Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

 

[Ponypoor]

What breed is Sally? She has very interesting markings...I love them ...kinda reverse of most animals...darker on the undersides instead of lighter...

Appaloosa, she would be classified as a roan with 'varnish' markings. Those are always found as darker patches at the elbows, face mask, stifles (front of the leg up near belly), knees, hocks.

Appys as they are know are great camouflage, I have often lost her when she stands in the shade by the trees hahahaha .

 

[Ponypoor]

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How is Chaco doing?

 

[bgmathteach]

I know it isn’t Friday but I had to share because I think Maggie’s color is very pretty in the sun.
Unfortunately the temperatures are heading down below freezing again and no more sun for a few days.
It was nice while it lasted!

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Wow, what a richly colored bottom!! You are right, it is gorgeous in the sunlight

 

[bgmathteach]

Appaloosa, she would be classified as a roan with 'varnish' markings. Those are always found as darker patches at the elbows, face mask, stifles (front of the leg up near belly), knees, hocks.

Appys as they are know are great camouflage, I have often lost her when she stands in the shade by the trees hahahaha .

Yeah, but it looks like she has some on her belly, too!!!!!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Actually, not perfect chicken garden material. We have pulled many of them out all around the yard, but really like them and wanted to keep the ones in front of the picture window of the house. These are yews that have been trimmed over the years. There were MANY, MANY yew shrubs & trees here when we bought the place. While I like them a lot, they are toxic to chickens

Unfortunately, the chickens love to hang out there....they can dust-bath against the house pretty much year round there ( we have a 2.5' overhang of the roof that keeps it dry & snow free, and the shrubs provide shade in the summer & 'roosts' year round.

I'm going to expand their 'extended run' this summer so the compost pile can be inside of it. This will also give me space to put up a pergola type thing (over the compost, but to 'train' 2 grapevines that are growing at the outside edge of the current run....and, hopefully, will plant either a wider shaped arborvitea, or a hemlock, so they can have 'natural roosts' inside the run, with some winter shelter. It will need to be protected for a few years until it gets some size to it to not be destroyed....but in time it should be great.

If anyone has a better suggestion of a plant for this, I would love suggestions! (want something evergreen and that will have enough low branches for roosts...this last criteria is why I'm not going with cedar (red cedar) as once they grow to decent size, low limbs die off.)

I have a chokecherry that is going to be planted in another area of the extended run, and am hoping to get some sand cherries for along part of the southwesterly side.

More 'chickens in the yew' tax: (I apologize n advance for the 'ghost' images...they are reflections on the window as most pics were taken from inside the house.)View attachment 3030885View attachment 3030886 View attachment 3030880View attachment 3030878

I've written to a neighbor here to find out about her plants - she has a bunch of low-ish shrubs her chickens LOVE, and have had no ill effects from. BTW, if yew is toxic, how come your chickens haven't gotten sick from it yet?

Anyway the neighbor's plants might be junipers? It's very pine-like, but low and wide, maybe 3-4 feet high, with good dense cover above and thick spreading branches below that her chickens love to take their midday rest on and under. Her rooster stands guard under the edge of it. When one of her hens was brooding another neighbor's chicks, that mama had them under there a lot, it was great watching them scramble around on the branches.

She has it growing on the dry and sunny side of the house, on a stone-wall terrace she made. It is very close to the road, though not down at road-level, but it is a stoned/paved road the town may salt, and the row of these have done well.

 

[bgmathteach]

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Do you get to ride her often, or is she just eye candy atm? What breed is she?

 

[Ponypoor]

I knew about laminitis (Founder) from too much grazing on lush spring pastures...always thought it was too much too quick...not good to suddenly introduce cows to lush pasture with unlimited access, either....however, always thought clover was a good food. Made me look into it a bit more....this was an interesting read for me! Thank you
Horses & Founder

Wow awesome article, didn't know some of that! I guess I better get Lard butt Lulu off the dead grass!! She is my founder pony....

 

[bgmathteach]

I've written to a neighbor here to find out about her plants - she has a bunch of low-ish shrubs her chickens LOVE, and have had no ill effects from. BTW, if yew is toxic, how come your chickens haven't gotten sick from it yet?

Anyway the neighbor's plants might be junipers? It's very pine-like, but low and wide, maybe 3-4 feet high, with good dense cover above and thick spreading branches below that her chickens love to take their midday rest on and under. Her rooster stands guard under the edge of it. When one of her hens was brooding another neighbor's chicks, that mama had them under there a lot, it was great watching them scramble around on the branches.

She has it growing on the dry and sunny side of the house, on a stone-wall terrace she made. It is very close to the road, though not down at road-level, but it is a stoned/paved road the town may salt, and the row of these have done well.

The needles & berries (ours are trimmed regularly, so no berries ever form) are toxic to eat...so while they may not intentionally eat them, I would be VERY afraid to put one in their run and risk accidental poisoning. They would be more prone to do so in the winter with less to scratch and graze on, imo. They do spend a lot of their free range time 'free ranging' - scratching up this or that, eating grass and such, but there are always a few hanging out there to rest or dust bathe during their 'free range' time.

I should have realized that this would be a great hangout spot and pulled these out too, but at the time, prior to moving both us and the chickens in, I pulled all of the ones on the chicken side of the property plus a few more around the house...basically all but these.
.article on yew's toxicity

 

[bgmathteach]

Wow awesome article, didn't know some of that! I guess I better get Lard butt Lulu off the dead grass!! She is my founder pony....

Or work her hard 3x a week!! Hard to do that when trails are frozen or knee deep in snow...and it is dark by the time work is over for the day......in the winter. Are the paddocks dry enough to lunge her?