Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[LozzyR]

I keep a regular diary to remind me of the events that took place Bob.
I didn't have a camera for the first few years. Now I take pictures as well and that helps a lot.

I’d like to hear more about Dink, Shad, if it’s not too painful.

 

[LozzyR]

As an example.
I have an article in the featured articles atm about pecking.
My chicken is pecking me/other chickens/pet whatever comes up a lot on the general boards.
Along come the usual suspects who bang on about dominance (some people seem obsessed with this subject) and then aggression and before you know it, cockerels in particular get killed. Many of these pecks have nothing to do with aggression. I know from some of the better accounts that in fact some of these pecks are signs of affection.
Unless one can educate those who reel out the kill the rooster at every they think is a sign of aggression, roosters will still get killed.
Once one has a better idea of what the behavior means and how most likely it came about, nobody is learning anything and the same old nonsense gets repeated over and over.

My two Isa girls will peck at me any chance they get. They are ex-battery and have had their beaks trimmed so they are not sharp. I feel that they are grooming me and I have been accepted as part of the flock. The only problem is; Charlie, who is full-beaked, sees them doing this and tries to copy. It doesn’t tickle!

 

[LozzyR]

Wow, all of this and I didn't get my notification. None of my flock will eat ant's neither. I did have a pullet that was trying to catch a bee this afternoon though.

Yes, I think that you will find that happens a lot. I also find that typing text in using my tablet can be excruciatingly slow, and inexplicably deletes several sentences when I didn’t even touch the ‘back’ button! Anyone else have this problem?

I’m always hoping my girls don’t go for the bees!

 

[Ribh]

My two Isa girls will peck at me any chance they get. They are ex-battery and have had their beaks trimmed so they are not sharp. I feel that they are grooming me and I have been accepted as part of the flock. The only problem is; Charlie, who is full-beaked, sees them doing this and tries to copy. It doesn’t tickle!

My frizzle has a thick, very sharp beak. She doesn't tickle either. In contrast my Campines & Lottie are very gentle. Most of the others fall somewhere in between

 

[LozzyR]

My frizzle has a thick, very sharp beak. She doesn't tickle either. In contrast my Campines & Lottie are very gentle. Most of the others fall somewhere in between

Having said that, I think she is trying to be more gentle. She doesn’t seem to grab and twist anymore!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Daisy, the greatest hen ever, Meets Elphie

After getting reminded that I had not continued this series, I am going to try again. Thank you for the reminder @Aussie-Chookmum . My goal is to try and heal my heart by celebrating her all too short life. I am also afraid that I may start to forget the stories of her life before I record them. By doing this I am hoping that someday Eve will learn of Daisy.

Please feel free to remind me if I do not get back to her story. I really do want to do this.

So many mistakes were made in the early days of our flock. Yes, I had raised chickens on the homestead but on the homestead we followed no rules of chicken keeping outside of survival of the fittest. There were so many things I did not understand and it would be some time until I even found this website.

On Thanksgiving my Dad and I were reminiscing about the old flock. Amazingly, all we ever fed the chickens, as feed goes, was whole kernel field corn. That was seriously all we ever provided along with water. They had to find their own protein. How they were able to do that is a testament what great foragers chickens are. What a terrible diet we provided for them.

So when I got Daisy as a young pullet I followed none of the best practices that I now know. Daisy was an emergency replacement for Trisha who had succumbed to complications from egg binding and prolapse.

So thinking nothing of it, I took a young pullet and put her in a coop with full grown hen. I thought that Elphie needed a friend and would simply adopt Daisy as her new bestie.

Here they are in the nesting box meeting for the first time.
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Of course, Elphie did NOT accept Daisy with open wings. Elphie was quite mean to Daisy. Constantly pecking her and chasing her away, especially when Daisy tried to roost with her at night. In fact, I had to intervene a few times on the roost when it seemed Elphie was a bit too vicious. I would remove Daisy until it got dark and then place her back on the roost.

The pecking as so bad that Daisy started roosting outside the coop on the roof of the run or coop itself. Of course, trying to force a flock, I would move her back to the roost at dark. Here is poor Daisy roosting outside to get away from Elphie’s pecking as well as them on the roost together.
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Despite all of this, Daisy followed Elphie around like a little sister following her older teenage sister. She idolized Elphie. Nearly all my pictures of Elphie from this time have Daisy somewhere in the background. In fact, the one I use here is Elphie with Daisy watching her from the background. Here are some pictures of the two of them out and about.
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Thank you for continuing Daisy's (the greatest hen ever) story Bob. If it becomes too hard for you please don't force yourself. I'm very interested but I don't want you getting stressed

You could collect your installments and photos in a word document as you go and one day print a photo book to share with Eve!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I will say I have observed that my flock does not go crazy over the same foods as others do. For example @MaryJanet uses lettuce to get hers to do things. Mine will eat lettuce but they are not going to be excited over it. Many people talk about making oatmeal for theirs, mine won't touch the stuff, (neither will I for that matter, yuck!)

My girls love lettuce too, but not the loose leaves so much. If I hang a head of lettuce from a branch it's on for young and old!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

 

[BY Bob]

Wow, all of this and I didn't get my notification. None of my flock will eat ant's neither. I did have a pullet that was trying to catch a bee this afternoon though.

Notifications have been extremely unreliable lately. I mostly just go to the threads directly now. Glad you stopped by to catch up.

I have never had any hen pay any attention to a bee. Interesting.

 

[BY Bob]

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There's that beautiful misunderstood hen , Tsuki!