Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

Just wait until she gets bigger and does that… then poops in your hair! And yet, we still love them… unless it’s a cecal poop

It’s always a cecal poop!

 

[BY Bob]

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There are two new leghorns here! I am calling them Lucy and Ethel.

I love it! I'm so glad you got some more!

 

[BY Bob]

So, I don't know if any of you are aware of this...but I went from around 35-40ish chickens to around 70-75ish this past year (permanent ones, after processing extra boys and some of the older girls..plus 9 ducks). Well part of the reason for this 'explosion' was that TSC was A) selling chicks for 50 cents each REGULARLY last year, and B) I practically live there...and when some were getting too old & flying - setting off the alarm at night - the assistant manager said 'I"ll sell them to you for 10 cents each if you take all of them.' And he didn't count well. Of those, I sold a few to someone who works with hubby (at cost) once they were 10 weeks old, as she wanted to get into chickens for her grandkids...who now live with her (and there parents)

Okay...so I never wanted hybrids after all the talk here....nor leghorns due to all the production related issues. I now, however, have a number of ?Isa Browns?. Two days ago, one had a prolapse. She is only 8 mos. old, and is already frequently laying super huge double yolkers a couple of times a week I 'fixed' the prolapse. Well, Last night was my late night at work, so hubby let the chooks out to free range when he got home, topped them up with feed & h2o. I go to check on them and she is A) Prolapsed badly. B) The outside edge of prolapse is dried out & has feces caked on it, and is sticking out about twice as far as the other day. Sure enough, there is another HUGE egg in teh nest box she uses. I tried cleaning everything off, but the tissue doesn't look good...and she clearly was having trouble pooping...she had to force it out around the prolapse. I did the bet I could last night, but I don't see this as ever getting betterSo, I decided to cull her. I will do it tonight when I get home...so I have good light to work...and won't waste her body. Blessed and cursed...she was the friendliest of the ISAs..Blessed because she was very patient when I tried to help her, cursed because it only makes it harder to make that decision. I was on the fence about it last night...but, this morning, I realized it was the best thing to do for her.

@BY Bob : This is why I wouldn't intentionally get a leghorn. It is hard enough for me to process chickens that I KNOW I am going to process...but to have to put one down that is so young and I was planning on keeping...that is the pits.

I truly feel your pain and I'm sorry this has come to you and her.

I understand this completely, more than you maybe know. Trisha died from complications of a prolapse. I won't have leghorns or productions beds again because of her and Daisy, the greatest hen ever.

Maybe it's wrong of me to love seeing them in other people's tribes but they own my heart. I can't wish them from the face of the earth and I can't bear to have them in my tribe. They are magnificent birds and we humans ruined leghorns by turning them into laying machines.

Trisha

 

[BY Bob]

The Houdan and Appenzeller both have V combs. Not sure how that would translate into the Cookie hybrid (probably depends upon what they're crossed with). Ancona and the Exchequer both have straight combs. Hamburg have rose combs. My Storm has a crest (tiny) that didn't pop up until the 12 week moult. Theoretically, both PITA and Blanche should have crests, but they've never developed them. They're also supposed to lay blue eggs, but lay white instead. Rose/Pea combs tend to look like a flat wedge across the upper part of the beak and dividing the head fluff. No ridge at all. Even at 2 days old, there is a visual difference. The rose comb can pink up at 3 weeks on both pullet and cockerel. Wattles on cockerel grow early, comb size grows early too (like right after the wattles start appearing). Rose comb pullets tend to look like they had a close encounter with a pink lipstick down their forehead until the 12 week plus mark (sometimes they get the wattle line with the comb pink, those grow in sync with the comb).

You are a breed expert. My gosh. Look everyone is the anti- @RoyalChick

 

[BY Bob]

So here goes.
Dotty or possibly Minnie at three and a half weeks. You can see the start of an elegant little hat developing.

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And here is Lulu at the same age deploying her antenna to communicate with other alien chicks on faraway planets.

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Could Lulu be any more adorable!

 

[RoyalChick]

You are a breed expert. My gosh. Look everyone is the anti- @RoyalChick

I get it right more than anyone else. I can reliably say they are all chickens, and just watch, I will be proven right yet again. They are in fact chickens!

 

[RoyalChick]

Could Lulu be any more adorable!

She says she is working on it!

 

[featherhead007]

Happy Fluffy Butt Friday:

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

As soon as I can get them downloaded and then uploaded to youtube I have some video's of the chicks 2nd time out of the coop this morning. I let them out for the first time yesterday for about 30 minutes but did not have my camera as I was focused on how the big chickens were interacting with them.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

This one is a little blurry, but it was the first picture I took this morning. I will say it now, I will be in some serious trouble if Ezzie ends up being a boy. I do not think I can let Ezzie go, and I cannot have another boy. Ezzie has worked her way into my heart like Branch and Drumstick did so she HAS to be a girl.