Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ManueB]

I could be wrong as my experience with chickens is still small, but I get the feeling that chickens, a bit like human, will tend to think that the social situation they have grown up with is the norm.
So if a flock, like my six ex batts, has grown up together with individuals very similar in appearance, of the same age, and only hens, I think they will act very differently than a flock consisting from an early age of mixed breed and size and sex.
I think this also applies to numbers. I agree that two is very different than three, and that two doesn't make a flock. But I have the experience of Théo and Chipie who acted as a couple ever since they arrived in my flock. They were very much rejected at first, which explains why they would stay two together, but now Théo is the rooster of the flock, and Chipie could have chosen to hang out with her chicks instead of terrorizing them. And still (though they spend a lot less time together now than when Chipie had just sent her chicks away) they remain a couple.
I think it could be that a four to five flock is a more usual norm, but I also would believe that many chickens will lead their social life differently. And I don't believe this is only due to them not having the choice because of the setting imposed on them by humans.

In the case of Royalchick's chickens and mine I think loosing several members in such a short time has a strong impact on the dynamics and may result in forgetting some secondary quarrels for safety priorities.

 

[BY Bob]

I know really very little, but what you're saying about 2 versus 3 jives with just an intuitive sense I have that each pair now wants/needs the other pair to form a tribe.

I was thinking about this today while hanging with the Buckeyes and watching Hazel lightly peck Butters, Butters shoulder Popcorn out of her foraging interest, and then Popcorn avoid Hazel's ire while eating next to her. I wondered if they actually liked each other or just are forced to get along, or some of both.

They are four distinct individuals, but they have a strong drive to be a tribe and hang together regardless of their personalities. That drive dominates and serves to protect the individuals. If it were a larger group, or if I were to introduce three or four new chicks next year I think they would likely remain two separate sub-groups. Hard to say because these four grew up with each other, and the new chicks would too. Didn't someone just mention that Shad thought a rooster would have three or four "favorites"? Maybe that's the basic "flock" size?

Shad has always said the the natural unit was about 1 rooster and 3 hens.

 

[BY Bob]

This is wonderful! I suspect that it went as well for a couple of reasons:
*the lowest of the adults are gone - they tend to be the ones that start trouble with newcomers
*Lulu has been 'interacting' with them regularly - in a very non-aggressive manner
*Bernadette is smart and hasn't made any moves (yes, I'm looking at YOU, Glynda!)
*They have all just experienced loss, and may be closer because of it.
*Remember how the trio didn't mingle? I think there is something to being 2 versus 3 + - ??maybe 2 are friends, 3 +is a flock??? Based on the sleep thing from @Ponypoor , you need at least 3 to have a 'middle one' that can totally relax & sleep both sides of brain?????

So, the above are suppositions/ponderings based on their behavior and some behaviors in my flock dynamics at times.

Any thoughts on the ponderings? @RoyalChick @BY Bob @rural mouse @ChicoryBlue @Kris5902

These are all plausible in my mind and it is likely a combination of several of them.

 

[Ponypoor]

Grill or roast it with loads of garlic and a splash of olive oil.
Roast it and mash it with tahini.
Now I’m hungry.

Ya me too!!!

I have never tried egg plant with the chickies, has anyone? After the debacle with broccoli I am afraid to try anything else hahahaha!

 

[ManueB]

Ya me too!!!

I have never tried egg plant with the chickies, has anyone? After the debacle with broccoli I am afraid to try anything else hahahaha!

Never and I don't intend to! If you do only cooked like all solanaceae, solanin is a poison to chicken.

 

[rural mouse]

Yesterday's tribeservations (left home around 10am, cot home just in time to close the coop: move in day at the college for middle son).

-Hector is a good boy idiot. Good boy: Nox is looking for a place to lay (outside the coop) and he was escorting her up and down the hedge with the lilacs and roses (north edge). Idiot: every place he suggested was a BAD idea....several feet out in the sparse grass in the pasture....in the freshly mown lawn on this side of the hedge.... I took out some grapes and he tidbitted for her, but she snatched and ran, so he's got his work cut out for him. He and Pear were the only ones out of the coop when we got home. He was after her again. (He roosts on top of the nest boxes with her and Silver as they never moved when the new roosts were added) After catching her, he tried telling her to lay in the chive patch (pic for reference, not of event)

Behind Pippa (next to the rock), not under the lilac 3 feet away.

-Kren has an obsession with Belladonna....he (speculating based upon what heard rather than saw) tried to mate with her on roost, causing himself to fall to the floor of the coop, her to then follow, unable to regain her balance. Then he tried again and she ran from the coop to perch just outside (she eventually wound up on the window sill outside) where he tried again. She ran around the coop to the opposite side where he caught her and got knocked off by Hector. When Cheetah is outside watching this, he will do the knocking off, but if Hector comes to try to help, Hector gets chased off. Cheetah stayed inside, squawked/talked much but out of sight, out of mind. Hector is starting to develop the same type of relationship with Kren (and Horus) that Cheetah has with himself: give chase upon sight.

-Grapes are wonderful taming tools. Lark and Indigo are still pretty wild. Handful of grapes, out the patio door to sit on the steps by the French lilac off the deck. Thing got the first one. Others present: Whiskey, Blanche, Nellie, Twirp, Lark, Indigo. Waiting for their grape happened. Lark didn't freak out over proximity to me. Indigo stayed under the lilac but stayed put rather than zipping around the opposite side (grapes got rolled in to her too).

-crazy busy day: college info was not received at our end: emailed to his high school email which he no longer has access to, no dorm assignment in spite of getting it set up June 1. That got fixed, he has a room......his ID card doesn't work and office was closed by the time we figured that out. He has to work today so will be doing the rest of his running around via phone calls as offices close within an hour of him getting off work....at opposite end of town....resident life office has the corrected email so that contact should be simple. Card office....no idea.... books are paid by his scholarship so figuring out how to get them via phone to Financials office tomorrow should be fun, then getting them ordered for classes monday "I'll be sharing about that in tomorrow's 9am seminar" "I'll be at work...." "then email/call me tomorrow if the financial office doesn't get the info" At least we got transportation worked out for tomorrow to get him to work (so far no one knows anything about the city bus system inspite of it having a stop in center of campus and another in front of work because the satellite campus is farther out). At this rate, he's finding EVERY glitch in the system his first semester, so he'll know who/where to fix ANYTHING. Bonus: I finished the quilt for him that I'd started when he was about 6. I'd had to put it away when it was ready to be tied, so got it done on Sunday.

Didn't know how appropriate the monkeys would be...

 

[rural mouse]

We have our first true flight. Indigo, in trying to get away from Kren, flewup into the branches of a tree, a good 6 feet up.....the one with the purple leaves...

 

[BY Bob]

Making a Fool of BY Bob

It started with the Rascals coming out of their run in the morning yesterday. Now the big ladies have joined in.

Ever since Phyllis has gone broody we have had 0 eggs. None. I assumed they were all laying in Phyllis's box and that she had a huge clutch under her. So today I was going remove Phyllis from the nest and swap out all of the eggs for ceramic.

Until

I caught Betty.

Guess where they have been all laying.

Spoiler: Where has Everyone Been Laying

In Hattie House!

If Betty has been laying every day, that is 4 days worth of eggs. Considering Phyllis stated setting last Friday, it has been 6 days. Betty should skip two days so that works.

Mrs BY Bob suggested that they might be laying in Hattie House. I dismissed the idea entirely. Made a fool of yet again.

I do need to get Phyllis off the nest today and see what she has got under her.

 

[BY Bob]

Grill or roast it with loads of garlic and a splash of olive oil.
Roast it and mash it with tahini.
Now I’m hungry.

Me too!

 

[BY Bob]

I could be wrong as my experience with chickens is still small, but I get the feeling that chickens, a bit like human, will tend to think that the social situation they have grown up with is the norm.
So if a flock, like my six ex batts, has grown up together with individuals very similar in appearance, of the same age, and only hens, I think they will act very differently than a flock consisting from an early age of mixed breed and size and sex.
I think this also applies to numbers. I agree that two is very different than three, and that two doesn't make a flock. But I have the experience of Théo and Chipie who acted as a couple ever since they arrived in my flock. They were very much rejected at first, which explains why they would stay two together, but now Théo is the rooster of the flock, and Chipie could have chosen to hang out with her chicks instead of terrorizing them. And still (though they spend a lot less time together now than when Chipie had just sent her chicks away) they remain a couple.
I think it could be that a four to five flock is a more usual norm, but I also would believe that many chickens will lead their social life differently. And I don't believe this is only due to them not having the choice because of the setting imposed on them by humans.

In the case of Royalchick's chickens and mine I think loosing several members in such a short time has a strong impact on the dynamics and may result in forgetting some secondary quarrels for safety priorities.

This is an astute observation.

In my group of varied shapes and sizes I have seen very close pairings or friendships, Sansa and Lilly for example, and loners, Phyllis quite often. (Betty sometimes as well although her and Phyllis do hang out together a lot more these days.)

The general rule here is pairings. They tend to move about in twos.

Right now with Hattie and Phyllis out of the mix, I have a three-some of big girls and a three-some of Rascals. While the Rascals seem to stay together. The bigs will split into a pair and a loner. These days the pair could be any combo. I see all possibilities throughout the day.

This is why I strive to have even numbers.