Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ValerieJ]

Aurora leads the Charge

Lilly and Hattie were still afraid of the snow even as it melted today. Aurora had to lead Hattie out to show her it was safe.
View attachment 1999293

Once she got Hattie out, Lilly followed and in no time the whole flock was on the deck.

I may be crazy but it seemed like Aurora was standing more erect and proud today like she was the cats meow. Walking with confidence, showing everyone what to do, just being the chicken in the know.

Keep it up my little princess.

You're not crazy!!! I totally see that!!!!

 

[ValerieJ]

She had decided to walk along the window sill. I had just grabbed my phone to take a photo on the sill and she jumped down as I took the shot. I swear she was a monkey in a past life.

 

[MaryJanet]

Aurora leads the Charge

Lilly and Hattie were still afraid of the snow even as it melted today. Aurora had to lead Hattie out to show her it was safe.
View attachment 1999293

Once she got Hattie out, Lilly followed and in no time the whole flock was on the deck.

I may be crazy but it seemed like Aurora was standing more erect and proud today like she was the cats meow. Walking with confidence, showing everyone what to do, just being the chicken in the know.

Keep it up my little princess.

Go Aurora! I love how she cares about her friends.

 

[LozzyR]

OMG I just read through an incredible thread! A chicken mum performed surgery on an impacted crop for her Orpington with support and advice from the BYC community! I’m not sure I could do that! Has anyone had to do anything like that before? @Shadrach ? @Kris5902 ?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/please-help-my-pet-hen-is-sick-need-help.1344273/

 

[Kris5902]

... the land isn't mine either. My house and a small strip of land is until I die. It's one of those family type arrangements that doesn't quite work.
I look after the animals and land here, as best I can under the circumstances. It's my job.

...I get paid a very small amount of money for taking care of the place while the owners go off and do other things.
I became fascinated by the chickens here and sort of fell in love with them.

I can very much relate to that and I love the phrase “It's one of those family type arrangements that doesn't quite work.” sums up my last two years nicely as well

That egg that I accidentally cracked when I went into lock down hatched late last night. So cracked egg's can still hatch.

Yay!!! As for baby pics... you need to get DH on the camera situation ASAP please! Lolx

Me too. Pretty and independent but can be handled without panic when the chips are down.

Can be handled without panic... I am going to take a screenshot of this comment and every time I have to handle one of mine I am going to show it to them... maybe that will help mine! Of course, it would help if the little high strung things could read!

 

[Kris5902]

OMG I just read through an incredible thread! A chicken mum performed surgery on an impacted crop for her Orpington with support and advice from the BYC community! I’m not sure I could do that! Has anyone had to do anything like that before? @Shadrach ? @Kris5902 ?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/please-help-my-pet-hen-is-sick-need-help.1344273/

first I had seen of that nature, I thought I was following that thread but obviously didn’t, that or just the notification thing again... I’ll have to get caught up on it! Thanks

Edit to answer the actual question... no. I had a fairly awful foot that I debrided on Tippie, (toe amputation was discussed and considered but thankfully not needed) and I did treat Puffy for ascites by draining her abdomen with a syringe. Both of those were heavily supported and guided by the experienced folks on the emergencies forum, as well as the one incident of Bumblefoot and a prolapse on Mrs B. With my vets help I was giving my cat Whisper sub cutaneous fluids, and I have given sheep and cattle intramuscular injections. Birds are more scary to me for that sort of thing, so much more fragile and small.

 

[Shadrach]

OMG I just read through an incredible thread! A chicken mum performed surgery on an impacted crop for her Orpington with support and advice from the BYC community! I’m not sure I could do that! Has anyone had to do anything like that before? @Shadrach ? @Kris5902 ?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/please-help-my-pet-hen-is-sick-need-help.1344273/

Not crop surgery no. Not entirely sure how I feel about it. The women did a good job though by the looks of it.
My feeling about this and a couple of other surgical procedures is they should be carried out by a vet. This isn't always possible though.
Part of the problem is, you read about the crisis but you don't get to read about what happened in the long term. Most crop problem are symptomatic of other serious internal issues; there are always exceptions.
A further problem is what if it goes wrong? It's okay for those who cheer the person with the chicken on, they just switch their computer off and it all goes away. This isn't the case for the person who has tried to follow the advice. So, I've got mixed feelings about such threads. It's a problem with the Internet in general.
Fortunately they got one of the very few Educators who imo give solid advice and support.
One area I think BYC should come down very hard on is those who not only suggest giving antibiotics and other drugs, and then tell the OP where to get them. In the UK and parts of Europe you can face prosecution for this and quite rightly so imo.

 

[Shadrach]

One of the things I look forward to in the winter is not having to nest hunt. Most hens to take a winter break from laying. Most years there are one or two pullets who lay eggs over the winter and a couple is a lot easier to keep an eye on than 15 to 20 hens!

I've had the nest box in my house stripped out for the past couple of months. It saves a lot of cleaning up after the chickens have scratched about in the box.
Hurry the gray hen sitting in the nest box in the second picture has been wandering around with both Cillin and Treacle looking for nest sites. For Tribe 1 to which she belongs, there are plenty of options, tow boxes in their coop, two maternity units just outside my house and an unlimited acreage if she chose to lay outside.
Despite all the choices both Cillin and Treacle will bring her into the house and crouch under the empty nest box making nesting calls.
I gave in in the end and put some straw in the house nest box. All the senior hens came to check it out. Cillin practically bullied Hurry into the house nest box. Fat bird has driven Hurry out of both the maternity unit boxes on at least two occasions that I've seen.
Cillin has stood on the nest box edge making nesting calls for a good hour now and one by one the hens have got in and checked the box over, including Hurry.
There is absolutely nothing about this nest box that fits in with the uasual advice about what hens prefer to lay eggs in. It has virtually no privacy, it isn't that comfortable (I'm making adjustments) it's noisy, yet every hen in Tribe 1 and a couple from Tribe 3 are reluctant to lay eggs anywhere else.
Here's Cilling keeping an eye on Mel as she checks the nest.

Even Fat Bird climbed in at one point to endorse the site and made no attempt to drive Hurry off the nest.
The noise as this goes on is incredible. All the hens call and the roosters make an incredible range of sounds from what is almost a purr to a banshee scream.

 

[LozzyR]

Not crop surgery no. Not entirely sure how I feel about it. The women did a good job though by the looks of it.
My feeling about this and a couple of other surgical procedures is they should be carried out by a vet. This isn't always possible though.
Part of the problem is, you read about the crisis but you don't get to read about what happened in the long term. Most crop problem are symptomatic of other serious internal issues; there are always exceptions.
A further problem is what if it goes wrong? It's okay for those who cheer the person with the chicken on, they just switch their computer off and it all goes away. This isn't the case for the person who has tried to follow the advice. So, I've got mixed feelings about such threads. It's a problem with the Internet in general.
Fortunately they got one of the very few Educators who imo give solid advice and support.
One area I think BYC should come down very hard on is those who not only suggest giving antibiotics and other drugs, and then tell the OP where to get them. In the UK and parts of Europe you can face prosecution for this and quite rightly so imo.

I agree, but I’m lucky enough to have access to an avian vet. I don’t think this is something I could do as I’d be terrified of it going horribly wrong, but I know some people don’t have any other option, apart from euthanasia.

 

[LozzyR]

One of the things I look forward to in the winter is not having to nest hunt. Most hens to take a winter break from laying. Most years there are one or two pullets who lay eggs over the winter and a couple is a lot easier to keep an eye on than 15 to 20 hens!

I've had the nest box in my house stripped out for the past couple of months. It saves a lot of cleaning up after the chickens have scratched about in the box.
Hurry the gray hen sitting in the nest box in the second picture has been wandering around with both Cillin and Treacle looking for nest sites. For Tribe 1 to which she belongs, there are plenty of options, tow boxes in their coop, two maternity units just outside my house and an unlimited acreage if she chose to lay outside.
Despite all the choices both Cillin and Treacle will bring her into the house and crouch under the empty nest box making nesting calls.
I gave in in the end and put some straw in the house nest box. All the senior hens came to check it out. Cillin practically bullied Hurry into the house nest box. Fat bird has driven Hurry out of both the maternity unit boxes on at least two occasions that I've seen.
Cillin has stood on the nest box edge making nesting calls for a good hour now and one by one the hens have got in and checked the box over, including Hurry.
There is absolutely nothing about this nest box that fits in with the uasual advice about what hens prefer to lay eggs in. It has virtually no privacy, it isn't that comfortable (I'm making adjustments) it's noisy, yet every hen in Tribe 1 and a couple from Tribe 3 are reluctant to lay eggs anywhere else.
Here's Cilling keeping an eye on Mel as she checks the nest.
View attachment 1999438 Even Fat Bird climbed in at one point to endorse the site and made no attempt to drive Hurry off the nest.
The noise as this goes on is incredible. All the hens call and the roosters make an incredible range of sounds from what is almost a purr to a banshee scream.
View attachment 1999437

This is awesome! My girls aren’t allowed in the house so I can live vicariously through your photos.