Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Thank you. I feel I'm not prepared enough for this venture, I'm always catching up. So today one of my Buckeye pullets let out a single "honk", kind of like a sneeze it seemed. She had been eating some scratch out of crevices in a log. She did it once or twice, then I saw her bend forward and shake her head too. Something went down the wrong way? An hour later another honk, and a little while after that another one. Then nothing for another couple of hours, and now they're roosting. I will look them over tomorrow and keep an eye on them. Shad's hens and @featherhead007 's loss today have me worried and sad and a bit freaked out.

So I looked up @Shadrach 's new recommendation and found this on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Diseases-Fre...p-1873580789/dp/1873580789/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
And a reviewer mentioned that the medicines are all oriented to the U.K. and this reader had to keep looking up the U.S. equivalents. I'm not sure if that is a problem or not. I'm in the U.S. I would think the main thing is to become aware of what is going on, and then work from there using multiple resources.

Amazon also recommended this one by Gail Damerow, The Chicken Health Handbook, is it any good? The author is from Tennessee, is there a benefit to getting one oriented to my country? Or get both books?
https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Heal.../ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Hattie winds up up "honking or coughing" almost everytime she eats corn. I liken it to our clearing our throats. I would guess that is what has happened here. Nothing much to worry about.

 

[BY Bob]

The thing is, how can you only have one loner, Monsieur Le Rat? I am afraid there must be more. Are you sure? What kind of rat lives alone? Or this rat is foraging far from home in your complex?

I have no idea. So far I've seen the one, identified by the pattern on its tail. The issue at least starting to eliminate them. I can't have the chickens in the run with active traps and the stupid rat only comes by during the day so I can't try and trap them at night.

 

[drstratton]

Thank you. I feel I'm not prepared enough for this venture, I'm always catching up. So today one of my Buckeye pullets let out a single "honk", kind of like a sneeze it seemed. She had been eating some scratch out of crevices in a log. She did it once or twice, then I saw her bend forward and shake her head too. Something went down the wrong way? An hour later another honk, and a little while after that another one. Then nothing for another couple of hours, and now they're roosting. I will look them over tomorrow and keep an eye on them. Shad's hens and @featherhead007 's loss today have me worried and sad and a bit freaked out.

So I looked up @Shadrach 's new recommendation and found this on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Diseases-Fre...p-1873580789/dp/1873580789/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
And a reviewer mentioned that the medicines are all oriented to the U.K. and this reader had to keep looking up the U.S. equivalents. I'm not sure if that is a problem or not. I'm in the U.S. I would think the main thing is to become aware of what is going on, and then work from there using multiple resources.

Amazon also recommended this one by Gail Damerow, The Chicken Health Handbook, is it any good? The author is from Tennessee, is there a benefit to getting one oriented to my country? Or get both books?
https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Heal.../ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I like @Ribh's advice...go with the one from your country! I saw the book by Gail Damerow on several US based chicken sites and it was highly recommended, so I bought it a couple of weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to sit down and look through it yet...I've been to occupied trying to keep up on BYC...

 

[Kris5902]

You're all going to hate me. I'm going to do it again.....
This is the first book I got about chickens and other fowl. I attended a lecture at The British Poultry Club many years ago and this was a book many recommended.
Victoria Roberts is old school but incredibly knowledgeable about her subject.
Don't expect any fluffy buttness in this book. It's a down to earth, if a bit dated book that covers most of the chicken sickness problems with free range chickens.
Contained chickens can have other problems but this is a great guide in general.
View attachment 2428798View attachment 2428799View attachment 2428800View attachment 2428801

I love you... please don’t hold back on Good book recommendations! This one is expected to arrive between Christmas and late January!!!

 

[Kris5902]

You know, I would love a book club too. When I lived in PA I belonged to a book club, just about eight friends, and we’d meet once a month to critique the book we read. Over wine and snacks. I loved it. And I read a lot of good books too.

I’m not sure if we should do this as a chat thread, or a conversation thread, or how we should organize it really... but I do think we should make it happen! At least for some of the chicken themed books... I can just see us all sitting down with a nice bevvie, and discussing our poultry books! Lol the only really challenging bit, I think, is going to be balancing all the different time zones for the chat! But hey, we seem to be managing on here right???

 

[Kris5902]

Because I read so much when flying in airplanes, my family got me the first eReader from Sony. It died a few years back and they got me a new waterproof one for Christmas. I say this because for me to buy an actual book these days it has to be something special.

I still have shelves full of books, mostly paperback.

I went to the shelves to find my Pern books and I came across this book instead.

https://www.amazon.com/Epidemiology...cience+by+donald+austin&qid=1606604291&sr=8-1

It is very short, 65 pages. If you want to understand more about what the health department or other scientific indicia are saying, this is an excellent prime on epidemiology. Here is the intro. It should be an easy read for all.
View attachment 2429070

I think I may have messed up by leaning my Pern books to my eldest. I have since learned not to do that.

Bob needs to carefully photograph each page for us... at least Canadians... the us Amazon showed me a copy for $10 and change that couldn’t be shipped to me... Amazon.ca has other ideas about the value of this little used book. This is the only buying option for me... sorry but no can do on this one (and I was so going to use it to debunk our health order exemption for schools to my cousin!)

 

[Kris5902]

You can’t eat them; they’ve got names!!

They are supposed to be breeding for me...

Well yes and no [Edit - more than I can handle but will bookmark the post!]

Purple looks like TWO chickens stacked, or one hen sitting on a nest of cotton balls with feet!
Also thank you for the picture of Zip Ties foot and how the band fits!

It was a quick attachment, and a little loose to make sure it didn’t bind before I took it off (and I did an awful job of cutting it back!) also it was a really heavy zip tie, but the only one I had to hand at the time.

 

[Ribh]

I’m not sure if we should do this as a chat thread, or a conversation thread, or how we should organize it really... but I do think we should make it happen! At least for some of the chicken themed books... I can just see us all sitting down with a nice bevvie, and discussing our poultry books! Lol the only really challenging bit, I think, is going to be balancing all the different time zones for the chat! But hey, we seem to be managing on here right???

What happens is 1/2 of us are running 10 pages behind ~ & not always the same 1/2.

The other option I can think of is working out a time & going with skype or other multi chat function. Skype is the only one I'm familiar with but I'm sure there must be others. That may not work for you data wise.

 

[Kris5902]

Thank you. I feel I'm not prepared enough for this venture, I'm always catching up. So today one of my Buckeye pullets let out a single "honk", kind of like a sneeze it seemed. She had been eating some scratch out of crevices in a log. She did it once or twice, then I saw her bend forward and shake her head too. Something went down the wrong way? An hour later another honk, and a little while after that another one. Then nothing for another couple of hours, and now they're roosting. I will look them over tomorrow and keep an eye on them. Shad's hens and @featherhead007 's loss today have me worried and sad and a bit freaked out.

So I looked up @Shadrach 's new recommendation and found this on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Diseases-Fre...p-1873580789/dp/1873580789/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
And a reviewer mentioned that the medicines are all oriented to the U.K. and this reader had to keep looking up the U.S. equivalents. I'm not sure if that is a problem or not. I'm in the U.S. I would think the main thing is to become aware of what is going on, and then work from there using multiple resources.

Amazon also recommended this one by Gail Damerow, The Chicken Health Handbook, is it any good? The author is from Tennessee, is there a benefit to getting one oriented to my country? Or get both books?
https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Heal.../ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I like @Ribh's advice...go with the one from your country! I saw the book by Gail Damerow on several US based chicken sites and it was highly recommended, so I bought it a couple of weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to sit down and look through it yet...I've been to occupied trying to keep up on BYC...

I liked her as an author in the Storey’s guide to raising chickens... but I haven’t read the one being referenced here. Her “hatching and brooding your own chicks” though was incredibly disappointing.... I like to think of it as a coffee table book. And the littles here loved all the pictures! The information was somewhat basic at best, and had already been mostly covered in the Storey Guide.

 

[Kris5902]

What happens is 1/2 of us are running 10 pages behind ~ & not always the same 1/2.

The other option I can think of is working out a time & going with skype or other multi chat function. Skype is the only one I'm familiar with but I'm sure there must be others. That may not work for you data wise.

I love the thought of a Skype, but yeah, if not the Data, the connectivity here can be pretty iffy. I’ve found I get better signal by putting my phone on speaker and sticking it to the range hood using the magnetic case (I think it turns the trailer into a Giant antenna!). Speaking of which, here are my pullets enjoying their stove and range hood.

and that little hay string above it was what I was trying to get a pic of one of them on the other night! Just imagine... and she was perching pretty well too! The stove is on the “pull it out and maybe install in a cabin” list, hence the plastic...