Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

Monday Mug:
Blanche photo bombing my pics last week haha

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No chance of getting outside anytime soon this week, -13 and snow today
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The Is for Blanche not the white-out.

 

[BY Bob]

All this genetics talk had me examining the tribe more closely, so I'm doing Monday Mugs with a twist: feather mugs

Storm with the Blue, dark edged
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Silver, colombian pattern, with a bit of Storm
View attachment 3040633Cuckoo, barring, but blurred, somewhat messy for classicView attachment 3040635

Pear, Partridge pencilling very crispView attachment 3040636

Side by side Twirp and Nellie, both with hen color (roos have dark/black breasts), both started as classic chipmunk. One went silver, one gold. Silver has the green/purple shiny on the black, gold doesn't.
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Cheetah in true gold colors, pencilling underneath not crisp like Pear's isView attachment 3040638

Wonderful photos and lessons. So many beautiful feathers to be seen in chickens!

 

[BY Bob]

Monday Mug:
Blanche photo bombing my pics last week haha

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No chance of getting outside anytime soon this week, -13 and snow today
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Winter just won't give up.

 

[BY Bob]

Monday Mugs

Looks like dose of lavender is in order today.

 

[RoyalChick]

Monday Mugs

Looks like dose of lavender is in order today.
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Always!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

That is a wonderful idea but it would not work. She only buys and eats jumbo white eggs. I have 18 hens, all but 2 are brown egg layers. My 2 white layers, are my silke and game hen and neither girls eggs are jumbo size. She also will not tell me what she wants for breakfast until she is sitting at the table, that way she can watch me like a hawk and make sure I do not use my eggs. Funny enough though, I made a omelet yesterday evening for myself. She claimed it looked good and wanted half of it. I gave it to her and she loved it. I told her I used my eggs and she threw a fit on me. I told her that if I am fixing anything egg involved for myself or the rest of the family we don't eat store bought eggs so fair warning. Part of the reason she does not want my eggs is because I have roosters and they are fertilized. I'm sorry, I love my boys and they are not going anywhere. I even broke over and offered her a deal of buying a few white leghorn pullets so I could have fresh jumbo white eggs for her. Again nope, I would have to get rid of the boys for that to work.

So it may be a religious reason. Or maybe she had the experience in her day of somebody collecting broody eggs by mistake and accidentally killing half-grown chicks, could that happen? Ideas about chickens - in catching up with my cousin she asked me how my chickens have fared over the winter, because "Aren't chickens cold-blooded?"

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I am loving the chicks. I am also loving how much I am learning by having everyone guess about the chicks (which was just a bit of silliness on my part but turned into a major educational exercise for me). But most of all I love that it has triggered sharing of chick pictures!

Thinking of the spotty bits and bars markings and @micstrachan 's Buckeye Ruby picture, this is (Buckeye) Butters, at two weeks old.

 

[RoyalChick]

A formal introduction: Lulu

Lulu is the smallest of the three and I constantly worry about whether she is thriving. I think it is actually because she will be a smaller chicken than the others as she is perfectly lively.
She is the most skittish and runs away from my hand (unlike 3C who pecks it).

Lulu is a Legbar with lavender genes (not the same as blue jeans). Genetically she has two copies of the 'lav' gene just like Hattie, but she looks different from baby Hattie because the 'lav' gene basically lightens the chick's usual colors. Orpington chicks are solid color so baby Hattie was lavender all over. Legbars are chipmunk chicks and so what you see is basically a washed out chipmunk. As an adult I believe she will be Hattie-colored but with different shades like the Roadrunner markings.

To fend off an attack by our lovely host, Bob, I am aware that Legbars are not a recognized breed by the APA (though they are recognized as a breed in Britain) but they do breed true and if Lulu were to meet a similar colored Legbar rooster she would have chicks the same as her (unlike with crosses such as Bella).

Points to everyone who guessed the lavender part.

Lulu is a name with Arabic origins meaning pearl, and she is certainly precious to me.

Here she is strutting her stuff.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I really don't like using them. They are difficult to handle. I almost pulled the heater out of the Hut as well. Blech.

The heated dog bowl I've been using is not hard to handle and has a 5-6 foot cord the end of which is up on a wire. I tip the bowl out into an old plastic deep tray, rub it around, rinse with the refilling bottle, and fill, then dump the tray outside the run. It works well for four chickens.

 

[RoyalChick]

The heated dog bowl I've been using is not hard to handle and has a 5-6 foot cord the end of which is up on a wire. I tip the bowl out into an old plastic deep tray, rub it around, rinse with the refilling bottle, and fill, then dump the tray outside the run. It works well for four chickens.
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The heated base I put under the 5 gallon bucket with the nipples works well too and isn't that hard to set up. I suppose I could have hauled that out of storage. I need to look at how many days we are having this cold - maybe I just have to admit to myself that winter isn't over yet.