Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Cynthia12]

And a flooring tax??? Glad I took a lot of chicken pics today! Free camper project flooring is also a match! Lol
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And we had a catastrophic loading failure

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But it’s ok now on some pallets and out of the way again. Flooring Tax… lol
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This is a popular color today. Yours looks nice too. And I agreed, Bob has talent. It was a bit spendy having the company our mine in. But with my hubby gone now, I have to hire. I forgot about the .. tax thing here...lol..fun.

 

[BY Bob]

Free Ranging on a Saturday

Yesterday's free range meeting went very well despite the need for them to work on some pecking order reminders and establishments.

Betty must have been relationship building along the drop door as no one was phased at all when she came around the corner and joined everyone.

Here is the first time they truly met, beak to beak.

Aurora did give her one little peck that weren't nothing but Lilly knows how to welcome new hens. The best part of this video is when Lilly spits out Betty's feather at the end. I don't know why but it made me giggle. Poor Betty but that is so classic Lilly. The old girl still has it.

Tags
@Ribh @Aussie-Chookmum @LozzyR @micstrachan @Shadrach

 

[Kris5902]

Seeing as I have real internet for a few more… today’s efforts

And house build tax…

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Quarantine Broken

We have enough snow gone that free ranging was a real proposition today. So I decided to cut the Quarantine short by a day and let them have supervised time together as a whole tribe today.

I have many videos to share and will post them when I have more time but here are some still shots to tie you over.

Apparently Betty has been winning over friends at the drop gate. Aurora only pecked her once and only Lilly gave her a serious shall we say "introduction".

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So happy that the integration is going well for you all.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Wanted to say, Very sorry for disappearing on everyone, Say Hi, I miss everyone… and let everyone know what’s been happening here. I still have Chickens, and Arduinna… and am working on the house building! I received a beautiful Christmas card last week and have been meaning to log back in. I am sure I have missed so much.

Great to hear from you Kris!

 

[LozzyR]

They are adorable looking little creatures

Aww, it’s lovely to see Arduinna again.

 

[MaryJanet]

I'm trying to remember. I'm glad it worked. Did I tag you to the free range videos?

I don't recall. I tried to catch up on this thread last night and this morning but had to give up because I was an hour in and needed to workm

 

[MaryJanet]

Yes, they will need a large run. Their current run is about 16x18.

So you need to add on that additional expense before comparing to the cost of relocating the hens' existing home.

 

[LozzyR]

Wanted to say, Very sorry for disappearing on everyone, Say Hi, I miss everyone… and let everyone know what’s been happening here. I still have Chickens, and Arduinna… and am working on the house building! I received a beautiful Christmas card last week and have been meaning to log back in. I am sure I have missed so much.

Kris!!!! Missed you heaps!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

So, Hi again… it’s been far too long I know! And I am very sorry to have dropped out on everyone here. Life just got a little out of control, overwhelming and I have been having a really rough time. 2022 is getting better, it really is. So long story short, the contractors/goat hunters that were helping build our house didn’t. They totally ghosted us, didn’t return my calls and had asked for $20k, which I got (through primarily saving, and borrowing a bit from my family… I briefly considered a go fund me, but asked my dad for some help instead). I also lost cell phone/internet service for a little bit due to funding issues. I fell into a really, really bad depression, and was barely managing the day to days here.

Then DH (Andrew), who was working his behind off, became very ill. For anyone who doesn’t know, he has a congenital heart defect, pacemaker, and has had multiple heart surgeries since he was a young child. I almost lost him. He spent three weeks in Hospital, his was when the Flooding hit our province, we were fairly lucky on our island, but I was literally trapped for quite a while with no help or ability to get fuel/feed. While trapped by the Washed out roads I had to Put down my cat Charlie. Then I had a Mink attack literally the next day (it found a little hole in the floor of the coop by the door) and lost 31 birds, some I had quite close relationships to.

I got Arduinna a friend and slept out in the Barn with the two goats for several nights in early December. She’s moved outside and wasn’t too happy about it, but being completely distraught over Daddy not coming home… it seemed like a now or never time for bringing home Jimmy (especially as webhad lost a few other “goat friend” prospects to freezer camp with their owners not wanting to wait on my fencing getting done). There was another In-laws family blowout situation which culminated in a “If anyone harms my pets statement” so yeah, you can imagine. Andrew finally made it home the second week of December (with many new meds, and some upcoming surgeries are likely this year). We had to put down my last kittie Bullet, just before Christmas. That’s the really dark place I’ve been trying to climb out of for most of last year. Things are doing better…

I still have Sammy and Dean, we lost Cass to a raccoon attack. Roostie’s boy Chunk survived the mink attack, as did my Bully Girl, Tailless, Ziptie, and my Rogue mama who hatched out 11 babies in late summer, in my house trusses. It mostly took my broody hens and up and coming layers, as well as some of the core laying flock.

We have fully scrapped our second floor, replacing it with a planned attic, I reframed a lot of the first floor to accommodate the loss of the upstairs, and make it the wheelchair accessible space we had requested in the plans. I have been working everyday for the last three weeks for 5-9 hours on the build, often alone, sometimes with Andrew’s help, regardless of the weather. I also hired a local kid for a few days as well ($50/hr got me some general labour, and I knew I was in trouble when one of the first things she said was “so, what do you mean when you say “stud”…”)! But I’m making progress, and feeling a lot better about things.

My goodness Kris, that is an eventful year. I'm glad it is behind you.

I hope 2022 is boring and uneventful for you with the exception of required surgery and building going smoothly and quickly. All the best to you and Andrew.