Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[bgmathteach]

Corona is looking good so far at 4 1/2 months old. Besides her hackle markings she's the spitting image of Grandma Daisy. She also is starting to act a lot like her as well. I'm thrilled with that as Daisy is my favorite Marans girl.
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Little sister Baby at 3 1/2 months old. Mom decided that Frack was not a girly enough name for her and changed it. She's in one of my favorite stages right now where her voice is changing and she sounds like a goose with her honks.
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They are both lovely. Do you have a picture of Mom & Grandma Daisy.

Marans are beautiful birds...smart, too! (Sometimes too smart, )

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

They are both lovely. Do you have a picture of Mom & Grandma Daisy.

Marans are beautiful birds...smart, too! (Sometimes too smart, )

Thank you. Yes I agree they are too smart for their own good and broody beyond belief. Except Grandma Daisy, she has never offered to go broody, she lets the other hens do the hatching for her. Daisy is also a "broken" hen and resident freeloader nowadays. She laid my biggest eggs and over a year ago she laid a monster double yolk egg that for 2 days caused problems before she laid it. I think it got stuck at was pressing on a nerve because in the span of 10 minutes went from digging around to not able to stand up. After she passed that egg she has laid a grand total of 4 more. 1 more egg after the double yolk, and 3 this spring/summer. She goes through the motions like she's going to lay, will get in the nest box, sit for a hour and leave squawking like she laid one but nothing is ever there. It is ok though being my favorite Marans hen she can continue her freeloading ways. She more then makes up for it with her other talent, baby snake killer and eater. I really don't want to know how many she has ate, 10 that I know of this summer, but she has her method down pat. She'll grab one give it a quick shake that pops off the head and it is gone in seconds. Her daughter Clover who is Corona and Baby's mother was unfortunately one of the Coyote's victims this summer. I miss her as she was a good hen in her own right. She also laid really big dark speckled eggs like Daisy so I'm hoping for big speckled eggs from them. Clover did go broody and raised a gang of chicks which included Blueberry. It will be interesting to see if the 2 girls take after their momma or grandma on broodiness.

Grandma Daisy

Momma Clover, that little grey fuzz ball is a baby Blueberry.

 

[Marie2020]

I gave flexi a lot of love and attention, then gave them some foods they all love. Flexi seems so much better she's really perked up and went to bed much more contented.

The weather has been raining heavily but we had a small break so they all had a little time in their favourite part of the garden while i got all their food spoils for them, which was liver cauliflower red cabbage all mixed into layers olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

 

[Marie2020]

Can I have more liver pease

 

[featherhead007]

Bay Watch: sun bathing, near to the porch heat source.

 

[RoyalChick]

I gave flexi a lot of love and attention, then gave them some foods they all love. Flexi seems so much better she's really perked up and went to bed much more contented.

The weather has been raining heavily but we had a small break so they all had a little time in their favourite part of the garden while i got all their food spoils for them, which was liver cauliflower red cabbage all mixed into layers olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

Here too it has been nasty and soggy but we are also having a short break from the rain right now.
Everyone is covered in mud (including me).
Mine got venison loin, chopped cilantro, coconut oil, and blueberries.
Diana and Maggie are very efficient at consuming chunks of venison. Bambi beware!

 

[Marie2020]

Here too it has been nasty and soggy but we are also having a short break from the rain right now.
Everyone is covered in mud (including me).
Mine got venison loin, chopped cilantro, coconut oil, and blueberries.
Diana and Maggie are very efficient at consuming chunks of venison. Bambi beware!

Don't speak so loud or flexi will be ordering me to the shops and they don't have anything like that around here. So whisper

 

[featherhead007]

Flexi is too cute!

 

[RoyalChick]

I am sitting outside supervising the Princesses. There are hundreds of geese overhead flying south. It feels rather late in the year for that.
It has been in the 50s all day today and for the next 24-48 hours it won’t get above freezing. These big swings in temperature are also strange and a bit unnerving.
Dotty hopped up next to me demanding I take a glamour shot, but unfortunately she was just kidding, all she really wanted to do was peck me. The camera and I escaped in the nick of time.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I don’t know, Shad. I should have let her stay out there her last night, but she had been self-isolating for a couple days and I thought it was too cold for a very sick bird. Another regret of mine.

Also, it was still on the early side. All her friends were still out in the run, not in the coop. I thought she was going in there for warmth.

This seems reasonable to me, esp as you saw her self-isolating a great deal, and not seeking out the others. I contrast that with Peanut, whom I see shivering out with everyone a lot but then periodically going back to the coop alone to stand on the heating pad, or back to the coop warmer under the coop, where often Hazel goes with her. You know what you were seeing, better than any of us can say. I think in this case being with you, her trusted rooster, inside and warm, would be familiar to her in a positive way, from last year. Both of you did not know for sure that would be her last night. Practice some compassion for yourself now (note to self here too) and minimize your regrets. She had many days of her chicken friend's and human rooster's companionship. Probably, for chickens, each day is not counted toward some ultimate tally, or thought of as a final special day; each day is the Now. She was with her rooster and warm in that Now. She died quickly and without having to endure more days of cold and pain.