Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone had a great end to 2020 and here's hoping 2021 is better!

Violet rang in the New Year by laying her first egg ever!!!!!
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That is an American "tablespoon".

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Way to go violet. That is truly a special day!

 

[BY Bob]

I did a swing for my girls once and they did NOT like it. However, it may have been too wobbly, as each end of the log only had one hole drilled through for the rope. If I try again, I’ll do it differently. Curious to hear if there are any other swings in the group and whose birds enjoy them.

I finally took the swing out of the run this year. No one ever even jumped on it.

 

[BY Bob]

I got a very old beat-up sawhorse from DH, but where is best, near a wall?
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Here they are before we left for a ski, a group dust bath beginning, somebody was deep in a hole kicking and squirming and everybody gathered around. Queenie got a little pecking but hung in there a couple steps away:

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I will try to get the videos going soon. This has all been happening way faster than I thought it would.
Queenie doesn't like going in the cat carrier, I think it's too low, I'm going to try to get it higher, or get the dog crate up on something.

That saw horse will work fine. I'd put it by the wall out of the center.

It seems to be going pretty well so far.

 

[Kris5902]

Western Rustic (and Sasso? I was trying to Google that but am coming up short - an acronym for a hybrid of sorts?) - I don't recall learning what your new rescues were, thank you!

I am sooooo far behind. A few days off for busy farm stuff and wow, so much catch up reading here! Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Western Rustic and Sasso are Meat bird Hybrids here out of Rochester Hatchery in Alberta. Essentially Canadian versions of “Red Rangers” or “Freedom Rangers”. They are almost as big as CX, but far more Hardy and with less leg issues. Roostie is a Western Rustic Rooster rescued in 2019 from becoming dinner. He has 4 March/April hatched Rustics and 4 June Hatched Sasso lady friends (10-12lbs each easy!) and Tailless is an April/May hatched Marans x Isbar who weighs maybe 3 lbs, maybe. She was originally in with Sammy, his Rehab ladies (all Hybrid Producyion red layers with medical issues) and her two hatch mates that water Sapphire Marans. She decided to join Roostie’s flock, despite the huge physical differences.

My 8 new Rescues are also Western Rustics from an April hatch. Yes, I raise Meat Birds too, for eating and selling. The new Reacues are doing a weird growling purr I’ve never heard before regularly... I think this is similar to something you mentioned you Buckeyes doing?

 

[Shadrach]

I saw this post earlier today, thank you for the warning. I did not see any foot action though, did you mean like when they flap and get some height and claw with their feet toward the other chicken? The only thing I saw with toes was twice in scratching the litter a toe tugged the base of the fence as the hole was being dug. Is that what you meant?

More or less. If they are off the ground feet flailing at each other then I would be more concerend.

 

[LozzyR]

I do our print graphics for the school district (annual report, etc.) Sometimes it’s quicker to make an icon in Illustrator than to find one. LOL. We have a communications person, but I’m her back-up. She had to go out of town on family business. I had to create a video for the superintendent with music, video clips, titles, etc. I taught myself iMovie and threw something together, but it seemed quite limited. Knowing how powerful Adobe is in their other applications, I’d like to learn Premier (video production.) You just never know if your seemingly stable job actually is and graphics seems to be one of my strengths. I’d like to have the proper tools to keep learning on my own and building my skillset.

Premiere is really powerful, you can make super-slick videos with it. We used it creating the uni concert videos and they turned out really well. I just use iMovie for my YouTube channel videos though.

 

[Shadrach]

Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone had a great end to 2020 and here's hoping 2021 is better!

Violet rang in the New Year by laying her first egg ever!!!!!
View attachment 2471238
That is an American "tablespoon".

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I need a set of those drug dealer scales.

 

[Kris5902]

Thank you for the encouragement, suggestions & tips! My DH/partner is suggesting full body armor, helmet and face shield for any further encounters....

But this morning I was playing with Big Boy the cat, lifting a rug corner and zooming a furry tail toy on a stick in and out under there, and he was diving and reaching and grabbing and kicking, all four paws and claws of death in action. I knew how his body would move, and how to keep myself safe. So this will come with chickens. Hopefully. Gotta stay safe as I learn though!

I too wonder about Queenie's take on this. She seems quite eager to get in there and "mix it up" and I actually have a little worry for the Buckeyes. These guys have known nothing else except their little 4-hen community plus me and my DH since they were day-olds. Queenie's been among 8 other B.O. hens plus a young rooster. I don't know if she and her sisters and the roo were thrown together as pullets and a lone cockerel, or grew up together as chicks. So maybe she's been around the block at least once before. Maybe she wants to be boss and kick everyone else's little fluffy butt!

Ok, my take on integration is very different and I don’t know how well it would work with your arrangement. I have a lot more birds, flocks of 10+ in 6x12’ tractors with 3x6’ roosting boxes and about 3x3’ of that is actual roosts. I slip new girls in at night onto the roosts and make sure to let everyone out very early the next morning, generally that is it. I minister and make sure there’s no bloodshed and let them sort it out on their own from there. My integration of the 8 newest rescues into the free range flock essentially was the same, with a couple nights of showing them where to roost, and now they are settled in nicely.

 

[BY Bob]

Ok, my take on integration is very different and I don’t know how well it would work with your arrangement. I have a lot more birds, flocks of 10+ in 6x12’ tractors with 3x6’ roosting boxes and about 3x3’ of that is actual roosts. I slip new girls in at night onto the roosts and make sure to let everyone out very early the next morning, generally that is it. I minister and make sure there’s no bloodshed and let them sort it out on their own from there. My integration of the 8 newest rescues into the free range flock essentially was the same, with a couple nights of showing them where to roost, and now they are settled in nicely.

I think that may be more of a farm mentality and it's how my Dad did it. I did that with Patsy and Lilly and it went fine. I believe I was lucky that they were so distracted by actual grass that they accepted Daisy, the greatest hen, as their leader without complaint. I have been slower on the integration since then mostly because more chickens were involved. I do believe that I have done quite well with integration in general. I guess there is the chance that the ladies have just made it easy on me despite the fact that it did not feel that way at the time.

 

[Ribh]

The

Thank you Bob! The fence has been down since Queenie flew over it yesterday. I've been observing and it's not much worse than yesterday so far. I brought mash out this morning and let Queenie out about 5-10 mins before I opened the Buckeyes pop door (I wanted to get the icy snow off their coop and run top, anyway). Not sure which is better, she being there already when they come out, or letting her out second, but I think the first because she gets a few minutes of un-harassed eating, then they are totally occupied eating while she hangs around.

After they were done they set upon Queenie as a group but she submitted and kept moving away. They've done that three times, but also Queenie isn't getting trapped yet. They did get her against and under the ladder when I went to get the makeshift sawhorse wood, I saw the end of it, but she seems unharmed so far.

She's been avoiding the small boxy area next to that carrier in the bump-out, which I've been worried about and I'm taking away this morning, so I wonder if she's being smart about her situation, she seems very aware of her exit points, at least in every encounter I see, she's keeping her head low, watching, seeing how far the other hen wants to go, letting it pass if the other hen doesn't persist, and positioning herself to move away if need be. Sometimes she's momentarily pointed in toward a crevice (between the fence roll and the tall waterer) but I see it protects her head, all they can peck is her back and butt, and they don't have long attention spans for this activity. It goes in short bursts.

Congratulations. This actually sounds like it is going really well & Queenie is being smart about how she joins the established flock.