Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

I’m so sorry Bob, the guilt must still really haunt you. I would feel terrible too. I’m sure she had a great life before that though. I know why you are worried about your new girls around the pool. I’m just glad we don’t have one! Take care, more hugs.

Thank you. All I can do is make sure it doesn't happen again. Learn from it.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Poor baby. I want to hug her but I know it would hurt.

Lol, me too. I want to moisturise her dry, flaky skin then tuck her up under my jumper to keep her warm but I just know those pin feathers would bend the wrong way and hurt.

 

[BY Bob]

Yep. He was doing some low level flying in smoke. They were about to ground the planes when he went down. There are anomalies in the coroners report that make me think he had a stroke or a heart attack in the air as no way would he not have been trying to fly that plane to the very end ~ & he wasn't. We'll never know. There wasn't even enough of him left to bury. It's a long time ago now but we saw in the recent fires smoke does awful things even for experienced pilots.

Who did your dad fly for?

I missed that. I'm so sorry. That must be very hard.

 

[BY Bob]

Mr. Bunny says Happy Easter from Everyone at Fuffy Butt Acres!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Yep. He was doing some low level flying in smoke. They were about to ground the planes when he went down. There are anomalies in the coroners report that make me think he had a stroke or a heart attack in the air as no way would he not have been trying to fly that plane to the very end ~ & he wasn't. We'll never know. There wasn't even enough of him left to bury. It's a long time ago now but we saw in the recent fires smoke does awful things even for experienced pilots.

Who did your dad fly for?

 

[Ribh]

I missed that. I'm so sorry. That must be very hard.

It's all good, Bob. Harder on my mum I think. He was her baby. But thank you.

 

[Ribh]

All good, ACM. It's not recent, just something that happened in another lifetime.

 

[Ribh]

I’m so sorry to hear that. I also know what it’s like to lose a younger brother.

I’d have to ask Dad again who he flew for; it wasn’t one of the airlines. He had a commercial license and used to fly newspapers outback, give joyrides etc. He got a scholarship to become a pilot and just as he qualified, they brought the jets in, so for every ten pilots they now only needed two. He used his aviation background all his working life though, even though he let his license lapse.

I'm sorry about your brother. It changes families...

The aviation industry went through some strange changes. A lot of our pilots got their hours up in Asia or PNG. Lost quite a few in PNG. It's dangerous flying. The jets changed things. Quite a few pilots ended up doing the sort of thing your dad did or flying the oil rig crews in & out. My brother loved what he did but low level flying carries inherent risks & we all knew that.

 

[Shadrach]

 

[MaryJanet]

Elphie’s Time

Elphie came to live with us early in early in 2014 and would be gone by the end of October in 2015. Her impact on Fluffy Butt Acres far outweighs her brief time with us. I’ve told the first part of her story here.

Jan 7, 2020. The Story of Elphie. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fluffy-butt-acres-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/page-365

This the rest of her story. It covers only 5 months. The all too short time that her and Daisy, the greatest hen ever, had together.

Here are Elphie and Daisy the day Daisy came to live with us.
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I had never mixed a pullet and a full grown hen together before. I simply threw them together, can you imagine! I actually thought that Elphie would be glad for the company. It is surprising that poor Daisy survived it. Elphie had been second of two with Trisha being in charge. She was not going to let Daisy take over. I actually had to intervene at roosting time several times early on to stop the abuse.

Eventually, as Daisy grew, they would reach an equilibrium and roosting time would calm down. Here they are safely roosted together. You can see that Daisy was still keeping her distance, just in case.

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Human Food

I’ve said previously that Elphie was the first hen to show an interest in what I was doing. This resulted in her coming to see what we were doing when outside, especially when we were eating.

Elphie loved human food. All of my hens since then have as well but Elphie was the first that made a point of coming around to see what we were eating. Of course this led to her trying almost everything we ate. She even taught Trisha that human food was good. One of Elphie’s favorites was cheesecake. Here are Trisha and Elphie enjoying a piece of cheesecake.
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And Old Messy face herself.
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A Lot of what made Daisy the greatest hen ever was taught to her by Elphie. Daisy figured out pretty quickly that us humans were OK and could even be conned out of some pretty good food. One of my favorites is the time my wife just set the remaining lasagna on the ground for them. I was horrified. It is one of my favorites. My wife just felt that the ladies deserved a treat as well. Here they are enjoying the lasagna. Check out the original coop in the background.
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Of course every hen loves mealy worms and Elphie was no different.
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The pool skimmer is another source of food that Daisy would come to dominate. After Her Patsy did so and now Lilly does. This lesson was clearly passed down from alpha hen to alpha hen. This was a particularly good night for the ladies as after the skimmer feast they then got mealy worms. A great night indeed.

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As you can probably surmise from the lasagna, Elphie loved tomatoes and tomato sauce. One of the rules she established and Daisy would furiously enforce was that any tomato in the garden that she could reach was hers. She would patrol the garden fence every day looking for tomatoes that she could knock off of the vines and eat.

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Cuteness
Like every hen Elphie loved a great sun bath. She went all out when she did it and spread out like a flower opening into the sun.

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And then there is this picture of her in the winter. She looks like a drawing of a hen the way she is standing. A one foot stander too. So cute!

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Elphie was the first hen to make her way into the living room. She ran into the house to escape a dog that was chasing her around the backyard. The next hen to reach the living room would be Maleficent.

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Staying Cool

In the heat of the summer Elphie would spend most days under the grape vines. If you walked past she would come out to check and make sure that you did not happen to have any snacks. You can see she taught this one to Daisy as well. Daisy can be seen behind the grape leaves in the background.

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The Pool
Like most of the hens, Elphie fell in the pool. The first time that Elphie fell in I was there to rescue her and warm her up.

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It would be the second time she fell in the pool that haunts me to this day.

As everyone knows that reads my thread, ever since the hawk killed Dolly, free ranging alone was restricted. It was a very late October day, the sun was out and I was working from home. So I moved to the table on the deck and let the ladies out for some free range time. The pool was still open because we were holding a Halloween party and my wife loved it when I set the pool light to green and ran the pool heater. That would make the pool steam. It was a pretty cool effect. Of course, the pool water was very cold as I only turned the heater on for the party.

Everything was fine, the ladies were having a great time, it was warm enough that it was quite enjoyable out on the deck. Then I got a phone call from work. I needed to run through something with someone and in order to do so I needed to print something out. Of course the printer was back in my office. I hit the print button on my computer and headed in to grab the printout. My intention was to take the printout back outside. Instead, and I will never forgive myself for this, I grabbed the printout and subconsciously sat down at my desk.

Now my office is on the other side of the house from the backyard and all the windows were closed so I heard nothing.

After about no more than 5 – 10 minutes I wrapped up the call and came back outside. My heart stopped. I could not find the ladies and they did not come when called. Eventually I found Daisy hiding under the deck. I checked everywhere and could not find Elphie. I had run out of places to look and was standing in the yard wondering what to do when I saw her.

She floating in the pool, slowly drifting in a circle around the shallow end laying on her side.
I pulled her from the pool and tried to revive her by rubbing her.

She was stone cold. There was no reviving her.

She was gone.

My fault for leaving them unattended. I knew better.

This is the last photo I have of her.

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New Flockmates
The deaths of Dolly and Trisha hurt, Elphie’s broke me. My wife was done. No more chickens she said. It hurts too much. Too much tragedy. And for a while I was with her.

The problem was Daisy.

I could tell already she was special. I could not let her go. Instead I found hens in need of rescue, Patsy and Lilly. Here they are the first time they experienced grass under their feet 11/2/2015.

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Daisy's Story
I have been telling Daisy's story here but it has taken several months. Here are links to the story. I am listing them in the chronology of Daisy's life, not the timeline in which I have written them.

Jan 7, 2020. The Story of Elphie. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fluffy-butt-acres-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/page-365

April 11, 2020. Elphie’s Time. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...es-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/post-22424389

Nov 3, 2019. The Story of Daisy, the greatest Hen Ever (Entry 1). https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fluffy-butt-acres-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/page-210

Dec 14, 2019. Daisy meets Elphie. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-of-our-flock.1286630/page-281#post-22020233

Such a beautiful and poignant story Bob.