Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

And would someone please tell Arizona and Dakota that it’s time to come in. Everyone else is already tucked away for the night. But those two….

Never mind (they decided to give me a break, and came home)

 

[BY Bob]

It's a strange thing. Chickens are social eaters. They also seem to take comfort in having their tribe/group around them when they are sick. I have read people posting that their hens attack a sick chicken but it's not something I've seen.
Read just about any of the American based/cited medical advice and they almost always say seperate the sick one form the others. Speak to a competant vet in Spain and many other countries with rather more knowledge and experience with chickens and they will tell you to keep the sick one with the other chickens unless the problem is contagious.
Of course, once isolated the chicken feels stressed in most instances because they are unused to the isolation environment and they stop eating.
One really wants a sick chicken to eat as normal if possible. In the end, decent nutrition is likely to speed recovery.
When I bring Volt to the allotment, Henry shuffles around her giving her gentle pecks and most of the time a couple of hens gathered around her and get right next to her as if they are trying to keep her warm and protected.
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I waited until I was at my computer to respond to this. Because of that I am now pages behind but what can you do. If you don't like rants please skip this post. I am very passionate on this.

Chickens are social creatures in many ways just like most humans. Most humans start to get upset when they are separated from other humans (I said MOST @Ribh , not ALL). This has become well document as people with the effects of isolation during the pandemic.

Spoiler: this is a non-chicken related rant but it does add to my point

At the height of the pandemic people with severe COVID cases were in the ICU for months. I said months! During that time, when struggling for every breath, frequently on a ventilator unable to speak, they were not allowed to have any family members visit. Many died in those beds all alone. It brings me to tears to think of the horror of dying slowly all alone like that. I always imagine how many might have found the will to fight on if a loved one had simply held their hand and spoken to them.

Around this time I was asked by one of my friends who worked in a healthcare system which was struggling to fight to keep up with COVID a fascinating question.

Would I rather die alone in an ICU bed struggling for breath or be eaten by an alligator?

I chose the alligator as there is no greater horror for me than to die slowly, all alone.

Now imagine you are a chicken. You don't feel well and are trying to hide it. Then your human removes you from your friends and puts you in a box alone in the house. There you will remain until you either get better or die. You have spent you whole life surrounded by your friends. Now they can't even come and touch your beak.

It is an awful thing to do to any social living creature. The people who direct you to do this have absolutely no understanding of what their society means to a chicken. They are only thinking of what is easier for the humans.

To backup @Shadrach point about chickens attaching sick members. I have had too many sick chickens pass away with their friends. I have never seen them attacked by the rest of the tribe. I have only seen the members of the tribe support the sick one until the bitter end. Sometimes like Patsy with Daisy, the greatest hen ever, they even sit with them peacefully as they pass.

I believe that this does occur in factory farms, just like cannibalism does. It is not a product of the chicken's society. Rather it is the product of their horrendous living conditions and lack of a normal chicken society. This incorrect knowledge based upon an abnormal living environment has been handed down and become "common knowledge" which is just plain wrong.

We will never know the depth of their connections. How could we? We are fools to ignore it and we are worse than fools if we don't try to support it and them through acknowledging its existence.

Rant complete. Thank you for reading.

 

[rural mouse]

This reminds me of the fox homing missile idea I had a while back

Lol, my mind promptly went to Robin Hood: Men in Tights

 

[rural mouse]

I place Volt in the bag, hang the straps over my shoulder and walk to and from the allotment with her like this. I wouldn't say she is over impressed and she has stuck her head over the top a couple of times telling me to walk slower if I'm going to jiggle her about at the current speed.
I'm just waitng to get stopped by the police and asked what's in the bag.
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She's surprisingly calm! I can just see her pop her head out just as a bobby asks about the bag.

 

[BY Bob]

I love this and am happy about the new roost, but I am fearful about how close they are to the hardware cloth when I see the putside-in picture. It looks large sized. It can't be though, is it 1/2 inch or smaller? Maybe the camera makes it look big. A weasel can't reach through it, can it? Sorry for the worry!

Standard hardware cloth with a window in front of it. No weasel getting in there. It's just that I zoomed in close and so they appear larger.

 

[rural mouse]

I love it. Maybe I need to really start getting creative.

Some motion sensors can get set for size (so they can ignore the cat). Maybe talk to the robotics club at the high school. They might have some ideas.

 

[rural mouse]

Dr Karl on Australian radio station Triple J has spoken a few times about how sleep in a full eight-hour block is a fairly recent thing.

Tax:

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So no one will be surprised to see me commenting at zero dark thirty , then.

Love the girls!

Tax

 

[LozzyR]

I'm only only 23 so I have never farted

I'm pretty sure your nose just grew three inches!

 

[rural mouse]

Tax...

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This pic reminds me. I can't just go into the garage to raid the freezers. I have to close the door both ways. Otherwise birds try to follow, and won't shoo back outside (Silver ... and she's teaching the others that the garage is a great place). I'll try to get a pic soon.

 

[rural mouse]

How about noise - see #3 in the attached.
https://worldbirds.com/how-to-keep-hawks-away/
I am skeptical but who knows, maybe it works.

Airhorn wired to the motion sensor?