Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

Please tell me chickens will eat box elder bugs

Spoiler: bugs

 

[bgmathteach]

I'm hoping the Ex Batts get to at lleast four years old. I beleive they were two years old on arrival a couple of months ago.

Ahh, but you definitely treat them differently than the production houses. So that is like comparing the longevity of the typical American to that of, say, the Ikarians. Go Ex-Batts!!!

 

[MaryJanet]

We started with three birds and could not ever really settle on who was the top hen. It seemed they each took turns. However, after Ginger died a couple of weeks ago, a new order has definitely arrived, and it's not what I ever would have guessed. Honestly, it's been a bit unnerving for me to watch. Mrs. Howell has become an evil dictator. The most obvious behaviors are displayed when eating treats. A very menacing glare, sometimes along with a stern warning cluck to back off, which if not heeded results in pecking. They used to all get along so well.

I'm sorry you lost Ginger.

 

[bgmathteach]

My generosity is being tested today.
I have had to chop down a lot of the fig tree so that the house can be painted. It needs painting badly so no choice.
This means sacrificing a lot of figs. I love figs. I could eat while meals of nothing but figs and maybe a bit of cheese. So naturally I figure I will gorge on figs.
Turns out the Princesses love figs too.
No problem I say! I will eat these lovely juicy purple ones and you can sink your beaks into these little hard green ones.
That is not what they have in mind. They love the ripe figs too.
Are there really enough to share?

That all depends on how quick they can eat them. If they aren't quick enough, then yes, there is some to share. with you.

 

[bgmathteach]

Does anyone need eggs? My pets won’t stop laying. I wanted soft feathered pets not vending machines! My dining room and refrigerator is full again. I only wanted pets, who show the same love that I give them, surprisingly they do twice as much (should I stop feeding them steak ?) crazy velociraptors!

Hi Alex,

I know you are already very generous, but maybe donating the eggs?

My church runs a food pantry, and they LOVE it when I have extra eggs, as I donate them. They do get some eggs donated from a local grocery store, but the food pantry (Neighbors Helping Neighbors) never has enough...plus I the feedback I got from the food pantry was that the clients LOVE the fresh eggs.

 

[RoyalChick]

Please tell me chickens will eat box elder bugs

Spoiler: bugs

View attachment 2850430

I found my first one today and Diana enjoyed it. She didn’t eat the lantern fly I served up so I had to squish it.

 

[bgmathteach]

Speed and stillness do count most. Donk as black AND white still has decent camo as the outline gets broken up with the color patches. An entirely white or entirely black bird is at a disadvantage because when they go still, their stark 1 color (especially either end of the spectrum) outlines them nicely for predators (speaking as a predator within a family of predators and applying same principles of garb when going hunting) even when they are still. Multiple colors (even if black and white) still breaks up the shape, making them harder to spot when still.
My original point though was that color of a breed shouldn't affect the breed characteristics. I would expect how well a breed forages (or doesnt), how it holds up to cold/hot weather, broodiness, egg production, etc would be similar within a breed. Plymouth Rocks are a popular breed. They come in white, black, barred, partridge, blue, buff, and a bunch of other colors. I would think that the breed characteristics would be very similar. Back to the Wyandotte. The hatchery where I got my goldan wyandottes has them listed as poor free range birds (recognizing that hatchery free range isn't like what you had in Spain or I have in Montana) but the Colombian and silver laced wyandottes were both listed as excellent free rangers. (I dont think US hatcheries factor in a birds ability to be predator savvy, just willingness to poke into everything, scratch up grubs and forage) Other than the color of the bird (which shouldn't be a factor in the bird's ability) why such a difference?

So, I absolutely agree with what you are saying. However, I have found there to be a distinct size difference in the 'color' of my
'rocks'. My whites are definitely larger/heavier than my barred. At first I thought it was because they were less 'productionized' as the Whites aren't as popular as the barred. However...I think it may also have to do with the breeding. You have to cross a Barred Rock with something else to get, say, a partridge rock. (You might happen to get a white sport..and parlay that into the White rock - but that is the exception, not the rule in getting true/permanent color variations of a 'breed')

Someone who has more knowledge about genetics & breeding- can you confirm my suspicions regarding introduced 'genetics' to get color variations within a breed? (Or, set me straight!)

 

[bgmathteach]

SHRA...



View attachment 2849718

Okay, this has been driving me crazy...and though I am trying to catch up, reading old & new at the same time means my progress on the OLD is quite slow (now up to the 750s )

What does SHRA stand for? I finally got 'TAX' (lol for the longest time, I thought a couple of you had chickens named 'Tax,' as a chicken picture always followed!

 

[MaryJanet]

Okay, this has been driving me crazy...and though I am trying to catch up, reading old & new at the same time means my progress on the OLD is quite slow (now up to the 750s )

What does SHRA stand for? I finally got 'TAX' (lol for the longest time, I thought a couple of you had chickens named 'Tax,' as a chicken picture always followed!

"Should have read ahead"

When you shra, the tax is one photo of two or more chickens.

When you talk non-chicken topics, the tax is a chicken photo.

The outcomes are fostering chicken talk without too many repeated posts.

But nobody minds if you forget to pay up as it's all in good fun.

 

[bgmathteach]

This from the Smithsonian Magazine

Here’s how you do it:
All you have to do is hold the chicken's head down against the ground, and draw a straight line using a stick, a finger, chalk or whatever.
The line should start at the beak and extend straight outward in front of the chicken. If done properly, the chicken -or rooster- will be put into a state of trance and lie still for anywhere between 30 seconds to 30 minutes! To de-hypnotize the chicken just clap your hands or give it a gentle push. It may take a few tries to awaken the bird.

Tonic immobility is what researchers call "a fear-potentiated response” to being restrained. In other words, the chicken (or any other animal that exhibits this response) is convinced that it is going to die and goes into a kind of cationic state. According to Beredimas, farmers have known about this trick at least since 1646, when Athanasius Kircher published "Mirabile Experimentum de Imaginatione Gallinae.” The reaction seems to be most commonly reported in domesticated birds like chickens and quail, but other species seem to demonstrate tonic immobility as well. One study from 1928 looked at the response in lizards. Another watched the brains of rabbits during movement, rest, sleep and tonic immobility.

Here is the full article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/can-you-hypnotize-chicken-180949940/

So seems this is possible, but given that you literally 'scare them into', should we? While I realize that it is important to check a bird for health reasons, and that this can be stressful in and of itself....does this catatonic state induce more stress, or less stress, overall than doing an exam without it? I am so acutely aware of the effects of stress on humans (well, me in particular), that I would feel badly actively inflicting it on chickens. So, which is the better (or worse) option in terms of stress on a chicken. Anyone know? I personally TRY to induce the least possible stress when examining a chicken...but clearly I am not totally successful given their reaction.

Thoughts on this?