Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[drstratton]

Good morning everyone.

Good morning Bob!

 

[Kris5902]

RIP Lucy.

View attachment 2446147

So sorry for your loss I am glad you were able to take her into a vet, you probably saved her a lot of pain. Hugs

 

[Kris5902]

He really is stunning. He looks so much like a leghorn it's amazing.

He thinks he is too. My little flyer!

 

[Kris5902]

I may have lost two pullets yesterday. I am thinking possibly a raccoon or mink. The aerial predators were fed in the morning at our disposal pit (slaughter day excites them and keeps them busy for the next several days) and only Owls and maybe the Red Tail hawk weren’t feasting there. I arrived home at 4:45 to put up the birds and was short two on my headcount of the free range flock. After over an hour of fruitless searching we gave up, hoping they would show up today. I haven’t completely given up hope (maybe they are sitting on eggs somewhere, hidden, or waiting for the roosters to find them) but will be sure to get up earlier today. I would like to just stay at the trailer today, but have to package sausage. We are very slow because my back is still questionable.

 

[drstratton]

I may have lost two pullets yesterday. I am thinking possibly a raccoon or mink. The aerial predators were fed in the morning at our disposal pit (slaughter day excites them and keeps them busy for the next several days) and only Owls and maybe the Red Tail hawk weren’t feasting there. I arrived home at 4:45 to put up the birds and was short two on my headcount of the free range flock. After over an hour of fruitless searching we gave up, hoping they would show up today. I haven’t completely given up hope (maybe they are sitting on eggs somewhere, hidden, or waiting for the roosters to find them) but will be sure to get up earlier today. I would like to just stay at the trailer today, but have to package sausage. We are very slow because my back is still questionable.

I hope they show up for you Kris!

 

[Kris5902]

I hope they show up for you Kris!

Thanks, I’m not seeing anything to indicate a predator, and I have checked again throughly this morning. If we had foxes I would lean in that direction but there are none on the island. Owls (from my experience) will eat in place and leave the body. Hawks and eagles usually leave feathers behind at the site of the strike. Mink, I have been told, will kill everyone, and not take the bodies... very messy attacks.

Roxy is one of the two missing. My smallest red rock with yellow feet and more red coloring. And one of the big iridescent black girls. It was too dark by the time I had done my head count and initial search to tell which of the pullets was missing.

 

[goldenfingers]

It's no secret that my high production hybrid hens have reproductive issues, and I've seen some strange things left lying around, but this one seems the strangest of all. Have any of you ever seen anything like this?

This is the strangest looking "egg" I've ever seen. I'm sure it came from Mrs. Howell. It's frozen solid so it was deposited sometime during the night.

I've been wondering for some time now if these problems are severe enough to warrant culling as a way to alleviate suffering, but for the vast majority of the time she doesn't appear to behave any less chickeny than any of the others. I really can't tell if she is suffering. When I talked to our local vet a while ago about these issues his response was, "Most people around here just break their necks."

Thoughts?

 

[goldenfingers]

RIP Lucy.

View attachment 2446147

Oh no! So sorry to hear that.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

It's no secret that my high production hybrid hens have reproductive issues, and I've seen some strange things left lying around, but this one seems the strangest of all. Have any of you ever seen anything like this?
View attachment 2446794
This is the strangest looking "egg" I've ever seen. I'm sure it came from Mrs. Howell. It's frozen solid so it was deposited sometime during the night.

I've been wondering for some time now if these problems are severe enough to warrant culling as a way to alleviate suffering, but for the vast majority of the time she doesn't appear to behave any less chickeny than any of the others. I really can't tell if she is suffering. When I talked to our local vet a while ago about these issues his response was, "Most people around here just break their necks."

Thoughts?

Don’t you love it when the person you trust with your animals’ well-being has no empathy DNA in his body?????
That is a very strange egg. Just a huge yolk, it looks like.

 

[goldenfingers]

Don’t you love it when the person you trust with your animals’ well-being has no empathy DNA in his body?????
That is a very strange egg. Just a huge yolk, it looks like.

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but it's more like a yolk and a tube-encapsulated white. There was no shell; this is how I found it.