Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[knoturavggrl]

Thanks for taking the time to make progress pictures and also showing the inside. This is very instructive.
May I ask if this was plywood treated to be outside like marine plywood or just the standard stuff, and how long was it since you put it in place ? ( Sorry if you mentioned this before, my memory is getting old).

I was planning to take some picture of the donkeys in the mountains today for pony Sunday but it turns out the hunters were right in their park with their dogs... So I just have some landscapes and no donkeys .

This is where the donkeys should have been. Zooming in you can see the electric fencing.
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This is our village sheep's cabin in the mountains, it's 6700 feet high . Every village here has one, sheep owners group together to pay a shepherd to keep the sheeps in the mountains in summer. I don't know if it works the same in your countries ?
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And this is Shakira-Piou-piou to end on a chicken note. She may have short legs and a small head but she has a temper. Her feather are beginning to be ruffled from getting mated ten times a day by huge Gastounet.
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Stunning vistas, jaw dropping really! Thank you for sharing. Shakira is cute as can be

 

[RoyalChick]

Also, I raised ferrets for years and they have very delicate respiratory systems not unlike our chickens in this one respect. The hardwood wood pellets they sell for pellet stoves work too also they are way cheaper or they were anyway way back when I kept ferrets. Just make sure they say hardwood to ensure their is no cedar in the mix. Worked for us very well for many years.

Bedding tax:
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I was wondering about the pellets for wood stoves - do they absorb moisture and turn to sawdust like the pine ones do? They may be even cheaper! I keep trying to persuade the one cat to like the pine!

 

[RoyalChick]

Maybe you could set up a temporary screened canopy on top of several poop piles? Against aerial predators, assuming it is securely fenced against ground predators.

Just to warn you with my experience- anything that keeps the chickens in, a hawk can make use of. Like one tried to pin Butters against the fence, that’s how s/he got Queenie several days earlier. Landed on Butters, sort of, because Butters saw it only at the last second and moved, so Butters squirmed out of the grip, and the hawk hop-flew after her, driving her into the fence, and sort of tried to get talons on her again but she was flapping and squirming around and then the hawk saw me.

There had been plenty of things to run under on the left and right, including the chair the hawk eventually flew up to and perched on to reassess as I came at it, but the hawk approached Butters from a direction that the frightened chicken wanted to just run straight away from and thus into the fence. Butters wasn’t thinking like a cat - go left or right and dodge and feint, she was thinking only “away”. The hawk was intent and really didn’t want to leave, even with me running at it. If Butters had run under something I think the hawk would have gone after her trying to grab her from under there. Your rooster, if he can give a warning in time, will allow them to run under something. But what about this kind of determined hawk? Not preaching here, just an experience to consider.

That is scary stuff. My observation is that the 'junk' allows the chickens to rest and explore while invisible from the air, rather than being places of safety once a hawk attacks.
I have a long bench in the chicken garden and the chickens hang out under it for a nap and I think they are really invisitble from above. The butterfly bush serves as the same sort of cover - it is dense enough I think they are hard to see from above, and they spend a lot of time deep inside it.

 

[BY Bob]

Maybe sister up some 2x4 at the window? Or run some 2x4 width wise on either side of the window (front of hut to back) and then throw a 2x4 section in at the window as a ledge for the floor to sit upon.

Thanks, I'm on it.

 

[BY Bob]

Oh boy I didn’t realize the floor had to come out too. I thought it was just a roof rot issue.

The floor has to come out so I could put the ladder in to cut down the dead tree limbs. But the floor was designed to come out in case I needed access under the coop. Except it wasn't designed to come out. Well it comes out now.

 

[BY Bob]

Dead Tree Trunk is Down

And the inside of the new roof is painted. Time to break for lunch.

 

[knoturavggrl]

I was wondering about the pellets for wood stoves - do they absorb moisture and turn to sawdust like the pine ones do? They may be even cheaper! I keep trying to persuade the one cat to like the pine!

They really do work exactly the same way. We used them for our ferrets and cats as well. They were worlds cheaper then pet labeled products. Never had a single issue with them at all and they worked wonderfully. I bought them by the quarter ton at tractor supply when they went on a sale and stored them in our garage. We had litter for almost the whole year this way.

 

[knoturavggrl]

Dead Tree Trunk is Down

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And the inside of the new roof is painted. Time to break for lunch.

Looking good!!

 

[BY Bob]

These bangers and fireworks terrified Tina and Princess last night. With no brave flexi and Agatha they must have been out of their minds.
Tina's bottom was awful and too add to her stress I had to give her a bottom wash .

She's not eating her food today and I'm trying to give her fruit but princess is taking everything. Tina laid a soft egg and had a bit of shell hanging out which I removed. I'm really worried about her.

Prinncess tail is growing back that's the only good news I can share on my girls today.
Now it's raining again

I am so sorry to hear this Marie.

 

[BY Bob]

The babies are feathering nicely
Mercy the bossy one
View attachment 3314221View attachment 3314222Cinnamon and Nutmeg with Misty the grey shy oneView attachment 3314223View attachment 3314224She has no name yet but is very elusive. Maybe a Lucy!View attachment 3314225View attachment 3314226View attachment 3314227View attachment 3314228View attachment 3314229View attachment 3314230View attachment 3314231

They are darling.