Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[WhoDatChick]

Well, they are not one person but 2 so I wanted to celebrate each as their own person ~ & that was important for their teens but seriously, these guys had a name for their singleness as a twin phenomea. It was a combination of their individual names that they always used to refer to themselves. But it could drive people batty. Who was this 3rd child they kept referring to? And school was a nightmare. They had no idea of personal ownership because it didn't exist in their world. Everything was *ours.* And I had boys. I think girls might be worse.

My pastor has twin teenage boys (plus 7 younger) who’s names are Jake and Abe... I call “them” Jabe .... wonderful young men I might add...

 

[WhoDatChick]

So more bird news!

Oh man its so good to be back here! Ive missed u all soooo much!

Thursday i went n saw the quail breeder again

585 eggs came home with me

This is 70 set in the incubator. The last one were the meat makers line right? This is the egg makers line! Super excited! It is Slam full

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Then i have 500 eggs to peel and pickle 50 of them will be deviled eggs for childrens bday party at my dads tumro

This is awesome! My husband told me to start raising quail so he could “hunt” them... I know it’s good to eat your own food but I don’t know if I could raise them for that

 

[mixedUPturk]

This is awesome! My husband told me to start raising quail so he could “hunt” them... I know it’s good to eat your own food but I don’t know if I could raise them for that

Well maybe not raise them from eggs but you have a connection

 

[Kris5902]

I think I'm going to post a few pictures of humans. Perhaps we could all come to an agreement on a SOP for them and get on with a breeding program.
I keep telling the chickens here they don't meet any standards. They give me one of those looks, deposit a pile of shite at my feet and go off muttering that that Bucket Boy could do with some cosmetic improvements.

I suppose mine all think my ancient quilted flannel jacket that is slowly falling apart in tatters is the human version of molting? (20+years old, and the farm hasn’t been kind to it for wear and mostly tear these last 2)

 

[Kris5902]

Well, if you look at the ads for the hot Russian dates you would imagine we have already established the SOP for humans. I think 'pneumatic' is the descriptor. I will stop before I get thrown off the site.

Again where are my hot Russian dates? Those paint bucket ads just aren’t doing anything for me! (If i were to speak these words aloud in the presence of my phone I’m sure they would magically appear as ads though!)

 

[WhoDatChick]

Ask and you shall receive!
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Oh ma ga! A curly cat

 

[RoyalChick]

Or you could give the chooks the run of the garage for the night. I’m sure they’d catch a mouse or two.

I came across this and think @Aussie-Chookmum you might be right about the best way to deal with the mice.

 

[Shadrach]

You took the words right out of my keyboard RoyalChick. Could you describe a chicken tantrum for us Shad?

I'm not sure I could do it justice.

 

[Shadrach]

Hey Shad check it out! Remember a good yr ago or so i told you we are making a difference educating people on getting away from mass production sources?

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https://www.statista.com/statistics/195823/total-number-of-laying-hens-in-the-us-since-2000/
Really man, statistically making a difference in millions of peoples' and birds' lives.

This getting away from mass production is the foundation of why i am a real deal state certified chicken breeder. Then if i can get a bird to win a show? I can double my prices and logistically spend my whole life working with birds and educating people while being able to help provide for my family.

Hmmm, but....
There is nothing to say that it's the influecne of backyard chiken keepers that is motivating the change. In fact, if you read the egg industies own reports it's consumer demand that is driving the change. Seems reasonable to me because backyard chicken keepers buy many fewer eggs from commercial outlets. Being a member of this forum can of course lead one to beleive that the entire world is either already keeping chickens or wants to. The reality is somewhat different.
This is what is goinng to change the egg and slowly the chicken meat industry. Backyard chicken keeping is such a small componant it doesn't even feature.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/true-free-ranging.1343242/

 

[RoyalChick]

Integration Strategy

As @Ribh prepares to integrate her flock, I have started laying out my strategy as well. I thought I would share my "plan" as its stands right now. I am a pretty conservative integrator preferring to use space to my advantage as much as I can.

This could all take as long as a month. Fortunately I have no need to rush the process and of course I am praying that the weather holds the whole time. There are no guarantees of that this time of year. All I need is one snow storm to take my free range away from me and this gets a lot more complicated.

I love the plan and am taking notes furiously as I look ahead for when I increase my little flock a bit later in the year (once the Chicken Palace is finished!). The one thing that was worrying me was the 2 hours before dusk thing because that is when predators are most active. I assume you will be standing out there in the yard with them so I assume that will work, but my being 10 paces behind the fox didn't really put it off taking Scary so I am nervous about the pre-dusk free ranging thing.