Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

In your first set of birds without an established pecking order, how did you identify your top hen? What behaviors made that apparent?

For my four it was Hazel pecking away and dominating everyone else except Peanut. Peanut gets along with everybody and nobody harasses her. That makes Peanut top hen and Hazel her lieutenant/enforcer.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Lillie, please come back home. And Lord Jesus please heal Bob’s family and heal everything . I have my own problems today, but I care more my friends, than I do myself at times. Nothing compares to true friendships. Which I lost today. My friend from Texas died this morning this hurts!

Very sorry to hear this bad news. My thoughts are with his family and with you, Alex.

 

[Lexicon]

I have scoured the academic literature and the university extension sites and cannot find any reference to wood ash needing to be from hard wood.
In the non-academic literature there is plenty of stuff that is hard to sift through which says everything from chickens will explode on contact with wood ash to you should be pouring it into their feed bucket. So I am ignoring all that.
I have read enough to be confident that my wood ash won't harm my chickens so I am going to go ahead.

I am late to this conversation, but my chickens love the ashes from our woodstoves which are from burning spruce. They have not been harmed by them with over a year of dustbathing and eating bits of charcoal which they love. It does give them black poop though, so don't be alarmed.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

My thoughs are you are doing all you can. With the tribes, the heavy first moulters did most of what you describe and survived. It seemed to me that the heavy moulting hens felt they needed nutrition from things they wouldn't have chosen prior to their moult. Fudge for example took it all very badly and I was worried about her. But, when I flet her crop at roost time somehow she had managed to fill it.
That's the first thing I would suggest; check her crop at roost time. If it's reasonably full she's probably going to be fine.

The next thing is when possible give her access to as much natural ground area as you can. Fudge used to wander over one hundred meters from her tribe looking for what she felt she needed. My lot ate some very strange stuff, bits of root they had shown no interest in before, weeds i hadn't seen them eat in the past, a very small bug that lived around the roots of the cherry trees, lots of grasses.....

Thank you for this advice, Shad! Her crop has not been really full but yes has something in it. She is foraging among the roots and rocks under some trees and brush cover that she never used to go in, it's good cover and fresh ground.

 

[fuentemoon]

I love nettles! So nutritious, and quite tasty. Now if your property is over run with them it might be a bit much, but do consider leaving a patch in an out of the way spot if possible, I would if I had some, I have to go forage or buy mine.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

And it’s not like I could just jump into the Lexus and drive to Houston at the moment! I really am beating myself up over this! Where is my emotional support rooster Jaffar when I need him the most? He’s out chasing chicks! At least he has his act together (just saying)
No one answered the phone, when I just tried to call.

You might try to send flowers and a note for now, you can do that long-distance and get it to them quickly. It's not a cop-out to do that. When people are grieving sometimes lots of phone calls are overwhelming, and it's hard to take everyone in. Also, voicemail gets full and they aren't together enough to deal with it. So don't worry, trust your friendship with this man and his family, they know you care, and your support will mean a lot to them whenever and however you can show it. Indeed, down the road, after the initial hullaballoo passes, are the loneliest times.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

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?

Hey you know chickens will share and share alike!
At least you're chopping it down AFTER a lot of figs have ripened, so you're getting some, instead of none!

 

[rural mouse]

Careful now. Mrs BY Bob is Italian-Irish and she NEVER cusses. She is a true lady.

Now BY Bob is a different story.

You're a Sailor. That's a different kettle of fish.

 

[micstrachan]

Oh sort of - I had talked about ash because of the link to that thread from Beekissed that I think you inserted where she dusts for mites with wood ash.
Shad weighed in that it should be hardwood but I had not seen that - everything I had read said any wood ash as long as not contaminated with paint and glue and the like.
Does it really need to be hardwood? I think mine is a mix of oak and pine.

Yes, I linked Beekissed’s thread.

I don’t know the answer to that one! Let us know if you find out for sure.

 

[rural mouse]

Finally, page 1000. Only 4400 to go! I know, I know. Jump to now, catch up later. nope. Trying to keep things in context. also, don't want to miss any of the deep chicken insights/behavior observations. However, just to tide you all over, new arrival last evening (found just after a rain squall). waiting on 5 more eggsView attachment 2779820
Feed dishes were just added to keep mama on nest while the rest hatch....i hope. She went broody on an empty nest (cussed out the while flock when she got disturbed) and I had to get fertile eggs from a coworker.

Just reached my 1st post on the thread. It's only taken 3 months to read 4400 pages....with another 830 added during that time!


Edited: just got notice of 500 post (trophy) with this one too.