Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Thank goodness! You needed a good night of sleep!

I could have slept longer but Mrs BY Bob has a pathological need to be up early. Normally I can sleep through the first but she kept snoozing it today so I finally gave up and got up too.

Chicken tax

 

[LozzyR]

You should see what I wear or nearly wear. Thank goodness no one can see me

When the girls escaped, I was running around the street in a dressing gown and gum-boots!

 

[LozzyR]

I could have slept longer but Mrs BY Bob has a pathological need to be up early. Normally I can sleep through the first but she kept snoozing it today so I finally gave up and got up too.

Chicken tax
View attachment 2788688

The best tax!

 

[Shadrach]

You can't post live chicks in Aus anyway. They have to come via courier, which is much more direct & far safer. AUSPOST will do eggs. If I get as many persistent broodies this year as I did last I may consider it. The man was saying bantams can't cover as many eggs as a regular hen ~ but honestly, Wrold & Alpia were brooding together & managed to cover 8+ eggs between them. I kept removing eggs so I'm not sure how many they would have eventually managed. Then if they do what Ha'penny did & manage a deep V nest they can cover more than you would think. It's a dilemma.

If my memeory serves me Cheepy managed to perch herself on a pile of 22 eggs by the time we found her. I let her have 12 in the maternity coop. She hatched 10.
Cheepy was a bantam and a small bantam at that. There are pictures of her in my stories link.

 

[Shadrach]

How long do fertile eggs keep for? I have a feeling it might be long enough for a second hen to go broody. Especially in your tribe they seem to see one broody then it's stacks on!

Easily 21 days and in the right conditions past a month.

 

[Shadrach]

Research says 7 days. After that hatch rates decrease significantly. I think I'd need 2 broodies to do a dozen eggs.

Research needs to go and tell the tribes then.

 

[Shadrach]

I love this. She’ll be strong if you get weak. A true partnership.

It's her fault all this got started when she demanded Phyllis!

 

[Shadrach]

@Shadrach I can answer your question now. I wanted to wait until things settled down with the chicks, out of respect. My flock/tribe is mostly fine. I lost Dorothy last week… she was the mostly White Leghorn that had trouble making egg shells. Ruby, the Buckeye on hormones, has had three episodes where I thought for sure it was the end. But she has fought like hell. There is an incredible will to live in that bird. I had vowed not to tube feed her, as I thought it would be cruel to force her to live. She started getting very, very weak, but still seemed to want to live. So I changed my mind and started tubing. I kind of regret not doing it sooner, as she is responding well. At the same time, sometimes I think maybe I should have had her euthanized at her last avian vet appointment. I’m kind of thinking I’d like to build her up and then the moment she turns the other way, end it. Here was this morning’s feeding:

As for me, I got extremely stressed and ended up with high blood pressure and tachycardia. Stopping my morning cuppa joe and taking a break from work brought my blood pressure down, but the tachycardia still pops up now and then. Was allergic to a med and ended up in the ER, but I’m mostly well. I will need to wear a heart monitor for a couple weeks to get a definitive diagnosis, as my little pocket heart monitor thought it might be atrial fibrillation (diagnosis is currently supraventricular tachycardia).

You may remember last year the rats ravaged my tomato garden. This year, my tomatoes are kicking a$$. Happy about that!

Ruby is a dream to tube feed.

 

[Shadrach]

Phyllis is a very capable mama

Lets hope so. We will only know when she finished the job. There's a lot to do and much like withhuman babies, the very young bit is the easy part.

 

[BY Bob]

Sylvie is Gone

Phyllis is still keeping her warm. I noticed that Phyllis was not moving around this morning and when I checked the chick was dead.

I assume i need to take the body from her but I thought I'd check and see if it is better if she leaves it on her own.