Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

I just returned from the hanger. (Needed to check on my Marie (The eagle’ new name) she’s ready for flight. I will probably fly up the coast on Tuesday. I have to get away from this bad air, if only for a day. San Francisco, sounds really good to me at the moment!

Just be my luck, to have a freak storm suddenly show up, with microbursts. I checked the flight radar chart and all looks clear for the next week.

 

[Ribh]

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

That is gorgeous.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I despise the pecking order situation with my chooks! I have to be there, to be sure that everyone gets their fair share of treats.

Yes, fairness is a human notion I think! But here there are only four chickens total, with your 11? 12? it's more problematic to make sure everyone gets some.

Treats aren't a problem for these ladies, Popcorn, bottom of the pecking order, gets in there quick and is doing fine that way. Today she also immediately stole a damp paper towel I had in my hand, ran away with it, held it under her foot and managed to get two rips off it and eat them before I got it away from her. She just prizes it, I have no clue why.

The exception here now is that Hazel has been molting and is very slow and hesitant about foods. So I need to sequester her and let her pick at things and/or feed off my fingers at her own speed in order to get a decent amount in her. Today I forgot that fact, because she was right in the mix there at the corn cob this morning, but I saw that when I gave them all 2 sardines (water no salt), Hazel probably got two teaspoons at most. She did immediately show interest and come over, an improvement from previous days - but, she pointed and bokked warnings at the whole sardines laying in the bowl. Popcorn, Peanut and Butters recognized them, or trusted me more, and immediately laid into them without care. Does molt make chickens forget? They've seen them twice before, maybe not quite as whole as these.

She did peck at it, but it wasn't until the meat was in little bits (I started breaking it up and offering bits on my fingers) that I could get her to eat any. Then she slowly got some gusto about it, but she kept picking up larger chunks from the bowl, putting them down outside the bowl to peck at, and having them stolen. Tomorrow I will separate her so she gets a good portion. It has worked to get her just behind the wire gate in the coop run, where she feels safest, and show her food there and reach in with food on my fingers. The others get some too but from this side of the gate, so she's with everyone eating, and they can't get at her portions.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I've been using wood ash in their dustbath pool since 2020. Mixed with earth, and some sand, and at one time I put a little sulphur in there too. But now it is mostly earth and some wood ash. Probably 5-1 ratio. They love it. It's quite dusty though, I've dampened it down some at times. My main concern is the dust in their lungs. Don't know about that, they are seeking out the dust and dirt elsewhere too, in the open greenhouse frame under the lilac bush for instance.

PS I can't weigh in on the wood types for ashes, though I think pine ash would be fine. For many years we've been burning oak in our wood stove, courtesy of a great local woodsman who has access to what DH wants.

 

[rural mouse]

Geez this is changing fast. Now they say 60mph winds in the next hour.
The warning says if you spot a tornado to go to the basement. How do you spot a tornado? It is dark. There is lightening. It is raining over an inch an hour. Am I supposed to stand outside looking for tornadoes.

1. Risk electrocution standing outside, soggy ground
2. Risk drowning (when the basement floods from all the water)
3. Risk getting picked up, spun around lots, and finding one's self in Oz. Make sure you're wearing red shoes. and watch out for Drop bears and flying monkeys.

In all seriousness, tornado warnings here mean everyone sleeps in the basement. otherwise life is normal.

 

[featherhead007]

Yes, fairness is a human notion I think! But here there are only four chickens total, with your 11? 12? it's more problematic to make sure everyone gets some.

Treats aren't a problem for these ladies, Popcorn, bottom of the pecking order, gets in there quick and is doing fine that way. Today she also immediately stole a damp paper towel I had in my hand, ran away with it, held it under her foot and managed to get two rips off it and eat them before I got it away from her. She just prizes it, I have no clue why.

The exception here now is that Hazel has been molting and is very slow and hesitant about foods. So I need to sequester her and let her pick at things and/or feed off my fingers at her own speed in order to get a decent amount in her. Today I forgot that fact, because she was right in the mix there at the corn cob this morning, but I saw that when I gave them all 2 sardines (water no salt), Hazel probably got two teaspoons at most. She did immediately show interest and come over, an improvement from previous days - but, she pointed and bokked warnings at the whole sardines laying in the bowl. Popcorn, Peanut and Butters recognized them, or trusted me more, and immediately laid into them without care. Does molt make chickens forget? They've seen them twice before, maybe not quite as whole as these.

She did peck at it, but it wasn't until the meat was in little bits (I started breaking it up and offering bits on my fingers) that I could get her to eat any. Then she slowly got some gusto about it, but she kept picking up larger chunks from the bowl, putting them down outside the bowl to peck at, and having them stolen. Tomorrow I will separate her so she gets a good portion. It has worked to get her just behind the wire gate in the coop run, where she feels safest, and show her food there and reach in with food on my fingers. The others get some too but from this side of the gate, so she's with everyone eating, and they can't get at her portions.

This morning, all my chooks received chopped up steak, and a whole gallon of leftover stew that the church gave me (left over from a meeting Friday night) I can’t believe that they ate all the steak, and all the meat chunks from the soup. Ravenous velociraptors!! Gezzz.
Yes I have 12 chooks, but WOW!

 

[featherhead007]

1. Risk electrocution standing outside, soggy ground
2. Risk drowning (when the basement floods from all the water)
3. Risk getting picked up, spun around lots, and finding one's self in Oz. Make sure you're wearing red shoes. and watch out for Drop bears and flying monkeys.

In all seriousness, tornado warnings here mean everyone sleeps in the basement. otherwise life is normal.

Too funny! But very few tornado dangers here. But an unexpected earthquake, might shake you up! (Just saying)

 

[rural mouse]

Too funny! But very few tornado dangers here. But an unexpected earthquake, might shake you up! (Just saying)

We get those too. There was a big one in Idaho a while ago, kid standing in the middle of the room didn't notice. Those of us leaning against the wall (inside the house, but exterior wall) BOUNCED off it. Most of the quakes here come off of Yellowstone (and are under 3.0). Not that one, I think it was close to 6, and hit in the middle of Idaho.

 

[rural mouse]

I think his only surviving immediate family member is an older brother, and I'm not game to try and contact him, it might weird him out.

I think I owe a heap of chicken tax, I'll do that when I get off the computer.

What about public records? Obituary or death certificate?

 

[Ribh]

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.

Yes, I remember several of your rants on this issue & if I could have I would have gone all Campines, as you know. That has not been possible & I have insanely mixed tribes, which you also know. From my own observations I suspect group dynamics are far more complex than we grasp. Everything I read [& @BY Bob's issues with Phyllis] suggested my frizzles would all get picked on but it is not so, my friend. They are all quite high up the pecking order, & Olivia, who is also tiny, part D'Uccle so with feathered feet to boot, gets along with everybody. She is an extremely well liked chicken. Beatha, now my only Aracauna, & one of my older girls, is not really liked by anybody & this was true even before I lost her running mate but since the move the tribes have been far more accepting of her & she of them. The Japanese bantams, who might also have been in trouble, mix easily. It is the Porcelain D'Uccle who is a bit of an outsider but she is the only one of the bantams not laying. I think I mentioned elsewhere my girls seem to hang by colouring & or feathering type rather than breed, so Olivia, B&W D'Uccle frizzle & Portia, SLW frizzle often hang together despite size & breed differences. Desdemona [Birchen Jap] often hangs with Olivia. Portia, despite being a very young bird, only just started laying, has really high status. No~one picks on her. It is complicated & always subtley shifting but it is really rare to see any hen get pecked for any reason here. I do see quite a bit of mutual grooming & the girls will tend to hang in small groups in different parts of the yard but those groups are not stable & are always changing

Having said all that I started with a mixed lot of birds who grew up together & when I have added birds it has been in largish numbers of mixed breeds with long slow integrations. I also have much bigger numbers. I suspect that has made a difference. It is really unusual for any of my girls to squabble. My experience has been so different to @BY Bob's I am always quite shocked by how his girls behave towards each other.

I will be interested to see, now you have your own mixed tribe, what observations you notice, especially as conditions improve for them.