Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[micstrachan]

About a 112 Mph, yes? Bonkers.
TaxView attachment 3179560

Extreme cuteness!

 

[RoyalChick]

Ok, for 100,000 posts, are we supposed to post ALL the birds we’ve cared for?

I’ll give it a go!

The Original Four
Margo, Bridge, Rusty and Bagheera
View attachment 3181645

Bridge - current alpha and an incredibly awesome chicken. I still tell her she’s my girl and my main squeeze when she gets jealous of the other chickens She is wonderful and I love her so much! She also has excellent eye contact and loves for me to sing to her.
View attachment 3181807
View attachment 3181735

Margo - the first alpha and amazingly cuddly chicken. Yep, a cuddly Leghorn! She and I were very close! She was full of spunk and sounded like a trumpet. She also had a magnificent comb.

View attachment 3181745

View attachment 3181747
View attachment 3181818

Bagheera - another sweetheart, and also a great cuddler. She was an amazing forager! She was also the first chicken I saw sunbathe… in my lap! Freaked me right out. She never really molted, so her tail was often a mess.
View attachment 3181856
View attachment 3181826

Rusty - My least affectionate of the original four, but we got really close when she had egg yolk peritonitis. She was not a lap sitter, but did drag herself into my lap on the bathroom floor when she was gravely ill. Rusty was my first loss and it was very difficult. She had the sweetest little “lets go to bed/roost” call every night and would be first to turn in. She also had a special relationship with the puppy.
View attachment 3181749
View attachment 3181825

The Second Six

Ruby - most if you know Ruby’s story. She was originally Adventure Girl, but fought a hard 3-year battle with cancer. For a period of time, she was getting daily, private free range time before I went to work in the morning. You can see her up on the hill by herself when she was Adventure Girl.
View attachment 3181805
View attachment 3181763
View attachment 3181762

Little Mill - Ruby’s best friend and a sweetheart. Her feathers are oh so soft, and she has a tendency to go broody (but then wants to kill the real, live chicks that are interfering with the imaginary ones). She has had a limp since she was a pullet and has an adorable hobble run. Here she is in broody stance. The second and third photos are just her being fabulous.
View attachment 3181721
View attachment 3181808
View attachment 3181795

Cashew - an amazing mother! I also think she has the most beautiful face of all my chickens. It cracks me up, because also has a deep, growly voice and crows! Outweighed by at least three pounds, maybe closer to four, she beat up Buttercup who pecked at a chick. Buttercup steered clear after that.
View attachment 3181799

View attachment 3181800
View attachment 3181896

Buttercup - what’s not to love about this fluff ball? She gets very jealous of the other chickens and will attack them if she thinks I’m giving them too much attention (except for Bridge). She makes the sweetest sounds when she is picked up or stroked.
View attachment 3181811
View attachment 3181812

Lucky - another top lap sitter. Loves to squat for me and has a distinctive voice (they all do). She is forgiven for giving me a corneal abrasion when I handled her during molt.
View attachment 3181847
View attachment 3181848

Roxy - such a sweet disposition and she has just a faint cluck she does all the time. She’s pretty tiny for a Wyandotte. Once she got very anemic due to bleeding intestines. We never figured out what it was, but thanks to Roxy, the flock now gets the occasional beef liver treat.
View attachment 3181851
View attachment 3181888

Cashew’s Four

Happy Cheeks - This sweet angel only lived two weeks. Watching her interact with Cashew was precious.
View attachment 3181728
View attachment 3181727

Dorothy - such an assertive and goofy little girl! She loved to climb under my lap towel when I sat down with them. Precious. And another impressive comb.
View attachment 3181873
View attachment 3181874

Ester - the most nervous chicken I ever had, but I gained her trust during a severe winter molt. Nothing super noteworthy about her personality, but I still loved her! I’m grateful to her for being such a good patient when I learned how to tube feed.
View attachment 3181883

Minnie - she’s a bit nervous, but I believe she was attacked by a fox her first year. She is very curious, and always has her head right in the middle of whatever I am doing.
View attachment 3181897

The Babies

Sunshine - such a bundle of love. The most affectionate chicken I’ve known who loved to sit in my lap with her head in my armpit. I hate myself for the fact that she died of a fatty liver hemorrhage at such a young age. I miss her, along with the others who have left us.
View attachment 3181902
View attachment 3181904

Flo - another assertive girl, likely to be alpha if she outlives Bridge. She likes to walk up to me and demand to be picked up. Her first night home, she got out of the brooder and was screaming her head off on the kitchen floor. I was not set up properly, as a broody was supposed to raise them. So I laid on the kitchen floor and she warmed up on my belly under my shirt. For hours.
View attachment 3181906
View attachment 3181905

Flash - a nervous, gentle soul. I think she misses Sunshine. She usually comes running to me in hopes I have a treat. The only way she likes to be handled is if I hunch over and curl my body around her. She was named for her quickness as a chick and is still fast like a flash! She is the lowest ranked, and likes to lay in hidden places. I think there must be a couple blue eggs out in the yard somewhere.
View attachment 3181913

Bob, this post took forever on my phone and I wasn’t able to find all the photos I wanted, but I hope you like it. I’m also not sure how to get all those attachments off the bottom. I think we’re stuck with them. Congratulations on 100,000 posts!

So wonderful to see them all. I went awwww there is my favorite for each one!

 

[ManueB]

Thank you everyone that posted pictures of your chooks, I really enjoyed looking at those going to bed yesterday and during breakfast this morning . Thanks especially to those who posted stories it's so nice to get to know your friends better!
Makes me wish there was a way to put that information in the BYC profile, to have a "my flock" page.
I hope the missing will appear on this thread today !

 

[Ribh]

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?

I don't post here as much as I used to as I am too busy to really keep up these days but I know Bob knows all my girls even if they haven't featured here before.

My black Japanese bantam, Chavi, on her nest in the mondo grass.
She popped her head up when she heard me calling for her.

Olivia, my wannabe house chicken.
She's a D'Uccle frizzle & quite the friendliest chicken I've ever owned.

And because I know Bob loves her as much as I do, My Golden Campine, Ha'penny, sitting on her hidden nest.

 

[ManueB]

I do need to go to Toronto today for my defensive driving course that I need to take every couple years for the company I work with, oh joy! Driving the big blue monster truck in the city, oh how awesome but I couldn’t get a course

up here so had to take what I could.

Shiny and so clean

But I am still a truck gal I feel I need to wash my track now!!

@Ponypoor my partner's first job, though he quit after two years, was truck driver. He did various things after. Now he's been a bus driver for the last 12 years and this allows him to pass the necessary habilitation every 5 years to keep driving trucks, I suppose it's a bit similar to the course you had to take.

He doesn't drive trucks often but it came in very handy when we had to bring in material for reroofing the old houses! We had a friend that has a haulage business lend us a truck. The last road to get to our place is a small mountain road on 4km with 10 % elevation, lots of turn, a small stone arch to go under and very few places to cross a car... So he lent us his smallest truck that was also the oldest. We were lucky all the rides went very smoothly!
Then of course we still had the 300 meters with no vehicle access

 

[ManueB]

So wonderful to see them all. I went awwww there is my favorite for each one!

I don't want to be nosy like my chickens but what time is it where you live ?

 

[ManueB]

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.

This is well thought out and highlights the importance of us paying attention to the animals in our care. It is important that we not force our human perspective on them but rather try to understand what their needs are based upon their environment and how they are reacting to it.

Thanks for the reminder Kris!

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts.
Honestly to me it is really an open question, I haven't enough experience and knowledge to make myself a definite opinion on what one should feed a sick chicken and whether and when it's better to try to take a more natural approach, or try to do what we feel will be good for the chicken. I find it really interesting to read all the different experiences and find out the pros and the cons. It does help to make more conscious decisions, even if the environment our chickens live in can be fairly different.

 

[Ponypoor]

Ok, for 100,000 posts, are we supposed to post ALL the birds we’ve cared for?

I’ll give it a go!

The Original Four
Margo, Bridge, Rusty and Bagheera
View attachment 3181645

Bridge - current alpha and an incredibly awesome chicken. I still tell her she’s my girl and my main squeeze when she gets jealous of the other chickens She is wonderful and I love her so much! She also has excellent eye contact and loves for me to sing to her.
View attachment 3181807
View attachment 3181735

Margo - the first alpha and amazingly cuddly chicken. Yep, a cuddly Leghorn! She and I were very close! She was full of spunk and sounded like a trumpet. She also had a magnificent comb.

View attachment 3181745

View attachment 3181747
View attachment 3181818

Bagheera - another sweetheart, and also a great cuddler. She was an amazing forager! She was also the first chicken I saw sunbathe… in my lap! Freaked me right out. She never really molted, so her tail was often a mess.
View attachment 3181856
View attachment 3181826

Rusty - My least affectionate of the original four, but we got really close when she had egg yolk peritonitis. She was not a lap sitter, but did drag herself into my lap on the bathroom floor when she was gravely ill. Rusty was my first loss and it was very difficult. She had the sweetest little “lets go to bed/roost” call every night and would be first to turn in. She also had a special relationship with the puppy.
View attachment 3181749
View attachment 3181825

The Second Six

Ruby - most if you know Ruby’s story. She was originally Adventure Girl, but fought a hard 3-year battle with cancer. For a period of time, she was getting daily, private free range time before I went to work in the morning. You can see her up on the hill by herself when she was Adventure Girl.
View attachment 3181805
View attachment 3181763
View attachment 3181762

Little Mill - Ruby’s best friend and a sweetheart. Her feathers are oh so soft, and she has a tendency to go broody (but then wants to kill the real, live chicks that are interfering with the imaginary ones). She has had a limp since she was a pullet and has an adorable hobble run. Here she is in broody stance. The second and third photos are just her being fabulous.
View attachment 3181721
View attachment 3181808
View attachment 3181795

Cashew - an amazing mother! I also think she has the most beautiful face of all my chickens. It cracks me up, because also has a deep, growly voice and crows! Outweighed by at least three pounds, maybe closer to four, she beat up Buttercup who pecked at a chick. Buttercup steered clear after that.
View attachment 3181799

View attachment 3181800
View attachment 3181896

Buttercup - what’s not to love about this fluff ball? She gets very jealous of the other chickens and will attack them if she thinks I’m giving them too much attention (except for Bridge). She makes the sweetest sounds when she is picked up or stroked.
View attachment 3181811
View attachment 3181812

Lucky - another top lap sitter. Loves to squat for me and has a distinctive voice (they all do). She is forgiven for giving me a corneal abrasion when I handled her during molt.
View attachment 3181847
View attachment 3181848

Roxy - such a sweet disposition and she has just a faint cluck she does all the time. She’s pretty tiny for a Wyandotte. Once she got very anemic due to bleeding intestines. We never figured out what it was, but thanks to Roxy, the flock now gets the occasional beef liver treat.
View attachment 3181851
View attachment 3181888

Cashew’s Four

Happy Cheeks - This sweet angel only lived two weeks. Watching her interact with Cashew was precious.
View attachment 3181728
View attachment 3181727

Dorothy - such an assertive and goofy little girl! She loved to climb under my lap towel when I sat down with them. Precious. And another impressive comb.
View attachment 3181873
View attachment 3181874

Ester - the most nervous chicken I ever had, but I gained her trust during a severe winter molt. Nothing super noteworthy about her personality, but I still loved her! I’m grateful to her for being such a good patient when I learned how to tube feed.
View attachment 3181883

Minnie - she’s a bit nervous, but I believe she was attacked by a fox her first year. She is very curious, and always has her head right in the middle of whatever I am doing.
View attachment 3181897

The Babies

Sunshine - such a bundle of love. The most affectionate chicken I’ve known who loved to sit in my lap with her head in my armpit. I hate myself for the fact that she died of a fatty liver hemorrhage at such a young age. I miss her, along with the others who have left us.
View attachment 3181902
View attachment 3181904

Flo - another assertive girl, likely to be alpha if she outlives Bridge. She likes to walk up to me and demand to be picked up. Her first night home, she got out of the brooder and was screaming her head off on the kitchen floor. I was not set up properly, as a broody was supposed to raise them. So I laid on the kitchen floor and she warmed up on my belly under my shirt. For hours.
View attachment 3181906
View attachment 3181905

Flash - a nervous, gentle soul. I think she misses Sunshine. She usually comes running to me in hopes I have a treat. The only way she likes to be handled is if I hunch over and curl my body around her. She was named for her quickness as a chick and is still fast like a flash! She is the lowest ranked, and likes to lay in hidden places. I think there must be a couple blue eggs out in the yard somewhere.
View attachment 3181913

Bob, this post took forever on my phone and I wasn’t able to find all the photos I wanted, but I hope you like it. I’m also not sure how to get all those attachments off the bottom. I think we’re stuck with them. Congratulations on 100,000 posts!

Those are wonderful , and of course the chicks are so lovely

Thanks for sharing their stories that was amazing!

 

[featherhead007]

Ok, for 100,000 posts, are we supposed to post ALL the birds we’ve cared for?

I’ll give it a go!

The Original Four
Margo, Bridge, Rusty and Bagheera
View attachment 3181645

Bridge - current alpha and an incredibly awesome chicken. I still tell her she’s my girl and my main squeeze when she gets jealous of the other chickens She is wonderful and I love her so much! She also has excellent eye contact and loves for me to sing to her.
View attachment 3181807
View attachment 3181735

Margo - the first alpha and amazingly cuddly chicken. Yep, a cuddly Leghorn! She and I were very close! She was full of spunk and sounded like a trumpet. She also had a magnificent comb.

View attachment 3181745

View attachment 3181747
View attachment 3181818

Bagheera - another sweetheart, and also a great cuddler. She was an amazing forager! She was also the first chicken I saw sunbathe… in my lap! Freaked me right out. She never really molted, so her tail was often a mess.
View attachment 3181856
View attachment 3181826

Rusty - My least affectionate of the original four, but we got really close when she had egg yolk peritonitis. She was not a lap sitter, but did drag herself into my lap on the bathroom floor when she was gravely ill. Rusty was my first loss and it was very difficult. She had the sweetest little “lets go to bed/roost” call every night and would be first to turn in. She also had a special relationship with the puppy.
View attachment 3181749
View attachment 3181825

The Second Six

Ruby - most if you know Ruby’s story. She was originally Adventure Girl, but fought a hard 3-year battle with cancer. For a period of time, she was getting daily, private free range time before I went to work in the morning. You can see her up on the hill by herself when she was Adventure Girl.
View attachment 3181805
View attachment 3181763
View attachment 3181762

Little Mill - Ruby’s best friend and a sweetheart. Her feathers are oh so soft, and she has a tendency to go broody (but then wants to kill the real, live chicks that are interfering with the imaginary ones). She has had a limp since she was a pullet and has an adorable hobble run. Here she is in broody stance. The second and third photos are just her being fabulous.
View attachment 3181721
View attachment 3181808
View attachment 3181795

Cashew - an amazing mother! I also think she has the most beautiful face of all my chickens. It cracks me up, because also has a deep, growly voice and crows! Outweighed by at least three pounds, maybe closer to four, she beat up Buttercup who pecked at a chick. Buttercup steered clear after that.
View attachment 3181799

View attachment 3181800
View attachment 3181896

Buttercup - what’s not to love about this fluff ball? She gets very jealous of the other chickens and will attack them if she thinks I’m giving them too much attention (except for Bridge). She makes the sweetest sounds when she is picked up or stroked.
View attachment 3181811
View attachment 3181812

Lucky - another top lap sitter. Loves to squat for me and has a distinctive voice (they all do). She is forgiven for giving me a corneal abrasion when I handled her during molt.
View attachment 3181847
View attachment 3181848

Roxy - such a sweet disposition and she has just a faint cluck she does all the time. She’s pretty tiny for a Wyandotte. Once she got very anemic due to bleeding intestines. We never figured out what it was, but thanks to Roxy, the flock now gets the occasional beef liver treat.
View attachment 3181851
View attachment 3181888

Cashew’s Four

Happy Cheeks - This sweet angel only lived two weeks. Watching her interact with Cashew was precious.
View attachment 3181728
View attachment 3181727

Dorothy - such an assertive and goofy little girl! She loved to climb under my lap towel when I sat down with them. Precious. And another impressive comb.
View attachment 3181873
View attachment 3181874

Ester - the most nervous chicken I ever had, but I gained her trust during a severe winter molt. Nothing super noteworthy about her personality, but I still loved her! I’m grateful to her for being such a good patient when I learned how to tube feed.
View attachment 3181883

Minnie - she’s a bit nervous, but I believe she was attacked by a fox her first year. She is very curious, and always has her head right in the middle of whatever I am doing.
View attachment 3181897

The Babies

Sunshine - such a bundle of love. The most affectionate chicken I’ve known who loved to sit in my lap with her head in my armpit. I hate myself for the fact that she died of a fatty liver hemorrhage at such a young age. I miss her, along with the others who have left us.
View attachment 3181902
View attachment 3181904

Flo - another assertive girl, likely to be alpha if she outlives Bridge. She likes to walk up to me and demand to be picked up. Her first night home, she got out of the brooder and was screaming her head off on the kitchen floor. I was not set up properly, as a broody was supposed to raise them. So I laid on the kitchen floor and she warmed up on my belly under my shirt. For hours.
View attachment 3181906
View attachment 3181905

Flash - a nervous, gentle soul. I think she misses Sunshine. She usually comes running to me in hopes I have a treat. The only way she likes to be handled is if I hunch over and curl my body around her. She was named for her quickness as a chick and is still fast like a flash! She is the lowest ranked, and likes to lay in hidden places. I think there must be a couple blue eggs out in the yard somewhere.
View attachment 3181913

Bob, this post took forever on my phone and I wasn’t able to find all the photos I wanted, but I hope you like it. I’m also not sure how to get all those attachments off the bottom. I think we’re stuck with them. Congratulations on 100,000 posts!

What a great job, explaining your feathered family! Very touching!

 

[featherhead007]

Oh, I already posted before reading the rules. Enjoy!

SHRA!