Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

It is definitely not Maggie’s personal nest. She likes top right not bottom left.
I think dominance is a possibility. Dotty is challenging me and I think may have tried challenging Maggie. So this may be about teaching her not to do that. But it was very persistent and very associated with the nest box. In between they were just as normal.
Maggie is likely having a bad day. She lost a lot of feathers over the last few days and it has turned cold and windy.
The only other change is that Diana randomly laid in ‘Maggie’s box’ the other day. So maybe Maggie feels threatened and is taking it out on the next chicken down. But I am not sure Maggie would even know Diana laid in her nest because she isn’t going in to check.
I will see what the cameras pick up tomorrow. Meanwhile I will dig up the lidded cat litter box (I think it is in the garage with the snow shoes!!) so I can supply a new nest box at short notice.

So is Dotty pecking Maggie's ankles?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

If you want me to be closer to you, get closer to me

At roosting time it appeared Phyllis was further down the other end of the roost.
View attachment 2907632

I checked right now and it sure seems like Phyllis has moved closer to Sylvie to me. What does everyone else think?

View attachment 2907634


Skunk!

I went out to close up the complex tonight and I surprised a skunk sitting under the bird feeder by the coop. It did not run away. No fear of me at all. I, however, had much fear of it. We parted company amicably.

Yup but both - Sylvie moved to the right and Phyllis moved toward the camera closer to her also.

 

[Shadrach]

No, Dotty has never gone broody.
From what you observed in the video do you think it is a dangerous level of violence? I haven't seen any blood on Dotty though she isn't the easiest to examine because she attacks me if I get too handsy because (as previously posted) I am clearly a long way beneath her in the pecking order.

There are many things I hate watching in the world of chickens. What used to catch me out and what catches out many others is 1) how they interpret the violence and 2) their assesment of it's gravity.
I wrote an article about pecking for this very reason. What often looks a savage peck doesn't even make contact with the chicken on the receiving end. Pecks to the body are absorbed by the feathers. The recipient may not even feel it but they know they've been told.
Everybody talks/writes about the pecking order but often don't really understand why it has developed and what it actually means in the chickens world.
For the heirachy ( i don't like the term pecking order ) to work the order needs to be maintained. As I write in the articles title, not all pecks are equal.

The time to worry is when injuries are apparent. I'm not talking about a few spots of blood on a comb or wattles, that's much like a small bruise or a tiny cut on a human to a chicken and they accept it as part of living in chicken society.
I've seen a few hens who have has serious fights/telling offs and they sometimes look like somethign from a horror film; blood and snot everywhere.
Chickens fight. Hens fight hens. Roosters fight roosters. Hens fight roosters. It's what they do. At least they don't kill as easily and as indescriminantly as humans.
It all goes wrong when they do not have enough room to get away from each other.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/pecking-not-all-pecks-are-equal.75036/

 

[micstrachan]

You have very neutral colors in the other parts of the room there. So the flowers add a nice color that you can change seasonally, whatever is in bloom. This is a beautiful arrangement! Food for the soul is not frivolous if you can afford it, imo.

Thank you! As much as I would like to, I do not do fresh flowers all year round. I don’t usually do this much in the fall, I’ve just really felt like it this year. At Christmas, I add colorful Christmas pillows and red & white flowers. I probably have a photo somewhere, but I can just take a new one this year. I might do the occasional spring arrangement.around Easter time, but not always.

 

[Blazinga]

I still want a few Easter Eggers! (I have plenty of room)

Just remember they're messy birds who like to spill water and devour strawberries.

 

[Shadrach]

Initial Necropsy Results are Back

It seems to have been a congenital defect. There was an abnormality in her brain/skull.

It does rule out trauma as the cause. The hemorrhage in the skin at the base of the skull is likely from her falling off the roost that night.

Here is the text of the initial report.

The most significant macroscopic findings in this chicken involved a suspect meningoencephalocele with adjacent subcutaneous hemorrhage, subcutaneous masses within the neck, and subjective thickening of the right sacral plexus. A meningoencephalocele is a congenital abnormality that occurs when there is improper formation/fusing of the bones of the calvarium and portions of the meninges and/or neuroparenchyma are external to the remaining bones. In this case, there was hemorrhage within the overlying subcutaneous tissue and at the base of the skull which may suggest trauma. While there was evidence of trauma in the head region, there were no obvious fractures of the bones indicating the brain exposure was a pre-existing condition and not secondary to trauma. In addition to this finding, there were masses within the subcutaneous tissue along the neck and subjective thickening of the right sacral plexus which may suggest this chicken had Marek’s disease.

My poor baby......
View attachment 2907775

I'm sad that this has happened to you Bob but it does illustrate what happens when humans decide they are going to interfere in natural selection.
As Rebbeca points out in a later post some of these bred for looks breeds are damaged. In the normal course of events these breeds just wouldn't survive.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I am grateful to my hen, Ruth because she always is the first to try out a new nest box.
I think she gets irritated with all the nest box drama and switches to the new box, but unfortunately for her this means that the others eventually start using the box she pioneered and then she is embroiled in drama again!
Ruth:
View attachment 2907984

Wow what a stunning picture of Ruth! Handsome and magnificent. I don't know breeds well. What is she?

 

[featherhead007]

Just remember they're messy birds who like to spill water and devour strawberries.

I can deal with that!

 

[featherhead007]

Poor Dakota is on her perch by herself again tonight. Arizona is on her hidden nest, somewhere outside (she wants to be a mama, I’m gonna let her.) a Cochin roo and her, would make awesome chicklets!

 

[Blazinga]

Initial Necropsy Results are Back

It seems to have been a congenital defect. There was an abnormality in her brain/skull.

It does rule out trauma as the cause. The hemorrhage in the skin at the base of the skull is likely from her falling off the roost that night.

Here is the text of the initial report.

The most significant macroscopic findings in this chicken involved a suspect meningoencephalocele with adjacent subcutaneous hemorrhage, subcutaneous masses within the neck, and subjective thickening of the right sacral plexus. A meningoencephalocele is a congenital abnormality that occurs when there is improper formation/fusing of the bones of the calvarium and portions of the meninges and/or neuroparenchyma are external to the remaining bones. In this case, there was hemorrhage within the overlying subcutaneous tissue and at the base of the skull which may suggest trauma. While there was evidence of trauma in the head region, there were no obvious fractures of the bones indicating the brain exposure was a pre-existing condition and not secondary to trauma. In addition to this finding, there were masses within the subcutaneous tissue along the neck and subjective thickening of the right sacral plexus which may suggest this chicken had Marek’s disease.

My poor baby......
View attachment 2907775

This is reminding me a lot of the brain being unprotected in crested ducks. I'm wondering if Legertha's condition is similar to the rare chance a homozygous crested duck is born. Usually they die before hatch due to the brain exiting the skull. Those that do survive have bigger crests. Thinking back, Legertha did have a much larger crest than Sylvie.