Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

I have not done consistent observation on when I have switched them to feather fixer feed. I will try and watch Hattie better this week to see if she is eating the commercial feed like normal. I will also compare nutritional differences and post.

I have noticed a marked difference in what my Princesses are foraging for. I don’t really know what it is they are finding but they are favoring a different area in the long grass with completely different plants, and they are going more for things in the ground and less for the tips of leaves and grass seeds.

 

[BY Bob]

I've had so much grief over this issue.
In one of my early posts on this site I laid out a few basics for happy chicken keeping. In that list was "don't mix breeds". Needless to say I was dodging the bricks for quite a while.
The first problem is lots of people will tell you they have mixed breed flocks and their world is full of shiney happy chickens; mostly hens it seems here.
The first step perhaps is to make quite clear that "can" and "shouldn't" mean different things.
Next one has to go through the rather long and tiresome process of outlining when one can and when one shouldn't. I don't have the patience for it on the general threads. People want what people want and no advice with regard to the welfare of the chickens is welcome, nor is considerable experience of my own and many other keepers who also follow the basic tenet.
My experience and the experience of many others, including people with mixed breed flocks is given the choice, roughly, breeds will stick together. There is even a little saying to go with it: Birds of a feather stick together.
Not many people want to read this. What they want is oh sure, everything will be fine. You do what you want to do. It's your right etc etc etc......
Imo your best option nowis to at least house your Polish hens seperately from the others. But, there is no guarantee that Phyllis will get on with the newcomers. There is a better chance I think of Phyllis getting on with them than there is of your original hens accepting them. I could be wrong.
Should you decide to rehome Phyllis then you will probably end up with the same problem with the new pPolish chicks at some point.

Even with the mixed flock of Ex Batts and rescues I'm doing what I can with now, the divisions are obvious if one looks hard enough.

First, I do not disagree with your premise. I went against my own process when I added the three different hens. Until then I always assured that I added either "like" or pairs. Tragedy has taken my second orpington and EE from us. I did expect that Sydney would be much closer to Hattie in size. It did not happen. I only took Sansa to keep from splitting her from the group. Surprisingly she had blended in better than anyone else.

Because I have "doubled down" on the Polish now, I could not rehome just Phyllis, it would have to be all three. The time for rehoming was before I got 2 more.

So I am splitting the complex into 2 coop and runs. I just need Phyllis to take the new ones over, teach them what it means to live here, and lead them. I believe that she will but they are animals and you cannot control or predict how they will react.

 

[Shadrach]

Weren’t your Catalan tribes different breeds? You even had bantams if I am remembering right. How did that work? Did they all segregate?

That's why I had tribes.
This article explains a bit about how it all happened.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/shadrach’s-multi-coops.74344/
I was at one point going to write further about the topic but it isn't a topic BYC wants to read about it seems.
In short, give chickens a choice of who they live wiith and they'll choose to live with;
a) their own breed
b) their family group
c) an existing tribe with a relative already living in that tribe
d) on their own if they 1) wont be accepted by an existing tribe or they are so different from any of the existing tribes.
The bantams all lived together apart from Myth who got thrown out of the bantam tribe because the lead hen toook a dislike to her; later shown for good reason. She moved in with Gedit who was had the same colouring and the same dad but inherited more Marans genes that made her more than twice the size of Myth.
The Marans all lived together. They are the tribe that you have seen pictures of using my house as their territory. You won't have seen pictures of the bantams doing the same although they would visit briefly if the Marans were not around.
Tribe 3 was the mixed breeds, bantam and Marans cross.
Tribe 4 when it existed was yet another mixed breed tribe built by one of the mixed breed roosters.
Tribe 5 many years ago was rescue Catal del Pratt hens. They were not interested in living or hanging out with any of the existing tribes.

 

[Shadrach]

On a general note.
There are two fundamental steps that most humans and most chickenn keepers need to make before the lives of chickens improves greatly.
1) chickens are not flock creatures. They are tribal creatures. You don't see flocks of jungle fowl. Jungle fowl live in family groups and tribes. No amount of "breeding" is going to change this.
2) This is really really difficult for humans. Chicken are vastly more intelligent than we give them credit for. Humans, for lots of complex reasons, do not want any other creatures to be as intelligent as they, the humans, percieve themslevs as.
Niether of these messages are popular. They are particualry unpopular on sites such as this.
It's just the way it is.

 

[RoyalChick]

That's why I had tribes.
This article explains a bit about how it all happened.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/shadrach’s-multi-coops.74344/
I was at one point going to write further about the topic but it isn't a topic BYC wants to read about it seems.
In short, give chickens a choice of who they live wiith and they'll choose to live with;
a) their own breed
b) their family group
c) an existing tribe with a relative already living in that tribe
d) on their own if they 1) wont be accepted by an existing tribe or they are so different from any of the existing tribes.
The bantams all lived together apart from Myth who got thrown out of the bantam tribe because the lead hen toook a dislike to her; later shown for good reason. She moved in with Gedit who was had the same colouring and the same dad but inherited more Marans genes that made her more than twice the size of Myth.
The Marans all lived together. They are the tribe that you have seen pictures of using my house as their territory. You won't have seen pictures of the bantams doing the same although they would visit briefly if the Marans were not around.
Tribe 3 was the mixed breeds, bantam and Marans cross.
Tribe 4 when it existed was yet another mixed breed tribe built by one of the mixed breed roosters.
Tribe 5 many years ago was rescue Catal del Pratt hens. They were not interested in living or hanging out with any of the existing tribes.

Got it - much like people really! That comment will probably get me in trouble
I liked the article on the coops - somehow I never saw that before.

 

[bgmathteach]

I am pleased to say that the fake eggs worked. No more searching under bushes in the backyard!
Today everyone laid an egg in the nest box. The two cream ones on the left are fake.

View attachment 2853006

Ooooh, I'm envious of those gorgeous colors on your eggs.......better not let @ByBob see them,

(What, salt, wound? I know not of what you speak!)

 

[AfiafiAfi]

Is Michstrachan ok?im feeling horrible for Ruby and her.I hope she’s doing ok…poor Ruby,I’d hate to hear her being enthuanised.

 

[bgmathteach]

On a general note.
There are two fundamental steps that most humans and most chickenn keepers need to make before the lives of chickens improves greatly.
1) chickens are not flock creatures. They are tribal creatures. You don't see flocks of jungle fowl. Jungle fowl live in family groups and tribes. No amount of "breeding" is going to change this.
2) This is really really difficult for humans. Chicken are vastly more intelligent than we give them credit for. Humans, for lots of complex reasons, do not want any other creatures to be as intelligent as they, the humans, percieve themslevs as.
Niether of these messages are popular. They are particualry unpopular on sites such as this.
It's just the way it is.

Here,here, @ shadrach!

Humans (note: this is a generalized statement, not a reference to y'all!) always want to be 'top dog', and for centuries have resisted the science that shows intelligence in other forms of 'beings' for a variety of reasons. And, yes, them being tribal, not flock, is quite an 'inconvenience' for us and how we 'want' to raise them.

Unfortunately I A) never thought I would like chickens, so started with a few for eggs because I LOVE eggs, and have issues with soy/eggs from hens fed lots of soy..then fell in LOVE, and, B), my chicken addition/addiction worked far quicker than my intake of knowledge. Thanks to all of you and lots of readying at a variety of other places (after, unfortunately, a LOT of reading about the 'conventional wisdom'), I am slowly adding more & small coops, so that the 'kids' can self select their own /mini-flock' mates. I'm no where near where @Sharach is, but I am making progress in that regard. (Though, due to multiple recent 'events' and predators, they will never be fully free range like Shad's)

I'm trying more for a pastured poultry model with smaller tractors than what I have now to accommodate more but smaller 'flocks'. I say flocks because I don't think I could realistically get to 'tribes' of 3-5 with Roos.......but maybe, someday, when I can entirely fence in our 6 acres......I can get closer to the ideal, but still have enough to be able to help support me in retirement.

 

[RoyalChick]

I may have shared a picture of this egg a few weeks back. A bit of a mishap in the paint department of one of the Roadrunners.
Every time I reached to crack an egg I couldn’t bear to use this one. I think it is pretty!
So finally this morning I decided to blow it and make scrambled egg for the chickens without sacrificing the pretty shell.
I haven’t done that since I was a kid but I remembered the basics and it wasn’t that hard to do.
With apologies to the CDC I didn’t think to wash it before I started so I did expose myself to whatever disease the chickens might pass on. I think I will survive.
Now I just have to figure out how to display it!

 

[featherhead007]

I may have shared a picture of this egg a few weeks back. A bit of a mishap in the paint department of one of the Roadrunners.
Every time I reached to crack an egg I couldn’t bear to use this one. I think it is pretty!
So finally this morning I decided to blow it and make scrambled egg for the chickens without sacrificing the pretty shell.
I haven’t done that since I was a kid but I remembered the basics and it wasn’t that hard to do.
With apologies to the CDC I didn’t think to wash it before I started so I did expose myself to whatever disease the chickens might pass on. I think I will survive.
Now I just have to figure out how to display it!

View attachment 2853302View attachment 2853303

Green eggs and ham!