Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

Every chicken has a different personality except these three have 1 group personality.

As I said, a cult!

 

[featherhead007]

Yes I do that.
They are out and about now - that is how they encountered Maggie. It is more that they seem very self-contained. At their age the Roadrunners wanted to be with the big Princesses (they were roosting on the top of the open window). The Hooligans seem to view the Big Princesses as some kind of entertainment laid on for their benefit and then they go home and talk about it to each other.
It is all very odd.

I warned you that they were up to something!

 

[MaryJanet]

Maybe the sparrow is paying them off?

That's it!! You cracked it Bob!

 

[lightm]

A year for Maggie (and RC)
Warning: long post.

The last couple of weeks has been an important milestone for Maggie and @BY Bob said it was OK for me to mark the occasion here.

On September 18, 2020 I found this in the nest box.

Spoiler: Warning - not for the squeamish

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I had no idea what it was and no idea who laid it. Everyone was acting normal and all cameras were deployed monitoring rodents and other, scarier, visitors.

I did research and learned that it was a lash egg – a sign of serious and long standing infection in the reproductive tract. I also learned that it is invariably fatal with the maximum life expectancy of less than 6 months.

I confirmed it was Maggie who laid it. She had stopped laying real eggs and laid one more lash egg a few days later.

Off she went to the vet.

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Because of Covid I wasn’t allowed in with her but she apparently wandered around the vet’s office investigating everything while she waited for him. The vet-tech was rather taken with her and fed her the blueberries I had brought.

The vet was very kind but confirmed what everyone else had told me which was that she would not live long. He offered to euthanize her but agreed with my view that it was a bit premature as she still had quality of life. I felt reassured that he would be able to put her out of her misery when the time came.

He also educated me about production breeds who are not really expected to live past 2 years. I spent quite a while really upset and furious about that and I still am.

Everyone on this thread was very kind and supportive. @BY Bob encouraged me not to give up on Maggie and at the same time helped me be prepared for the worst.

And I resolved to spend as much time as possible with Maggie and make sure her remaining time was as wonderful as possible.

Maggie visibly declined. She started molting and wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t alive. I dug for worms, I trapped beetles, and I bought live mealy worms to tempt her to eat. I provided heaps of leaves so she could pick through them for bugs.

Slowly she started to develop new feathers
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And to share in some treats
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And then much to my surprise, on January 23rd – 4 months after the lash egg - she laid a normal egg. I think nobody was more surprised than @BY Bob who posted:
“She successfully laid an egg today!?!”
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-of-our-flock.1286630/page-3059#post-23891234

So, I am marking this week as one year since Maggie got her death sentence.

I feel she has had a good chicken year.

She dug some deep holes.
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She explored snow.
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She shouted at me.
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She spent time with chicken friends.
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She sunbathed (a lot).
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She helped with construction projects.
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She shouted at me some more.
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She got in my face.
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She posed with her left side
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She posed with her right side
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She ate ice cream

She sunbathed some more
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And she cooled off by dunking her wattles.

Today, a full year later, she is still shouting at me, she is still in my face, and she is the undisputed queen of the long grass.

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* * *
Thank you all for indulging me in this post and joining me to celebrate Maggie's gift and mine - a whole year of chicken fun together.

@Kris5902 I think you need to see this if you missed it earlier.

 

[bgmathteach]

I find that extremely problematic. Why is so hard to respect other people from within an organisation? I manage it, why can't others?

Greed. Less for the shareholders if they 'do the right thing' (well, in their minds, anyways.) In reality, many times a 'stitch in time saves nine' as my mother would say!

Tax paid with silhouette payment:

 

[bgmathteach]

That's it!! You cracked it Bob!

Hmmmm...I think he had help from a chicken detective I know of.....

 

[lightm]

Look, you are being so helpful that you are backing me into a corner I don't want to be in.

I give up! I admit it!

I don't want to give them up yet. They are my buddies and once they go outside they will meet new friends more like them and they will leave me behind. I'm not ready yet.

That is exactly how my husband behaves. He is in heaven now with the new chicks, and he holds his favorite during his zoom meetings...

 

[featherhead007]

Mr. Attitude bit me five times as I was putting the chooks away just now. I’m okay, but that little squirt can bite hard when he wants to. (I think he has been instructing his ladies how to bite too) Or maybe, I taste like steak to them? (Time to go lick my wounds)

 

[BY Bob]

Greed. Less for the shareholders if they 'do the right thing' (well, in their minds, anyways.) In reality, many times a 'stitch in time saves nine' as my mother would say!

Tax paid with silhouette payment:

Very arty photos. I love them.

 

[BY Bob]

Hmmmm...I think he had help from a chicken detective I know of.....

I did whisper in his ear.

It was elementary. My partner was there as well.

She wrote down the story for BY Bob.