Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[LozzyR]

Man the barricades - the enemy is at the gate!
Oh boy. Look what happened at 9:30pm last night and again just before 4am. She left only because she found a friend who was vying for her attention. She (they) will be back I am sure.

They look fluffy and cuddly but I wouldn’t want them near my chooks!

 

[LozzyR]

That's good news Lozzy.

I’m taking it on a day by day basis. She’s moulting again as well; not sure if it’s because she’s unwell, or it’s contributing to her feeling under the weather. Every time I put her in the run with some food she got stuck in.

 

[LozzyR]

I love that trilling sound they make - mine do that when they find a patch of sun. It is such a beautiful and peaceful sound.

It’s one of my favourite sounds!

 

[BY Bob]

I love that trilling sound they make - mine do that when they find a patch of sun. It is such a beautiful and peaceful sound.

Me too. I don't hear it often enough.

 

[BY Bob]

Man the barricades - the enemy is at the gate!
Oh boy. Look what happened at 9:30pm last night and again just before 4am. She left only because she found a friend who was vying for her attention. She (they) will be back I am sure.

Most assuredly they will be back. Great catch on the camera!


I assume the plan is for the chicken palace to hold them off?

 

[BY Bob]

Quick Lilly Update

When I released them to free range this morning Lilly had a little giddy up in her step. She is favoring the leg but clearly is moving better.

I forgot to post this yesterday. Check out this group on the porch as I arrived to let them out yesterday

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I have a led shop light that we leave on 24/7 they perch on it occasionally but dont really get on it.

My advice is to get rid of any lights you leave on that are visible to the chickens.
Take down the perches you have built and replace them with one or two branches of about one and a half inch diameter at a hight of no more than one foot above the nearest large flat surface.

I was just thinking that removing the lights might help.

I like your perch suggestions Shad but would leave one of the old boards up to give them a choice of perch type.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Aurora Rules the Roost

The following video is over 5 minutes long. I edited it down from nearly 20 minutes of recording. It shows a fascinating piece of chicken behavior. It is not for someone who believes that chickens are friendly fluffy balls of feathers that all love each other. This is a display of dominance that I have not recorded before and it involves a lot of pecking.

What you will see is the following. Everyone is roosted and settled but Aurora. Aurora comes in and decides that Sydney needs to be dominated tonight. I do not know how or why she makes that decision.

Aurora can barely reach her on the high roost, seemingly getting on her tip toes to reach Sydney. That does not dissuade her. She pecks at Sydney until Sydney makes the mistake of moving which puts her into more effective range for Aurora.

Aurora garbs and pulls Sydney off the high roost and gets off her roost to go after her.

There is some pecking and chasing until the most fascinating part of the video occurs.

Sydney submits. She goes prone of the floor with her wings partially spread. You can really see Aurora's dominance here. It is almost like she is a cruel prison guard with a prisoner in hand cuffs on the ground. You can almost hear Strother Martin saying "What we've got here is a failure to communicate"

Aurora stands over her, pecks her, pulls at her wings, and makes Sydney stay in that position for quite a while. Sydney remains in the position even after Aurora has left.

Eventually Sydney gets up and resumes her position on the high roost.

All of this had nothing to do with Aurora wanting Sydney's spot on the high roost. Aurora went back to her spot on the low roost. This was simply about dominance.

Now the observations from the next day were most interesting. Sydney and Aurora spent time together free ranging, they briefly ate together from my hand at the same time, and Sydney and Aurora roosted together last night.

Is this a big step to building an integrated pecking order? It seems so. Time will tell.

That was hard to watch.

At least they seem to have come to an understanding now.

 

[BY Bob]

That was hard to watch.

At least they seem to have come to an understanding now.

I agree. It was very hard to just let it happen without intervening. The coop cam shows what we're don't normally see. The dark side of chickens so to speak. Those 2 slept together on the high roost again last night so I believe some kind of understanding must have been reached.

I watched Sansa submit to Hattie yesterday. Hattie used her size to get Sansa to do so. Hattie kind of "chested" up to her. The pecking was minimal but Hattie stood over her for quite a bit. Nothing like what Aurora did to Sydney that night.

 

[BY Bob]

A Memory of some Special Ladies

Google does this thing where it shows me photos from previous years every Sunday. This came up today. It is from March, 3 years ago. 2 of my special girls enjoying a meal together. I miss them both but it is getting easier to remember them and the good times we had.