Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[AfiafiAfi]

I need to give them something!

 

[RoyalChick]

Good morning. So here are a couple videos demonstrate me NOT doing a great job st tube feeding. The first is me getting less than half a syringe into Flash and the second one is an unsuccessful attempt at getting more into her. Interestingly, let me love on her for a long time after the second attempt.

Well that certainly did nothing to boost my confidence I would ever be able to do that!
Why did she need tube feeding? She looks rather bright eyed and healthy to me and she is certainly feisty!

 

[RoyalChick]

Omg no!pls somebody help! I just duscovered I’m out of feed!the farmer who was supposed to supplie me still didn’t.It’s going to take 2 days!I have no feed!my quails are literally gonna starve without food for 2 days since there’s no good feed store!what should I do!

Oh no!
How come you didn’t notice?
Are there any farms nearby or pet stores or even grocery stores where you could get something to last them two days? Wouldn’t be perfect food of course but better than nothing.
And make sure in future to always note when you need to reorder so you don’t run out again.

 

[bgmathteach]

So sitting with you is better than dealing with Tyle. Another nugget about your place in her pecking order.

No, he was just a means to an end. Chickens are smart that way.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Omg no!pls somebody help! I just duscovered I’m out of feed!the farmer who was supposed to supplie me still didn’t.It’s going to take 2 days!I have no feed!my quails are literally gonna starve without food for 2 days since there’s no good feed store!what should I do!

For only 2 days to keep them from starving and I was in your position I would bake a pan of cornbread and once it's done crumble it up for the quail. If they are like mine your chickens would like it to. I know it's not the best, but if your in a emergency situation you have to do what you have to do. Another thing you could try is if you have dogs or cats and have dry food available put some in a blender and crumble it up for them. A can of wet food would work as well for a day or so.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

I have to say Drumstick has done me proud with turning people around on Roosters. Momma hens chicks are just over 3 months old and I listed them the other day. She had 9 out of her 10 survive and of course 6 of them are boys. Rosie's best friend and next door neighbor Maddie's papaw has 2 Drumstick sons. He stopped by this morning with his son out of the blue. He wanted a boy, and wanted one related to his dad's 2 boys. Apparently after years of keeping only hens due to "mean" roosters his father's 2 boys have changed his mind. I told him perfect timing and told him about momma hens boys and the 6, 5 week old boys that Bunny has. He decided to take on of momma hens boys since they are bigger as he was afraid his 7 older hens might bully and hurt the younger boy. Ok no problem and after picking out the boy he wanted I brought out the bread treats in order to lure him into the coop so I could catch him. 5 minutes later they are leaving with his new boy "Leroy".

 

[BY Bob]

The Roosting Tribulations of Phyllis

I recorded Roosting time the other night with the new camera. I took week over 30 minutes of video and Phyllis was already roosted when I started. I have condensed it down into just over 15 minutes in 2 video clips.

I have said before that roosting time with my tribe is not for the faint of heart. The tribe is vicious to each other.

SPECIAL WARNING: All of you Hattie fans may not want to watch because of how she treats Phyllis.

Also, every night this week Phyllis has been forced to roost in the big run. This bullying has really amped up since I let her set her nest. In every way it seems that was a mistake on my part. All of this is a contributing factor to the new coop and little ones. I do think her Roosting in the run will lead her to be more accepting of Roosting in the new coop when the time comes.

Video 1

We start with Phyllis on the high roost. Lilly will jump up to it and Phyllis will be forced to jump down. Shemoves to the main bar and at around the 1 minute mark, Hattie forces her off and she leaves the coop.

Around 2:48 Phyllis re-enters the coop, gets up on the main bar and Hattie goes after her again. Phyllis manages to stay on the main Roland get away from Hattie for a moment.

At 3:40 Phyllis seems to inexplicably move towards Hattie again an another round of punishment occurs. She quickly moves away.

Around the 5 min mark Phyllis seems to be looking at the small roost which I added for her but she never tries to use it.

Video 2

This video is longer as the action is almost non stop for 10 minutes.

We start off with Aurora on the roost forcing Phyllis to head towards Hattie and then off of the roost. Aurora then jumps down and forces her out of the coop. Sansa is them forced off the high roost and Aurora runs her out as well.

At the 2:40 mark Phyllis scoots past Aurora an re-enters coop and gets up on the the roost as far as possible from Hattie.

Around 3:37 Aurora surprise attacks Phyllis on the roost but Phyllis is able to run away and remain on the roost.

Around the 5 min mark, Sansa enters the coop, jumps on the roost, and forces Phyllis off. At 5:35 Phyllis jumps up by Hattie and pays for it. After the beating, everything actually looks settled. But at 8:34 Phyllis jumps down! Why? Did Hattie say something to her?

At 9:27 Phyllis comes in again and jumps on the roost. At 9:45 Aurora goes after her again and she flees. Phyllis would run and jump up by Hattie again. Hattie would send her to the other end of the roost where Sansa awaited.

The video ends here, bad edit on my part, but Sansa would chase her off the roost and Phyllis wouldn't return. She would roost in the run.

 

[BY Bob]

A year for Maggie (and RC)
Warning: long post.

The last couple of weeks has been an important milestone for Maggie and @BY Bob said it was OK for me to mark the occasion here.

On September 18, 2020 I found this in the nest box.

Spoiler: Warning - not for the squeamish

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I had no idea what it was and no idea who laid it. Everyone was acting normal and all cameras were deployed monitoring rodents and other, scarier, visitors.

I did research and learned that it was a lash egg – a sign of serious and long standing infection in the reproductive tract. I also learned that it is invariably fatal with the maximum life expectancy of less than 6 months.

I confirmed it was Maggie who laid it. She had stopped laying real eggs and laid one more lash egg a few days later.

Off she went to the vet.

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Because of Covid I wasn’t allowed in with her but she apparently wandered around the vet’s office investigating everything while she waited for him. The vet-tech was rather taken with her and fed her the blueberries I had brought.

The vet was very kind but confirmed what everyone else had told me which was that she would not live long. He offered to euthanize her but agreed with my view that it was a bit premature as she still had quality of life. I felt reassured that he would be able to put her out of her misery when the time came.

He also educated me about production breeds who are not really expected to live past 2 years. I spent quite a while really upset and furious about that and I still am.

Everyone on this thread was very kind and supportive. @BY Bob encouraged me not to give up on Maggie and at the same time helped me be prepared for the worst.

And I resolved to spend as much time as possible with Maggie and make sure her remaining time was as wonderful as possible.

Maggie visibly declined. She started molting and wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t alive. I dug for worms, I trapped beetles, and I bought live mealy worms to tempt her to eat. I provided heaps of leaves so she could pick through them for bugs.

Slowly she started to develop new feathers
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And to share in some treats
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And then much to my surprise, on January 23rd – 4 months after the lash egg - she laid a normal egg. I think nobody was more surprised than @BY Bob who posted:
“She successfully laid an egg today!?!”
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-of-our-flock.1286630/page-3059#post-23891234

So, I am marking this week as one year since Maggie got her death sentence.

I feel she has had a good chicken year.

She dug some deep holes.
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She explored snow.
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She shouted at me.
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She spent time with chicken friends.
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She sunbathed (a lot).
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She helped with construction projects.
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She shouted at me some more.
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She got in my face.
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She posed with her left side
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She posed with her right side
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She ate ice cream

She sunbathed some more
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And she cooled off by dunking her wattles.

Today, a full year later, she is still shouting at me, she is still in my face, and she is the undisputed queen of the long grass.

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* * *
Thank you all for indulging me in this post and joining me to celebrate Maggie's gift and mine - a whole year of chicken fun together.

What a wonderful collection of memories. I am so happy for you both that things have turned out so well. I could watch the grass seed video all day!

 

[BY Bob]

Hi friends. I was busy helping my daughter get ready for a dance and missed all the nighttime feedings and meds. But Ruby was on a roost! She was back in her old favorite spot. I’ll be sure to give her fluids first thing in the morning so she keeps it up.
Minnie was also on her roost, which is up top where Bridge used to roost. Too hard to reach her with limited time, so I instead put her meal into Flash’s crop, which was empty. Overall, I’m happy with hoe the day ended.

That is very good news.

 

[BY Bob]

I am genuinely interested in the viscosity of the egg whites of older hens.

Can anyone comment?

Lilly's eggs seem no different from anyone else's. She is now over 6 years old. I'm not certain what defines old?