Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[LaFemmeKatia]

I won't be around for a while, unless my cat comes home. He never strays anymore he's a real mother's boy.

This is only in my mind because someone threatened my dog and my life twice, he told me not to speak to his family. But his step son seems fond of me and spoke to me two days ago, then this mans dog ran away again yesterday and his two sons spoke to me as they found him.
Now my cat has been missing for the entire day.
This man walked past as I was asking and my next door but one neighbour to keep an eye out for him. The lunatic stopped to stare at this man as he was going up his steps.

Sorry just my mind is racing feeling very sad and deeply worried.


Cat holding my dog as the slept
View attachment 2744854

I hope your cat comes home! That is scary.

 

[Lady Red]

My baby turkeys a half day oldView attachment 2744765View attachment 2744766

My boys said they remind these babies remind them of plague doctors...

They also said they were super cute

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

I could faint. As I was writing he came back shouting too me.

I'm admitting to you now. I'm in tears and over the moon with relief. He may have been stuck somewhere this is the first time in well over a year he hasn't come home on time.

My friends daughter sent a text too the bully's next door neighbour, it was sent half an hour ago.

She is one of the other ladies threatened by him and was going too move but stood up to him and had her son's backing.

As she confronted this the vile beast he backed down. I think her tall son may have been a deterrent

I'm So sorry I won't be a detective after all but have my precious boy is home eating and calling right now. God knows what happened.

Wherever he was he couldn't eat, he must have been trapped because his tummy is completely empty.

All my neighbor's came out shouting and are now celebrating as I am.

I can't tell you the relief I feel.

Please excuse any mistakes, I blame Alex

I am glad for this good news! See, I SHRA.

 

[BY Bob]

I am going to relocate my coop cam tomorrow so I can properly monitor nest boxes.
I don't know how long each of their egg cycles are. Both Diana and Elizabeth have real shell issues. Diana who had the no-shell egg fall apart inside her seems to be laying eggs with shells but thin shells. Elizabeth however is laying eggs with shells so thin they break if you just look at them.
They both seem to love the Kefir which is high calcium in its own right and I am adding calcium to it.
So far Maggie's eggs are normal and don't come every day. And of course the roadrunners are young and lay a few days a week.

I did not realize the shells were such a still ongoing problem for you. Maybe a week off with some good feed might enable them to build up egg shell supplies and reset everything. I might try it if I were you. I don't know if I would do them all but that's up to you.

 

[BY Bob]

Like these?
View attachment 2746158

Welcome to the photoshop gang!

This is outstanding!

 

[BY Bob]

Agree with your rationale. And yes, Naenae is extreme. Twins do run in my family tho... coincidence?

Nicely played. I'm certain that there is some correlation.

 

[BY Bob]

The agri strategy was to not let them eat in the morning either, or very much in the morning, I think. I guess they would not be digesting and metabolizing the feed and creating heat by midday? But I didn't get further into it, they talked about expected weight loss!

Interesting. The hottest part of the day here tends to be from 1 to 6 pm. That may be part of it as well.

 

[BY Bob]

Yes, my reading and understanding was that they create heat while metabolizing. And couple that with not being able to keep cool easily...

I feel fortunate that we generally cool off a fair bit at night. Because my girls are still so young, I worry about restrictions foods while they are still growing.

I would not restrict food certainly not before they are showing symptoms. I believe they will do it themselves. They are not stupid. If they have a way to stay cool they will do that.

Confined chickens, which could be bored, will eat because there is nothing else to do. In that instance I suspect it might make sense to pull their food.

No carbohydrate snacks as they create heat.

 

[Ribh]

Xzit isn't even a year old is she? How can a hen go broody so quickly?

My Jap banatm hadn't even laid half a dozen eggs before she went broody. She also went feral & made a nest in the scrub. She was sitting on 1/2 a dozen infertile eggs when I finally found her.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Well yes humans have breed them to lay more eggs than nature intended. However those eggs primarily come from a shorter egg laying cycle not necessarily a longer laying season. Let me explain.

Phyllis has a more natural laying cycle than my other hens. She lays around 5 eggs a week in the depth of summer. This is because it takes about 31 hours for Phyllis to make an egg. So if she laid at 7:00 am on Monday, she would then lay at 2:00 pm on Tuesday and right around dusk on Wednesday in the depths of summer. She might skip the 9:00 pm lay and then lay when sun came up the next day.

The breeding enhancements humans made shortened their laying cycle. We all know leghorns have been breed to be egg machines. Daisy, the Greatest Hen Ever, laid 360 eggs in 365 days. It took her just and I mean just over 24 hours to make an egg.

Giving Daisy a week off from laying an egg by keeping her in the dark would not have stopped her from laying herself to death. The eggs you need to stop occur every week. By forcing them to lay almost every day the reproductive system doesn't get the downtime that Phyllis' does.

My girl Princess sometimes lays more than one egg in 24 hours. I first just thought I was mistaken so I have been paying close attention and she sometimes lays eggs about twelve hours apart. I know they are hers because she is in a separate crate from the others for nighttime, and that is where she always lays her egg. None of the others ever lay an egg in there. Also, Princess always lays a small light tan egg with faint speckles.
I worry about this because I know it isn’t right.