Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[micstrachan]

He doesn’t like the taste... it’s a very thin liquid, and he’s started fighting taking it. He won’t take it in treats anymore, or mixed in with cooked egg. He’s not even taking live mealworms from my hands now, though he did go for some tuna and sardines, so he might not hate me forever.

Farm country near me, and no large animal vets or vets that will see “livestock”. I had given up completely after my last attempts at finding one, but it looks like a fairly high end vet in a more affluent area will see chickens. I may be in luck. Thank you @ChicoryBlue (I will introduce and speak only of him as my “pet rooster”, not a peep about farming, meat birds, or egg sales!)

He loves you; he’s just not feeling well.

 

[BY Bob]

Again, as long as there are good genetics. My Cashew looks large, but it’s all fluff; she’s one of my smaller hens. The Buckeyes look more sleek (Ruby did before she got fat and sick), but have super muscular thighs and legs compared to everyone else. Also, only the Buckeyes outrank the dog. On second thought, Flo, my Australorp pullet, has been seen chasing her around the yard, as well!

This smaller laying hen genetic downsizing of dual purpose hens that @Kris5902 has proposed is very interesting to me. I guess Cashew is one of those as well.

 

[MaryJanet]

I've been intrigued by these tranced hens like Ivy. It is amazing to me and does not match with my experience. As far as Sydney went, being a Mum seems like a lot of work.

Well, I don't have cameras so for all I know she might be doing stuff even without eggs.

But after I lift her off the nest, it takes her anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes to hop up and start moving around. She has gradually become much better at getting herself up, which is a good thing. I'm hoping when the time comes she will manage a small clutch. Maybe four eggs.

 

[micstrachan]

No worries. I have often wondered about Hattie. She went from being Lilly's partner to being replaced by Sansa and stuck with Aurora. One of the reasons I wanted Sydney to be bigger is that I thought her Hattie might pair up as the big mellow ladies. Didn't happen. Sydney is smaller and much more independent than I expected. She and Hattie have not teamed up. Just goes to show that can't engineer friendships based upon"breed characteristics".

I do love watching Lilly and Sansa spend their days together. Lilly deserves this friendship for all the years she was the third wheel to Patsy and Daisy’s close friendship.

Isn’t it interesting how our hearts can ache a little for them like they’re our children? LOL.

 

[fuentemoon]

I figured you might. In fact I was torn whether to just message you about everything or share it with everyone. Of course I will share the references. As soon as they are made public I will share them.

Is anyone else interested in reading them?

Yes!

 

[MaryJanet]

View attachment 2470806

 

[LozzyR]

Preening party on the back steps.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

ALICE! She has wattles like Aurora. I never noticed that before.

It's hard to get a good pic of her face with that big mop on her head but she was helpfully perched on a branch next to my mushroom stool so I could take the photo from underneath without having to lie in the mud.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

So over time i've became conditioned to working around my chickens while cleaning and taking care of the horses. Strip a stall there is several there scratching around looking for bugs or worms that you need to step around. Put fresh sawdust back in the stalls, they hop on top of the pile to help spread it out and you do not dare shoo them off right away. If they don't get at least a couple minutes of fun your met with angry bawking hens for a long time. Then there is the group that congregate around the manure pile, ready and willing to do their job of raking it down. I'm always stepping around a chicken or two. It takes a little longer but thats what coffee breaks are for, and the horses love it as they get extra scratches while the flock helps. BUT, there is one job that they really get in the way of, that is stacking hay. Got in a new load of hay yesterday. Butter and Holly have deemed themselves the official "Hay quality and control" inspectors. While my dad went to pick up the new load i removed the remaining bales left over from the last load so they could be put back in front of the new load. Had them out of the way and the 2 girls were happily going over each one picking tidbits from them. New load gets here and since they were out of the way i tossed the first bale down. That was the only bale out of 50 that i tossed down. It was like a dinner bell to the girls, they looked over, eyes popped out of their head and they came running over. Butter fly's up to join me to get in the way of unloading, and Holly stays on the ground hot on my dad's heels as he stacks it. They also alert the rest of the group of the new feast so everyone is around the truck and tossing down bales means i will squish someone. I sure do not want a 100lb bale to land on me. What should have taken 30 minutes ended up taking over a hour and a half. Between the flock every single bale was inspected and approved, so much so that Butter laid on a bale this morning. Thank you girlie for making me climb up the stack and go halfway back to get it. Next load in a couple months, every single one of them is getting locked up.

They'll have to save inspection for when they can criticize the quality of the hay along with your stacking.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Human scale works. Weigh yourself first and do the math. I would love to know how big they get. Daisy, the greatest hen ever, weighed less than 5 lbs. There is not much to a leghorn weight wise (excluding Tsuki, for obvious reasons). I figure a legbar is a little bigger chicken.

I feel like I should be offended on Tsuki's behalf.....but it's true!