Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ribh]

@Shadrach

Same as RC.

Plus, just to add all three of my chickens are different breeds except for my new girls who are now fitting perfectly.
It looks like they switch too their duties daily, princess on the look out one day Agatha the next and today I noticed it's flexi with the cat.
I find that so cute.

I can't speak for other breeds and I know from experience that us humans are no where near perfect when caring for chickens...
I've recently met breeders and rescuer's and I now wouldn't bath a chicken I've learned better but the breeders still do.

We are not perfect as I've already stated and going on opening up wounds is not helpful or kind. I'm a strong believer in saying as it is but only to a limit!.

To be perfectly Frank with you I think Bob has had enough emotional blows as it is, don't you.

Shad himself would tell you it is possible to keep mixed breeds, but not optimal. We've had this discussion many times simply because I have one of the oddest, most mixed flocks going ~ without any of the issues Bob faces. However between Shad's advice & Bob's issues when I had the opportunity to add several beautiful Polish to my tribe I turned them down. I don't think Bob will take Shad's advice amiss. They too have had this discussion several times but ultimately the decision is Bob's. Like RC I think, with time, Bob will have a Polish sub~tribe without having to rehome completely. I certainly hope so as Bob has such a bond with Phyllis & Sylvie but what is to be admired in Shad's comment is that he has put the chickens' well being first. Most of us don't. We love & care about them but put our feelings above what might be better for the chickens.

 

[LozzyR]

Strangely that does seem to work for a period of time at least

My girls seem to like hanging out in front of their mirror.

 

[MaryJanet]

My understanding of what Bob is trying to do is indeed 'rehome' Phyllis to a Polish only tribe at his house. That seems to me a reasonable response to the situation he and Phyllis found themselves.
I am not sure what the benefit is in trying to apportion blame to the situation in the first place. How much should we put on the creators of the Polish breed in the first place? Incidentally, I believe they were Dutchmen in the 15th or possibly 16th century.
There is no guarantee that Phyllis would do better in a Polish tribe cared for by someone else rather than a Polish tribe cared for by Bob. And from what we have seen she is actually doing fine now she roosts away from the big hens. Of course her Polish tribe is fragile, only one other member who is still young and vulnerable, but I wouldn't write it off just yet.

I agree, however I want to highlight Shad's point about all the pressure we place on Bob when we make suggestions. I wish I'd read Shad's post 5 minutes earlier because it would've prevented me from writing a suggestion to Bob in a DM.

Bob, I apologise for all the times I shared my ideas with you without being invited first. I won't do that again.

 

[MaryJanet]

This was a interesting read and I can see many of the points you made. I'm wondering and this is entirely too late but for someone maybe in the future thinking of wanting to add a different breed to their flock that in all likelihood would cause problems similar to Bob's if allowing a broody to hatch out and raise chicks be a better route? Let's pretend that Bob's flock was back to only Lily, Hattie, and Aurora. Let's also pretend that one of the girls went broody, and in order to add Mrs Bob's desired breed he had found and purchased some polish eggs for her to hatch. Would those chicks after they were done being raised by momma possibly have been better accepted into the flock or do you think the original girls would have singled them out after weaning for being so different?

Good question and it's one I think about every now and then. For this reason, I'm thinking of buying fertile eggs for Mary to hatch instead of older pullets.

 

[MaryJanet]

This is truly special tax. I just loved this. Thanks so much.

I loved it too

 

[MaryJanet]

The Thanksgiving Chicken

Most of you regular readers to the thread will remember this story. I've have decided to retell it for those that may not have heard it before and for those of you who will enjoy it once more. For those that haven’t here is the story of the chicken that had cherry pie for Thanksgiving.

Our first flock members were all white leghorns. Wonderful birds but very sleek and slim. When poor Elphie passed we got Patsy and Lilly to replace her. One thing, Patsy for sure and Lilly as well, could not be described as is slim. We had gotten them shortly before Thanksgiving and my niece was really fascinated by chickens. She started asking if she could touch one of the fluffy chickens. I said to her that we would see later.

After dinner was over and some of the table was cleared I decided to go and get one of the new hens for my niece to touch. It was dark by now and I knew I could easily pluck one off of the roost. Actually I remembered while walking out to the coop that sometimes Lilly would sleep in the nesting box because the pecking order wasn’t too set yet. I opened the nesting box lid and there was Lilly. Easy peasy, I scooped her up and took her to he house. I had intended to have my niece come out to the deck and pet her there.

That would not be what would happen.

When I got to the back door, she did not have shoes on and it was very cold outside. So my wife said to bring Lilly in for her to pet her. When our dining room table is fully extended there is almost no room between my wife’s chair at the end and the backdoor. Here is a picture of the table extended. The geometry is important as it will impact the consequences of this simple thing, voluntarily bringing a chicken into my house with the biggest meal of the year on the table.

The table extended

So I entered the house with Lilly in my arms. I was kind of positioned behind my wife and I let my niece come behind my wife to pet Lilly. All was good. And then…..

“Can I hold her? Please. Can I hold her? She’s so fluffy and soft. Pretty Please?”

Then from my mother, “Let her hold the chicken”. This from a woman that my whole life growing up would have nothing to do with chickens and refused to EVER touch one let alone have one in her house.

I knew in my mind that this was a bad idea but my mother told me to do it. How could I not. So I proceeded to show her how to hold the chicken and then handed the chicken past my wife to her so she could hold her. She did a great job properly supporting Lilly and all was good. Amazingly, no one took a photo of her holding Lilly.

While she was holding Lilly her little brother came over to pet the chicken as well. She turned to let him. By turning to let him pet Lilly, she effectively blocked me from Lilly as hers and my wife’s bodies were between me and the chicken. Then the expected happened…….

“I want to hold her? Please. Can I hold her? She’s so fluffy and soft. Pretty Please?”

And mother again, “Let him hold her. It’s only fair.” This woman my whole life told me one thing over and over, “Life is not fair.” is now telling me to make it fair.

Now my nephew at the time was not very old, maybe 5? [I am not longer sure and there are no pictures to check the date.] I did not like this idea at all but Lilly was already outside of my control. My niece turned to her younger brother and proceeded to hand him Lilly, with no instruction. Disaster was about to ensue.

Except it didn’t. Lilly managed to hook one of her toes in his shirt and held herself up. I could see the setup from where I was, out of reach of the hen. I started counting in my head. I knew this would be limited in time and I wanted to get Lilly back quickly.

Then the unthinkable happened. My wife reach over and unhooked Lilly’s nail. When asked later why she would do something so foolish my wife responded, “I didn’t want her to put a hole in his shirt.”

What happens when a hen starts to fall through the air? Crazed flapping began in earnest. My nephew fell backwards as the wings started to beat his face. If I had been able to reach her this was the moment all could have been avoided. Unfortunately both my niece and my wife moved backwards towards me and away from the flapping even further blocking me. Lilly never hit the ground and she actually hovered for what seemed like forever. Unfortunately I would never make it to her.

After hovering like a helicopter, Lilly started to gain altitude. The closest thing for her to land on was the table. The table that had on it a partially eaten turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and multiple pies. Lilly hits the table and immediately takes off heading right down the length of the table. All she wanted to do was get as far from this situation as possible. All I could do was to watch in horror praying that she did not step in anything too important. ½ way down the table was my favorite pie. The only type of pie of which we only had 1, the cherry pie.

Lilly stepped right into the middle of it. It was the only thing on the entire table that she touched.

Now she was headed down the table with cherries all over her foot. Did I mention that we had just replaced our carpeting? It was not even a month old and I had a frantic chicken running down the table headed towards the living room with only 1 person in her way.

My mother, the instigator of this whole series of events, the woman who hated chickens and swore she would never touch one, was the only person between Lilly and freedom. The only person between Lilly and an expensive carpet cleaning bill. This woman as calm as if she did it every day simply grabbed Lilly when she got to her like it was no big deal.

I finally got un-trapped from the end of the table and went and gathered Lilly up. Back to the coop she went. Both her and I relieved that she was back where she belonged. When I reentered the house my sister-in-law was describing how we could just cut Lilly’s footprint out of the pie and still eat it. I never said a word. I walked over grabbed the pie, took it to the run and dumped it in for the girls. It was a Black Friday surprise I am certain they never forgot.


The Thanksgiving Chicken herself.

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Yay!! I love this story!! Thank you for re-telling it!

 

[MaryJanet]

A fluffy butt for Friday

 

[LozzyR]

What is to be admired in Shad's comment is that he has put the chickens' well being first. Most of us don't. We love & care about them but put our feelings above what might be better for the chickens.

Whilst I can appreciate a pretty chicken, what I really want for my girls is longevity and I’m starting to see that I’m not going to get that from pure-bred heritage breeds. What I need is genetically-diverse barnyard mixes and I’m not sure where to find them. I would get some from my frizzle-breeder friend if I could, but she just lives too far away.

 

[Shadrach]

I looked back at the camera recordings from yesterday and there were two interesting things. One was an incident where Maggie did peer into the nest box while Dotty was in there and appeared to take a few stabs at her but nothing like what we saw the day before and she didn't try to drag Dotty out.
The second was a short dominance encounter outside the nest boxes which you can see in the video below somewhere around the 28 second mark.
I need to keep watching but I think it quite likely that Dotty is challenging Maggie's position as enforcer and this is Maggie's response. I haven't seen more than a little - but Dotty is a pushy little hen and sometimes even challenges Diana (who has become top hen since Elizabeth died).
No egg from Dotty, sadly an egg with no shell from Diana.

Interesting. A jump but no foot paddle. If Maggie intended to do harm to Dotty she would have scraped her feet down Dotties back and pecked her head while she was on her back.
It's not a mating jump either from what I've obseved with roosters.

 

[Ribh]

Whilst I can appreciate a pretty chicken, what I really want for my girls is longevity and I’m starting to see that I’m not going to get that from pure-bred heritage breeds. What I need is genetically-diverse barnyard mixes and I’m not sure where to find them. I would get some from my frizzle-breeder friend if I could, but she just lives too far away.

Consider bantams. From what I've seen they are much, much hardier than standards with far fewer problems. I'm considering an almost all bantam flock with just Campine standards because I love my Campines.