Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

This is very helpful to me Chicory - thank you. It encourages me to keep on the calcium program. Are you saying feather fixer and layer are roughly similar in calcium? I have not tried feather fixer but rather am doing yoghurt with ground up Calcium Citrate and D3 in it also scrambled egg with ground up calcium and D3 and now and then I pop a pill directly down one of them. I am better at giving pills to chickens than I am to cats it seems!

Here is where I suggested @ChicoryBlue look at feather fixer and supplied the nutritional information. It provides way more calcium than what she was using before and has the higher protein for which she was looking.

Post in thread 'Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock' https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...es-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/post-24512889

 

[BY Bob]

Good morning. I thought this might give you guys a good chuckle. Two in one box with an empty one right beside it.
View attachment 2749374

Flash does not look happy........

 

[featherhead007]

Flash does not look happy........

It’s that “get off my back” look.

 

[BY Bob]

I know that I am a big worry-wart and I try to stifle that aspect of my personality, but here I go. This morning Blanche layed a soft egg. She hasn’t done that before. It was white, and the usual size (she lays a large egg), but soft.
And, she layed it on the floor in the middle of the coop. She doesn’t do that either, she always uses her favorite nest box. (Maybe she thought she was just pooping?)
I picked it up and it stayed together even though it was soft.
She is her perky usual self.
I am a basket case.

Be cool. I find that Softshelled eggs are frequently laid outside the nest. Until I have more than one, I would not worry. There can be just the occasional freak egg and then things settle back down. That is what happened with Phyllis a month or so ago. How old is Blanche?

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Be cool. I find that Softshelled eggs are frequently laid outside the nest. Until I have more than one, I would not worry. There can be just the occasional freak egg and then things settle back down. That is what happened with Phyllis a month or so ago. How old is Blanche?

Blanche turned a year old May 14. So 13 1/2 months.

 

[BY Bob]

Blanche turned a year old May 14. So 13 1/2 months.

Did she lay through the winter?

 

[Lady Clucks-a-Lot]

Oooo! Flash looks just like my Gold Laced Wyandotte Runner. We only have two nest box, and sometimes our chickens needs to lay at the same time. Runner usually gets to the nest box first, than GreyWhite (Dark Brahma and Yellowie (Buff Brahma) would come over and try to squish her out. When this is happening, Runner would snarl at them very loudly and warningly screeching. There was also this one time, probably about 2 years ago, summer, when all our chickens needed to lay their eggs, and I think it was Yellowie and Biggie who got to the nest box first and the others actually waited very nicely and straightly in a line! It's so sad that I weren't able to get a photo of it.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Guys, I just walked by the incubator and looked inside like I have done hourly since I woke up this morning. 3 EGGS HAVE EXTERNALLY PIPPED!!!!!!!!!! It's soo sad that Henrietta is completely over being broody but all her initial efforts will not be in vain.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Did she lay through the winter?

Yes. She laid her first egg October 31, 2020. (I made a big announcement, and bookmarked the post. Lol)
She has laid an egg every day since. I am not kidding! Every day!
All eight of my hens laid all winter. They don’t all lay every day, though, but almost. I figured this was because it’s their first season. I assume they will slow down some, like maybe this coming winter.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Note I started this post early Monday, but my internet connection is bad at the moment so:

Well, I have found a downside to the Chicken Trailer. Northern Fowl Mites… I candled some eggs under my broody bully girl on Sunday, and she, and I’m assuming the whole free range flock, have them. Going to make a “late night run” into the Barn as soon as Haying is done and just dose everyone with Ivomec. The eggs, from Little Red and my late “favorite” Girl of Roostie were all infertile. I have replaced them with eggs from my Friends flock, “BarnAucanas” from his not quite up to breed standards Barnvelder Rooster who looks amazing for 6+ years old, and some Ameraucana girls get took in from the person who has the farm I brooded at, where I’ve been gardening, and where we get our water from.

Saturday we had a great market day, our first real market since summer 2019. We netted $200 in about 4 hours, our friend cross marketed their amazing Sauerkraut and grossed $136.

And unfortunately I have some more really sad news. Today we lost Roostie. Early afternoon while we were moving the meat birds in preparation for tomorrow’s road trip to freezer camp, he squared off with Cass. No apparent physical damage was done, their hackles were raised and there were a few brief bits of sparring before I ran around the fence and broke them up. Not a drop of blood was spilled but Roostie was clearly strained he was droopy and listless. I worry about his heart as he’s well over 13lbs again (as a two and a bit year old Meat bird Rooster that’s not as overweight as it seems) I moved him and his ladies back to the proper side of the fence, fed him some egg yolk by hand and made sure he drank water. They were doing fine when I left for dinner at 6. Everything seemed back to normal. When we got home at 9:40 (some chickens were still even outside, as it was mostly light out!) he was gone. Very purple comb and wattles, so I am thinking this heat wave and the stress combined just pushed him past his limits. He had put all his ladies up for the night, so I tucked them in… and now I just don’t know what to do. Roostie my “free” Rooster with his adorable waddle, gentle Nature, and ability to parent the younglings is irreplaceable. I am quite heartbroken, he has two babies. One cockerel and one of unknown gender.

So, so sorry Roostie passed! You gave him a great life and cared for him really well. What a great rooster he was! I liked that guy too and am pretty sad. May he rest in peace.