Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

My lad finally turned up too put concrete at the bottom of the coop and rearranged the perches in their little hideout by my kitchen.

I put a little ball with bell and a disk on a piece of string for them to play with plus another couple of DVDs on a string. After all that they are still banging the plant pots

I wonder, if the plant pots have a bit of mold on them they might be eating that. Or if they are old plastic they might be eating it because it's slightly crumbly. I removed a broken old white plastic chair I had in the run, I noticed the corners of the legs and the front of the seat, which used to be grey-ish with age and who knows what, were becoming white again. Then caught Popcorn tapping on it. So she is eating the plastic. I replaced the chair with an oak one. Now I see she is tapping the other chair on the back, that's a folding wood one holding the big perch. I thought it was pretty clear but I see has a faint bit of red paint on the back. It's probably got lead and arsenic and... I need to get a new and safer project for her, chickens are so industrious

 

[Lexicon]

A co-worker who had her flock attacked and a hen severely mauled by a fox ended up using electric fencing. She is in AB so know it works in really COLD weather

I have an electric fence with six wires, but the snow is up to the top wire right now. I turned it off in November, but last summer I was letting the girls out of their fenced in area to dig up/destroy new ground and that was when I was feeling edgy about that fox. The girls are very good at alerting for aerial predators. I have never seen a dangerous bird before they have, but since they are used to our dogs, I wasn't sure if they would be as aware of the dangers of foxes.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I don’t know, but the balls go 100 feet per second. I have more rounds coming tomorrow, but right now I don’t want to lose any in the yard.

Well you've got Lexi, teach her they are fetchable!

Say Again?

Does anyone know what my ladies are saying here? Maybe @featherhead007 could check with Jaffar for me.

It was single digits in temperatures when I took this so maybe they are saying something like.....

It's so cccccccoooooooolllllllllddddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Ribh, @micstrachan, @MaryJanet, @Aussie-Chookmum, @ChicoryBlue, @LozzyR, @Chicken poppy

That's a warning growl. Clearly Phyllis is clearly taking it very seriously. Sidney not so much, she moved around, and Aurora felt it was safe enough to preen a bit. I wonder what Lilly saw? Maybe something out the window?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Can you believe this just happened?

I’m ready! Hubby came out and was laughing his butt off at me… he had to take a photo. He used my phone, which had been in my hand as I was on BYC. This is where I was when someone made an alert call.
View attachment 2961833

The Buckeyes go still with this call. I might be able to locate a video I made of Queenie making that sound, at the time I didn't know what it was. She was inside in the brooder quarantining, but there is a big picture window on one side of her and a corner window right next to her, I now think she saw a large bird flying by through one of those windows.

 

[featherhead007]

Hahaha, yep that's it!

Well , Shhhhh Shhhhh Shhhhh sounds like a snake to me!

 

[featherhead007]

You are on today!

Didn’t mean that as a pun. But I guess it sounded like it.

 

[Marie2020]

Do they play with the CD at all Marie? I have some hung up high outside to deter hawks but none at chicken height.

I aim to get the CDs hung up for hawks. But I read chickens love their reflections and the colours from the CDs I've put a bell ball behind the one I photographed

I didn't see any interest but the guy here helping said they were looking but cautiously

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Queenie sees something from inside the house

I think I uploaded this before and asked about it, and we talked about the possibility that the warm temperature in my house was causing her problems because she had been an outside bird used to the cold. This was Dec 21, 2020. Now I'm sure she had seen something through the window. She is looking out the window while she makes this call.
RIP Lil' Queenie, I wish I had kept you safer

 

[micstrachan]

Do you think that those would scare off a fox? I am mostly wondering how hard those balls are. I had a persistent fox last summer who was coming around during the daytime and I was considering getting a slingshot, but ended up just letting out my dogs who chased it off and I never saw it again although I am sure it is still around. When we got our first few snowfalls, I could see tracks that paced the fence of my chicken run.

I don’t know. They are foam, so they’re a bit squishy. It packs a pretty good punch, though, so I think it would sting if it made contact. Maybe. I’d kind of like to shoot myself to see how bad it is. Lol!

 

[micstrachan]

The Buckeyes go still with this call. I might be able to locate a video I made of Queenie making that sound, at the time I didn't know what it was. She was inside in the brooder quarantining, but there is a big picture window on one side of her and a corner window right next to her, I now think she saw a large bird flying by through one of those windows.

Probably so!