Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Lilly Update

Sydney went with Lilly today for her second dose of doxycycline. Lilly is also on Metacam now. Once a day.

The culture results from her stool came back and were normal flora essentially. No salmonella which always surprises me. But my tribe has never had salmonella when cultured.

The entire tribe is now on probiotics as well. We will reevaluate her condition on next Wednesday. Hopefully she continues to improve.

Sydney and Lilly on their trip.

 

[BY Bob]

Awww. Yes. She is a pretty little thing. I am not worried about her looks. I just hate that I let this happen. So stupid of me. Not so smart of her either come to think of it.

Come on now. You are sounding like me. I probably would have done the same thing as you. Things happen. She is responsible is well.

Rest easy that she is not in pain and not in any danger. It will work out well.

 

[BY Bob]

Aww Dotty. Will it eventually drop off?

Yes it will. On its own.

 

[BY Bob]

I need some coaching or just some tips and tricks from @BY Bob or anyone who has a similar heated waterer to the one that he and I have.
It is something like the one in the picture below. The help I need is any tips to making filling it easier. Mine holds 4 gallons so not super heavy when full but still somewhat weighty.
I cracked my first one by dropping it on the floor when turning it over once full. So I got a replacement.
I have just come in from refilling that one in anticipation of some cold nights ahead. The first time I tried to turn it over the top rotated off and 4 gallons of water spilled everywhere. I admit I got a bit flustered.
I did manage it on the second try but it was a painful process that was not made any easier by the very loud and not particularly constructive suggestions provided by the princesses. Maggie and Dotty were particularly critical and came close to hurting my feelings.
Lesson one is exclude the ladies while I try and do this.
But there must be a trick to turning it over without getting sopping wet.
I am off to dry off and recover my equanimity!

View attachment 3002948

When you turn it over it is real easy to get soaked. Before turning it over, look for where the water comes out and tip it so that portion tips over last. If that doesn't make sense, give me a call and I'll try and explain it better.

 

[BY Bob]

I'm sure there are many reasons for this suggestion being unhelpful, but can it be filled and flipped above a sink and then carried into position in the coop and plugged in?

It's is so heavy and awkward that turning it over in the air above a sink would be very difficult.

 

[BY Bob]

The black part will definitely drop off. We will have to see how the yellow part develops - that is less badly damaged so there is some hope it will survive but probably it won't.

It will be ok. She will have more character and a story to tell any new hens that might join your tribe.

 

[BY Bob]

So our little windstorm on top of all the other crazy weather lately did more than just remove one of my French doors, it also dropped a smaller cedar across the road near our trailer (DH and I took care of that yesterday on the way down to drop off my moms smokes) and did this to our Dogwood Tree. This was the second largest Dogwood in the Province of BC, and was debatably older than the largest as well.View attachment 3003076

How tragic.

 

[MaryJanet]

It will be ok. She will have more character and a story to tell any new hens that might join your tribe.

She'll go from Princess Dotty to Pirate Dotty.

 

[BY Bob]

I would LOVE a smaller one. And in the summer that is what they have. But I haven't found a smaller heated one. Grrrr.
And yes - the nipple waterer would be an option. They have a nipple waterer on a heated base inside the coop already, so I could just abandon the hanging waterer in the winter altogeher and let them deal with the nipple one.
But I am a softy - and they clearly prefer the open one (though they are perfectly adept at using the nipples).
Maybe I just need to practice more - the second time today (after I washed the floor of the servants' quarters in the Chicken Palace) I was clearly already a bit better at it!

One of her links was a 2.5 gallon one that looks a lot easier to work with. You should look at it. I probably will.

 

[BY Bob]

Pretty sure the remaining upright branch will be ok… but the poor tree is a mess. all of those downed branches are huge though, especially for a west coast dogwood this puts it in better perspective, it’s around 3-4’ at the trunk and about 100’ highView attachment 3003119

Beautiful tree. Very sad to see it broken like that.