Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

Yep I know it's long, I am on 'page' 35 hahaha

It's my night time reading material!

I started at the beginning in late june/early july, and the page count was just under 5k...i think...caught up in mid Oct at over 6k pages.

 

[Ponypoor]

The automated door and the camera in the coop work well together say when when it's really cold or stormy but you have to check. If nothing else I needed to check the camera last night. Without the camera you are correct. I would have to check in person.

I travel a lot for business. My wife is not reliable in the checking the coop realm. There have been many times I have called from the road and told her not everyone made it to bed. The system requires both but it does require that you check.

Shame on me for not at least checking the camera last night.

I have cameras in the barn any henhouse too.

Many times I have had to run to the barn for colicy horses or chicks out of the nest. Well worth the investment.

 

[Chickeeaholic]

Dominique for one. Google them

I had a cuckoo maran that I thought was a barred rock until someone visiting told me differently. She had been a mystery chick. I always knew something didn’t seem right, her face was a little different and her temperament. I do love my marans though.

 

[RoyalChick]

It doesn’t look like there was much violence today even though they were confined to the Chicken Palace grounds all day as I was away.
There was some energetic flying.

And Minnie clearly believes that she must stay out of Maggie’s way at all costs even when Maggie isn’t going after anyone.

Tonight Maggie and Dotty are roosting next to each other without any drama. Minnie still insists on roosting alone right across from them.

 

[LozzyR]

I don’t have any peanuts

Walnuts, then?

 

[LozzyR]

Tonight there was no fuss with roosting. Popcorn went in early and roosted in the nest box. Everybody else followed shortly. This morning Peanut had laid an egg, the first egg in many days, and the first from her on a long time. She emerged tossing litter on her back and was very vocal. Maybe that's what it was the last few evenings? There was intermittent chasing throughout the day today, including some running that looked like play, going in and out and around about the run configuration in short bursts. Then they'd gather and preen and rest. I was out there with them all day so they came and went at will, sticking close by.
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Hazel, she always stands and poses for me when I take my phone out.

Beautiful girl!

 

[LozzyR]

That was a joy! And lap chicken was preceded by swamp chicken?!

I LOL'd.

Yes, Tegan was the lap chicken and Lucy was the swamp chicken.

 

[cfonts]

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Guess who's broody? KIKO, that's who!

 

[Marie2020]

The Thanksgiving Chicken

Most of you regular readers to the thread will remember this story. I've have decided to retell it for those that may not have heard it before and for those of you who will enjoy it once more. For those that haven’t here is the story of the chicken that had cherry pie for Thanksgiving.

Our first flock members were all white leghorns. Wonderful birds but very sleek and slim. When poor Elphie passed we got Patsy and Lilly to replace her. One thing, Patsy for sure and Lilly as well, could not be described as is slim. We had gotten them shortly before Thanksgiving and my niece was really fascinated by chickens. She started asking if she could touch one of the fluffy chickens. I said to her that we would see later.

After dinner was over and some of the table was cleared I decided to go and get one of the new hens for my niece to touch. It was dark by now and I knew I could easily pluck one off of the roost. Actually I remembered while walking out to the coop that sometimes Lilly would sleep in the nesting box because the pecking order wasn’t too set yet. I opened the nesting box lid and there was Lilly. Easy peasy, I scooped her up and took her to he house. I had intended to have my niece come out to the deck and pet her there.

That would not be what would happen.

When I got to the back door, she did not have shoes on and it was very cold outside. So my wife said to bring Lilly in for her to pet her. When our dining room table is fully extended there is almost no room between my wife’s chair at the end and the backdoor. Here is a picture of the table extended. The geometry is important as it will impact the consequences of this simple thing, voluntarily bringing a chicken into my house with the biggest meal of the year on the table.

The table extended

So I entered the house with Lilly in my arms. I was kind of positioned behind my wife and I let my niece come behind my wife to pet Lilly. All was good. And then…..

“Can I hold her? Please. Can I hold her? She’s so fluffy and soft. Pretty Please?”

Then from my mother, “Let her hold the chicken”. This from a woman that my whole life growing up would have nothing to do with chickens and refused to EVER touch one let alone have one in her house.

I knew in my mind that this was a bad idea but my mother told me to do it. How could I not. So I proceeded to show her how to hold the chicken and then handed the chicken past my wife to her so she could hold her. She did a great job properly supporting Lilly and all was good. Amazingly, no one took a photo of her holding Lilly.

While she was holding Lilly her little brother came over to pet the chicken as well. She turned to let him. By turning to let him pet Lilly, she effectively blocked me from Lilly as hers and my wife’s bodies were between me and the chicken. Then the expected happened…….

“I want to hold her? Please. Can I hold her? She’s so fluffy and soft. Pretty Please?”

And mother again, “Let him hold her. It’s only fair.” This woman my whole life told me one thing over and over, “Life is not fair.” is now telling me to make it fair.

Now my nephew at the time was not very old, maybe 5? [I am not longer sure and there are no pictures to check the date.] I did not like this idea at all but Lilly was already outside of my control. My niece turned to her younger brother and proceeded to hand him Lilly, with no instruction. Disaster was about to ensue.

Except it didn’t. Lilly managed to hook one of her toes in his shirt and held herself up. I could see the setup from where I was, out of reach of the hen. I started counting in my head. I knew this would be limited in time and I wanted to get Lilly back quickly.

Then the unthinkable happened. My wife reach over and unhooked Lilly’s nail. When asked later why she would do something so foolish my wife responded, “I didn’t want her to put a hole in his shirt.”

What happens when a hen starts to fall through the air? Crazed flapping began in earnest. My nephew fell backwards as the wings started to beat his face. If I had been able to reach her this was the moment all could have been avoided. Unfortunately both my niece and my wife moved backwards towards me and away from the flapping even further blocking me. Lilly never hit the ground and she actually hovered for what seemed like forever. Unfortunately I would never make it to her.

After hovering like a helicopter, Lilly started to gain altitude. The closest thing for her to land on was the table. The table that had on it a partially eaten turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and multiple pies. Lilly hits the table and immediately takes off heading right down the length of the table. All she wanted to do was get as far from this situation as possible. All I could do was to watch in horror praying that she did not step in anything too important. ½ way down the table was my favorite pie. The only type of pie of which we only had 1, the cherry pie.

Lilly stepped right into the middle of it. It was the only thing on the entire table that she touched.

Now she was headed down the table with cherries all over her foot. Did I mention that we had just replaced our carpeting? It was not even a month old and I had a frantic chicken running down the table headed towards the living room with only 1 person in her way.

My mother, the instigator of this whole series of events, the woman who hated chickens and swore she would never touch one, was the only person between Lilly and freedom. The only person between Lilly and an expensive carpet cleaning bill. This woman as calm as if she did it every day simply grabbed Lilly when she got to her like it was no big deal.

I finally got un-trapped from the end of the table and went and gathered Lilly up. Back to the coop she went. Both her and I relieved that she was back where she belonged. When I reentered the house my sister-in-law was describing how we could just cut Lilly’s footprint out of the pie and still eat it. I never said a word. I walked over grabbed the pie, took it to the run and dumped it in for the girls. It was a Black Friday surprise I am certain they never forgot.


The Thanksgiving Chicken herself.

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I loved that story and told my friend about this while we walked the dog's we laughed for ages at the thought.

You should make a small comedy clip on this tale

 

[RoyalChick]

Yep I know it's long, I am on 'page' 35 hahaha

It's my night time reading material!

Do share pictures of your chickens as you go. By page 35 you will have already spotted we all like chicken stories and pictures.