Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[WhoDatChick]

My dad actually befriended two skunks when he was a kid. One day, in their little town, my grandma got a call from the sheriff saying to come pick him and his skunks up. He was playing with them in the town square and people were afraid to walk past them.

I love it!!

 

[WhoDatChick]

Concerned

After a couple of days of flock observation, something i feared may be coming true. I had hoped that by "cooping" them up theymight better bond as a flock. I will say there was very little pecking and enforcement of the pecking order while I watched them in their small quarters.

Unfortunately what i have seen over the last few days as they have free ranged is the following.
View attachment 2019016

Aurora is spending most of the day on her own. I am not pleased. I wish she would stay with the others, safety in numbers and all. I just watched Hattie sentinal from the deck and alarm for a large bird flying over. Aurora ran all the way accross the yard to catch up with them and hide under the deck table. This is not a great way to stay safe.

Maybe this will improve but I am very concerned and free range will continue to be limited to when I can directly observe and protect.

I don't sense that she is lonely. She seems to be heppily off on her own. I just wish Mal was here to help keep her safe.

Aaaawww, that looks like a sad scene... even though it may not be... poor girl..

 

[WhoDatChick]

That will NOT be happening!

I’ve seen people keep them just like cats.. they even use litter boxes..

 

[ValerieJ]

Concerned

After a couple of days of flock observation, something i feared may be coming true. I had hoped that by "cooping" them up theymight better bond as a flock. I will say there was very little pecking and enforcement of the pecking order while I watched them in their small quarters.

Unfortunately what i have seen over the last few days as they have free ranged is the following.
View attachment 2019016

Aurora is spending most of the day on her own. I am not pleased. I wish she would stay with the others, safety in numbers and all. I just watched Hattie sentinal from the deck and alarm for a large bird flying over. Aurora ran all the way accross the yard to catch up with them and hide under the deck table. This is not a great way to stay safe.

Maybe this will improve but I am very concerned and free range will continue to be limited to when I can directly observe and protect.

I don't sense that she is lonely. She seems to be heppily off on her own. I just wish Mal was here to help keep her safe.

Keep an eye on her. Is she eating and drinking? When my Rosie lost her 2 best friends to a BOP, she stayed on her own for a few days. I looked her over and she had not been attacked. But, this normally active flock member was off by herself. 3 days later she passed away. I think from shock. They do mourn the loss of their friends.

 

[BY Bob]

I’ve seen people keep them just like cats.. they even use litter boxes..

Thats OK. Not me. Ick.

 

[BY Bob]

Keep an eye on her. Is she eating and drinking? When my Rosie lost her 2 best friends to a BOP, she stayed on her own for a few days. I looked her over and she had not been attacked. But, this normally active flock member was off by herself. 3 days later she passed away. I think from shock. They do mourn the loss of their friends.

Eating is not her issue. As you know she is knocking on the door and entering my house to eat mealy worms on her own. She has been eating everything, spaghetti, blueberries. I watched her yesterday tearing through wet leaves. She seems hyperactive. She was always a little darter and she really seems like herself. Just herself alone.

I have a waterer right by the door and i have watched her chug water after a mealy worm session. Fortunately I do not observe any of those signs.

 

[Kris5902]

[Not nosey at all Shadrack... I am still trying to figure out this site and how to respond, but maybe this will work. Let me know if you get my response. My fenced garden space is 30x30.' So, when I decided to add chickens I felt this was plenty of space for both hobbies... vegetable gardening and Chickens. At the moment, I have just two hens at this site. They are 8 months old now, and one of the girls laid the first egg yesterday! I'm so excited. I moved my other two older girls over to my goat barn when I got the new gals because the old ones ( 6 years) had begun to crack and eat their own eggs. I just heard today that if this happens you can mix one of their eggs in with their food and they will stop this habit. Have you ever heard this? The two I moved to the goat barn seem very happy there, so I just may leave them there.... u

[/QUOTE]

Roll away nest boxes... once they realize that those things that pop out their bottoms are tasty they will continue to eat them. And it never hurts to offer more calcium if they do have thinner shells. I found the instigator to my egg eating girls, my Rooster! He tidbits over their eggs now I need to finish cleaning out my roll aways and put them back into the coops, and build a few more. And two more coops... I would consider integrating your girls, managing multiple groups can get exhausting, and sometimes Barns aren’t as secure as you think they are.

 

[Kris5902]

@BY Bob I do believe skunks are related to weasels? Might be wrong on that... but is it possible that they would have a similar method of killing as well. I know the neck/head is a normal raccoon, weasel, and owl indicator, but I never looked into skunks, as we don’t have any on our island.

As for the burying hardware cloth on the perimeter fence line idea... (which is great except for that “little” bedrock problem) you could consider concrete blocks to anchor it rather than fully burying it. I did this behind our hot tub between the fence and retaining wall to keep my cats in our yard. It Didn’t keep out the raccoons or neighbor cats that were better climbers/jumpers... but it could be a good skunk proofing technique? That spot and the gates where the concrete walk was slopes were my weakest points in suburban yard defense.

 

[ValerieJ]

Eating is not her issue. As you know she is knocking on the door and entering my house to eat mealy worms on her own. She has been eating everything, spaghetti, blueberries. I watched her yesterday tearing through wet leaves. She seems hyperactive. She was always a little darter and she really seems like herself. Just herself alone.

I have a waterer right by the door and i have watched her chug water after a mealy worm session. Fortunately I do not observe any of those signs.

Oh that's great! Not at all like Rosie was! Still, it seems like she is mourning. When I mourn, I like to be by myself too.

 

[Cheryl W]

That is a project I will not be undertaking. I am considering large gravel to discourage incursions but that project is too large. I had to jackhammer over 30 of those post holes. I live on a giant limestone rock. I'm not interested in tackling a project like that again.

I guess if you can’t dig in it easily then neither can the predators