Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

Well they did come from the straight run mixed bantam bin at tractor supply, so I'll be shocked if any are pullets!

They got all the feathered footed bantam including a buff silkie.

That chick has attitude and feathered feet. It's probably a boy, but if I was chicken less, it would drag me on over.

OK can you all educate the rest of us newbies - what are the signs here that this great little chick is a boy? Coloring? Markings? The look in his/her eyes? You all have a sixth sense about these things?
Editing - RA (read ahead) to add @BY Bob to this question. How do you know?

 

[micstrachan]

Mine too. Although it was missing the question “Do you want your chicken to live for a long time?”

THIS!

RIGHT???

 

[micstrachan]

With slightly different answers (lap chicken or not, foragers or not, cold-tolerant or both) I got Brahma (don't think the furry feet would be good in the snow and wet), Sex-Link (this made no sense, I always said No to the laying lots of eggs question) Cochin, and Pynchon Bantam. I don't know enough about these last two to have an opinion but the Pynchon Bantam was very beautiful. Dominiques were a breed I considered before settling on Buckeyes. They are very cool and a heritage breed. Why didn't I get that?

Don’t you just love your Buckeyes? Mine are both s bit quirky amd slightly lonerish. Before she got sick, Ruby’s nickname was Adventure Girl, as she was always off by herself exploring further away than I would like. Both of mine boas around the dog, too. LOL.

 

[fuentemoon]

Spent a good 45 min digging up more grass tonight while the ladies grabbed all the tasty grubs and worms and other tasty bits. You can see some of the darker green spiky clumps of grass as the ladies head back to the backyard to bed.

And a lovely sunset

 

[micstrachan]

Barred Rock vs Dominique

I have started my research and have come across the following comparison.

	Barred Rock	Dominique
Comb	Barred Rocks possess a single comb.	Dominiques possess a rose comb.
Color	Barred Rocks exhibit sharply contrasting parallel black and white bars. The Barred Rock roosters are slightly lighter in color than the hens, as the males carry two chromosomes for the barring and the females have only one.	Dominique barring is not as sharp as that of a Barred Rock. The bars are somewhat staggered and not parallel like that of the Barred Rock. A male is much lighter in color than the female.
Plumage	The width of the dark and light bars is almost same. They are placed in parallel rows. Both males and females have straight uniform bars. According to the breed standards of the Barred Rock, acceptable plumage variations are white, blue Colombian, silver penciled and black.	A slight ‘v’ pattern is seen in the barring of the feathers. Staggered barring in their plumage results in what is described as ‘mottled appearance.’ The light bars are silvery white, while the dark bars are not black, but dove gray. Moreover, the light bars on a Dominique male are twice as wide as that of a female. So, a male is much lighter in color than the female. The Dominique does not have any other acceptable variations in plumage.
Tail	The tail is quite short.	The tail is long and flowing. The tail of the cock is carried at 45 degrees from the horizontal.
Weight	The Barred Plymouth Rock is heavier than the Dominique. The standard weights are: cock – 7.5-9.5 lb (3.4-4.3 kg), hen – 6.6-7.5 lb (3-3.4 kg), cockerel – 8 lb (3.6 kg), and pullet – 5-6 lb (2.3-2.7 kg).	The standard weights are: Cock: 7 lb (3.17 kg), Hen: 5 lb (2.27 kg), Cockerel: 6 lb (2.72 kg), Pullet: 4 lb (1.81 kg)
Appearance	It has a relatively deeper body and lower tail carriage.	They carry their heads high up on well-arched necks. The males have an almost “u” shaped back outline. The females have sloping back outlines- sloping from head to tail. The carriage of the Dominique is more upright than that of the Barred Rock.
Egg Production	The Barred Rock produces more eggs (about 4 per week) than the Dominique. The light brown eggs are larger than the eggs laid by Dominiques.	The Dominique has a medium production rate (about 3 per week). The eggs are light brown. They may be large or medium-sized.
Meat	Barred Rocks are heavier than the Dominiques, they may have a few ounces more meat than the Dominiques.	The Dominique is also a good producer of meat and eggs.

Unsurprisingly, they share a heritage.

The Dominique is America’s oldest chicken breed. The Barred Rock (a type of Plymouth Rock) was developed from the Dominiques.

The Dominique is the oldest American dual-purpose breed. Reliable data of its origin is not available. The Dominique chicken was very common in American farmyards during the 1820s and 1830s.

The Barred Rock is the barred variety of the popular Plymouth Rock which was developed in the early 1800s by crossing single-combed Dominiques and Black Javas. Barred Rocks were likely developed using crosses of Dominiques, Black Javas, Cochins, and perhaps Malays and Dorkings. The Barred Rock has been around a long time as well becoming an official breed in the United States in 1865. For reference sake, that is the year the American Civil War ended.

I find this very interesting. Dominiques appear to be very feisty chickens. While they have a reputation for having a calm personality, supposedly, there have been incidences where Dominiques have killed small cats, minks, and snakes.

Dominques were nearly extinct. By 1970 there were only 4 known flocks still in existence. Since then they have recovered somewhat but are still on the "watch" list.

Thanks, Bob!

 

[micstrachan]

Or @micstrachan Bridge

And did you know Ester is supposed to be a Barred Rock, too? I think her feathering looks more like a (clean legged) Cuckoo Marans. Her comb is quite large, and her legs are almost as white as the legs on my Speckled Sussex. Interesting for sure. As a chick, she looked different from all the other Barred Rocks, which is why I chose her.

 

[micstrachan]

I am with you there. Less frequent egg laying = longer life. I don't mind them resting. I like it.

I am sure she will slow down in a couple of weeks. She is just excited to get started.

I like it, too. However, a sudden halt like Ester did concerns me a bit.

 

[micstrachan]

Hopefully all my pictures cooperate this time... just popping in to say Hi and share what I’ve been up to. Chicks are doing well, I did lose one that was much smaller and clearly not doing well from the beginning. Arduinna has been enjoying spending time at the other farm as there is lots of grass there. Yesterday was a solid day of cooking freezer meals, until after dark even, and today I’ll be packing them up. The chickens of course felt I needed “help” with all the cooking, and when I was adding the chicken to my gumbo they were so helpful I gave in and tossed them a mostly bare drumstick. Watching them run around with it was quite entertaining.View attachment 2549203View attachment 2549210
I did some outside clean up and put together the outdoor kitchen a bitView attachment 2549211View attachment 2549219View attachment 2549212Tomorrow I will be picking up a “vintage” 1970’s camper for my truck hopefully. I plan on restoring it and insulating the heck out of it, so DH will have nicer accommodations for traveling to work this year, and as a back up for if we decide we need to leave the farm. Wish me luck, the jacks are clearly not functional, and I’m not sure how we are going to get it up onto the trailer. But it’s Dry and mouse free, so I’m going to pick it up either as a project or more chicken housing! View attachment 2549218View attachment 2549222

Great update!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Don’t you just love your Buckeyes? Mine are both s bit quirky amd slightly lonerish. Before she got sick, Ruby’s nickname was Adventure Girl, as she was always off by herself explkri g further away than I would like. Both of mine boas around the dog, too. LOL.

Oh I do love them! I meant in that post I wished the quiz came up with Dominiques at least once... Each of the Buckeyes have their own personality for sure...I don't sense a loner in any of them, though these are my first chickens so I don't have others to compare to! But they are bold and exploring, for sure. And yes, they totally dominate poor Big Boy the cat, who is very friendly but has to hang out a good distance away when they're out and about!

Popcorn is the Adventure Girl so far: always the most bold, she has figured out that when I go into the garage/barn, the door is likely left open, and there's tons of things to explore and check on in there. I visited and tended and checked them in the run. Three of them got a bum bath / spa treatment over the last two days - everything is looking good back there now, but Butters had stuck-on poop on a spot in between her toes that she seemed never to get entirely off, and I think it irritated her skin, so after the soak with most of it off I put ichthamol salve on there. It looked better today. Then I left their run door open so they could forage a bit in the small 2x3 ice-free spot in front of it. I went across the drive into the garage barn to do a quick chore.

Popcorn made the 30-foot trek across the slippery ice just to explore the garage barn. She's the only one who makes it her mission to get in there. Today I forgot she might do that, and was bundling cardboard and all to put out for pickup, and heard a nice "bok-bok" greeting as she came in (I couldn't see her), then the loud whack-whack, whack-whack, of her pecking a favorite spot on the metal garage car door. It does make a great sound. She soon came around to see what I was doing too, all chatty, having a great time.

I was done shortly but couldn't get her to leave with me. She turned to go back in, she loves it in there. So I got and shook a can of scratch to lure her out and back to the run. There 'ya go, girl! But the sound of the scratch brought Butters, running and flapping at a completely reckless full-clip across the ice. She slipped, and skid on her backside for the last three feet. I hope she's okay... Everybody else was interested but much more careful about it (and me, I've got crampons on my boots!). We made it back to the run and they all had a great time in a new little pile of dry oak leaves and some scratch on their log. Chickens are pretty cool.

 

[micstrachan]

Definitely won't forget Bridge - but not because she is a breed but because she is a pretty lady.

Awww... thank you. I’ll tell her. She just turned five and squatted for me this weekend! Will be interesting to see if she lays. I think she might have laid once or twice last year after my efforts to slim them down. I just want her to stay healthy.