Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

Let's Table that Idea

I don't know what got into the girls today but 2 of them decided that some tables needed to be utilized.

First Betty....

I wonder what's up here?View attachment 3101529

I think I'll get up on the table and see what I can see. Is anyone looking?

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Ok, no one is looking, up I go.

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Everyone is leaving. I better hop down.

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That's further down than I thought.

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I can do this, geronimo!

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That would have been easier if I had wing feathers!


Our second table topper is Hattie!

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She saw me come out with a bag of corn to my chair under the magnolia tree. She decided that the best way to get her share was to jump up on the side table and get the corn with no interference from Aurora. It worked beautifully.

This is very exciting for me. The first step to Daisy jumping in my lap, was that same side table. Once she figured out she could get to eat alone by jumping in my lap it became her main way of getting snacks. Hattie is a bigger girl but maybe she is going to be my next lap chicken!

Oh your Betty picture story is great! What a nice development with Hattie, I hope she does that for you.

 

[Marie2020]

I turned down the corner of the cardboard to add more heat. This one is smart… ish. I have found the hot breeze, but am going to fall asleep and fall off the heat plate leg. I am also betting on this one to be the first to escape the cardboard walls of the very temporary brooder. I usually brood under the tongue of the fifth wheel or in the barn, but with the unpredictable weather we have been getting and the barn occupied by the goats. I guess the living room has space. The cats would have loved this. Whisper would have been trying to sit on them, Charlie would just watch, and Bullet would want to hunt them. View attachment 3100771

That little one at the top is dancing the funky chicken.

 

[Marie2020]

A glorious sunrise out there, and supposed to be a high of 28C (82F) woohoo!!!!

I will try for a Wednesday Chickie coffee cup pic

Exactly what I need right now

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

While Bunny is busy incubating her eggs grandma has picked out another hen to corrupt. I dare not tell her that until Butter took over the head hen spot she was the one who took regular walkabouts in the house when doors were left open. As it is now she's taught the queen herself to use her walker as a roost to enjoy all the seeds off the tops of buns without having to share.

 

[RoyalChick]

So lower left you will see a group 27 Marine/RV/Deepcycle 12 volt battery, it’s very similar to a car battery but there a difference in the thickness of the plates on the interior or something that allows them to be drawn down further for longer than your average starting battery (which is meant for a quick burst of power to start an engine and not a sustained load). I get about 5hours of heating with four eco glow 20 plates on a 300 watt inverter which is connected to alligator battery clamps. I do the same for my Diesel heater, and I wired clamps onto the trailer connections as well so it’s easier to swap out the batteries.

These batteries were previously hooked up to the Trailer and the 400 watt Solar System, but something needs tweaking there and I haven’t been getting enough power for the trailer for the last year or so. I’m going to re-wire the whole thing, but I think in finally disassembling the battery bank I may have found the culprit (one bad battery?, I’m going to try recharging it, topping it up, and testing it), but they are also 4 years old now, and quite possibly at the end of their life cycle. They were the cheapest biggest batteries I could source at Walmart when I got the solar panels. They need to be all the same age and size to function properly in a bank.

With the house I plan on upgrading to LiFePo4 (lithium) batteries with larger capacity and an approximate 10 year lifespan. Anyways, I have two intelligent battery chargers plugged in down at the farm in an outbuilding, and I charge them up down there and rotate batteries. The trailer, when it’s hooked up to the generator, also charges the battery hooked up to it, but it may be overcharging them as I tried wiring the heater directly into the light system and it was reading 24v! I’m not 100% sure about how the 12v wiring works with the shore power/generator, but I wasn’t expecting to see 24v running through the 12v light I removed to put in my camper project (so glad I re-wired that and know how it all works!)

This all puts me to shame. I was so proud of myself getting my electric fence to work!
I am in awe.

 

[BY Bob]

Oh your Betty picture story is great! What a nice development with Hattie, I I hope she does that for you.

It is all up to Hattie. I am seriously hoping that it is the start of a closer relationship.

 

[BY Bob]

While Bunny is busy incubating her eggs grandma has picked out another hen to corrupt. I dare not tell her that until Butter took over the head hen spot she was the one who took regular walkabouts in the house when doors were left open. As it is now she's taught the queen herself to use her walker as a roost to enjoy all the seeds off the tops of buns without having to share.
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Chickens can surely sense any weakness. I'm so happy your grandma has a new friend.

 

[BY Bob]

This was bound to happen

What do you get when your giant outside cat wants to snuggle after having stopped in chicken poo.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Today was my first day back in the office and I’m wiped. Last week was so busy, I worked from home when I should have been sleeping.

Not good to push it, with Covid, whether short- or long-haul. I also had to give a "wow" to what I understood to be your office policy - you can, or have to, go back at Day 11 even if you are still testing positive? That astounds me. Is that the latest, that one is not infectious even with a positive test, at Day 11?

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

While I've shared updates on Lily, Charlie, Cricket, and Effie, the 4 chicks my hens adopted, I have not on the rest of their siblings. In total grandma and myself hatched off 27 chicks. There was another white fluffy legged Butter chick that passed around the 24 hour mark. I also had a Blueberry chick hatch out that sadly was my first cross beak experience. I did not catch it until after they had been moved to the brooder for several hours. The top beak was perfectly straight but the bottom beak stuck out at a 45 degree angle. I feel horrible for saying this but with everything on my plate at the time I made the call to humanely euthanize. I showed it to mom and explained why and as she was holding it she told me no. It was strong, and a fighter and while she understood that I could not mentally or emotionally take on a special needs chick, she wanted to. She researched how to feed them and with grandma's help they syringe fed it every 2 hours for a week. It was growing very well and was even learning to drink from the water itself and I was thinking that they may be successful. Sadly in between feedings at a week old it passed with no warnings. They were heartbroken but they did give it a chance which is something any other time I would have done myself without question. The remaining 21 are thriving. For the past few days at around 10 when it has warmed up in the mornings they get to go to the coop for the day. I bring them back to the brooder in the evenings and put them back under the heat lamp. I will get to enjoy them until next Thursday when they leave for their new home. My neighbors co-worker is going to take them all. I informed her that there were some boys and she is happy about that. When they are old enough they will be allowed to free range and she wants a few boys to help keep the girls safe. She already has 1 boy, a special needs house boy. He lost half of one leg in a accident at a few weeks old and has been a pampered pet ever since.
Here is a picture of the group the first day I put them in the coop. They were still a little frightened of their big new space but before the day was out they were making full use of it.