Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

Let's finish the song...
...everybody hates me
Guess I'll go eat worms....

Maggie and Minnie both say YUM!

 

[micstrachan]

That is correct. Someone like this fits the bill nicely.
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You’d like my Minnie.

Looking very ladylike!

like her Auntie Phyllis!

 

[micstrachan]

A Short Trip Down Memory Lane

5 years ago today Daisy, the greatest hen ever, was in the middle of her molt. She molted slowly so you Aikman could not tell. However much like Hattie, the new white feathers were so white compared to the old yellowed ones that her wife patches gave it away.

Here is the greatest hen ever, mid-molt.

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Awww, Daisy, TGHE.

 

[micstrachan]

Running Chickens

I just spent 5 minutes watching Sylvie and Legertha chase song birds. it was the sweetest silliest thing. They were most intent on running them off and every time they run one of another would land behind them.

So sweet.

I was so absorbed I did not think to film it.

So instead I took this film of them happily eating some grass and chasing to each other. I hope you can hear the sweet little songs they make to one another.

I used to tell them apart by their mop tops, but that is getting more difficult and I’ll have to go by feather coloring. Who is the darker one that went under the bush first? I thought she attempted an aerial predator call before doing so.

 

[micstrachan]

Still on my trip and checking in only now and then on the cameras.
Diana laid a thin shelled egg on Sunday before I left and I popped some calcium pills down her. The lady who comes each day says there has not been a broken egg again so fingers crossed that is OK for now.
Minnie seems to be full of beans. Of course I can’t see her poop and I have stopped short of asking the lady to follow her around to inspect! On Sunday before I left she was trying to poo without success and I pulled a long piece of grass out of her rear end. Sorry, too much information, but it stank to high heaven. I wonder if that was the source of the problem all along. As far as I can tell from the cameras she seems very energetic and has been getting a fair bit of yard time and is chowing down on cabbage. I haven’t seen her eat commercial feed but I have seen her flying up to day perches and running around. I am interested to see what she weighs when I get back. She is still roosting away from the others only tonight Dotty has joined her so the big roost only has two Princesses. You can see one of the two Roadrunners (I think Minnie) in the foreground as she roosts up close to the camera.
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I hope that was the issue!

 

[micstrachan]

Shake it Out! Shake it Out!

I was eating lunch on the deck the other day and everyone came running up to me looking for their share. Apparently I interrupted Phyllis' bath. She was up on the deck box posing and I thought I would get a photo of her modeling when this happened.

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Oh my gosh, what a fabulous series of photos!

 

[micstrachan]

So I missed a few pages and now I’m seeing them. Not sure how I keep seeing stuff out of order. Anyone else this week?

 

[micstrachan]

They do, at least in the Northeast. The only raptors that might hang around here, and only if they can eat, are eagles. Around here, they hang out at power station outlets (warm water, unfrozen, and fish gather there).

But like Snowy Owls, some far northern raptors will come south only a ways. Like Red Shouldered (I think) hawks will come south from Canada. I don't see them here ever really, only on bird trips in the winter that go further north to the Mohawk Valley. But our Red Tails, Sharp -Shinned, Coopers hawks, and Peregrine's and the Kestrels, don't stay around here, they definitely go further south for the winter.

So they are all likely passing by you too. And the young ones, inexperienced at hunting the fields and forests or usual ways, are starving and desperate. Experienced hawks might go both ways. If there's been good hunting and they've not been harassed they might try it. But generally Red Tails are cautious around people.

Yesterday the Hawkwatch counted 143 Red Tails coming through. Lots of Turkey Vultures too. Bald Eagles have been all through for the most part.

I had originally gone out to let the chickens out to forage beyond the moveable runs, and I would do my vocal exercises and chicken chores and watch them, when I found them fearful and hiding. So after giving them the sunflowers seeds I left them. Came back a while later, two were out getting pellets, so I sang again in there in the attached big wire run and they looked like it reassured them, and the other two came out of the coop but nobody had really any interest in going any further, even into where I was. Hazel ate pellets and drank (good) but stayed watchful. That's her in the back always with the neck up. But they all were pretty wary. It was so persistent I worried about a feral cat (our cat has indicated there's someone about) or a weasel and that's why I double-checked the electric fence. Maybe a hawk had been right over them in the trees. They are safe from hawks in both the wire runs, and safe in the aviary runs except if they are caught right next to the wall through the netting, relatively unlikely.

Butters' moltiness easy to spot on the left. She looks long-legged now, there's no feathers on her legs or belly, hardly. Popcorn in front, Peanut in the middle, Hazel in back. They were doing a lot of checking the coop door, in case they wanted to go up quickly.
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Everyone pecking around for any stray sunflower seeds while Hazel watches.
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Hazel and Popcorn conferring, Butters with head down, Peanut going to get a drink.
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Popcorn eating from the little cup feeder, Peanut and Butters head down, Hazel still watching.
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Yep, I bet they saw a predator. Mine were wary for quite awhile after the hawk attack.

 

[micstrachan]

Seven Nights in a Row

Phyllis has now roosted in the Cluckle Hut on her own for seven straight nights. Is it safe to call that switch a success yet?

If so, that is one problem solved and we are on to free ranging companionship.

Yes, I think so!

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Happy Caturday, Everybody!