Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Lady Red]

List of pros and cons of living in California:
Pros.
1. Great weather year round.
2. Jobs and prosperity
3. Lots of entertainment
4. Pacific coast, and all its benefits
Cons:
1. Too many people to fill the jobs
2. Taxation moves businesses out of California
3. High crime rates
4. Drugs and drunks prevail
5. Many homeless people (not usually their fault)
6. Infrastructure failing
7. Highest death rate in the USA due to COVID 19
8. Wild fires, flooding, and an occasional earthquake.
On second thought, maybe I should pack my chickens, and move out too!!

California living did not suit me during my several years stretch there. I wonder if all these years later I would feel the same.

 

[BY Bob]

That comb!

It really is something, isn't it.

 

[Lady Red]

Whip has been doing the egg song very loudly this morning and rearranging the nest boxes.... may be another 1st egg day here!

 

[Marie2020]

Okay...why is it my girls try to eat the long grasses and then I have to extract it from their beaks because it is stuck and they either cannot swallow it all, or have 4 inches dragging out of the side of their mouth???
Maybe mine really are bird brains...

I had two of mine do this. One was in serious difficulty, luckily it's not happened again. I try to keep the grass short but there is always long parts.

 

[BY Bob]

Rich and I would like to thank everyone on here and off here that prayed or sent good thoughts our way.

Rich is feeling the best he has in quite some time. He still has to follow up for the aneurysm but as of now he is happily back to baseline.

We celebrated with a lovely dinner out. He said after eating an entire T-Bone steak that he finally felt alive again.

View attachment 2683435

Just wonderful. Her deserved a great meal out and so did you. I'm so glad. Tell him he's looking good.

 

[Marie2020]

You know perfectly well my flock isn't perfect! After all I have a Gloriana & those Vorwerks!

Mine are especially the white princess fat bottom who's constantly rolling in the thickest mud she can find

 

[BY Bob]

We have had 2 nice sunny days in a row here so this afternoon I decided to fix Snow’s sorry butt. It is so unbecoming on any hen but on a white one with so much pure white fluff it was unbearable.
I decided to go the spray bottle route because although it was sunny it’s not in any way hot. I caught her up in a towel and sat on the chair in their run, flipping a corner of the towel over her head.
Belle was bakawking in worry then stopped and I saw Snow had flicked the towel back off her head (fair enough, I would too ) but she sat with me holding her wings down with the towel over her back and I sprayed and gently clipped dags off, gently stripped the caked in stuff off as best I could with my gloves fingers, then towel dried her and let her down.
SO, what does she instantly decide to do out of spite? (That’s my reasoning anyway, to poo poo my bathing methods, yes pun was intended)
Dust bath under the coop so the damp feathers now are dirty at least it’s not with poop!
I think she’s so large that she physically cannot reach to those feathers, is this possible?
I checked under her wings and vent area for mites while I had her caught up, all good there
She’s so red in her wattles (they are so big they dangle in the water when she drinks) and her comb which is very plump. I wish it was spring already so eggs might be on the way but I think my big girl will now wait until spring. They are about 29 weeks so I think the timing just sucks for maturity vs daylight etc.
Belle is no where near as developed but maybe she will never have the same sized comb etc

That was a very good way to clean her up. Her dustbathing was her way of cleaning off whatever you had done to her wings. She will preen that right up I bet and be beautiful white in a day or so. Great job helping her.

Watching my bigger girls I thing you might be right. Hattie and Aurora I think have difficulty reaching back there.

 

[Marie2020]

Doesn't matter what color the car is...dog nose prints have no restrictions

I have a cocoa paw print on my nicely cleaned fresh new curtain. I only noticed when we finally after such hard work got it up

 

[RoyalChick]

It's dogs here so I don't clip either. My girls need every chance to get away.

Before the Chicken Palace was built I let the Princesses free range when I was with them doing chores outside. Of course they always followed me wherever I went so it seemed fine.
Then I one day I am facing the garage and they are behind me and I hear a lot of squawking and flapping and I spin around and there is a young fox not 20 feet from me and about 3' from Maggie.
As I run towards the fox wielding my broom (already in my hand, not the most effective choice of weapon!) Maggie actually flies up the hill past me and lands with a thud like a cannon ball behind me.
Fortunately the fox gives up when faced with the broom, and everyone is safe.
But Maggie is a big girl and not really built for flying. She sprained her ankle or her hip or something when she landed and had a really bad limp for well over a month.
This was well before I found this lovely group of chicken-people and I scoured BYC for advice. It all seemed to say I needed to isolate her, but from observation nobody was picking on her for having a limp and she seemed cheerful enough standing on one leg so I let her be with her sisters.
I am so glad I did - she made a full recovery and I never had to re-integrate her.
But my lesson learned was never stop even a big chicken from flying when she has to!

 

[featherhead007]

California living did not suit me during my several years stretch there. I wonder if all these years later I would feel the same.

I do have property for sale. Just saying.