Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

My office still seems so empty.

I was sad for you but then I went hold on, isn’t that space already filled by a mid-sized lynx?

 

[featherhead007]

Here’s the two little squirts, waiting on me to bring them inside:
“Daddy, Daddy, it’s getting dark, and we need our perches! And what’s on TV tonight?”

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Return Visit

The hawk was back just 10 minutes ago. It has come in the same way now every time, from the NE parallel to the back fence.

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The littles are still locked in their coop and run but the big ladies were out. I saw the hawk from pretty far out and decided to warn the tribe but how? I don't have the call down like @micstrachan does. So cleverly, I just yelled HAWK! HAWK! It worked! Everyone dove for cover.

The hawk turned tail and flew off. This is not sustainable. What am I going to do?

I love your drawing of the hawk, looks like it came in with a wing suit

Oh dear God!
I know that all the things people use like dummy owls and reflective tape don't work over time because the individual hawks get used to them - but on the theory that this is a juvenile they might work to teach it to go elsewhere as a habit.
How about you festoon the yard with reflective tape and CDs and that sort of stuff and just make generally less hospitable.
One thing I did (which you may have noticed in my photos of the Chickens in the long grass) is put a lot of stakes in the ground - I am using the step in fence stakes that @CrazyChookChookLady and I both love for temporary fencing (I hate that we haven't heard form CCCL recently but I assume you are in contact and would tell us if anything was amiss).
Anyway, I read a lot and watched a lot of video about how hawks dive bomb their prey, and although they can be very adaptable they do prefer open ground. So I made my ground less open by creating a forest with all these stakes (about 4' high) so it requires some precision for a hawk to land and take off. The chickens navigate them just fine at ground level and they are just far enough apart for me to squeeze through (they are also easy to pull up and put back). I make some of them even more visible with reflective tape flying from the top.
For you it could only be a temporary thing because it makes it harder to move around your yard - but I am guessing it might just teach the Hawk to look elsewhere if you had them up for a month or so.
Stakes are not expensive - I bought a big batch on line but you can get them individually at TSC.

You could strategically run strings and things between the stakes too, creating more vertical blocks. I have now two moveable greenhouse frames (7 feet tall, I can walk in them) that I've run 2 inch aviary netting over, and I sometimes use the strong step-in stakes (from Premier) holding up excess netting here and there on the ends. I won't risk them out of these arrangements unless I'm around. Your existing fencing and trees actually offer structure that could be part of an aviary arrangement, either temporary or permanent.

 

[Lady Red]

100% not chicken related (although it could be given the investment into the new coop build)...
Guess who is just 50% into her fiscal year and already hit 100% of her quota?
Tax:

 

[ChicoryBlue]

First CCCL is doing great. The new job is consuming her time but she loves it. I may have mentioned that she split off part of her flock for a friend that wanted to get into chicken keeping. Lucky and Vickie with the Hickie now live on a farm and get to free range all the time. She kept Ned and he is now teaching Thunder (I think that is the right name) how to be a good rooster. I believe that 2 of the Phoenix may have gone with the others as well.

The sticks are an interesting idea but I can't see Mrs BY Bob being willing to look at a yard festooned with sticks. In the past I have locked them up for a couple of weeks with no free range and then shot any visiting hawks with the nerf gun. Provided they stopped for a moment of course. I have not yet plunked one from the air.

I'm not certain that will work this time as there are billions of song birds in my yard. So I would not be removing the food source by removing the hens.

The song birds will move on eventually, unless they are House Sparrows, which I think are very late and very early birds seasonally. What are they, can you tell? What are they eating / doing there?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

In the red corner we have Minnie weighing in at 3lb and 7oz. The breed descriptions from the big US hatcheries say Crested Cream Legbars hens are typically 4-5lbs. So maybe Minnie is indeed under weight. I think more important than the absolute weight will be how her weight develops over time so now I have a starting point.
And in the blue corner we have Diana (who happened to be walking by) weighing in at 4lb and 2oz and the hatchery descriptions say an ISA Brown (which is what I think she is) are typically 5lb. So by that standard she is under weight too.
I didn't yet get to weigh the heavyweight of the flock (Maggie) or Dotty who was showing off again by laying an egg.
Here is the scale I bought. It turned out to be amazingly easy to weigh them - I just stood them on the platform and they stayed there long enough to get a weight. They moved around a bit so the accuracy of the ounces is not brilliant, but good enough. Could be +/- a couple of ounces.
I was about to get a picture of Minnie on the scale when she decided she was bored with this game so I missed the moment.View attachment 2874607

The size of the scale to get - that's what I wondered about, this is a human-sized scale, not a cooking scale, or what? PS LOVE the chicken prints!

 

[cfonts]

I have happy news to share! Kiko laid her first egg today!

 

[Lady Red]

I have happy news to share! Kiko laid her first egg today!

View attachment 2875364

View attachment 2875363

It is perfect!
(Also, your manicure is on point)

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I think these are going to work great. I am going to keep them wrapped in a plastic bag in the coop storage area.

Chicken Tax

View attachment 2874714

"These" and "them" confused me - did you get two scales?

 

[fuentemoon]

We have two tailless chickens now, only Alinta has managed to hang on to any of hers.

We have been having some crazy winds, this leaf is not from my yard. The closest tree I can see it might have come from is the backyard across the street.