Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Chickens tax
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I am liking your tax payments!

 

[BY Bob]

Corn! Corn! We don't want no Stinking Corn!

Farmer Bob was up early this morning to release the ladies to free range knowing that this is likely the last day of free ranging they will have for a while. I let them out and they followed me back to the deck expecting a treat. I decided to oblige and thought, they are chilly maybe a little corn would warm them up. I distributed 3 corn stations and after a few half hearted pecks they all gathered around me bokking their heads off.

Bok bok bok bok bok bok

Something was clearly wrong. But what? Were they full from eating feed? I don't know.

The complaining continued.

Bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok

6 hens gathered around you, staring up, talking to you can start to be a little intimidating.

Bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok

I decide to go back in. It's cold and I don't know what they want. The entire flock follows me to the door.

Bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok

They are relentless.

Mrs BY Bob is at the kitchen sink.

BY Bob: I don't know what is wrong with these ladies. I gave them some corn but they won't eat it. They just keep bokking at me. Look at them standing at the door.

Mrs BY Bob: Oh they don't want corn.

BY Bob: Really how do you know?

Mrs BY Bob: Because I give them mealy worms every morning at this time.



They are truly spoiled little brats.

So of course, I gave them mealy worms. The bokking ceased, they ate the worms and left the corn for later!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

You could have referenced my article too.

No fighting! I did read your article some time ago and really enjoyed it. Thank you! https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...e-the-egg-song-why-do-hens-sing.75323/reviews
I've gone back to read it again, and left a rating this time, now that I know about ratings too. I read it long before anybody was calling, and I remembered the sound and that it was the "Egg Song," when Queenie first called after leaving the next box. I had seen elsewhere on the web a video of a hen leaving the nesting box and making the call too. So I knew the call to listen for but forgot some of the other aspects of it in your article and put it in my mind as only related to the laying itself and finding the way safely back to the flock tribe.

For me new things with multiple aspects have to be repeated I'm afraid. Once I have more reference points to relate it to, pieces of the bigger picture actually sink in. Queenie calling before she went in to lay was my reference point needing explanation - the escort aspect of going TO a nesting area to lay, was what I didn't get before. I really hadn't keyed in on that.

Also, who is it, someone here posted their rooster made a similar call as a warning, doing it until they saw the human? Now I wonder if it was a "Where Is Everybody - Danger Possible" call? Your article mentions the contact communication aspect, between Lilly and Patsy (so bittersweet after she passed). I'm starting to put it together. Didn't make sense to me then. Starting to now!

 

[BY Bob]

No fighting! I did read your article some time ago and really enjoyed it. Thank you! https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...e-the-egg-song-why-do-hens-sing.75323/reviews
I've gone back to read it again, and left a rating this time, now that I know about ratings too. I read it long before anybody was calling, and I remembered the sound and that it was the "Egg Song," when Queenie first called after leaving the next box. I had seen elsewhere on the web a video of a hen leaving the nesting box and making the call too. So I knew the call to listen for but forgot some of the other aspects of it in your article and put it in my mind as only related to the laying itself and finding the way safely back to the flock tribe.

For me new things with multiple aspects have to be repeated I'm afraid. Once I have more reference points to relate it to, pieces of the bigger picture actually sink in. Queenie calling before she went in to lay was my reference point needing explanation - the escort aspect of going TO a nesting area to lay, was what I didn't get before. I really hadn't keyed in on that.

Also, who is it, someone here posted their rooster made a similar call as a warning, doing it until they saw the human? Now I wonder if it was a "Where Is Everybody - Danger Possible" call? Your article mentions the contact communication aspect, between Lilly and Patsy (so bittersweet after she passed). I'm starting to put it together. Didn't make sense to me then. Starting to now!

I'm so happy that you are learning faster there than by experience alone. Hopefully we can help you to head off some of the problems we have all learnt from the hard way.

 

[BY Bob]

Everything Old is New Again

I am picking on @WhoDatChick with this but she is tough.

I have been turning my stories in this thread into a diary of sorts. I am hoping to put a book of sorts together for Eve. I have spent 4 hours on this so far and i am on Page 28. I dont know that I will ever catch up to the end of thread.

I found the following post on page 28! People were already falling behind and that was 28 pages in 5 months!

I also found this lovely video of Lilly earning her nickname of "The Enforcer". So much of her charm comes from how she earned the Alpha Hen position by defending it against newcomers. Viciously, without really hurting anyone. This is one of my favorites because she flushes the newbies once and then comes bokking along a second time actually warning them she is coming and is still able to flush them.

You can all expect more reminiscing as I undertake this project. I hope you don't mind.

 

[BY Bob]

Everything Old is New Again

I am picking on @WhoDatChick with this but she is tough.

I have been turning my stories in this thread into a diary of sorts. I am hoping to put a book of sorts together for Eve. I have spent 4 hours on this so far and i am on Page 28. I dont know that I will ever catch up to the end of thread.

I found the following post on page 28! People were already falling behind and that was 28 pages in 5 months!
View attachment 2508973

I also found this lovely video of Lilly earning her nickname of "The Enforcer". So much of her charm comes from how she earned the Alpha Hen position by defending it against newcomers. Viciously, without really hurting anyone. This is one of my favorites because she flushes the newbies once and then comes bokking along a second time actually warning them she is coming and is still able to flush them.

You can all expect more reminiscing as I undertake this project. I hope you don't mind.

I also never noticed this before. It appears that Jabber had been "wearing out" Lilly's wing feathers.

 

[RoyalChick]

Everything Old is New Again

I am picking on @WhoDatChick with this but she is tough.

I have been turning my stories in this thread into a diary of sorts. I am hoping to put a book of sorts together for Eve. I have spent 4 hours on this so far and i am on Page 28. I dont know that I will ever catch up to the end of thread.

I found the following post on page 28! People were already falling behind and that was 28 pages in 5 months!
View attachment 2508973

I also found this lovely video of Lilly earning her nickname of "The Enforcer". So much of her charm comes from how she earned the Alpha Hen position by defending it against newcomers. Viciously, without really hurting anyone. This is one of my favorites because she flushes the newbies once and then comes bokking along a second time actually warning them she is coming and is still able to flush them.

You can all expect more reminiscing as I undertake this project. I hope you don't mind.

I had forgotten that video. It is a classic! I am a big Lilly fan.
I think there may be pecking order changes coming among the Princesses. Maggie challenged Diana to a duel over a shrimp tail. She went full-on rooster, leaping up with feet extended. It only lasted a second and I am not 100% sure, but I think she won that encounter.
Of course Dotty made off with the shrimp tail while they were both distracted and swallowed it whole(!), but I think there was more at stake than the shrimp.

 

[Cynthia12]

Anytime that i stay off of a topic related to chickens I decided to pay a "chicken tax" for doing so and include a picture of a chicken as payment. This is to assure that I keep the focus on what this thread is about. Chickens.

Others have picked it up and it is now something a lot of posters here do.

Love it! Good thing...I can tend to get off topic too. I mean come on. I'm old. My eyes, ears, legs, body, just doesn't work so hot anymore. When I get up in the mornings I hear creaking sounds! I make my own symphony with all of the old bones popping. Wait....did I just get off topic? Looking for photo!

One of my past baby Nn's. Hoping for some to hatch in about three weeks.

 

[BY Bob]

I had forgotten that video. It is a classic! I am a big Lilly fan.
I think there may be pecking order changes coming among the Princesses. Maggie challenged Diana to a duel over a shrimp tail. She went full-on rooster, leaping up with feet extended. It only lasted a second and I am not 100% sure, but I think she won that encounter.
Of course Dotty made off with the shrimp tail while they were both distracted and swallowed it whole(!), but I think there was more at stake than the shrimp.

I will tell this story to make a point.

I have been known to grill seafood in the summer. Swordfish, Tuna, etc. Whenever we eat on the deck their are feathered moochers all around. The first time I grilled swordfish when the flock was Daisy, the greatest hen ever, Patsy and Lilly, there was a frenzy over some scraps that I saved for them.

Daisy ruled that group and when it came to food she enforced her rule. Daisy ate first. Now Patsy was a Maran and twice if not 3 times Daisy's size. That did not matter, Daisy was Alpha.

When I have something good like fish I am going to share with them, I expect them to earn it. I also like to make certain that everyone, including Lilly in this case, gets their share. (It probably says something that I am more scrupulous in enforcing fairness with my hens than I was with my children, at least that is what my children say )

So I thought if I made them jump to get their piece, I would be able to feed each in turn and they could "earn" their treat. Patsy was a big lady with big legs, she was not a great jumper but I knew she could manage. At first no one knew what this new stuff was but Daisy trusted me. She hopped right up, took her piece and went off to eat it. Patsy was next. They were serious about the pecking order. Since Daisy took one, Patsy was willing to try it but jumping up was not going to happen. She wasn't going to jump for something she had never tried. I relented, gave her a piece and she went off to eat it. Lilly knowing that she doesn't normally get to share like this, immediately flew up and got her piece. Round one was completed successfully. Things would change dramatically with round 2.

Daisy came back around to get her next piece. I held it out for her to jump, she squatted and began her leap when something black flew into her, grabbing the piece of fish before Daisy ever reached it and then coming down on top of Daisy squashing her flat. It was Patsy who had decided this was the best food ever and she no longer cared about pecking order. It was a second or two until Daisy could get out from under Patsy's bulk. While Daisy wriggled out Patsy swallowed the fish whole.

I was concerned. Was Daisy hurt and what was about to happen to poor Patsy because Daisy did not suffer fools taking her food? I had seen Daisy grab Patsy by the comb and move her when she was not happy with her and expected the same. Patsy stood there like Charles Barkley under the basket waiting for a rebound, elbows out. She was ready to fight over this fish. For whatever reason, Daisy decided to let it go and walked a few steps away. Lilly knew better than to get any closer and Patsy waited.

I decided to switch tactics. I made Patsy jump and boy she jumped higher than you would ever think possible. While she was distracted by jumping I enlisted Mrs. BY Bob to toss pieces to Daisy and Lilly so they could get some. Otherwise Patsy was planning to eat it all.

All of this is to say that in my experiences there are certain foods for which hens are willing to violate the pecking order. It does not necessarily mean the pecking order is changing.

The Magnificent Three

 

[Cynthia12]

The dog eating poo thing just grosses me out. Bill Engvall used to do a bit where he discussed how the vet gave him something to sprinkle on poop to make it taste bad so the dog wouldn't eat it. Make poop taste bad! What is that stuff!?

Chicken tax
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When the dogs want to eat chicken poo..we tell them...No, No chicken candy! They eat it like candy. .