Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

I got that - but how do I ever see the top?!

As they bank and circle, you can get a glimpse of both sides. takes a while and they have to turn relative to you just right.

 

[Cookies-Chickens2004]

Our other two residents came to us in April as chicks. My wife raised them until they moved outside and then they became my responsibility.

Hattie is our lavender orpington hen. She has not starting laying yet but i expect she will once the days turn longer.
View attachment 1633834

Jabberwockie, Jabber for short, was supposed to be an Easter Egger hen, however, he is clearly not a hen.
View attachment 1633836
He and Hattie are inseperable.

I have a Beautiful Lavender Orpington Lady named "Eliza." She is one of a group of four chicks I raised up this fall. She's very curious, friendly, and follows the Dark Brahma Rooster "Artemis" around like a puppy. I found a funny sign on Amazon- The Fluffy Butt Hut, last one in is a rotten egg!

 

[rural mouse]

Ooh what is that, I want one. Not to go after predators, but, a certain sarcastic brother of mine who has a salt gun for shooting flies. He also likes to use it on unsuspecting sisters.

A baked (or half baked) potato cannon ont he unsuspecting brother should eliminate the salt......but he's likely to take that as a challenge.This may be more fun (especially if you can douse him when he's trying to get you)

https://www.instructables.com/Water-Balloon-Catapult/

 

[bgmathteach]

It was on this thread where someone shared the article on chopped feed, right? Well, you might remember Ester’s necropsy revealed obesity. I’ve cut out meal worms, scratch, millet and cracked corn, but still like provide something for them to hunt for while stuck in the run. I remembered the article on the chop principal, along with the fact that Dorothy and some of the others liked shredded zucchini, so I am now using a bit if this principle. Each morning, along with their mix of their lay crumble, lay pellet and starter/grower crumble, they either get:
• mash with echinacea, goldenseal, olive leaf extract, milk thistle
• some sort of cultured dairy like cottage cheese, greek yogurt or oats soaked in kefir
• grated veggies of some kind like zucchini, cabbage carrot
• kale, either chopped or full leaves

They also get a little sprouted wheat berry each morning and I’m thinking of rotating what I sprout.

They look for this each morning, and it’s fun to watch and learn who loves what. They all love the wheat berries. Flash searches out the zucchini. Cashew is CRAZY for the carrot. Bridge goes for dairy. Flash picks out zucchini. Buttercup likes to stand on the kale leaves and pull of bites. I don’t notice anyone going for purple cabbage, but it’s always gone the next day and in the morning I see healthy, but bright green poops from sone of them, so I know they’re eating the purple cabbage.

Sometimes I also treat with some fresh fruit: tomato, apple (whole or shredded), or berries. In the summer, they get some melon now and then.

It’s a fun way to still be able to give them treats, but in a way that I feel adds to their nutrition instead of detracting from it.

SORRY! MY PHONE INTERFACE GLITCHED OUT AND I COULD NOT FINISH WITHOUT POSTING AND EDITING. SOME OF YOU ALREADY SAW IT BEFORE I FINISHED.

BTW: I love to buy apples/pears from the discount fresh produce area. They are inexpensive, but still good. I then hang them on a flower-pot hook in the run and they go at it - just like a cabbage tether ball. Great fun, makes them work at getting it, too.
(I have also been using 'chop' since reading that article, and mixing it with 1/2 powder/pellets from feed instead of adding the 10 grain Bob's mill - as the 10 grain has soy in it, which I try to limit- I do sometimes add also, any of the following: oats, flaxseed, quinoa, chopped pumpkin seeds (Bob's mill unsalted)), and I always put some kefir in it.

They love a warm meal on these cold days! So, they get something hung once per week, 'chop' once or twice per week, sprouted grains once per week, and my small window boxes with mixed greens growing (easily 8-10 inches long.) every-other week. For a while, I also had ornamental kale that they got once a week, too, but those plants are now gone except for 2 I am hoping to get seeds from. I've decided I need a small but functional green-house just to grow them things for the winter! lol

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

I think I may be dealing with my first ever case of frostbite on the points of a comb. I always figured if I had a case it would be on one of the boys due to their large combs and wattles, but nope, Blueberry has me worried. The back 3 points of her comb have turned yellow. I'll get pictures later, but when I caught her a few minutes ago, the area is dry and there is no swelling. I want to put something on it, but we are dealing with night time temps down to the low teens to single digits right now and I think it would just make the area on her comb worse and be very painful to her.

 

[rural mouse]

Maybe an old crockpot on low?

Warm. Low gets too hot.

 

[rural mouse]

Not sure how they would drink from it have visions of ending up with chicken soup

just like theywould from the horse trough

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

These are not the best pictures but with the way the sun was shining it was very hard to focus on the spots with my camera. What do you all think? If it is frostbite it is entirely her own fault as 2 nights ago she refused to roost in the coop and went 30 feet up into the pine tree.

 

[BY Bob]

I just found out that the egg my son dropped last week when he slipped coming back from the coop with 5 eggs was the same color. That makes The Egg Storm's 2nd egg.

Deer don't faze the chickens AT ALLView attachment 2969708View attachment 2969716
Chickens don't faze deer either (look like this year's fawns) in the foreground.

That's pretty cool. Thanks for circling them.

 

[BY Bob]

I have a Beautiful Lavender Orpington Lady named "Eliza." She is one of a group of four chicks I raised up this fall. She's very curious, friendly, and follows the Dark Brahma Rooster "Artemis" around like a puppy. I found a funny sign on Amazon- The Fluffy Butt Hut, last one in is a rotten egg!View attachment 2969758View attachment 2969760

I remember when Hattie was that small.