Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Shadrach]

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?

I've never put eggs from another hen under a broody. But, I have had quite a few broodies hatch eggs that were laid by another hen in their tribe.
I haven't had a broody hatch eggs from a hen in another tribe.
On the very few occasions a hen from another tribe has tried to lay eggs in another tribes nest the hens attack the intruder. Strangely, the roosters don't and often encourage it.
There is an example of this in this thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cooperative-behavior.1288804/

I would be inclined to believe that any chicks hatched by an existing hen would have a much better chance of being accepted because the hen who hatches the eggs will/should protect the chicks until they are of an age that the broody hen thinks they can cope on their own. This gives the chicks an enormous advantage as one might expect.
If the chicks grow to look radically different from the broody and the others in the group it seems possible that while they may not be driven away they will not have the same status as chicks that look like the rest.

 

[Shadrach]

@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.

I've said my bit for better or worse and as I'm sure Bob knows, no malice was intended. I'll leave it there.

 

[Shadrach]

I’m pretty sure there’s a version where there’s a chorus of Muppets shouting “LAAAAAAA LALALALAAAAAAA” but I can’t find it.

Ok, here’s my tax. My girls throughout the years.

The original duo, Lucy and Emily.
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Lucy, Henny Penny and Chickie (can’t tell who’s who from this shot).
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I think this is Chickie and Penny, according to the date of the photo.
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Baby Bessie and Charlie.
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The tribe keeping Bessie company when she was sick.
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Bessie taunting Jasper.
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“The service here is terrible! Wake me when breakfast is served”. Still one of my favourite photos of Chickie, even though she was unwell.
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Tegan, Nyssa and River arrive.
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As it’s Friday, here’s Nyssa’s fluffy butt.
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My only ever “roost-er”!
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Charlie doing her dinosaur impression.
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Charlie beakbooking Phyllis.
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Lucy, having got lighter in colour as she got older. (Bonus fluffy butt).
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Lap-chicken!

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Now that's what I call a proper tax payment.

 

[BY Bob]

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.

You have nothing for which to apologize. I am fully able to consider suggestions from others. I am smart enough to know when I post here that I'm going to get suggestions. I have been forced to look at many things differently by posts here and that's good.

I hope that no one feels offended that I haven't taken your suggestion and/ or said why not. I promise I consider them all.

There is no pressure anyone here can place on me that is more than I put on myself. Frankly, there is no doubt, I am super stressed right now trying to make this work.

 

[BY Bob]

A fluffy butt for Friday

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A lovely one it is.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

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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I read this before.
Best story ever!!!

 

[BY Bob]

I've said my bit for better or worse and as I'm sure Bob knows, no malice was intended. I'll leave it there.

You know I understood no malice was intended and if you can't tell your friends what you think, then you are not friends. As much as any two people who have never verbally communicated can be, I consider you my friend.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Baby It's Cold Outside

They are clearly close together tonight. I moved the heater to the big coop for Sansa. So perhaps the cold helped to move this along.
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So of course Sansa chose the nest box farthest from the heater.

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Well, Sansa must like the still air. You could try a heating pad bungeed to or hung on the wall on one side of that nestbox and see if she likes it. Or even on the bottom of the nest box.

I'd love to hear about any observations of Sylvie and Phyllis's roosting routine, when you get a chance. Looks good so far! Is Phyllis tolerating her better? Where does everyone start out? Does Sylvie start out closer than she did before? Or does she inch much closer after Phyllis is all settled down and close to sleep?

 

[Ponypoor]

The Human Roost

@aart this one is for you

I've been trying to retame the littles so my process is to go sit in the run with them every morning for an hour or so. Give them some scratch and mealy worms and get them used to being around me again. Then in the evenings I let them out for supervised free range. Having had a Hawk attack my chicks last fall, while they were in a protected run, there is no unsuprvised free ranging.

Maleficent has been taming much quicker. She is a very curious young lady and has been pecking at my shoes and pulling on my shoe laces. Here is Maleficent around my legs yesterday morning.
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Aurora has stayed at arms length. I have also observed that Aurora is clearly the Alpha in their little group. She is actual quite emphatic at reminding Maleficent of her place not just pecking her but even pulling on her neck feathers.

I noticed Maleficent measuring me up yesterday morning. Doing that neck thing they do when trying to decide how high something is to fly up onto. Let me also say that Maleficent has been going to the roost everynight but Aurora wants nothing to do with it and yells at her until she comes down and joins her in the house to sleep. Maleficient did not decide to hop up yesterday morning, but the signs were there.

Last evening I let them out for their two hours of supervised free range and brought a treat, spaghetti. They had never seen spaghetti before but my other hens go crazy for it. Here they are with their first piece of spaghetti.

Well after they had eaten their spaghetti and scratched around for an hour or so, Maleficent came around me. Normally they stay far away when not trapped in the run with me so I saw this as a very good sign. After a few moments she started sizing up my leg and before you know it, up she came. Here she is just after she arrived.

After a few moments of looking around, she sat down and snuggled. I could have died. She melted my heart.

Aurora stood off talking to her but she did not care. It only lasted a few minutes but it was so sweet. Eventually she hopped down and they went off scratching again.

It was dreary and drizzly yesterday and after 90 minutes of sitting out there it was getting old. The warmth of my brief cuddle had faded away. The bigs had all gone to bed but the littles were squeezing every last piece of daylight before they went to bed. Then Maleficent decided to stop by again, only this time very little thought, one jump and she was up on my leg, then she moved to the arm of the chair next to me and from there to the back of the chair where she settled down for a moment. Ok I thought, a new roosting location. I can get you easily from there no problem. Here she is on the chair back.
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Aurora did not like this one bit but she must have thought I need to join her. She went to jump directly onto the chair but there was no cushion and she fell through the seat before I could catch her. The next thing I know Maleficent is standing up and talking to me. She proceeds to walk across the back of the chair to my shoulders and settles on my left shoulder, nuzzling my neck. Aurora has started yelling from the ground and before I can react has taken off and is flying towards my face. (this is where I picture aart swatting her from the air) I froze in shock. She cleared the brim of my hat and landed on my head!

I tried to take some selfies of the situation as I could not believe what was going on. Here are a few.
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I called my wife to come see this and this is the photo she took.
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It took me a while to realize this but Maleficent had decided to sleep on me for the night. As I said, Aurora is clearly the alfa hen as from my head she started trying to bully Maleficent. Now my head is not flat (in case you were wondering). Somehow she had the balance to sit on a hat on my head and reach down to my shoulder to peck at poor Maleficent. This ended after a while and I swear Maleficent was purring as she tucked her head around my neck.

I decided to use the situation to my roost training advantage. I let it get pretty dark as you can tell from this picture before I decided to remove them from my body and put them to bed.
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With much squawking and complaining, I got them off my head and shoulders and placed them not in the house but on their roost where they had to spend the night because it was too dark to move. That was Aurora on my head just before I moved them to their roost. Hopefully tonight they go to bed in their coop, not on me.

Have been reading for m beginning and just had to say awesome

 

[featherhead007]

What is she thinking?