Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

She is a very striking looking lady, but she doesn't carry herself like Phyllis does when she scratches in the straw. Which is interesting because I saw some other ways she moved that were more Phyllis-like than say, Hattie-like on one of your earlier videos.

Give her time. Phyllis will teach her the principles

 

[bgmathteach]

Here is my tax offering for complaining about the cold when I know several of you are dealing with colder weather.
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She is quite the charming lady, Chiguita is! Hope some of her eggs hatch so you cn have another Buff girl. I'm sure Branch would love to add another girl to his harem, too!!

I wonder who will hang out with my spotty Appaloosas! Might need to get more chickens - ones with spots!!

Or a silver laced polish?

 

[bgmathteach]

Shenandoah is acting weird today. She’s picking up leaves and sticks, trying to throw them on her back?

Oh, no, does that mean she is thinking about being broody? Sticks & leaves over the back = 'nest building' Okay, I didn't really say that......

 

[RoyalChick]

My best laid plans .. .. ..
I decided today it was time Maggie stopped sleeping in the nest box and went back to roost. My reason is she is clearly doing fine balance-wise and I spotted a tiny bit of poopy feathers at her rear end which I think may be from sleeping sitting in the box rather than on a roost.
So I blocked off her entrance to the upper floor nest box she uses.
All started well, she was hanging out on the main roost with Diana and not even interested in going to the nest boxes.
Until all of a sudden she gets down and tries to go into her box.
When she couldn't get in she didn't turn around and go back to the roost, instead she went to the lower level boxes. So strange that she no longer wants to roost.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

A Fluffy Butt Acres Welcome

Well it seems Phyllis has learned from Aurora.

This morning before daylight Betty got some welcome pecks on the roost.

Then Phyllis gave her the true FBA welcome. Betty went to eat and Phyllis was not having that.

There has been a lot of chasing around the big run. Right now Betty is in the coop and Phyllis is in the run.

I am observing but I do have to work today. I hope they can settle in over time without anyone getting hurt.

Thank you for the videos! I'm way behind again, but trying to do a little current and then catch up. Two things:

First video, notice Betty's feet? She's got her toes well-positioned for bracing, one to back pressure and one to front, good for hanging on to the roost if/when Phyllis tries to peck or push her off. She's anticipating another peck or push and isn't throwing in the towel. Go, Betty!

Second video, the crouch/sitting position Phyllis gets in is interesting. Is that a good attack position, like it gives her more leaping ability, to spring at someone? The series doesn't look too bad. There's not a lot of maneuvering room in the Cluckle Hut, but Phyllis doesn't keep pressing her attacks, it is short, so maybe she's making a statement and isn't out for blood. But it's likely on going, as you said.

You mentioned there are two feeders and waterers. Is one set in the Hut and the other in the run? The Hut has been Phyllis' best safest space, her final retreat area, so to speak. So I can better understand her driving Betty off that feeder than the run one. I look forward to further reports!

 

[The-White-Elephant]

@BY Bob ! I got a picture of Hawk, so you can see her molt. (Chicken in my profile pic)

 

[MaryJanet]

My best laid plans .. .. ..
I decided today it was time Maggie stopped sleeping in the nest box and went back to roost. My reason is she is clearly doing fine balance-wise and I spotted a tiny bit of poopy feathers at her rear end which I think may be from sleeping sitting in the box rather than on a roost.
So I blocked off her entrance to the upper floor nest box she uses.
All started well, she was hanging out on the main roost with Diana and not even interested in going to the nest boxes.
Until all of a sudden she gets down and tries to go into her box.
When she couldn't get in she didn't turn around and go back to the roost, instead she went to the lower level boxes. So strange that she no longer wants to roost.

You trust her to not fall but she doesn't trust herself?

 

[RoyalChick]

You trust her to not fall but she doesn't trust herself?

That is what I have thought for a few weeks - but she spent ages today preening with Diana on the main roost. Then they had a bit of a nap up there. So she really does seem comfortable there.
Then I thought it was cold. Shad had suggested maybe the enclosed space of the nest box is warmer and it probably is. It is much less cold tonight - though still well below freezing. Maybe I should let her stay in nest boxes until it warms up above freezing. The only issue with the 'too cold' theory is that she is gloriously fully feathered and she is first outside on the coldest of mornings and she puffs herself up the size of a beach ball.
It is all a mystery - but of course I feel bad that I forced her into the 'second best' nest box for tonight.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Minnie is devoting herself to cabbage.
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I went out to where all the scrap stuff is stored to find something to make a little roost for Dotty for when I bring her in to the garage.
I had to go across the snow covered field. Lots of prints. More raccoon than fox or coyote. I also got to get close up and personal with the red tailed hawk. I think I can reliably identify it now. Snowy white underneath and muscular. But smaller than the turkey vultures.

Yay on the Red-Tail ID!
Fishers have front paws similar to a raccoon's, in a way, very dextrous. Fishers have made a big comeback in the Northeast. If the raccoon prints are large, check out the walking/leaping pattern, if it's like a stout/weasel's, you have a fisher. I mention this because in the last week or two our fishers are very active. I think they have had their babies and are now out hunting to provide for them. Porcupines are also now more active, and fisher's are the main, practically the only, predator to porcupines in the Northeast.

 

[BY Bob]

What a difference a few feathers make
First we have Dotty. A picture of misery.

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Then her sister Minnie luxuriating in a lot of fluff.
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And then side by side.

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It is indeed very dramatic. I don't understand why her molt is so late this year. It makes no sense and I have never heard of a hen molting in January before. Not that it hasn't happened but I never heard of it.