely far from each other these two. Still not sure what breed mix they are.
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They are a handsome pair.

 

[BY Bob]

I believe it was Queen Victoria who said “We are not amused!”?

Tax
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I love her coloring!

 

[BY Bob]

Shra!

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What a great SHRA photo!

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh dear - poor Minnie is definitely off today. I got a poo sample and am desperately trying to find an avian vet for an appointment (the guy I saw with Maggie has no appointments but will call me).
I have found one vet who can see her on Monday but requires a $50 non-refundable deposit to make the appointment - I have never heard of such a thing!
I am thinking I will do that - even if it is too late for Minnie I could get a wellness check on someone else and probably good to get to know an avian vet within semi-reasonable driving distance.
Dropping poo off at my regular vet - maybe results will be back before Monday.
Why did I decide to keep chickens again? Why? They are so much stress and anxiety.
Minnie today.

 

[BY Bob]

I got some pictures and did some research.
Wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta) is this stuff in the first two pictures that's around here. It's tangy and tasty and we ate it as kids but this isn't what we called sourgrass, although some people call it that. The seed heads, shaped like okra pods, pop open when they're ready, scattering out the sticky little seeds. It grows well in part shade, I'm weeding it out all the time in the garden, it loves being under other things. I've never come across tubers but I'll investigate more. Research is preliminary but I didn't find any reference yet to edible tubers with Wood Sorrel (Oxalis stricta). ("They may form colonies arising from slender but tough underground stems (rhizomes), but more often are individual, seed-grown plants." https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/common-yellow-woodsorrel-oxalis-stricta/ ) https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/oxalis-stricta/

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I also found what we used to call sourgrass as kids, and someone told me years ago this was sorrel. This below is called Red Sorrel, or Common Sheep Sorrel (Rumes acetosella). It has tall thin spiky red-flower stems. It is not in the oxalis group but does have oxalic acid in it. The arrow-shaped leaves are very tasty. Larger cultivated kinds are made into sorrel soup. The only ones I could find today are growing on big gravel, making it hard to dig, but I'll keep looking.
It has "creeping rhizome roots" https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/rumex-acetosella/.
https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/forb/rumace/all.html
What the chickens found were individual tubers/bulbs, not rhizomes on roots.

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I am doubting that what the chickens were eating is either of these. But I don't really know. Best to try to find and grow some tubers like @rural mouse? or @fuentemoon? suggested!

Thanks for investigating. I want to plant the right stuff if I do.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

My CATURDAY offering

He likes the laundry.