Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Shadrach]

Whenever she shakes her feathers she flips herself like that. Cracks me up everytime.

I've never seen anything like that. The bantams should be light enough but they manage to stay upright.

 

[BY Bob]

I've never seen anything like that. The bantams should be light enough but they manage to stay upright.

It happens everytime. Sometimes when stretching her wings and flapping, as chickens will do, she actually becomes airborne. She seems surprised everytime it happens.

 

[ValerieJ]

Phyllis is pretty darn hilarious. And she has the hat to pull it all off.

 

[BY Bob]

Space Available

Just to give everyone an idea of the space available for all 6 of the chickens i took a couple of pictures this morning on the cameras.

I also pulled the plans for the coop and run to be more acvurate with my space measurements. The Big Run is 6 x10 feet, 60 sq feet (5.5 sq meters). Here it is on camera.

According to the plans, the coop is 4x8 with a 41 inch wide porch but that is not correct. I need to recheck things. I'm eyeballing the porch and coop to be 9 feet. I know the coop is 4 feet wide. Using the eyeball measurements you have apx 36 sq feet (3.3 sq meters). Here is Phyllis under the coop. To your left is under the coop. To your right is the porch and extension to reach the big run. That gives them another 8 sq feet (0.7 sq meters).

I need to remeasure but the eyeball puts the complex at around 100 sq feet (9.3 sq meters) of space, not counting the coop and porch. They should not be in each other's way all the time.

 

[MaryJanet]

Extremely hard. I still wobble occasionally. I got the, "well let me know if you change your mind" response when I said no.

One of the things that helped me to resist was watching the flock interest in the run the other day. They are much more unkind to Sydney and Phyllis when they are confined. They have tons of available space. Not counting the coop there is ~150 square feet of available run for them with multiple feeding and watering stations. But it seems like they go out of their way to keep Phyllis and Sydney from enjoying anything, from a drink of water to a simple bath. I had to fend them off so Phyllis could dust bathe in peace.

The whole thing gave me pause about adding anyone else to this environment. I know Ned and Lucky, who grew up with them, stayed on the porch, on top of things in the run, or in the coop so they would not be harassed by the Stygian Witches, Aurora, Lilly, and Sansa.

It all just gave me pause. While free ranging everything is much calmer and everyone seems to get along much better. I don't know if it will be snowy this winter, you never do going into it. It was not last winter when I integrated 3 new hens in February. If it is, they are going to have to coexist in that complex. I wonder how disappointed I will be with their behaviour should that come to pass.

Who are you calling witches!
View attachment 2354187

That's a good choice. Maybe after winter the flock won't be as fragmented. It does take rather a long time for chickens to adjust.

 

[MaryJanet]

It happens everytime. Sometimes when stretching her wings and flapping, as chickens will do, she actually becomes airborne. She seems surprised everytime it happens.

Peggy is overly vigourous in her shakes too, but only to the point of her legs splaying out.

 

[RoyalChick]

Maggie - teaching respect for elders - 9/30
I am just wrapping up a brutal 13+ hour work day and have had very little chicken-time. Today's Maggie tribute is some thing the coop cam picked up.
Maggie says: "Get out of here and find your own food - you have to wait until I am gone before you can inherit my place at the bucket"

 

[ChicoryBlue]

No worries. There is no hurry. None of the stories are going to change now.

Please comment on things. It gives me a reason to go back and reminisce.

Well, OK then! I must bring up the 2nd peanut butter incident. I WAS indeed thinking "Wait - wasn't there something with peanut butter on it that drove the chickens crazy before this?" Then there were no comments about that. I was left doubting my own sanity. How can I be the only one to remember that? But I have a theory!

It must be because it's fresher, reading the posts faster than they would have been laid down in real-time. So of course I instantly recalled a previous peanut butter incident. But I think there's more to it. It must be that there's a sort of time compression, and in effect I'm not actually aging while I catch up, not as fast as you and everyone else going along this thread in real time. Of course I will eventually age to the same degree, but that will happen MUCH LATER in the posts: in the future actually. Those of us catching up on this thread are in effect YOUNGER than everyone here we're reading, and our minds are still sharp! This will last until we catch up to the present posts, according to this theory. That, however, as @drstratton said, will be many, many many.....so many days in the future.

 

[BY Bob]

Well, OK then! I must bring up the 2nd peanut butter incident. I WAS indeed thinking "Wait - wasn't there something with peanut butter on it that drove the chickens crazy before this?" Then there were no comments about that. I was left doubting my own sanity. How can I be the only one to remember that? But I have a theory!

It must be because it's fresher, reading the posts faster than they would have been laid down in real-time. So of course I instantly recalled a previous peanut butter incident. But I think there's more to it. It must be that there's a sort of time compression, and in effect I'm not actually aging while I catch up, not as fast as you and everyone else going along this thread in real time. Of course I will eventually age to the same degree, but that will happen MUCH LATER in the posts: in the future actually. Those of us catching up on this thread are in effect YOUNGER than everyone here we're reading, and our minds are still sharp! This will last until we catch up to the present posts, according to this theory. That, however, as @drstratton said, will be many, many many.....so many days in the future.

That is awesome and a truly rational explanation for how this could happen.

Well played!

 

[RoyalChick]

Well, OK then! I must bring up the 2nd peanut butter incident. I WAS indeed thinking "Wait - wasn't there something with peanut butter on it that drove the chickens crazy before this?" Then there were no comments about that. I was left doubting my own sanity. How can I be the only one to remember that? But I have a theory!

It must be because it's fresher, reading the posts faster than they would have been laid down in real-time. So of course I instantly recalled a previous peanut butter incident. But I think there's more to it. It must be that there's a sort of time compression, and in effect I'm not actually aging while I catch up, not as fast as you and everyone else going along this thread in real time. Of course I will eventually age to the same degree, but that will happen MUCH LATER in the posts: in the future actually. Those of us catching up on this thread are in effect YOUNGER than everyone here we're reading, and our minds are still sharp! This will last until we catch up to the present posts, according to this theory. That, however, as @drstratton said, will be many, many many.....so many days in the future.

Brilliant!