Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[micstrachan]

Hi folks. Sorry I keep posting about Ester. I opted to bring her in. She has a carrier to sleep in, but I thought I’d let her cruise around the kitchen a bit. I scattered wheat berries, which she is finding. She has not yet found her yummy mash, dry feed nor water. Once she eats, I’ll gently nudge her into the carrier and put it in my bathroom in the dark so she can rest. She doesn’t seem too stressed. I did have to handle her to get her into the carrier, poor thing. I think the warmth of the house will be good for her. The only issue is that she’s one that Cashew raised and has never been inside the house.

 

[Kris5902]

Roosting pics tonight! Not roasting, especially for these curvy girls. Here are some more of those desirable, broad, square body meat genetics from Roostie’s ladies, and of course Tailless, the honorary meat bird, doing her best Hei-hei impression. I think they look as pretty as they do tasty to some... and these ladies will (hopefully) be Mamas, not dinners! They are on a diet and exercise routine, and were both the most active and calm in being handled out of their peer groups.

 

[Kris5902]

That’s huge. I’d say definitely an eagle. Do you bave Golden Eagles, too? Or just Bald Eagles? (we have both)

We have both, with at least one pair of nesting Golden’s down around “the big field” about a 1/2-3/4 mile from our trailer. Mostly I have seen the immature offspring hanging around, but recently this one has been lurking. There was a low fly over at dusk when I went out to lock the girls in. Generally our eagle are too lazy to hunt, we have a virtual buffet down at the disposal pit for them.

Remind me, Kris, of your dog situation? While we have eagles, we VERY rarely see them from our yard. Hawks, on the other hand, are a daily occurrence. Therefore the birds don’t get out unless both of us (dog and I). When I see/hear a hawk, I send the dog zooming through the most visible part of the yard (chasing a ball). If I had been smart, I would have trained her to look after the chickens, as she is a border collie and super smart.

The Boarder Collies here are also bird dogs, they regularly take on the Ravens at the farm house and the youngest of the three, Delta, took down an adult Bald eagle that was feeding on a deer corpse. They are even better at taking out Raccoons (and cats I’ve watched them tree the farm cats, one is “missing”) They are about 2 miles away though, and not mine, or they would be much better trained.

I instead rely mostly on my Ravens, who won’t mess with my full grown chickens (there’s no benefit to it, and they don’t really pose a threat to the Ravens, either). They usually drive off the other birds of prey, and are especially active against Hawks, but often tolerate the eagles (also not a usually a threat, or any benefit in picking a fight with them). The lurking by this particular eagle (a BBB) though has me a little concerned.

 

[Kris5902]

Hi folks. Sorry I keep posting about Ester. I opted to bring her in. She has a carrier to sleep in, but I thought I’d let her cruise around the kitchen a bit. I scattered wheat berries, which she is finding. She has not yet found her yummy mash, dry feed nor water. Once she eats, I’ll gently nudge her into the carrier and put it in my bathroom in the dark so she can rest. She doesn’t seem too stressed. I did have to handle her to get her into the carrier, poor thing. I think the warmth of the house will be good for her. The only issue is that she’s one that Cashew raised and has never been inside the house.

Too cute! The more house chickens the merrier? I would try to keep the room she overnights in as cool as possible. To avoid too drastic a temperature change.

 

[Ribh]

@Kris5902
This is my Soda. It's pretty hard to get her front on but as you can see she's a big hearty girl.

 

[Kris5902]

@Kris5902
This is my Soda. It's pretty hard to get her front on but as you can see she's a big hearty girl.

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Yep, those there are the “invite me to dinner when I stop providing you breakfast genes” for sure. If you were wanting to hatch and have a sustainable little farm flock, all her excess brothers would have landed in the freezer or the cook pot as decently proportioned dinner guests. Which is desirable if you’re needing to provide your own proteins. That’s a very “solid” Dual Purpose Barred Rock. I think there are definitely different breed standards in Australia, than what we commonly see in North American chickens.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I was thinking that if you are going to keep her, you should start thinking about beginning the integration process. I'll be happy to help you build a plan if you would like.

I was thinking the same thing. I can only do a partial quarantine too & was thinking if everyone is still well you are probably ok to start integrating.

Thank you, I would love your help with a plan. I'm thinking about it already, what she would need in equipment, and placement of everything.

But I do have one Queenie behavior concern, and a concern about why I haven't heard anything from the people that have part of her flock and what I should do about it.

There are times when it sounds like Queenie is snapping her beak a little with each motion of her head. This is when she is looking this way and that, up and down, side to side, etc. I think I recognize her really quick motions as a bit of a show of stress or excitement. She once made these motions when I was dancing to some music and it seemed to me she thought I was acting odd and it maybe was stressing her out a bit. So I stopped. But of course I was listening to the music and didn't hear if she was snapping her beak.

She doesn't do it when she is calmly hanging out and preening and fluffing, while standing on the edge of the brooder. At those times she also looks around before diving back into her feathers, but her beak is silent. It is at other times I hear it, mostly when she again on the edge of the brooder in a break from scratching, in-between eating, or - usually when expecting attention or treats from me, but it's not been consistent. Of course it's always when I'm there, that I'm going to hear it. I wonder if it is a bit stress related, or excitement related, or if it actually means something that is not right with her. It doesn't worry me too much, but the Buckeyes don't make this sound with their beaks at all. Is this a normal healthy chicken behavior?

After thinking about it I wondered if I ought to try to contact again the go-between person with the family that has part of Queenie's flock and try to find out why no one has called me. I've been waiting to hear something, have heard nothing at all, and maybe it would be better to be proactive and try to find out what's what. This person is only reachable on Fridays & Saturdays.

My DH/partner says I ought to keep her and put her out with the Buckeyes and just go with it, she needs to be with chickens soon. I ask him if it's best for her to keep her, because it could be hard on her, she might be odd man out so to speak, and he doesn't have an answer. Though I hate to part with her now, and I would love to integrate Queenie with my flock if it can work out, I would give her up if that's what's best for her. I'm quite torn about this.

I do think that I will begin putting her out in a divided part of the run, whatever happens with the go-between person, so she can see other chickens at least. She seemed quite happy about it that day she was out briefly.

One factor is that the Buckeyes and Queenie might be pretty close in age, getting to POL. Queenie would be earlier to POL if they are the same age (the Buckeyes hatched July 6), but it is likely she was hatched earlier and is older, since most people get their chicks from Spring hatches. Will the age factor help in integration?

Do you all think it is important enough to try to get her a buddy somehow, from somewhere, if I keep her? We don't mean any random Buff Orpington would be better than no buddy at all, or do we? What about THAT poor hen's separation from her own flock, if I can get one?

Maybe because I'm tired now, I do feel quite insanely juvenile with all this. Thank you for listening!

 

[micstrachan]

We have both, with at least one pair of nesting Golden’s down around “the big field” about a 1/2-3/4 mile from our trailer. Mostly I have seen the immature offspring hanging around, but recently this one has been lurking. There was a low fly over at dusk when I went out to lock the girls in. Generally our eagle are too lazy to hunt, we have a virtual buffet down at the disposal pit for them.

The Boarder Collies here are also bird dogs, they regularly take on the Ravens at the farm house and the youngest of the three, Delta, took down an adult Bald eagle that was feeding on a deer corpse. They are even better at taking out Raccoons (and cats I’ve watched them tree the farm cats, one is “missing”) They are about 2 miles away though, and not mine, or they would be much better trained.

I instead rely mostly on my Ravens, who won’t mess with my full grown chickens (there’s no benefit to it, and they don’t really pose a threat to the Ravens, either). They usually drive off the other birds of prey, and are especially active against Hawks, but often tolerate the eagles (also not a usually a threat, or any benefit in picking a fight with them). The lurking by this particular eagle (a BBB) though has me a little concerned.

What’s a BBB? My Border Collie will “get the little birds” out of the chicken run upon command in the spring & summer when the run gate is wide open for free range time. She is more of a pet than a working dog, but I probably should have given her a proper job, as she thinks her job is chasing the ball.

She does have herding instincts, or at least she did as a pup. A baby bunny got out and she instinctively helped me corral it. She didn’t know the words, but understood the tone of my voice. At one point, her nose was nuzzled up against the bunny’s fur, but she did not harm it. When tge bunny collapsed from exhaustion, Lexi’s ears oerked up and she appeared ready to pounce. I just held out my hand and told her “Wait!” in s firm voice. She sat and watched as zi gently pocked up the bunny snd returned it to its enclosure.
We have a local pair of ravens I call our “guard ravens,” because they drive off hawks, too.

Chicken Tax

 

[micstrachan]

Roosting pics tonight! Not roasting, especially for these curvy girls. Here are some more of those desirable, broad, square body meat genetics from Roostie’s ladies, and of course Tailless, the honorary meat bird, doing her best Hei-hei impression. I think they look as pretty as they do tasty to some... and these ladies will (hopefully) be Mamas, not dinners! They are on a diet and exercise routine, and were both the most active and calm in being handled out of their peer groups.
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Awww... looking good!!!

 

[Ribh]

Yep, those there are the “invite me to dinner when I stop providing you breakfast genes” for sure. If you were wanting to hatch and have a sustainable little farm flock, all her excess brothers would have landed in the freezer or the cook pot as decently proportioned dinner guests. Which is desirable if you’re needing to provide your own proteins. That’s a very “solid” Dual Purpose Barred Rock. I think there are definitely different breed standards in Australia, than what we commonly see in North American chickens.

Her sister is nowhere near as big.