Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

This should be the link to my channel, let me know if it doesn’t work.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCQsJR6m1AKyjqVSI2AvuT1A

Wow! I have only looked at a couple but am impressed - what started you doing those? I have bookmarked to watch the rest later.

 

[CrazyChookChookLady]

Here's the ice this morning.

There is a propane tanker truck that overturned on a bridge and it's leaking. My friends had to be evacuated at 7am because of it.

 

[RoyalChick]

Are you quite sure that's a fluffy butt Ribh? I have trouble telling one end from the other with your Frizzles.

I had the exact same thought but didn't want to offend. As both ends are adorable I decided it didn't matter and we could see the same shot on Mugshot Monday and be just as happy!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I had the exact same thought but didn't want to offend. As both ends are adorable I decided it didn't matter and we could see the same shot on Mugshot Monday and be just as happy!

I tend to just plunge straight in and often end up with both feet in my mouth.
If I ever come across as offensive please believe I don't mean it like that and be gentle with me.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Ditto.

Well, my feedback is coming late, but I’d let Queenie decide if she wants to try to roost with them.

She did not even try that night. But I was in the run too that first night, and since the day went really well yesterday, there was very little gang-ups and only bits of pecking, probably due to the changes in the run, the nice weather. They all went in and out and free-ranged, and explored the furniture I was experimenting with outside the run door. So I left them near roosting time and kept watch from the house to see what they would do. Queenie followed them a few paces behind as they went down the coop run to roost. They did their "Roosting Shuffle" (good song title!) of one or two going in and out again, or just jumping up to the perch next to the ladder and waiting there for the right hen to go in before them.

Queenie got nearer to the ladder and was looking up with neck all stretched out. Finally the last one went in, and I thought Queenie might try the ladder, when someone stuck their head out from the doorway looking down at her as if to say, "Oh, no way, don't even think about it, you!" and then popped her head back in. Queenie stopped stretching her head up and turned away.

She went back to the big run and looked all around it and into the bump-out, looking up. She flew to the top of the cat carrier which I had raised onto the arms of a broken captain's chair and put in the run corner, secured between the back braces and the run wall, with hardware cloth on two sides. No good. She flew down and got on the low perch and flew up to the next higher one. No good again, she jumped down. She eyed that stupid black plastic pipe 6 feet up which I have wedged in the corner to make an awning of the bit of tarp over the doorway, and yes, she chose that one. It had been in a convex shape; now it turned down and concave but it stayed put and she hung on. It isn't level at all and it's slippery. So it gradually forced her very close to the run upper wall which is 2x3" welded wire. The top of the attached coop run is right below it. Fearing predation I moved her after it got dark to the cat carrier, which she is still hating going in.
Here she is with three others free ranging



Belated Fluffy Butt Friday

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I love this set up. It looks amazing. So snug for the winter.

Thank you!

 

[RoyalChick]

She did not even try that night. But I was in the run too that first night, and since the day went really well yesterday, there was very little gang-ups and only bits of pecking, probably due to the changes in the run, the nice weather. They all went in and out and free-ranged, and explored the furniture I was experimenting with outside the run door. So I left them near roosting time and kept watch from the house to see what they would do. Queenie followed them a few paces behind as they went down the coop run to roost. They did their "Roosting Shuffle" (good song title!) of one or two going in and out again, or just jumping up to the perch next to the ladder and waiting there for the right hen to go in before them.

Queenie got nearer to the ladder and was looking up with neck all stretched out. Finally the last one went in, and I thought Queenie might try the ladder, when someone stuck their head out from the doorway looking down at her as if to say, "Oh, no way, don't even think about it, you!" and then popped her head back in. Queenie stopped stretching her head up and turned away.

She went back to the big run and looked all around it and into the bump-out, looking up. She flew to the top of the cat carrier which I had raised onto the arms of a broken captain's chair and put in the run corner, secured between the back braces and the run wall, with hardware cloth on two sides. No good. She flew down and got on the low perch and flew up to the next higher one. No good again, she jumped down. She eyed that stupid black plastic pipe 6 feet up which I have wedged in the corner to make an awning of the bit of tarp over the doorway, and yes, she chose that one. It had been in a convex shape; now it turned down and concave but it stayed put and she hung on. It isn't level at all and it's slippery. So it gradually forced her very close to the run upper wall which is 2x3" welded wire. The top of the attached coop run is right below it. Fearing predation I moved her after it got dark to the cat carrier, which she is still hating going in.
Here she is with three others free ranging

View attachment 2472245

Belated Fluffy Butt Friday
View attachment 2472250
View attachment 2472253

I think it sounds like it is going really well and they all look really sweet.

 

[micstrachan]

This should be the link to my channel, let me know if it doesn’t work.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCQsJR6m1AKyjqVSI2AvuT1A

Yes, it’s there! However, I’m a bit rattled right now, as I think I need to tube fluids into Ester and I’m scared. She is very weak and stumbling, but she is not handled easily and is covered in pin feathers. I don’t want to hurt her, but if I don’t get fluids into her, I fear she’ll die.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Do your girls like the swing? I don’t think mine would like one.

Yes, but I had two swings up and they really preferred the one I made, I think because it was heavier and steadier for them. It has long 8" eye bolts right through the 2-3" wood perch. First I had regular bolts with a nut on top, see picture. When they were little I had rug-grip stuff on it so they could really grab it with their toes as soon as they jumped up. The Chicken Swing brand has a short 3-4" section into the perch which is plastic and though it is textured (like a corn cob) it is slippery. I put rug-gripper on that too. The short 3-4" section made for a shorter radius of unsteady-ness, which theoretically would be good, but maybe because it all is so light I observed their feet would zip back and forth in that radius a lot. The wooden one was first choice, the plastic one got used if there was no room left on the wooden one.

I trained them as chicks, I would tap on it and hold a mealworm out above the swing. They would get it when they jumped up on it. I steadied it with my other hand a lot as they first jumped up, and then slowly let it go, to let them experience steadying it while standing on it, using another mealworm for incentive to stay on. Soon they were competing to get up there, and Butters and Popcorn were getting on either swing pre-emptively when I would approach. I also hooked up bungee cords going both ways for both of them - like trapeze trainers - so the swings would move, but had a soft end point. I thought the bungee cords would not be necessary after a while, or maybe I should have removed them earlier, but they really didn't like either swing to be totally free so I kept them.

They used both swings during the Summer to hang out on. Each fit two birds then. Unless someone hogged one I'd see all four of them on the swings, two-by-two. Now I think only one each would fit.

There was an element of using it because there's nothing else available - when they were in the coop run getting tractored around those and the ladder perches were the only perches available. I tried to have as many things as possible off the ground so I wouldn't have to move them when moving the tractor, and I wanted to give them optimal use of the ground area.

The swings got more sunlight than the ladder perches - I had a small shade tarp over the coop pop door and perch - so on cooler days they loved it there. Plus there was either clear tarp or no tarp on one or both sides, so they could look out either way while perching.

 

[Kris5902]

She did not even try that night. But I was in the run too that first night, and since the day went really well yesterday, there was very little gang-ups and only bits of pecking, probably due to the changes in the run, the nice weather. They all went in and out and free-ranged, and explored the furniture I was experimenting with outside the run door. So I left them near roosting time and kept watch from the house to see what they would do. Queenie followed them a few paces behind as they went down the coop run to roost. They did their "Roosting Shuffle" (good song title!) of one or two going in and out again, or just jumping up to the perch next to the ladder and waiting there for the right hen to go in before them.

Queenie got nearer to the ladder and was looking up with neck all stretched out. Finally the last one went in, and I thought Queenie might try the ladder, when someone stuck their head out from the doorway looking down at her as if to say, "Oh, no way, don't even think about it, you!" and then popped her head back in. Queenie stopped stretching her head up and turned away.

She went back to the big run and looked all around it and into the bump-out, looking up. She flew to the top of the cat carrier which I had raised onto the arms of a broken captain's chair and put in the run corner, secured between the back braces and the run wall, with hardware cloth on two sides. No good. She flew down and got on the low perch and flew up to the next higher one. No good again, she jumped down. She eyed that stupid black plastic pipe 6 feet up which I have wedged in the corner to make an awning of the bit of tarp over the doorway, and yes, she chose that one. It had been in a convex shape; now it turned down and concave but it stayed put and she hung on. It isn't level at all and it's slippery. So it gradually forced her very close to the run upper wall which is 2x3" welded wire. The top of the attached coop run is right below it. Fearing predation I moved her after it got dark to the cat carrier, which she is still hating going in.
Here she is with three others free ranging

View attachment 2472245

Belated Fluffy Butt Friday
View attachment 2472250
View attachment 2472253

See... this is where I would have just plopped her down on the roosts with the Buckeyes for the night, closed the door and waited to hear if there was any big scuffle over it. Then gotten up extra early to let everyone out before tensions could get too high in the morning. Here is your new friend ladies... make her welcome! But that’s my no fuss speed integration. If they are already getting along semi peaceably during the day they should be ok sleeping together if you put her in once it’s fully dark, but again, I have a different set up, and more options if things don’t work out in one flock.

I sneaked into my neighbors coop at night, lifted his three remaining hens off their perches, and under the cover of darkness, placed them on the roosts in my own coop. The next morning Hawk had 8 ladies instead of 5, and it was good. A month or so later another 4 joined his flock, these girls look different, but again eventually- it was good. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Barney’s two girls that moved with him into Bob’s Coop were being bullied, maybe if I had the time to do a proper integration it would have worked better, but after three days I decided to move them in with the free range flock instead, there’s more flexibility there.