Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Isn't Phyllis a yahoo too?

She sure is!

 

[featherhead007]

She sure is!

Yahoo!!

 

[featherhead007]

Canna, had a lovely time last night. What a snuggler!

 

[micstrachan]

The Story of how Patsy & Lilly came to live at Fluffy Butt Acres

When Elphie passed I went onto Craigslist to try and locate a replacement or two. It being November there was not much listed. I saw an ad for full grown Rhode Island Red hens. I had RIRs when I was young so I thought why not. They lived way longer than any of these leghorns. So I reached out and found out that the owner was being forced to get rid of them. He said they were good calm hens, very friendly with humans, especially his children. I spoke with Mrs. BY Bob and she agreed so I went to pick them up.

That's when I learned they had been living under his porch. When I arrived he pulled up the floor in his porch, reached in and plucked them up. He was very proud of his porch coop. Thought it was very clever. I saw immediately that they were clearly not RIRs. Then I looked at where they were living and thought, I need to take these hens. This is what I am meant to do.

So I took them not really knowing what kind of chickens they even were. I did tell Mrs BY Bob they weren't RIRs but I didn't care. They needed a better home and I thought we could at least give them that. She was very blunt with me.

Those are your chickens not mine. You are responsible for them now.

I was fine with that. To be fair all of the early losses were very hard on her and she could not really stand the thought of losing more beloved pets. Luckily it would be another 3 years until Daisy, the greatest hen ever, passed.

When I think of our chickens, this is what I picture as my flock. I hope that someday the chickens I have now will be what my mind pictures, but these three yahoos own my heart as a flock.
View attachment 2396477

Mrs BY Bob did name my chickens. So she wasn't completely disengaged.

In fact until Maleficent and Aurora, all the names were hers.

Aww... Bob! You are the best for rescuing them! Of course they will always have a special place in your heart.

 

[RoyalChick]

Crazy Encounter!

We were outside on the patio watching a movie, with a separate speaker going. My dog’s ears perked up and she was looking at the fire pit, where I had a jack-o-lantern sitting. (A rat had chewed on it the night before, so we all figured the dog heard a rat.) I ran inside and grabbed a bright flashlight. I could not see the rat, but figured I’d throw out the jack-o-lantern right then before I forgot (the movie was still going). I headed for the waste bins with flashlight in one hand and pumpkin in the other and just as I was about to step off the patio, my flashlight illuminated a mountain lion 50 feet away, just sitting there behind my neighbor’s vehicle. I quickly told my family, “There’s a mountain lion. Get inside.” We shined a light on it again and it turned its head and just looked at us, not at all bothered by our presence. We went back inside. Several minutes later, my husband went out with a flashlight again. Our neighbor came out with a flashlight, as well. It just laid there in the field with two bright lights on it and humans calling out to each other across the yard. It finally retreated, but I find it worrisome that it would come into the yard while people were outside watching a movie, and then not run off once we obviously saw it. The waste bins in between us and the cat? That’s where I was headed with my jack-o-lantern. The cougar was literally 20 feet from the bins before it retreated to the field in the video. With daylight savings, the chickens won’t have free range time after work this week. I’m ok with that!

The video is poor quality, but still!

Good grief! That is terrifying!!! Such a cool animal though. So glad you and chickens are all safe.

 

[RoyalChick]

P.S. Why were you throwing the pumpkin in the bin? Wouldn't your chooks like it?

I was wondering the same thing about the pumpkin - mine would DESTROY it!!

 

[Shadrach]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

My son went off to school this morning and came back in a panic straight away.

“The gate was open and River’s out the front!” He shrieked.

I grabbed some feed and dashed out the front. Sure enough, she’s pottering around on the grass next to the road. I tempted her into the back yard and went to check who was still there. Faithful Lucy was by the back door and Charlie was on the nest. Tegan and Nyssa were nowhere to be found. My in-laws live next door so I frantically called my MIL and asked her to help me find them. Then while I’m on the phone to hubby, telling him off for leaving the gate open, a lovely man approached me and asked if I was looking for chickens? I said I was and he showed me that they were in the front garden of the neighbours on the other side of my in-laws. I was so relieved! I thanked him profusely and put the bowl of feed down. Tegan came up and squatted when I went to grab her. I put her in the back yard and by this time my MIL had got dressed and come out (I’m still running around in my dressing-gown!) She’s herding and I’m tempting and Nyssa ducks into my in-laws’ garden. My FIL had also some out so the three of us were trying to catch/herd her.

Well, she wasn’t having any of that, so she runs down the back! She escaped into a bushy garden and my FIL grabbed her by the tail-feathers! He hauled her out and I took her back around, thanking them both profusely.

View attachment 2395775

Here’s the little Lara Croft of the chicken world! I bet it was her idea to go exploring! It doesn’t surprise me that it was the three Faverolles that went off; before we got them they had access to a large property.

Excuse me whilst I go and collapse for the rest of the day.

She's got that look on her face that says I'm going to do that again.
Great picture.

 

[Shadrach]

The Tally

The conversation, I'm no longer sure on which thread, regarding the chickens lost by @Ribh and @featherhead007 couple with it being the 5 year anniversary of Elphie's passing had me thinking of all the chickens that have come and gone at Fluffy Butt Acres. Here are the sad totals. We have been in the chicken business since 2013, over 7 years now. We have not been real food at this apparently.

Killed by Predators

• Dolly: Hawk, 2014
• Maleficent: Likely a weasel, 2020

Drowned in the Pool

• Elphie, 2015
• Dusty, 2020

Medical Issues

• Trisha: Cloacal Prolapse, 2015
• Daisy (the greatest hen ever): Salpingitis, 2018
• Patsy: Old Age?, 2019

Removed from the Flock

• Jabberwocky, 2019

Not counting Jabber, that's 1 chicken lost a year. Doesn't make me feel like I'm doing a great job. I don't know that I would trust my chickens with me.

That's good Bob, apart from the pool losses.

 

[BY Bob]

That's good Bob, apart from the pool losses.

It doesn't feel good but I will try to accept that it is. Thanks for saying that.

 

[Shadrach]

I have only just begun chicken keeping (middle of May this year) and I have lost six.
The first two (out of four) died the day after I got them from TSC. Not sure what was wrong with them, but after that, I got more chicks and was careful about choosing healthy ones and I had better luck. So I was sad that they died but it wasn’t my fault.
I lost four at about 9 weeks old to a predator while I was away and a chicken sitter was feeding them for me. She found them dead in their run in the morning.
I was so distraught when that happened I couldn’t talk about it and I didn’t tell anyone about it for weeks. I felt like a terrible chicken mom.
I raised children, and dogs, and cats, and I never had problems with keeping them alive!
I take the best care of my birds, but they seem so much more vulnerable than any animal I ever had.

We (people) tend to assume we can care adequately for these creatures. There are so many problems with chicken keeping now. The chickens we keep are not really fit for survival in so many respects. That's our fault to.
Chickens lay eggs and hatch clutches rather than singles because not many/all are going to survive. This gets forgotton about chickens. If a hen hatches 6 and 2 survive to breed then she's done her bit and done well.
There is nothing healthy, or survival learning/encouraging in the way we keep chickens. It's taken almost a decade here to get to the point where I beleive some of the younger chickens have something closer to their natual instincts working. The bantams and some of the cross breeds would with some luck, now be able to survive as a feral flock. The Marans and the heavier cross breeds are still far from fit for a feral life.
Even my friends Fayoumies which are incredibly hardy and aware still need feeding to maintain their population. A few only eat commercial feed when forage is poor. My friend is slowly reducing their egg laying capacity and this will help enormously with their overall health and ability to avoid predators. They've got the living in the trees sorted out now although some still roost in the open part of the top of his house.
There are a few fully feral Black Miniorcan flocks here now. A women on the next mountain keeps about twenty which she only feeds in the winter. But, she does tend the sick and injured and provides semi secure nest sites around the farm.