Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Chicken poppy]

That is my Daisy, The Greatest HEN Ever.

Same thing. She’ll get the mans then!

 

[ManueB]

So here goes the pictures of my lot, to celebrate 10 000. And even if I have been here for a short time I also want to say thank you to the wonderful man who created this thread, who takes the time to read every post and answer kindly and give advice to so many, when he already has another full time job .

The six ex-batts.
Brune

Caramel

Vanille

Nougat

Blanche ( when she still had a tail)

Cannelle

Chipie the bantam and the four chicks she hatched six weeks ago.

And last Théo !

 

[rural mouse]

100000 post celebration!

The quad that started it all: Grey, Lady, Silver, and Buster. Silver is the only one still here. Next lot didn't take many pics, but Pear is the only one left of those (Although Raven, one of the giant roos has his own ladies several miles north of here)

Mama (Pear's sister) and baby Storm

Rusty, my sweet, gentle, giant

With Silver and Twirp

Tidbitting for Mama, who called Storm over

Storm's first day out

Rusty (on the ground not the step) and Pear.

The other baby lot (cheetah is on the far right and either PITA or Blanche is the yellow one next to him)

Cheetah and Nellie

Thing 1, Helen, and PITA/Blanche

Thing 2

Cuckoo

Jessica or her sister

Most of that lot with Silver

And with Rusty

More of the lot

The king had passed, long live the king. Cheetah was a poser even at 13 weeks

Curious Twirp

All grown up Storm

The next generation joining the tribe

Asphodel, Belladonna, Primula (Nox and Mera were busy napping in the shade and I just realized they're all about 18 weeks old)

Including Hector! He really waited to let me hear his crowing attempts.

Generations are growing.

 

[GregnLety]

If you have space in your freezer, put some gallon jugs filled with H2O in them (Squeeze them before putting cap on, so has room to expand & not split jug), then wrap in an old towel (or just bury in bedding). put it somewhere shaded the girls like to hand out...buried under bedding or something similar. They can they choose to 'rest' next to it. Surprising how much of a difference that makes! I also freeze 20 oz soda/water bottles (filled with H2O) and bury it in the bedding in the nest boxes. Also, I have a raised bin for dust bathing. I also bury 1 or 2 in the bottom of that dust bath. Those I ABSOLUTELY slide into old socks...to keep them reasonably clean so I can slip them out & re-freeze. Honestly, this makes a world of difference! Most of my girls gravitate towards those spots, especially after a few days of heat and they get used to them being there. The few that don't, that aren't looking good, I will move them to one of those spots, and generally they stay there! Given how hot it is where you are, I would have a couple in the freezer, so you are able to swap one out mid-day when it is melted and put a new one in the run in it's place.

I also have cooler drinkers, that I put large chunks of ice in so they always have cool water. (This in addition to open dishes with cool water, so they can get their feet wet and/or dunk their wattles...both important means of cooling for chickens.

Difference between shade cloth/no shade cloth - this is a picture of the ground:View attachment 3180781

Cooler Drinkers:View attachment 3180795
This container holds about 1.5 qts (1.5 liters) frozen, so a good chunk of ice (I also use the 1 lb. deli containers, those fit in my 1 gal. poultry drinkers)
View attachment 3180796View attachment 3180797View attachment 3180798

They know these contain cool/cold water and this BR immediately came running over when I set it down:

My shade cloth just arrived while I was tuning my polesaw so once the sun dips under the tree line we'll start installing it. Probably do the newer coops first then tomorrow morning the older pens.. Will add more ventilation to the west side of the new coops also.

 

[Kris5902]

When Vanille was really ill cucumber was all she would eat, in fact it's what lead me to post for the first time on BYC .
She's been unwell for the last three days after passing two soft shell eggs in a row, and with the heat. She has eaten nothing yesterday but today we gave the girls a zucchini that had overgrown and she's been pecking at it like crazy.

We've talked about how they choose to feed before when they are sick with Minnie. It's still pretty much a mystery to me if it's just individual taste preference or if they do have some instinct to get things that are right for them.
When humans are sick a bit of both happen.. sometimes you don't feel like eating and your body needs to fast for a while, or to only have broth. And sometimes you actually do need to eat to get better.

I mostly agree with this except that when it comes to our pets and other domesticated animals they are dependent on us to provide for their nutritional needs, and there is also the challenge of the language barrier on top of this. They can neither go to the shops and get some oranges and ginger ale when they are feeling unwell, nor can they even communicate their needs as even a small child could.

I think of yesterday at the market when an acquaintance with two young boys stopped by for brats (we do cooked foodservice at the local market as well as selling our products. The 8 year old was called over and dressed his hot dog with green relish only. Father and I were discussing sauerkraut when 4 year old is called over. He wants only sauerkraut (he does eat sauerkraut on occasion) dad doesn’t put it on “are you sure? What do you want on it?” “Sauerkraut!” “Point to what you want.” Aside to me “see how I’m not putting anything on til we are absolutely sure? Wink” “only sauerkraut” pointing at the green relish just like older brother has. Now if he wanted/needed that green relish nutritionally, but we only had mustard and ketchup in front of him and no relish or kraut, at least he could say no or attempt to communicate what he wants verbally to us, our animals can’t do that nearly as well.

My cats life saving thyroid medication almost killed her. She couldn’t keep anything down, not even water. She couldn’t say what was upsetting her tummy, I tried lots of different foods and feeds, she ended up on fluids and we switched her from oral to transdermal methamazole and she lived five more good years.

I had a coworker who bounced around from omnivore diet, to pescatarian, vegetarians, vegan, and raw vegan over the ten years I worked with her for “animal welfare” and moral issues. Sure, you do you, she wasn’t too obnoxious about other people making different choices. Anyways, she got pet rescue dogs (two pugs and a chihuahua) while she was doing vegan, and almost killed them feeding them a fully vegan diet. Eventually with her vets urging, she came to the moral decision that as a primarily carnivorous species her imposed vegan diet was cruel and harmful to her pets, it was hard for her morally to make that choice because she loves all animals, but starving and malnourishment her pets for the cause of “animal welfare” was too much for even her. Although she also decided to in the future only get companion animals she could feed vegetarian diets to.

So when it comes to pets/animals in our artificially created environments, I think it’s a little harder to accomplish this.

 

[Kris5902]

108 in Austin yesterday at my daughter's house. Kicked our butts so we weren't able to do all the outside work I had planned. Fortunately she is handy so we managed to change out some lights and fans. We have 2 hens suffering from heat stress so they're in a spare bedroom in our house recuperating.

I would have the AC cranked, the curtains pulled, and every single critter in my care in the house at that point. Stay safe.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Ok everyone, we have our first set of pictures. Because of the time differences around the world I would like for everyone at some point before Midnight eastern time in the United States on Tuesday July 12th to post their pictures in celebration.

I'm going to modify the picture request. I would prefer that everyone post a photo of every chicken which you have shared here but that could be too much for some folks. So for those of you with a whole lot of chickens to share I am asking that instead you share your 3 all time favorite pictures of your chickens.

Any objections?

No objections here. You do realize you you shall bring on some tears in this request. Seeing as I have way way too many pictures of my chickens I thought I would get a head start by sorting through them. I've have picked out my 3 favorites I think For me those 3 happen to be of chickens that have moved on or are no longer with us.

 

[Kris5902]

a liquid egg might be (i.e. not cooked,) If she does have a stopped up crop, the liquid food may seep through to give her some good nutrition (and fluids) Cucumber or watermelon is good to, due to all the water in it, to keep her hydrated...but not a lot of calories in each....

Also too much liquidy veggies might account for those watery poops. With the heat we are having I’m seeing a fair amount of splashy poops too.

 

[RoyalChick]

To celebrate 100,000 posts here are my lot.

The first four
The school project I agreed to take on.

Diana who now rules the roost with wisdom and calm. Seen here inspecting the site and possible materials for the Chicken Palace construction.

Maggie who is loud and seems to like sharing her views with me.

Elizabeth (RIP) our first leader who established many good behaviors and died quietly and suddenly. She had a short life but I think a good one.

Scary (RIP) who wasn’t scary enough to save herself from the fox. Her death precipitated me joining this thread as I was heartbroken and guilt ridden at my first loss and I felt only this group would understand.

Here are the first four in my favorite video of them all together.

And then came -
The Roadrunners

Dotty the ankle biter

Minnie the clown

The two of them always bickering (Minnie usually loses) but somehow always together.

And then came -
The Hooligans

Bernadette the leader who had so much trouble with lameness and now is joyously celebrating her long legs.

Bella my much-coveted black chicken with purple and green but is sadly unwell right now and wasting away.

Lulu who is in touch with aliens and likely to take the title of flock clown from Minnie at some point.

It feels like only yesterday they were in my bathroom and had just learned how to jump on top of the heat plate.

 

[Marie2020]

Thanks Marie. How is Flexi doing post vomit?

Thanks for thinking of her on your special celebration day ❤

I've taken a huge risk I mixed Epsom salt olive oil and milk thistle in warm water because she wasn't improving with acv and coconut oil.
At first she spat some out a bit of thickness came out. So I did it again and she is having a nice little stand around and walk in the garden now. She's as noisy as usual