Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[micstrachan]

Nearly done. Not quite done. There is one chick left and Mom is trying to encourage it to leave the garage. Dad tried too. But the chick is way too comfy in the garage with meal service.
The two parents and baby make quite a racket. I feel the parents are yelling ‘get up and get a real job you lazy slob!’ And the baby is mumbling ‘I’ll look after I have had another cheeseburger’.
mom even suspended meal service for several hours during which the baby bleated non stop. And of course she relented and came back with a big bug. So interesting to watch this play out!

SUPER interesting!

 

[micstrachan]

Fresh spices!

OK, this one got me laughing out loud!

 

[micstrachan]

There is something about chickens beating up cats that cracks me up. Apex predators, right! Who is the food source for whom?

I know, it’s so funny! Both of my buckeyes, Ruby and Minnie, outrank my dog. LOL! I’ll have to get it on video sometime. It’s hard to capture, though.

 

[micstrachan]

It’s not great footage (and excuse the garage cleanout mess in the background), but this literally happened immediately after my last post.

 

[Kris5902]

This is going on all around me here. It's Spring and while we may view it as a wonderful season for planting and sunshine in the world of the wild it's the season of dead offspring.
Sorry to bring everyone down but that is the reality. I pick up the baby birds that I find on the ground if I can and put them on a branch hoping they'll make it. Not many do.
We, humans have forgotten much of natures ways in our protected and comfortable lives.
When we do try to help these creatures we often do more harm than good.
The best thing we as a species can do for the other creatures on this planet is leave them and their habitat alone and that includes chickens.
I'm not cheering people up am I?

harsh truths of nature... we have a family of Canadian Cobra Chickens with 4 babes (Canadian geese) two nights ago the only came up with two. Bear in mind Daddy will mess you up if you even look at them the wrong way, while mama herds the littles away at amazing speeds for the little fluff balls. I’m hoping whatever took babes 3&4 thinks twice about attempting another attack. The geese can literally punch a hole through the sidewalk of a tyre without a second thought with their beaks, and are capable of breaking bones.

to really depress everyone I could go one further for you with what I did with the baby mice in my chair. My cat must’ve succeeded in catching mama, and after days of plaintive squeaking I finally managed to catch one that crawled out of the chair and cut its sibling out as well. They were slowly starving to death, so I hand fed them some warmed up cow milk, and held them in my hands until they fell asleep. I just couldn’t kill them myself, but there’s no way I can take on nursing two baby mice! The fastes and surest end came by putting them out in a patch of warm sun with an egg. Within minutes they were gone thanks to my ever present Ravens.

Nature is beautiful, but merciless. But it was a kinder end than starvation or my cats would have offered them. I still feel like a murderer.

 

[micstrachan]

OK, so I love understanding some of the chicken vocalizations. I was sitting under a tree catching up on this thread on my phone, and suddenly one of the birds was doing the aerial predator call. Of course, they all stand still like statues when this happens. I got up from my chair and looked around and around and around and could not see anything. But the girls were all still standing there like statues… Sure enough, there was a hawk! We have a pair that’s nesting nearby. I’m not sure what type they are. The ones that look like this that live around here are Sharpshinned, Cooper’s and Red Shouldered. I’m not great great at hawk identification, but they are definitely not Red Tailed hawks, that live here too. This particular nesting pair has a lot of red on them and a barred tail. Anyway, you should’ve seen me! I was running around flailing my arms attempting the aerial predator call over and over again. I also threw the ball where the hawk could definitely see the dog. The hawk moved on, I told the girls it was OK, and they resumed their business. Phew!

 

[BY Bob]

Really, between you, @Shadrach and @rjohns39, I think we have pretty much everything covered Bob! So awesome to know such knowledgeable people!

I will fess up, though, last night on my 3 am “here’s a can of catfood let me go back to sleep you little fur monsters” and bathroom run I gave Hoppy a little kiss good night on her head.

I'm sure she liked it. How is she doing Kris?

 

[BY Bob]

That’s exactly what I do! Sardines during molt! They love it. I also offer baby bird formula to those hit the hardest.

I need to get some baby bird food.

 

[micstrachan]

harsh truths of nature... we have a family of Canadian Cobra Chickens with 4 babes (Canadian geese) two nights ago the only came up with two. Bear in mind Daddy will mess you up if you even look at them the wrong way, while mama herds the littles away at amazing speeds for the little fluff balls. I’m hoping whatever took babes 3&4 thinks twice about attempting another attack. The geese can literally punch a hole through the sidewalk of a tyre without a second thought with their beaks, and are capable of breaking bones.

to really depress everyone I could go one further for you with what I did with the baby mice in my chair. My cat must’ve succeeded in catching mama, and after days of plaintive squeaking I finally managed to catch one that crawled out of the chair and cut its sibling out as well. They were slowly starving to death, so I hand fed them some warmed up cow milk, and held them in my hands until they fell asleep. I just couldn’t kill them myself, but there’s no way I can take on nursing two baby mice! The fastes and surest end came by putting them out in a patch of warm sun with an egg. Within minutes they were gone thanks to my ever present Ravens.

Nature is beautiful, but merciless. But it was a kinder end than starvation or my cats would have offered them. I still feel like a murderer.

I think it’s nice that you gave them a little comfort before offering them up. Personally, I probably would’ve offered them to my chickens. So mean!

 

[BY Bob]

So cute! I’m so confused, Bob. You give your girls all kinds of treats and seem not to have health problems in your flock. I give very minimal treats and my flock is fat to the point of health problems. I don’t get it, but I’m trying really hard to slim them down before another suffers at my hand of ignorance.

Edited to add, it’s actually pretty ironic that I posted this right after posting about sardines. LOL!

You just see me giving them treats all the time. The majority of their food comes from free ranging right now, augmented by chicken feed which they gorge on right when they wake up and before bed. Of course as I type this Hattie comes over and pecks the lid on the corn for some more. Of course I gave in. I want them to love me again!

Mrs BY Bob us way worse than me. I have to watch her. She would feed them mealy worms all day if I didn't cut her off.