Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[micstrachan]

I wish they wouldn't. once off daylight savings, it will be mostly light when they come out, but will be mostly dark when I get home. At least they go to roost before full dark.

Same where I live. I hate the time of year where they get zero mid-week free ranging time. They get almost all day on weekends, but weekdays don’t work, since I am not home for any daylight hours. I’m considering letting them range unsupervised, but probably won’t go there. I’d love to put up a giant aviary where I could have a few bushes and small trees for them. At least for now I can get the little grow boxes going. They love those! I got some leaves into the run, but the rain hit early before I could get more.

 

[featherhead007]

Some reason, they prefer Dumor chick starter grower 20% protein over layer feed

 

[fuentemoon]

Funny day when the temp is highest at 6 am and just drops all day. Already down 6 degree from when I got up at 7:30.

 

[fuentemoon]

Some reason, they prefer Dumor chick starter grower 20% protein over layer feed

Is it crumbles vs pellets? None of mine have ever been willing to eat pellets.

 

[featherhead007]

Funny day when the temp is highest at 6 am and just drops all day. Already down 6 degree from when I got up at 7:30.

I get fog when temperatures go that crazy.

 

[fuentemoon]

Scrambled eggs and ham breakfast for the chooks (very little ham) View attachment 2881873

Mine had scrambled egg with squash guts

 

[featherhead007]

Is it crumbles vs pellets? None of mine have ever been willing to eat pellets.

Always crumbles. I have never bought pellets (except for the rabbit)

 

[BY Bob]

Some reason, they prefer Dumor chick starter grower 20% protein over layer feed

That's interesting. I wonder why?

 

[BY Bob]

Happy Friday

From Legertha

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Yup I am good with geese and crows. It soaring big birds overhead that challenge me specifically. Hawk vs Turkey Vulture. Owl vs eagle. This is definitely on my self improvement list. Unfortunately that is a long list!

Here's a few quick tips that I use: Eagles are definitely day hunters, you will not see them in dim light or at night. Owls have blunt heads and your first impression is a small body relative to the length and breadth of the wings (like a bullet with wings too big for it). Eagles soar with their wings horizontal to the body, and from below it looks a lot like a paper airplane with squared-off rectangle wings, there's not much "point" to the wing tips. They are also very steady flyers. Vultures hold their wings in a V-shaped dihedral (looking at it horizontally), and that makes them pretty unsteady in flight, so you see them kind of tippy with any cross-breeze or wind change, dipping one wing or the other.

Here's a good short page on the basics of the three types of "hawks"
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2021/look-introduction-identifying-raptors-flight

Here's all about our friend
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/red-tailed-hawk

The following is very cool, an animated map showing the migration patterns and dates for your chosen bird, here I put in Red Tail Hawk (@BY Bob and RC check out what PA looks like in early November). You might have to join ebird to see it? It is free. They have been collecting data from volunteer users and have gotten some really robust visualizations of it now.
https://ebird.org/science/status-and-trends/rethaw/abundance-map-weekly

I misspoke earlier - it's the Rough-Legged Hawk, not the Red-Shouldered Hawk, that for the Northeast is mostly north and we don't see it except seasonally
https://ebird.org/science/status-and-trends/rolhaw/abundance-map-weekly