Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

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BY Bob said:
I say this all the time. Dogs are the worst. Way worse than cats who have the bad reputation as killers for fun. I have just not seen that in cats like you see it in dogs.
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Our only loss is 2 chickens to our dogs and one duck to probably a coon. Have rehabbed the dogs that killed Pancho and Maya is making good progress in her chicken training.
 
BY Bob said:
He needs to be taught, just like a puppy does. With no other rooster to teach him the ways of your tribe he is making this up as he goes. Shadrach has posted an article on how to reach an accommodation with your rooster. If you train him, he will teach the next generation. If you don't, you are asking any rooster to randomly figure out what you want while it is trying to figure out all the hens as well. That's a lot to put on Pangoo.

Does anyone have Shadrach's article linked? I do not.
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Very true. Our senior and most dominant rooster keeps the teenagers in line.
 
bgmathteach said:
@Kris5902 I'm curious as to your set up for your chicken tractors. (I assume that is what is in the background.) Would you be willing to share?
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So in the background along with a whole bunch of junk on the “to clean up” list the green tarps are over my three layer tractors, you can’t see them but my two remaining and one crushed (by cows) meat tractors are in the far corner of the yard too. We were initially told it’s impossible to free range chickens out here because the eagles and ravens will eat them all, so my initial foray into chickens (because I didn’t want a static coop as the ones here are disgusting nightmares) was completely tractor based. There are some serious design issues with the wheels and 1” hardware cloth bottoms under the roosting area. They are also not Cow/bill proof. If your cattle get hungry enough to go for the chicken feed the 2x2’s don’t stand a chance!

Because we are pretty temperate here but damp they only really need the “coop” for nighttime. And when they are afraid of the strange white stuff on the ground for maybe a week a year… I had some well aged cedar bevel siding for the roosting box area, some corrugated steel for the roof, and could have used something far less secure for the run portion rather than expensive hardware cloth, because the ramp doubles as a door and I close them in manually every night. They are 6x12’ with an elevated 3x6’ nesting/ roosting area in the rear. They use a 9x12’ tarp (prefer white but whatever DH manages to find on sale of a correct size) and I replace the tarps every 1-1.5 years. The first one was done in 2018, and they are just now starting to fail badly.

Biggest design flaws: the wheels get angled in and rub. The threaded rod of the axels, one nut tends to unscrew and the other tightens when they are moved. I didn’t think about moulting and the feathers catch in the underroosting area, which then collects poop and rots out the metal. When they were newer I could easily move them myself, now it’s a two person job. They are pretty heavy. But I can walk in and when I have roll away meat boxes in them I actually get hatching eggs. When I move them daily they are ok for 12-13 chickens with their rooster. Also good for containing my one violent boy. I’ll see if I can find the link to my build…
 

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