Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[micstrachan]

I just ready a study from 2014 where they utilized 7 to 8 mg/kg of lidocaine intravenously with no ill effects on the chicken. The study was designed to try and determine the validity of the "common knowlege" that lidocaine was fatal to chickens. The article calls for follow up studies for further confirmation. There is also anecdotal reports on BYC where people have successfully used it for bumblefoot surgery. Topical lidocaine should not get to anywhere near the blood levels used in the study.

Obviously it is up to you. If you think that he can handle the pain, you may not want to take the risk.

x2
There is a lot of unsubstantiated hype about the caines.

 

[fuentemoon]

Finally have power back, thankfully it is only in the mid 45s not 30s like last week.

 

[micstrachan]

View attachment 2510036View attachment 2510037 She was a great mom!

Oooh... a mother hen with her chicks is my favorite!

 

[Cynthia12]

Chicken tax. Out yesterday before the snow started. They were very interested in the wood ashes DH scattered on the driveway. Hazel did not come out, she wanted to eat and drink regular things, but she was watching. You can see her under the old sawhorse in the upper left of the picture.
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Beautiful photo. Could make the BYC calendar for this year. Should enter it. .

 

[micstrachan]

A year this month. Look what you started. I have no idea how I came across this thread, buts it's fun! I should bring my old pals over. Ahem..well, old and young. I do go into the olds folks home. Good ol friends in there that have been on BYC as long as me, if not a bit longer. The things that have happened through the years! Some happy, some very sad. BYC folks come to your relief aid in many different ways. I lost a Golden Retriever in the most odd way years ago. I told the story on one of the threads. A gal says, send me a photo of your favorite with him, I'll draw a picture. Wow. Beautiful. I can't find the real photo..Ive had three Golden's throughout my life. This was Toby.View attachment 2510017 Another sad thing...I had a mentally handicapped sister that I talked about on a thread because she was having a tough time doing Dialysis. She had literally drowned when taken to a Lake by caregivers in the home she was staying in. Thank heavens for a gal that happened to be there that day, she gave Lisa CPR, brought her to. Well, a gal on the Old Folks thread..not old.. ..made her a quilt! Lisa's favorite thing..cats. She made the cutest cat quilt. Lisa took that quilt into a couple of homes with her. She got moved a couple of times once she stated dialysis. First photo at my home, second in the last care home she was in. View attachment 2510028View attachment 2510027 Our Lisa was brought home last March because she didn't want to do dialysis any more. Couldn't blame her, the fishulas kept clotting, long story short, Soo many surgeries. Brought her home, Hospice brought a bed into our living room, she passed 5 weeks later. They had told me it would only be a few days..hard the last couple of weeks, but glad we had her longer than expected. Still missing her. . I will keep that quilt forever. She loved it. I don't want to end on a sad note. I just wanted to share how incredibly loving people can be on this site! I get regular birthday cards, Christmas cards, or just because from another gal. I got a chicken swing from another. Too cute. Private messages when someone wanted to give help in some way..personal..or chicken related. I've also given a bit of advice. . Or condolences to others. Love BYC folks. This is the friendliest .. cleanest blog I've come across ever. A great Community. I heard someone mention Favorell. I'll find a photo of my bantam girl..made a great mom!

Oh goodness... thank you for sharing this story. It brought me to tears. That quilt is beautiful in multiple ways.

 

[Cynthia12]

What you will love about this is they don't stay with just one, they will move around. Its hysterical as they move in sequence. Try to picture this. 3 bowls, 6 hens. They start out like this.

Bowl 1, Hattie and Lilly
Bowl 2, Aurora and Sansa
Bowl 3, Sydney and Phyllis

Aurora decides to move and goes to Bowl 3. Sydney leaves 3 when Aurora arrives and goes to Bowl 1. Lilly realizes that she is not eating with Sansa and joins her at Bowl 2. We now have....

Bowl 1 Hattie and Sydney
Bowl 2 Sansa and Lilly
Bowl 3 Phyllis and Aurora

Now Phyllis is heads down when she is eating and for whatever reason she always winds up tickling Aurora's butt with her head feathers. Disgusted Aurora leaves to join Hattie at Bowl 1. Sansa and Lilly decide they need to see what's in Bowl 3 and both move there. When Sansa arrives she pecks Phyllis and Phyllis starts to wander aimlessly. When Aurora arrives at Bowl 1 Sydney leaves and goes to the empty Bowl 2. Eventually Phyllis identifies Sydney and joins her at Bowl 2. We now have.

Bowl 1 Hattie and Aurora
Bowl 2 Sydney and Phyllis
Bowl 3 Sansa and Lilly

This actually happened on Saturday. It's nuts but it works. Everyone got some.

Go figure.

Sounds like horses feeding!

 

[micstrachan]

Round 1 of hatching is over thankfully. 5 happy little black fluff balls. The final one hatched last night and it gave me grief. After the 4th one hatched Friday night my mother became convinced that the final egg was a dud. A argument ensued over if it was viable or not, she was afraid it would explode and was bad because she couldn't hear anything inside it and it was impossible to candle. I told her to leave it alone for another 48 hours, well, she caught me outside and decided it was bad and wanted to do a eggtopsy. She cracked a small hole near the air sack and nope, not a dud, just a chick that hadn't internally pipped yet. Thankfully she didn't damage any blood vessels and she stuck it back in the incubator and i spent the next 24 hours trying to keep the membranes moist. Yesterday morning the egg was rocking and could hear chirping so i was hoping it would finish hatching on it's own but had to intervene about 9 last night. It ended up becoming horribly shrink wrapped, and after assisting it out it was super weak but alive. I left it in a bowl in the incubator overnight and honestly thought i'd wake up to a dead chick. Nope, active little one who'd managed to climb out of the bowl. I just put it in the brooder with its siblings and it is wobbly but eating so that's a good sign. There are 9 more eggs in the incubator due in 2 weeks. This time after explaining that they can take up to 23 or 24 days to hatch due to possible hot and cold spots mom promises not to call one a dud right away. This has been a learning experience for both of us, and honestly, its soo much easier to let the hen do the job, but also rewarding when you get to watch them hatch out.
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The last little one to hatch.
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https://www.facebook.com/100003915274138/videos/pcb.2028339460639877/2028334870640336/

Adorable. Congratulations!

 

[Cynthia12]

Oh, she's still with us. I took that photo yesterday after she had done zoomies around the back yard.

Three of our Guide Dog puppies were Labs. They are such adorable goof balls.❤

Still going strong. That's awesome.

 

[micstrachan]

@Cynthia12 Here are some pics of Stella.

3 months old
View attachment 2511262

14 years old
View attachment 2511265

So beautiful!

 

[BY Bob]

My Spidey Senses were Tingling

Something made me log back onto BYC tonight before bed. I bumped into @micstrachan and gave brief replies. While I was here something told me to check the coop and see how cute they were huddled up an warm before I went to bed.

I already knew everybody was roosted as I watched them roost tonight on camera live. By the way, there was no pecking or fighting tonight at roost time. Just lots of bawking.

So I expected to see happy cuddled hens.

And I did. I turned off the camera and was ready to go to bed when something caught my eye. The coop door had not closed all the way.

It is still snowing and the wind is kicking up even more. I suited up and out I went.

The ice and snow from earlier today had jammed the door open. I was able to clear the mechanism and get the door shut. The ladies are safe again.

This is not the first time something has warned me and I headed off a bad situation. I am always amazed when it happens. Thank you Spidey Senses!