Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

My EE Kelly... View attachment 2045616View attachment 2045616

Sooo pretty!

 

[WhoDatChick]

Chicken Palace Tour: The servants' quarters (long post with lots of pics)
The main servant of course is me.
The basic set-up of the Palace is a coop at the top of the hill and then two covered runs stepping down the hill.

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The servants' quarters are where I can store feed and egg cartons and medicine and all my 'chicken-kit'. Naturally, I enter through the servants' entrance. The servants' entrance, like all the doors and windows, were a great salvage find and is why the thing is so big because it needed to accommodate full size people-doors - I was worried at first about that but now am very happy because it makes it so light and airy.

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Hopefully one day the servants' entrance will have a proper step - but for now the cement block works fine. For those worried about ventilation, note the hardware cloth covering the whole of the gable end as well as the soffits.

Coming in through the servants' entrance on the left is the kitchen cabinet which has the nesting boxes (I shared a few posts ago) as well as my chicken jail/hospital/brooder box (which can also just be storage when not in use). It doesn't have its doors on yet.


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At this point Diana is wondering why I am standing in the servants' quarters and not doing anything for her.
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At the other end of the servants' quarters is a door into the main part of the coop (so the servant can serve lunch of course!). It is another salvaged door where we cut out the panels and replaced by wire so I can see through into the coop. It doesn't really need that fancy vinyl 1/2" hardware cloth but it looks smart and we had plenty of scraps left over from the runs.

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And on the other side of the servants quarters is storage - I am hoping to rig up a water system to harvest rain water off the roof so some of the space will be taken up by a water barrel. The heater is not for the coop - it is for the people who are working to build the coop on some very cold days - it can come out soon. And above the storage is more ventilation into covered run #1.View attachment 2045221View attachment 2045222

And now the other princesses have joined Diana in demanding to know what I am doing just standing around in the servants' quarters. So time to stop now and go play with the chickens.

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@BY Bob - I am so sorry. I seem to have taken over your thread. I should have posted all this to a different thread and just posted a link here. I wasn't thinking it would get so long when I started! I will see if I can figure out how to do that for the next part of the Chicken Palace tour.

You thought of everything! This is great!

 

[RoyalChick]

Maturity

Based upon comb color and physical size of the New Girls I figured they were not quite mature. Probably several weeks to go. I mean look at Sydney's comb. It's not exactly red and she is still smaller than Lilly.

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This is despite the fact that she is nearly 25 weeks old.

Yesterday, Sansa squatted for me. A sure sign she is getting older. (They are the same age). No one had inspected nesting sites that I have seen. I had no heads up so what happened this morning shocked me.

What happened when Farmer Bob let them out at 0 dark thirty this morning? Only 5 hens emerged to free range.

Sydney was missing.

A search immediately ensued. Let ne zoom out on the above photo.

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So thought, OK, she's getting warmed up. I need to get the prefab out of the run today anyway. Isn't that cute. So I let her be and started catching up on all of the posts here from overnight.

While I was still doing that, you all were very busy last night, I hear the escort call.

I am still thinking how cute. She is practicing.

It was no practice!

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I actually took a photo of her nest assuming it was empty. It was only when I looked at the photo that I realized she had laid a tiny egg.

I am stunned!

They grow up so fast!

But woohoo! More eggs!

Congratulations! It doesn’t look like such a small egg in the photo. So if I understand everything you all have been explaining, she might move up the pecking order now.

 

[RoyalChick]

You thought of everything! This is great!

Oh I am sure not!
For example I over-did the ventilation and in the very windy days we had (gusts of 30 mph) I felt it got too windy inside. So I am adding baffles.
But I am feeling confident I can tinker and improve now I have the basic structure in place.

 

[BY Bob]

Congratulations! It doesn’t look like such a small egg in the photo. So if I understand everything you all have been explaining, she might move up the pecking order now.

She might. I showed it to all the Bigs. I need her to use the same box as them though. That's next.

 

[BY Bob]

Oh I am sure not!
For example I over-did the ventilation and in the very windy days we had (gusts of 30 mph) I felt it got too windy inside. So I am adding baffles.
But I am feeling confident I can tinker and improve now I have the basic structure in place.

Always tinkering. There is always something.

 

[goldenfingers]

Maturity

Based upon comb color and physical size of the New Girls I figured they were not quite mature. Probably several weeks to go. I mean look at Sydney's comb. It's not exactly red and she is still smaller than Lilly.

View attachment 2045613

This is despite the fact that she is nearly 25 weeks old.

Yesterday, Sansa squatted for me. A sure sign she is getting older. (They are the same age). No one had inspected nesting sites that I have seen. I had no heads up so what happened this morning shocked me.

What happened when Farmer Bob let them out at 0 dark thirty this morning? Only 5 hens emerged to free range.

Sydney was missing.

A search immediately ensued. Let ne zoom out on the above photo.

View attachment 2045619

So thought, OK, she's getting warmed up. I need to get the prefab out of the run today anyway. Isn't that cute. So I let her be and started catching up on all of the posts here from overnight.

While I was still doing that, you all were very busy last night, I hear the escort call.

I am still thinking how cute. She is practicing.

It was no practice!

View attachment 2045628
View attachment 2045631

I actually took a photo of her nest assuming it was empty. It was only when I looked at the photo that I realized she had laid a tiny egg.

I am stunned!

They grow up so fast!

But woohoo! More eggs!

And such a perfect little egg, too

 

[BY Bob]

And such a perfect little egg, too

The end is cracked. Probably dropped it too high. But yeah it is a sweet surprise. I'm just a little sad that she is grown up now.

 

[BY Bob]

Size Comparison

Aurora just laid so here is a size comparison. Aurora on the left. Sidney on the right.

 

[ValerieJ]

For years I have tried to think of something I could rig up to save small animals that fall in the pool. It hasn't come to me yet.

My EE Kelly... View attachment 2045616View attachment 2045616

She looks like she has a fur stole around her neck. She is really pretty!

Size Comparison

Aurora just laid so here is a size comparison. Aurora on the left. Sidney on the right.
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Don't you just love pullet eggs? I use those to boil for Queen Victoria right now. Just the right size for her. I'm still having trouble getting her to eat much. Going to try making a mash today. She eats the berries that contain her antibiotic and she'll eat a little egg, but is not eating much of her crumbles. She needs that nutrition, so I need to figure something out for her. Happy to report she is perky and talkative. Good signs of recovery!