Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

hey bob do you know how to make a peasant nice because my pheasant is mean to me and i dont want to have to sell him

I find that food is the way to their hearts. What is their favorite food? You need to get them to eat from your hand. Always keep your hand low. Let them approach your hand don't push your hand towards them. Always move low and slow so your hand is not threatening. Once they start eating from your hand they will find you to be a good thing and not a threat that needs dealt with.

 

[BY Bob]

is any one licensing to me

Sorry it has taken a while to get through all of yesterday's posts.

 

[Chicks in VA]

Sorry it has taken a while to get through all of yesterday's posts.

I'm sorry for being impatient thanks

 

[BY Bob]

MJ Video of the Day

This is now a thing for me. I am going to try and post a chick video every day for my friend @MaryJanet I hope that everyone will enjoy them as well.

 

[Marie2020]

This is one of the lessons I learned from my Bok, I brought her in for a night or 2 before putting her back out with the pullets until her vet appointment.
I also wonder if having her euthanised was the correct thing to do but I went by your rule Shad of counting the days she wasn’t eating or coming out of the coop and I felt she was suffering too much and I was heartsick for her.
I guess I’ll never know and it doesn’t do well to speculate, otherwise you end up going in circles of guilt

It was likely she had to go so please do not hurt yourself over something that cannot be changed.

 

[Marie2020]

I'm not judging the no socks lifestyle. I'm actually very picky about my socks since I only wear 100% cotton crew socks I never pull above the ankle. But I will say that socks function to collect sweat and stink. Basically a buffer to avoid extremely smelly shoes.

Chicken tax:
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I put bicarbonate on my feet and in my house shoes

 

[Marie2020]

if any one knows the answer let me know

There's a thread in BYC somewhere on the subject of pheasants

I just found one link but there are more
https://www.backyardchickens.com/tags/pheasant/

 

[Marie2020]

“Cannons to the left of me, cannons to the right “

Stuck in the middle

 

[Marie2020]

I waited until I was at my computer to respond to this. Because of that I am now pages behind but what can you do. If you don't like rants please skip this post. I am very passionate on this.

Chickens are social creatures in many ways just like most humans. Most humans start to get upset when they are separated from other humans (I said MOST @Ribh , not ALL). This has become well document as people with the effects of isolation during the pandemic.

Spoiler: this is a non-chicken related rant but it does add to my point

At the height of the pandemic people with severe COVID cases were in the ICU for months. I said months! During that time, when struggling for every breath, frequently on a ventilator unable to speak, they were not allowed to have any family members visit. Many died in those beds all alone. It brings me to tears to think of the horror of dying slowly all alone like that. I always imagine how many might have found the will to fight on if a loved one had simply held their hand and spoken to them.

Around this time I was asked by one of my friends who worked in a healthcare system which was struggling to fight to keep up with COVID a fascinating question.

Would I rather die alone in an ICU bed struggling for breath or be eaten by an alligator?

I chose the alligator as there is no greater horror for me than to die slowly, all alone.

Now imagine you are a chicken. You don't feel well and are trying to hide it. Then your human removes you from your friends and puts you in a box alone in the house. There you will remain until you either get better or die. You have spent you whole life surrounded by your friends. Now they can't even come and touch your beak.

It is an awful thing to do to any social living creature. The people who direct you to do this have absolutely no understanding of what their society means to a chicken. They are only thinking of what is easier for the humans.

To backup @Shadrach point about chickens attaching sick members. I have had too many sick chickens pass away with their friends. I have never seen them attacked by the rest of the tribe. I have only seen the members of the tribe support the sick one until the bitter end. Sometimes like Patsy with Daisy, the greatest hen ever, they even sit with them peacefully as they pass.

I believe that this does occur in factory farms, just like cannibalism does. It is not a product of the chicken's society. Rather it is the product of their horrendous living conditions and lack of a normal chicken society. This incorrect knowledge based upon an abnormal living environment has been handed down and become "common knowledge" which is just plain wrong.

We will never know the depth of their connections. How could we? We are fools to ignore it and we are worse than fools if we don't try to support it and them through acknowledging its existence.

Rant complete. Thank you for reading.

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I'm relieved at long last more and more people are becoming aware, even if only slightly. I adore my battery hens.

Amber who is partly blind is the big boss around here, she has started to fuss my new girls I had too stop her today because she is over doing it. I wondered why feathers were thinning, but I could see she was just being motherly.

 

[Marie2020]

I'm so sorry. That just stinks.

My young worker has a little boy he helps, the boy belongs to his partner and calls him dad. The little one was not well so he was caught up with gettinghim medical treatment. .

He came over this morning added a perch in the run then covered the run too make it draft proof, he said he wanted no more than I already gave him. He then fixed up my plants pots.
I really love spending time with him, he's great at his work and I really enjoy his company.