Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

New girls!!!

Please welcome our newest family members; three Frizzle bantams (feather-dusters!)

Penguin - a one year-old Pekin/Australorp X hen who needs to regrow her back feathers due to an over-attentive rooster.

Charlotte (Lottie) - a three month-old Australorp X pullet.

Snowflake (Snowy) - a three month-old Sussex X pullet.

More photos to follow once we’re out of the car.

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Look at those cuties!

 

[bgmathteach]

I can only think two reasons 1) supplemental lighting messing with their internal systems, or 2) excessive overcast cloudy weather causing their internal systems to malfunction.

I noted some feathers on the ground in the hen house, it's not my youngsters they finished their adolescent molt - I think it's Blanche she didn't really do a proper molt in the Fall.

I don't use supplemental light. I personally believe they need the rest from egg laying, so I refuse to use supplemental light (plus, don't have electricity!, lol) I did, one year, put battery operated christmas lights (white ones) around the coop(outside) with a timer to make it easier on me in the mornings, as at that time I was teaching a 7 am class and had to leave the house by 5:45 am. However, it seemed too disruptive for the girls (light shown through their window), so I took them down after a few weeks. That was before I had discovered the headlamps.

This fall had unseasonably warm weather...and then was rainy late in the season. I suspect that, contrary to conventional wisdom, temperatures affect molting as well as the supposed diminishing of light. We never had a killing frost until late November, and we always have one by/before Columbus day in my area.

 

[bgmathteach]

Here are the latest weights.

Phyllis
1/27/2022 2.93 lbs 1.33 kg

Betty
1/27/20223.17 lbs1.44 kg

Lilly
11/22/20215.11 lbs2.320 kg

Hattie
12/14/20216.39 lbs2.900 kg


I have not weighed Sydney nor Aurora recently. I need to do that.

Wow, Hattie is a big girl! I thought she would be more Lilly's weight, just looked bigger because Orpingtons tend to have more fluffy feathers! But then, I am comparing to BRs, and my BRs & Orpingtons tend to weigh similar (the heritage BRs, NOT the production ones...they weigh less)

 

[RoyalChick]

I don't use supplemental light. I personally believe they need the rest from egg laying, so I refuse to use supplemental light (plus, don't have electricity!, lol) I did, one year, put battery operated christmas lights (white ones) around the coop(outside) with a timer to make it easier on me in the mornings, as at that time I was teaching a 7 am class and had to leave the house by 5:45 am. However, it seemed too disruptive for the girls (light shown through their window), so I took them down after a few weeks. That was before I had discovered the headlamps.

This fall had unseasonably warm weather...and then was rainy late in the season. I suspect that, contrary to conventional wisdom, temperatures affect molting as well as the supposed diminishing of light. We never had a killing frost until late November, and we always have one by/before Columbus day in my area.

I feel the same way. The Fall was unusually warm and sunny and somehow that messed them up.
Of my lot only Dotty left it until January to start. But Diana is still finishing up so she started late too.

 

[RoyalChick]

Wow, Hattie is a big girl! I thought she would be more Lilly's weight, just looked bigger because Orpingtons tend to have more fluffy feathers! But then, I am comparing to BRs, and my BRs & Orpingtons tend to weigh similar (the heritage BRs, NOT the production ones...they weigh less)

Well, she does snack at night!

 

[BY Bob]

Betty is big!

Yup. There is a significant hen in that fluff.

If I remember correctly, Phyllis is still not back to her weight before she went broody. I remember her at 3.25 lbs when I last wormed her. Sadly at that time I was not recording weights.

 

[bgmathteach]

Yup. There is a significant hen in that fluff.

If I remember correctly, Phyllis is still not back to her weight before she went broody. I remember her at 3.25 lbs when I last wormed her. Sadly at that time I was not recording weights.

So she & Betty are (or should be) essentially the same size, then. That is a good thing, I think...them on 'equal footing' so to speak, size wise. Though Betty does look a bit bigger, partially due to the frizzle, as opposed to Phyllis' sleeker look.

I am awed at how much weight they lose being broody....yet survive just fine. Hens really are amazing creatures in so many ways!

 

[bgmathteach]

Betty gets Coop Time

@BY Bob I'm curious, what are the dimensions of the Cluckle Hut? And, how high off the ground did you built both of your coops? I think (but am not sure) your coop floors are lower to the ground then mine, but sometimes camera images can be deceiving. I need to build another one this spring and would love your thoughts on pros & cons of your coops. Thinking in terms of what exactly I will 'tweak' with mine.

 

[BY Bob]

In their new home chowing down on the food and grass.

Question; should I be giving them some pullet food as well?

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Are you going to spray that wear area with no feathers so the others aren't tempted to peck at it. That pretty awful. Poor girl.

 

[BY Bob]

I am an exhausted nervous wreck but everyone is alive.
I woke up a few times in the night to check on Dotty via the coop cams and check the temperature and then I had an extra wake-up call when the house alarm went off for reasons I still haven't figured out.
I was ready to leap out of bed and grab her off the roost and tuck her in the cave in the garage. My anxiety was not lessened by finding this post which voiced my exact fear - that I would find her motionless and half frozen on the ground.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/molting-chicken-was-brought-inside-and-now-we-don’t-know-what-to-do.1509565/
Tonight will be a similarly cold night and then it warms up to the 20s for a few days so I can relax a bit.

So specifics please.

1. Did you ever see her shiver on the roost?
2. What was the temperature in the coop with the heater running?
3. How does she seem this morning? It is still that cold outside.