Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

I will go a long way to help someone. . You are pretty far away but not impossible to reach.

And I do have an aircraft! So, it’s not too impossible to get to you either!

 

[bgmathteach]

Butters' chest. Digging away and getting something, but I can't tell what. I love her steady gaze. That's Butters!
View attachment 2872524
View attachment 2872525

She's got a Leghorn-looking back-end now, would you say? Kind of. Missing so many of the feathers that surround the base.
View attachment 2872530

She is beautiful even in her disheveled, molting state. You are right, she has a steady, calm, 'okay, and what now" kind of stare! I believe you have told us before, but please remind me...what breed is she? She truly is beautiful.
(Though, I must say, aside from naked necks [I just can't get used to that look], I find most chickens lovely/handsome, now that I have gotten to appreciate their chickeness!)

 

[rural mouse]

Mommy, I’m scared! That bird Butters, is staring at me, I think she wants to jump thru this screen, and bite me! (Or maybe she just wants the meally worms ?

Butters has a steady eye and an air of "I'm workin' 'ere. Don't bother me!" Definitely with a working man New England area STRONG accent.

Love the expression. She looks calm and steady in spite of the ruffled feathers.

 

[RoyalChick]

Fortunately, they have excellent coloring to be camouflaged in the leafy area. They are very hard to spot. It is their white head poofs for which I look.

OK I am going to go back to the picture and see if I can find them both. Don't tell me I want to find them on my own (I got one already - not sure which)

EDITED
I found them both!!!

 

[featherhead007]

I’m firing Jaffar! He was supposed to be my alarm cluck this morning, but he slept in (very comfortable next to me) yes, he’s still my rooster, but I cannot count on him to wake me up! Gezz

 

[BY Bob]

Size comparison, just checked coop, had another pullet egg, probably Nellie again. Today's eggs, so far...View attachment 2872535

Another newbie!

 

[BY Bob]

OK I am going to go back to the picture and see if I can find them both. Don't tell me I want to find them on my own (I got one already - not sure which)

EDITED
I found them both!!!

Was it the head poofs?

 

[Blazinga]

This morning Plati was squatting and squat walked around when I went to greet her. Feet aren't in the ideal pose, but she is up and moving a bit.

 

[featherhead007]

I have three broody hens now. What should I do! they are setting, and refuse my intervention. (I have enough chickens already) even the local stray cats, have been around, hunting mice and eating my chooks leftovers!

 

[Shadrach]

What am I going to do with Phyllis

First let me say that I appreciate all of the advice from everyone. It really did help me and I am grateful to you all for being willing to provide your thoughts. I considered a lot of things. From the two extremes lock her up with them to leave everyone alone to a lot of "half measures".

I have been accused of vacillating. In a way that was absolutely true because I had reached the end of what I had mapped out when I started this journey. It is easy to forget that the original plan called for Phyllis to raise the chicks herself. That part was not in the cards this time.

Perhaps the best way to assume they bonded would be to force them to live together in the coop and run for months. If you had seen her this morning when the door to the main coop opened before the hut you would know that I could not do that to her. She was frantic to be out with the others.

Should I rely on the Birds of a Feather process and let them be at it and choose for themselves. Who knows what might happen? It would be all up to the birds.

The Plan
What I have decided on is that I am going to give things a small push and then leave it up to them. Phyllis is already being forced out or just choosing not to roost in the main coop around half the time right now anyway. In those instances I have been putting her in with the littles for Phyllis's safety with the added benefit of them spending time together. I am now going to add moving her from the main coop on the nights where she roosts there. So every night for the next few weeks, Phyllis will be sleeping in the hut. As a means of making it a nice place in which to wake up, I will be providing meal worms on the floor of the hut, every time I place Phyllis onto the roost. Perhaps this breakfast of chicken champions will convince her it is a pretty nice place to sleep.

This is as far as I am willing to go to try and make her transition from the main coop. This solution is compromise that my heart and head will allow. In the end Phyllis will still get to choose her place and her friends. Hopefully she will hang with the new ladies eventually and live a less pecky life.

Please feel free to go on the record and tell me I am making a mistake. It does not bother me. I am wrong a lot in life. You are however very unlikely to change my mind. Unless something untoward happens, I can't see myself deviating from the plan outlined above.

It all sounds reasonable to me Bob.
I do have to warn you that the last hen I decided to move at night still needed moving five years later.
This was Dink who did not like all the roost time bickering, not that hse couldn't hold her own, and decided that going up the magnolia tree until bucket boy lifted her down and placed her on the roost once everything had quietened down was by far the more civilised way of going to bed.
I think you'll be a bit like me though and come to enjoy it.