Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ribh]

Oops

Sorry, that's the black and white photo.

Not much difference in color.
View attachment 2057822

I love brown eggs! They come in so many beautiful shades. Your girls have done well by you!

 

[LozzyR]

Aurora Rules the Roost

The following video is over 5 minutes long. I edited it down from nearly 20 minutes of recording. It shows a fascinating piece of chicken behavior. It is not for someone who believes that chickens are friendly fluffy balls of feathers that all love each other. This is a display of dominance that I have not recorded before and it involves a lot of pecking.

What you will see is the following. Everyone is roosted and settled but Aurora. Aurora comes in and decides that Sydney needs to be dominated tonight. I do not know how or why she makes that decision.

Aurora can barely reach her on the high roost, seemingly getting on her tip toes to reach Sydney. That does not dissuade her. She pecks at Sydney until Sydney makes the mistake of moving which puts her into more effective range for Aurora.

Aurora garbs and pulls Sydney off the high roost and gets off her roost to go after her.

There is some pecking and chasing until the most fascinating part of the video occurs.

Sydney submits. She goes prone of the floor with her wings partially spread. You can really see Aurora's dominance here. It is almost like she is a cruel prison guard with a prisoner in hand cuffs on the ground. You can almost hear Strother Martin saying "What we've got here is a failure to communicate"

Aurora stands over her, pecks her, pulls at her wings, and makes Sydney stay in that position for quite a while. Sydney remains in the position even after Aurora has left.

Eventually Sydney gets up and resumes her position on the high roost.

All of this had nothing to do with Aurora wanting Sydney's spot on the high roost. Aurora went back to her spot on the low roost. This was simply about dominance.

Now the observations from the next day were most interesting. Sydney and Aurora spent time together free ranging, they briefly ate together from my hand at the same time, and Sydney and Aurora roosted together last night.

Is this a big step to building an integrated pecking order? It seems so. Time will tell.

Yes, not for the faint-hearted!

 

[BY Bob]

Lilly is Doing Better Today

She's moving a little better. Check it out.

 

[Ribh]

Aurora Rules the Roost

The following video is over 5 minutes long. I edited it down from nearly 20 minutes of recording. It shows a fascinating piece of chicken behavior. It is not for someone who believes that chickens are friendly fluffy balls of feathers that all love each other. This is a display of dominance that I have not recorded before and it involves a lot of pecking.

What you will see is the following. Everyone is roosted and settled but Aurora. Aurora comes in and decides that Sydney needs to be dominated tonight. I do not know how or why she makes that decision.

Aurora can barely reach her on the high roost, seemingly getting on her tip toes to reach Sydney. That does not dissuade her. She pecks at Sydney until Sydney makes the mistake of moving which puts her into more effective range for Aurora.

Aurora garbs and pulls Sydney off the high roost and gets off her roost to go after her.

There is some pecking and chasing until the most fascinating part of the video occurs.

Sydney submits. She goes prone of the floor with her wings partially spread. You can really see Aurora's dominance here. It is almost like she is a cruel prison guard with a prisoner in hand cuffs on the ground. You can almost hear Strother Martin saying "What we've got here is a failure to communicate"

Aurora stands over her, pecks her, pulls at her wings, and makes Sydney stay in that position for quite a while. Sydney remains in the position even after Aurora has left.

Eventually Sydney gets up and resumes her position on the high roost.

All of this had nothing to do with Aurora wanting Sydney's spot on the high roost. Aurora went back to her spot on the low roost. This was simply about dominance.

Now the observations from the next day were most interesting. Sydney and Aurora spent time together free ranging, they briefly ate together from my hand at the same time, and Sydney and Aurora roosted together last night.

Is this a big step to building an integrated pecking order? It seems so. Time will tell.

That was brutal. Makes me wonder what is going on we can't see/understand?

 

[micstrachan]

I’ve just won 50 Euros!

There are two dogs that belong to the people in the main house. The dogs are pleasant enough and in the right hands would probably fare better. As they are now, they are as thick as two short planks. They do say dogs reflect their owners.

I get quite a lot of piss taking from the others that live here about the chickens and the relationship I have with them. Some of this humour seems to stem around the fact that I can do, and know more, with and about the chickens than they do.

The people concerned in this tale were having a bit of a lunch do. The double kitchen doors were open and as they sat around the table eating a rooster wandered in through the double doors. This cause great amusement and the owner of the house and I should point out the two dogs I’ve mentioned, decided he was going to show off his, I’m a bit good with animals, and tried to catch the rooster with the intention of evicting him. There is nothing like a table of guests who have had a few glasses of wine to promote stupid behaviour.

This man made a grab for the rooster and the rooster did him, for want of a better expression and having drawn blood to prove his point, ran under the stairs that lead to the mezzanine in the kitchen.
There is no easy way of getting him out. One would need to practically lie on the floor and shuffle under to get a hand to the rooster.

I got summoned to remove the rooster with something like “one of your stupid chickens has got stuck under the stairs.” Once in the kitchen I got everyone to leave pointing out that calm and quiet would help with the eviction, mentioning that I would call the rooster out when everyone was gone. This produced further amusement which eventually boiled down to me saying the rooster was a lot smarter than the dogs, or it seems, the owner.

A bet got made. I bet I could not only get the rooster out from under the stairs, but also, if a test of intelligence of owners and creatures was of interest, I could get a rooster to follow (no leads allowed) me on a pre described circuit encompassing the sheep field, around the back of the main house and into mine. I challenged him to do the same with his dogs. I was pretty sure I could do this and suggested we bet 100 Euros. I think the high opening bid rang a warning bell and the bet was lowered to 50 Euros.

I got Mag (the rooster) out from under the stairs with a quick bit of bribery. To be honest I think he realised that he could have picked better circumstances to kick off and was glad to be out of there.

I thought the chances of the dogs owner of getting the two dogs up to the top of the sheep field was unlikely, never mind doing the circuit. I was confident in getting a particular rooster to the top of the sheep field and along the top edge but getting along the back of the house might be difficult.

I went and got Treacle and stood at the start line holding him in my hand. The dog owner and the two dogs made there way to the starting line with much thigh slapping and callings of ‘come on’ and ‘walkies’.
Well both humans, he and I, started to walk up the track. The dogs just sat there, but after a few seconds the slightly sharper of the two wagged it’s tail a bit and did a bit of a lets please the human, hope skip and a few spins getting about half way to the human.

Of course, even though the dogs are perfectly fine with the chickens, the chickens, being cautious creatures. like a bit of space between them and the dogs, even nice dumb ones. The moment I put Treacle down he headed up hill away from the dogs and up the track and all I had to do was keep a step or two in front of him. At the top of the sheep field I had to call him to come around behind it, but he did, and the stretch down away from the sheep field is route to coop and route to my house and I know Treacle will follow me having done it many times. It took a bit of encouragement, which was allowed, before Treacle follwed me along the back of the main house because this is away from coop and my house and into Tribe 3’s territory, but Treacle did it.

The dog owner and one dog; the other had gone inside and got back on the sofa apparently, were waiting on the driveway outside the main house, the owner muttering about stupid dogs....well, you can imagine....

Well done Treacle.

Now I get a lot of crap about the chickens and the other animals here from this particular person and I went to double prove a point.
When the dogs, owner, and assorted onlookers went back into the kitchen (lunches here can go on for hours) I stuck my head through the kitchen double doors as I was passing a bit later and said to the dog owner, “look, this is how you do it” and shouted HAWK! UP! very loudly. The dogs shot out the door barking frantically, crashing through the table and chair legs in their hurry to get out. It was a couple of seconds of true pandemonium. As the barking receded as the dogs headed up to the top of the sheep field (a favourite strike spot known to the dogs as UP) I held my hand out and said, “you owe me fifty Euros.”

Fabulous story!!!

 

[micstrachan]

Lilly is Doing Better Today

She's moving a little better. Check it out.

Looking good!

 

[Shadrach]

I just wish I could tell if she is in any pain or discomfort. If she’s just standing around for most of the day, she doesn’t really seem to be enjoying life. She’ll have a bit of a scratch in the garden but it’s half-hearted at best.

It's very difficult to tell.
Rightly or wrongly I go by how much the close their number two eyelid (the opaque one)
When Blue Spot was dying she spent a lot of time with those eyelids shut resting as the tribe moved around her. I probably should have killed her sooner but it's hard after ten years of friendship.

 

[Shadrach]

From what I've seen, they almost always tank up before bed time, regardless of activity level. I believe they don't want an empty craw all night. I'd be worried if that did not occur.

Their digestive system is more active at night I've read. They are not like us where the digestive system partially shuts down while we sleep.

 

[Shadrach]

Friday's Fluffy Butt

I'm sorry, I had this ready for yesterday and plain forgot.
View attachment 2057699

Lovely picture Bob.

 

[Shadrach]

With regard to roosting behaviour. All that aggressive pecking does not happen when they roost in trees from what I've seen here.
I believe some of it has to do with light levels. When they roost in the trees here it is at the start of dusk. When they roost in the coops it's towards the end of dusk.
Watching them go into the coops. it's quite apparent the the transition from relatively good light to bad light makes them hesitant to venture in. Once it has got dark (bear in mind there is very little light in the coops here) there isn't any of that pecking.
This is partly why the juniors tend to go in as late as possible; they don't get pecked at.