Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Lady Red]

Return Visit

The hawk was back just 10 minutes ago. It has come in the same way now every time, from the NE parallel to the back fence.

View attachment 2874440

The littles are still locked in their coop and run but the big ladies were out. I saw the hawk from pretty far out and decided to warn the tribe but how? I don't have the call down like @micstrachan does. So cleverly, I just yelled HAWK! HAWK! It worked! Everyone dove for cover.

The hawk turned tail and flew off. This is not sustainable. What am I going to do?

I've read ahead and like RC's suggestion.

This probably isn't the place to say, but I do crack up at your red tail hawk renditions on the photos.

 

[Lady Red]

Friday!!

Multiple bums feasting at second (or 3rd? or 4th??) breakfast

 

[RoyalChick]

Friday!!View attachment 2874518
Multiple bums feasting at second (or 3rd? or 4th??) breakfast

That is a fun picture. Made me smile.

 

[Blazinga]

Had to go Google it again. from 17 best hatcheries listView attachment 2874422

Ah yes "Specialty services". Man, beak trimming birds and declawing cats. When will people understand we are chopping off the animal equivalent of fingers?

 

[RoyalChick]

In the red corner we have Minnie weighing in at 3lb and 7oz. The breed descriptions from the big US hatcheries say Crested Cream Legbars hens are typically 4-5lbs. So maybe Minnie is indeed under weight. I think more important than the absolute weight will be how her weight develops over time so now I have a starting point.
And in the blue corner we have Diana (who happened to be walking by) weighing in at 4lb and 2oz and the hatchery descriptions say an ISA Brown (which is what I think she is) are typically 5lb. So by that standard she is under weight too.
I didn't yet get to weigh the heavyweight of the flock (Maggie) or Dotty who was showing off again by laying an egg.
Here is the scale I bought. It turned out to be amazingly easy to weigh them - I just stood them on the platform and they stayed there long enough to get a weight. They moved around a bit so the accuracy of the ounces is not brilliant, but good enough. Could be +/- a couple of ounces.
I was about to get a picture of Minnie on the scale when she decided she was bored with this game so I missed the moment.

 

[BY Bob]

Oh dear God!
I know that all the things people use like dummy owls and reflective tape don't work over time because the individual hawks get used to them - but on the theory that this is a juvenile they might work to teach it to go elsewhere as a habit.
How about you festoon the yard with reflective tape and CDs and that sort of stuff and just make generally less hospitable.
One thing I did (which you may have noticed in my photos of the Chickens in the long grass) is put a lot of stakes in the ground - I am using the step in fence stakes that @CrazyChookChookLady and I both love for temporary fencing (I hate that we haven't heard form CCCL recently but I assume you are in contact and would tell us if anything was amiss).
Anyway, I read a lot and watched a lot of video about how hawks dive bomb their prey, and although they can be very adaptable they do prefer open ground. So I made my ground less open by creating a forest with all these stakes (about 4' high) so it requires some precision for a hawk to land and take off. The chickens navigate them just fine at ground level and they are just far enough apart for me to squeeze through (they are also easy to pull up and put back). I make some of them even more visible with reflective tape flying from the top.
For you it could only be a temporary thing because it makes it harder to move around your yard - but I am guessing it might just teach the Hawk to look elsewhere if you had them up for a month or so.
Stakes are not expensive - I bought a big batch on line but you can get them individually at TSC.

First CCCL is doing great. The new job is consuming her time but she loves it. I may have mentioned that she split off part of her flock for a friend that wanted to get into chicken keeping. Lucky and Vickie with the Hickie now live on a farm and get to free range all the time. She kept Ned and he is now teaching Thunder (I think that is the right name) how to be a good rooster. I believe that 2 of the Phoenix may have gone with the others as well.

The sticks are an interesting idea but I can't see Mrs BY Bob being willing to look at a yard festooned with sticks. In the past I have locked them up for a couple of weeks with no free range and then shot any visiting hawks with the nerf gun. Provided they stopped for a moment of course. I have not yet plunked one from the air.

I'm not certain that will work this time as there are billions of song birds in my yard. So I would not be removing the food source by removing the hens.

 

[bgmathteach]

First CCCL is doing great. The new job is consuming her time but she loves it. I may have mentioned that she split off part of her flock for a friend that wanted to get into chicken keeping. Lucky and Vickie with the Hickie now live on a farm and get to free range all the time. She kept Ned and he is now teaching Thunder (I think that is the right name) how to be a good rooster. I believe that 2 of the Phoenix may have gone with the others as well.

The sticks are an interesting idea but I can't see Mrs BY Bob being willing to look at a yard festooned with sticks. In the past I have locked them up for a couple of weeks with no free range and then shot any visiting hawks with the nerf gun. Provided they stopped for a moment of course. I have not yet plunked one from the air.

I'm not certain that will work this time as there are billions of song birds in my yard. So I would not be removing the food source by removing the hens.

I do hope that you are able to land a few shots so he gets the idea to move on.
I fully understand that hawks and such just need to live, and are an important part of the eco system, but in this case, I am a firm member of the NIMBY camp!

It will be a very long winter/spring if he decided to settle in your area, @BY Bob. I hope he doesn't.

 

[featherhead007]

This seems logical, I was checking not the keel bone but the sides of it and how it felt. I do compare with eachother but how it is for that bird is what I was after, because these ladies have all different body types. Hazel's was insanely less than I remembered, never felt like that before, almost nothing there. This morning I was checking everyone again, and Hazel has put a little on either side, more than was there. Her poops are back to normal in consistency. She is still not acting confident among the other chickens or really interested in most foods like she was, but is eating a little bit of everything offered.

 

[rural mouse]

Thanks for posting. Sunnyside Hatchery. I will remember that.

You're welcome. I forgot the name too. My farm supply store gets chicks in. Last year, they let me see the list and from where. Mcmurray (where my babies came from), cackle, and don't remember the 3rd, but wasn't Sunnyside. anyone getting chicks at a store should be able to ask the hatchery sources. I won't be buying chicks from a store getting supplied from there either.

 

[rural mouse]

Friday fluff from the only reliable ones.View attachment 2874426View attachment 2874427Everyone else persists in facing me. These two will at least turn in circles so i stand a chance at getting shots from all angles