Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

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.
View attachment 3314412
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 ?
View attachment 3314415
View attachment 3314417
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.
View attachment 3314418

Beautiful landscape even without the donkeys ! Can’t speak to sheep, here they are kept in fenced fields.

Poor hens! Naughty Roos!

 

[featherhead007]

Answer to the dreaded molting question.

 

[Ponypoor]

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.
View attachment 3314412
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 ?
View attachment 3314415
View attachment 3314417
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.
View attachment 3314418

Re: plywood, this sheet of 1/2” is 30yrs old never treated but is hung vertically so no water sits on it, but the horses beat the crap out of it at times. Last winter I cut out the hole for the window so it wouldn’t be so dull in the alleyway.

I wouldn’t use OSB (oriented strand board) because it is not made for outside use, having said that this side of the barn second story is OSB - the front of the barn we covered with siding. Have yet to get to this side… no one but me sees this side and so low priority!
Also this is the east side which is the protected side from the weather.

 

[Ponypoor]

Answer to the dreaded molting question. View attachment 3314612

Cute!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

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.

I think your observations are spot on!

 

[BY Bob]

Floor Solution in Place

The Chief Inspector has returned and approved this solution provided I use the 3 inch screws from this can.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Have you seen the Ad with the Beatles song Hey Baby it’s a Wild World?

Well yep - going around belting out that all morning…..

Are you talking about the Cat Stevens song?

 

[featherhead007]

Are you talking about the Cat Stevens song?

You mean Yusef Islam?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Thanks! I just priced it at my local TSC on line and it is $1 cheaper than Horse Stall Pellets for a 40lb bag.
- Wood stove pellets - $6.29 for a 40lb bag
- Horse stall pellets - $7.29 for a 40lb bag
- Feline pine pellets - $27.98 for 40lb (2x 20lb bags)
It really is an astonishing price difference for the same product!

This is very interesting. I know the cat situation too! I use clumping litter though. It’s bad for the environment? I have a little hill of cat litter in the woods behind my house.

In checking the horse stall pellets online at Tractor Supply they say 100% pine, and they call it animal bedding. Pine shavings for pets are something I use, they sometimes go to the effort to say “no cedar” because of potential bird use but here it’s hard to say what’s in it. For the cat this shouldn’t be an issue…they do differentiate softwood heating pellets and hardwood heating pellets and they’re the same price.

 

[RoyalChick]

This is very interesting. I know the cat situation too! I use clumping litter though. It’s bad for the environment? I have a little hill of cat litter in the woods behind my house.

In checking the horse stall pellets online at Tractor Supply they say 100% pine, and they call it animal bedding. Pine shavings for pets are something I use, they sometimes go to the effort to say “no cedar” because of potential bird use but here it’s hard to say what’s in it. For the cat this shouldn’t be an issue…they do differentiate softwood heating pellets and hardwood heating pellets and they’re the same price.

The three cats that use the pellets litter trays were completely unfazed by a switch to the horse stall pellets.
I wait until the pellets break down to sawdust and then I tip the whole tray into the compost bin (or sometimes tip it as mulch around a tree). So I have stopped scooping at all.
I am really hoping to phase out use of the clay clumping stuff entirely (though I admit the buckets are useful!).