Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

How is Chaco doing?

She’s been skiddish lately. It might be the weather change

 

[featherhead007]

Do you get to ride her often, or is she just eye candy atm? What breed is she?

She’s part quarter horse, dad was a mustang from Colorado. But I paid more than a quarter for her.

 

[featherhead007]

She’s part quarter horse, dad was a mustang from Colorado. But I paid more than a quarter for her.

She looks more like a paint

 

[Kris5902]

Ok Pony Sunday photos
I was busy earlier, making bread, mucking stalls, and filling in ruts in the turf...

Truly snacking on pine trees, gives her that Pine Sol clean breath haha bad Truly!
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Lulu seriously chowing down on whatever she can find in the slushy snow and dead grass:
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Sally just being Sally....
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And Reenie - had a hard time getting her to just stand still to get a photo!
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And those dreaded ruts that I am trying to stomp down, and fill in...
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Those are some impressive ruts… if you had a 2 WD truck instead you could dig them even deeper and wider and fling mud all over trying to get out! ask me how I know

 

[BY Bob]

Way Behind

I am officially 24 pages behind on my own thread. Please bear with me everyone as I endeavor to catch back up.

 

[BY Bob]

Please take this knowing I haven't been able to keep up here - it sounds to me like you are basically dealing with an integration, right, because it's a big change in the routine for everyone. Has it been weeks, not days, with no progress at all? Maybe clutter up your yard a bit, at least rearrange things for awhile, so Arizona has more places to run, dodge, duck and cover and - crucially - can get out of sight lines while still in the yard. Also, a new arrangement like that could provide the others with some needed distraction / investigative interest, and so take the attention off of Arizona.



Popcorn is similar to Minnie, she gets pecked and driven off and has to cede anything interesting. But she makes up for it in foraging enthusiasm, speed, and guts.

She is first to arrive in front of me or to jump up on a perch for a treat (I reward her for that) and she is very bold in a quick grab and run with an offered treat from my hand, and back before I hardly have the next hen fed.... She will steal from almost anyone, maybe everyone. She is practically a bully that way. I've seen Peanut put her in her place when she gets out of hand. She once jump flew off the low perch on to Peanut and Peanut didn't like it one bit. Popcorn submitted to the angry comeback.

Here's some pics, they finally had a few square feet of bare wet but hard and icy ground to peck at some days ago. I got some pics today I'll post later, the snow went quickly and they have been ranging around (supervised).

Popcorn. You can know her by the perpetually surprised /very alert /slightly insane look in her eyes. Also for two big spurs. Well, bigger than anyone else here.
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I have missed seeing your ladies!

 

[Kris5902]

Way Behind

I am officially 24 pages behind on my own thread. Please bear with me everyone as I endeavor to catch back up.

No days off here! If you don’t check in at least three times a day…

edit to add: now I just need to get in the habit of getting more pictures each day and saving some for tax purposes on my next morning check in…

 

[bgmathteach]

I've written to a neighbor here to find out about her plants - she has a bunch of low-ish shrubs her chickens LOVE, and have had no ill effects from. BTW, if yew is toxic, how come your chickens haven't gotten sick from it yet?

Anyway the neighbor's plants might be junipers? It's very pine-like, but low and wide, maybe 3-4 feet high, with good dense cover above and thick spreading branches below that her chickens love to take their midday rest on and under. Her rooster stands guard under the edge of it. When one of her hens was brooding another neighbor's chicks, that mama had them under there a lot, it was great watching them scramble around on the branches.

She has it growing on the dry and sunny side of the house, on a stone-wall terrace she made. It is very close to the road, though not down at road-level, but it is a stoned/paved road the town may salt, and the row of these have done well.

If she tells you what they are, I would love to know. I would love something 4-6 ft. tall and about 4' wide (ideally!) A bit wider is okay. Taller is fine, but it means I probably woulddn't be able to put a shade-cloth over the top in warmer season if toomuch taller (use shade cloth both for 'shade', but also to keep hawks out of extended run in the 'warmer'7 ish. mos. of the year. (i.e. now snow part of the year)

When I extend my 'safe run', I will be replacing the current chain-link fence (5' tall) with 8' fencing. With teh compost pile and grapevines INSIDE the run, it will allow me to string electric fencing around the run- 1 strand a couple inches off the ground and 1 strand at the top. I plan on putting chicken wire mesh on the pergola. All of this will mean (with the current pines) nearly all of the 'extended run' will have some sort of 'upper structure'. I realize it won't be 100% hawk-proof, but about 80% will, and all of it will greatly reduce a hawk's ability to see the chickens, and therefore prevent an attack.

I've attached a rough sketch of current + intended run. I have not put in placement of my multiple coops, but the 'secure run' has solid wood & metal roof presently on 10' of the 18' depth, and will have solid roof (hopefully!) with corrugated smokey plastic roofing by next winter. (it filters out some of UV, decreasing temps, but still letting light through. Is/will be, high enough to allow full winter sun in) The entire run to the left of secure run is covered by canopy of the two pines except for bottom left corner...which has a dog pen (with coop in it), including top (6'X12'), so is protected from arial predators. The entire run length along side the secure run has sun shade tarps the length of it starting in April - usually late October. Will still be able to do this with extending the run by 6" by rotating the shade cloths the long way top to bottom on pic instead of side-side (just would need 1 additional shade cloth...no problem!)

 

[BY Bob]

I forgot to mention one of the bigger things going on lately. A couple weeks ago, a friend asked me what I thought about the recent bill that they are trying to pass (Senate Bill 2195). I was very confused because I wasn’t familiar with this bill. When I looked into it, I saw that they are trying to pass a bill in Hawaii to eradicate feral chickens throughout the state of Hawaii for those of you who know me, you know that all the chickens I write about are all feral chickens. That is Kauai and the rest of the Hawaiian islands are known for

What is there reasoning for this dastardly idea?

He said knowingly risking a SHRA tax.....

 

[BY Bob]

They are claiming that roosters are a noise nuisance They are also saying that feral chickens are harmful (spread disease) to the native Hawaiian birds, but in reality it’s feral & domestic cats that are the biggest threats to the native Hawaiian birds. One thing the bill as noted is that the feral chickens are a road hazard

I don’t know if it’ll pass. I do know that the Red Jungle Fowl is protected in Hawaii. A lot of the feral chickens are descendents of the Red Jungle Fowl.

If this bill passes it’ll be in effect starting July 1st. It’ll be a 5 year pilot program in Oahu and will spread to the other counties.

This is awful. What is wrong with humans.