Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Henhouse Harlot]

Thank you. It was inspired by an old thread on here called Fluffy Butt Friday, where every Friday people would post pictures of fluffy butts. I was addicted to it for over a year until it died out.

Fluffy butts/butt fluff are my favorite part of the chicken! Can we reserrect the "fluffy Friday"??

 

[RoyalChick]

I saw robins today! The first robins of the year!

Have you seen any robins @RoyalChick

Yes! On Monday I said hi to a robin just outside the garage.
I have to confess though that the UK Robin wins over the US Robin as a backyard wild bird. The UK Robin has that chicken characteristic of always wanting to investigate what you are up to. So when I was in the UK a few weeks back I had one following me around chatting to me. It helped me be a bit less homesick for my chickens.

 

[RoyalChick]

Ok, so here’s a big “crazy chicken lady” statement. Call it social isolation, cabin fever, or whatever… but I talk to the animals a lot, perhaps a little too much. When I’m working on the house I’ll call to the goats in the barn, and get a “yes mom” answer back. Well, with the chickens (and especially while Sammy was stuck recovering from his morning squabble with Dean in the human coop) I’ve been “talking” chicken to the chickens… and they have been responding. I do the “whiorrrr” BBB predator call and they go for cover.

I don’t know about goats, but in my experience chickens are great conversationalists. When I tell them something they always respond and usually have strong perspectives on the topic (especially Maggie).
Unfortunately I never fully understand the points they are making.

 

[RoyalChick]

Fluffy butts/butt fluff are my favorite part of the chicken! Can we reserrect the "fluffy Friday"??

No need to resurrect - it is alive and well on this thread!
By Wednesday many of us are stalking our chickens to get good fluffy butt pictures to share for FBF.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Oviposition

I decided to research the study that proved the rotation of the egg and I'm glad I did. I thought that they rotated vertically, assuming there is more soft space that way than horizontally which would run into the hips. I think that is exactly what happened to @RebeccaBoyd hen today. The narrow point of the egg poked out and limited rotation of her leg, otherwise it would hurt and perhaps she even knew she might break the egg. As soon as the rotation was done she wanted it out. I'm not certain if the rotation was early or late but I'm leaning towards early as Rebccaboyd did not think egg laying was the issue initially. Therefore it could not have been that far down the tracks.


For those who have not heard of this before:
The egg rotates prior to being laid in a process called oviposition so that the large end comes out first. The oviposition, is regulated by several hormones (oxytocin, arginine-vasotocin and prostaglandines). This hormone surge causes the fully formed egg to go through a 180-degree rotation. It is this rotation that causes the egg to be pushed into the vagina. Bradfield (1951) using X-rays found that hen eggs do rotate 180° within the uterus in a horizontal plane about an hour before laying and in 9 of the 10 hens he studied eggs were laid blunt end first in a lab environment.

@bgmathteach @Ribh @LozzyR @Aussie-Chookmum @MaryJanet @Shadrach @Marie2020 @micstrachan @ChicoryBlue

Thank you for sharing this info. Fascinating how nature makes things happen!

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Oviposition

I decided to research the study that proved the rotation of the egg and I'm glad I did. I thought that they rotated vertically, assuming there is more soft space that way than horizontally which would run into the hips. I think that is exactly what happened to @RebeccaBoyd hen today. The narrow point of the egg poked out and limited rotation of her leg, otherwise it would hurt and perhaps she even knew she might break the egg. As soon as the rotation was done she wanted it out. I'm not certain if the rotation was early or late but I'm leaning towards early as Rebccaboyd did not think egg laying was the issue initially. Therefore it could not have been that far down the tracks.


For those who have not heard of this before:
The egg rotates prior to being laid in a process called oviposition so that the large end comes out first. The oviposition, is regulated by several hormones (oxytocin, arginine-vasotocin and prostaglandines). This hormone surge causes the fully formed egg to go through a 180-degree rotation. It is this rotation that causes the egg to be pushed into the vagina. Bradfield (1951) using X-rays found that hen eggs do rotate 180° within the uterus in a horizontal plane about an hour before laying and in 9 of the 10 hens he studied eggs were laid blunt end first in a lab environment.

@bgmathteach @Ribh @LozzyR @Aussie-Chookmum @MaryJanet @Shadrach @Marie2020 @micstrachan @ChicoryBlue

I honestly had not idea that in the egg making process they rotated. I knew it takes roughly 26 hours from start to finish to create the egg. With that rotation, which I would hope to assume happens at night when they are not moving about it is a real wonder that more problems do not occur. I did not realize it at the time yesterday but it had to be the egg I was feeling that had a little movement. I wonder if while I was prodding it a little bit to try to figure out what I was feeling if I unknowingly dislodged it if it was stuck. I will say I feel for my hens every time they lay a egg. A positive outcome about them all fighting and laying on the porch is that they trust me enough to sit outside with them once they are in the box. I have witnessed many eggs being laid. Those last 2 minutes when they have to lay has to be extremely painful. You can hear them grunt as they are pushing it out and after every egg laid the girls are left standing for a minute open beak breathing before they sit back down.

 

[Ponypoor]

I honestly had not idea that in the egg making process they rotated. I knew it takes roughly 26 hours from start to finish to create the egg. With that rotation, which I would hope to assume happens at night when they are not moving about it is a real wonder that more problems do not occur. I did not realize it at the time yesterday but it had to be the egg I was feeling that had a little movement. I wonder if while I was prodding it a little bit to try to figure out what I was feeling if I unknowingly dislodged it if it was stuck. I will say I feel for my hens every time they lay a egg. A positive outcome about them all fighting and laying on the porch is that they trust me enough to sit outside with them once they are in the box. I have witnessed many eggs being laid. Those last 2 minutes when they have to lay has to be extremely painful. You can hear them grunt as they are pushing it out and after every egg laid the girls are left standing for a minute open beak breathing before they sit back down.

Yes and I just leave them in the box if they don't want to leave. I figure it must be tiring to push a baby out every day!! Or every other day....

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Yes and I just leave them in the box if they don't want to leave. I figure it must be tiring to push a baby out every day!! Or every other day....

Been there and done that once, never ever again.

 

[BY Bob]

he is half Barnvelder and half Ameraucana from my friends tribe’s eggs hatched out here and raised under Sammy and Dean by his foster mama. Unlike his actual siblings he has manners nurture over nature I guess.

Always, nurture over nature when it comes to roosters. Always. They need to be taught by someone.

 

[BY Bob]

These are for Mrs @BY Bob from today’s walk, sorry Bob!View attachment 3010633View attachment 3010635View attachment 3010639View attachment 3010640View attachment 3010642View attachment 3010644View attachment 3010645

She just loves them! No need to ever apologize! The pictures are a real treat for her. Looks like it was a lovely day.