Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

A Clover Conundrum
View attachment 2926450
How am I supposed to tell these apart?

Must be such a nice problem to have.

 

[Marie2020]

Have a lovely Sunday fluffy butts family..

Love ya Bob. tell rose not to chase me

 

[rural mouse]

I'll have jaffars popcorn

If he's anything like mine re: popcorn, you'll have to fight for it.

 

[rural mouse]

Dye 1 brown. Like mine.

I've heard the Brown eggs take Easter egg dye colors and make them more vibrant. true?

 

[BY Bob]

Have a lovely Sunday fluffy butts family..

Love ya Bob. tell rose not to chase me

Done.

 

[BY Bob]

I've heard the Brown eggs take Easter egg dye colors and make them more vibrant. true?

We dyed some beautiful Easter eggs out of brown ones last year.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Aww poor baby. It's rough weather to be missing feathers up your way.

Why is everyone molting so late this year?

Is this a new thing for this year in your and others' experience with chickens? Or is it that "new" (young) chickens now are trending this way? Could it be due to breeding for higher egg production?

The only thing that differentiates Peanut from the other Buckeyes is that Peanut's taken a long time to slow her egg cycle. She was laying, but slowly, for way longer than the others. Her last egg was Nov 29, the previous egg Nov 25, and I think about every 3-4 days for a couple of weeks before that, while everyone else was more or less done. I'm going to say Peanut laid eggs every 3 days on the regular. Butters, I think, also stopped laying only after Hazel and Popcorn stopped, and her molt was also after Hazel's.

I have not kept records as I've mostly not been able to tell who's egg is whose for sure except for Peanut and possibly Popcorn. Peanut lays distinctive eggs - very long skinny ones. (she is the one needing extra calcium and laid weird long very thin-shelled eggs until she got supplements). Popcorn, if I can confirm it next year, lays small, almost round eggs.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

A Clover Conundrum
View attachment 2926450
How am I supposed to tell these apart?

The one at the top of the pic is rounder....would have to see if you consistently get certain- shaped eggs.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I love how your ladies come and sit on your laps when you spend time with them in the back yard.

I wish my girls would snuggle up to me but I have trouble staying still for very long. I suspect I have ADHD,

I may take up meditation in the backyard in the New Year.

Same here, good idea!

 

[BY Bob]

Flockservations

I spent a lot of time with the tribe yesterday. I even let them out to free range. They had an armed guard standing among them the whole time and there was no sign of the hawk. Let's start with those videos.

We can come out?

This helps to demonstrate the fear they still have. As you watch you can see Hattie scare herself and some of the others.

Let's hang out under the apple trees

A New Leader
There has been a definitive change in the pecking order as well. I cannot tell you what happened but Aurora is now clearly number 2. Hattie has given way. I've seen Aurora growl Hattie off a hand full of food and I watched push Hattie off of a patch of leaves yesterday. The entire tribe followed her lead yesterday as to where they went. It is absolutely clear that she was in charge.

I have still seen Lilly push Aurora off of food and Aurora still defers to her elsewhere. So Lilly remains Alpha.

Watching Aurora yesterday I have to say that I am pretty much please with the way she is running things. I think much like Lilly, she has called down now that she is in charge, per se. This will be very interesting to watch.

The question at Fluffy Butt Acres being debated is did Hattie lose her spot because she was on sentinel duty when the hawk caught caught Sylvie and the tribe has asked for a change?