Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ManueB]

Integration is fun. It really doesn't fry my nerves, at least not that I remember.

My two integrations gave me nightmares and were failures, first when Théo and Chipie arrived, then with Chipie's hatch. Not that there was real harm done to the the new chickens (although Chipie did spend her second night in the woods which she was lucky to survive and that we found her). But there was no integration. I have a flock with two tribes, and Chipie is an isolated ovni.
To this day I'm not sure why. My settings have lots of defects, but they are spacious and full of clutter, and I followed all the usual advice as well as I could. I'm very nervous about future integrations.

Roosting Roundup
Hattie is still sleeping on the ground but it makes snacking easier,.

Aurora has switched back to sleeping on the high roost. That has moved Sydney to the new roost over the window. This has taken away Betty's roost and she is back in the nest box. That makes me very sad for her.

View attachment 3368772

Roosting in the Hut remains unchanged but you can see the new heater on the wall. I will be switching it on tomorrow as we head down into the 20s at night. I don't want Glynda's comb to be freezing again.

Do you think Betty feels the nest box is the only place she is safe ? Or maybe she doesn't mind so much sleeping there ?
Glynda is healing nicely, I hope the panel heater helps.
*********

My little Blanche, who was attacked by the hawk the day before Christmas, is not doing well, i'm preparing myself that she may not survive. She has one eye very often closed, moves backward shaking her head every now and then, and spends most of the day lying down. She's still happily eating though. I've began giving her metacam today. Taking her to a vet is not an option I'm ready to take after my experience with Caramel, and I still dont see any visible damage to treat.

 

[Ponypoor]

Where are they going to get caught? Under the top rails of the ladder somehow? That might be possible. I think I need to sleep on everyone's ideas, I might be missing something here.

Yes and no, but I'll picture it better in the morning. Maybe I'll do a small mock-up of your idea tomorrow to better understand what you're saying. I'm not sure a 2x2 will fit inside the crook of the underside of the ladder, if that's what you mean. I could carve it to fit. In your idea, do the rails of the ladder somehow come even with the surface of the plywood? I may try to do a better mock-up of my original idea too. The ladder at the top, the horizontal underside, will lay flat on the plywood in my first scenario, with the angled part of the ladder falling away from the edge. The vertical pipes part would be underneath, through the holes. The ends of the rails would be lying flat on top of the plywood.

Long-term, as long as the plywood holds up. Interesting idea having a hatch in the middle, and extending the original coop into it down the road. You're right about the added shade /safe-feeling area under there, that's been part of the idea from the beginning.
I don't think I can do a much bigger porch though, I want to keep the landing zone within the six feet that is this run from the coop to the end of it, and the porch will take 27 inches, leaving 45 inches for a landing zone. Theoretically the landing zone could extend into the bigger run though.

Test-driving this will be important, and I'm trying to build it so it won't be hard to disassemble and modify when I need to get under the coop with a hoe or otherwise, which is every so often.

Yes that was the only place I would worry, but then I am a worry wart about everything!

Love the idea, what a great idea and I bet it will be used all the time! I could see my silkies bopping up there bouncing around from one to the other

Gives me ideas for my run.

 

[Ponypoor]

Exactly! I've been bringing my chickens extra squash and green lettuce or some green things like that ( I'm not as stupid as y'all think I'm actually an all honors/gifted student. My grades are anywhere from an 80-100. Not proud of the B's, but I can keep up with them) I don't have anymore grape leaves because of the cold snap. But I know that my chicks will be thrilled to get their favorite ( they like all treats) back. Oh, I was gonna take pictures of their fluffy butts, but I forgot. Here is a guinea butt. This is Guineaiss. Stunning name, huh? He is my baby boy. I love him a bunch. Not the best pictures but it was the best I could find that was not my last weeks of my chickens. This page is all about birds, right? Not necessarily JUST chickens! I hope!...View attachment 3369013

I love guineas - wish I could have some

Awesome job on you school grades! Keep up the good work.

Have you tried a pumpkin with your kiddos? We all had a go with pumpkins at Hallowe'en and it seems that chickens really like pumpkins! Not sure you can get pumpkins now but next year might be a thought.

 

[Ponypoor]

My two integrations gave me nightmares and were failures, first when Théo and Chipie arrived, then with Chipie's hatch. Not that there was real harm done to the the new chickens (although Chipie did spend her second night in the woods which she was lucky to survive and that we found her). But there was no integration. I have a flock with two tribes, and Chipie is an isolated ovni.
To this day I'm not sure why. My settings have lots of defects, but they are spacious and full of clutter, and I followed all the usual advice as well as I could. I'm very nervous about future integrations.

Do you think Betty feels the nest box is the only place she is safe ? Or maybe she doesn't mind so much sleeping there ?
Glynda is healing nicely, I hope the panel heater helps.
*********

My little Blanche, who was attacked by the hawk the day before Christmas, is not doing well, i'm preparing myself that she may not survive. She has one eye very often closed, moves backward shaking her head every now and then, and spends most of the day lying down. She's still happily eating though. I've began giving her metacam today. Taking her to a vet is not an option I'm ready to take after my experience with Caramel, and I still dont see any visible damage to treat.

Oh no - I am sorry to hear about Blanche that makes me so sad. But if she is eating well that is a positive sign. I wonder if she has an abscess near her eye? of a puncher from a talon in her mouth? Though I would guess she wouldn't be eating if so.... The Metacam will help, if there is any pain/discomfort, alleviating that will help with healing.

OK - well I will look for updates on Blanche later on - I need to get ready for work here.

 

[Ponypoor]

Good morning all - it's a mild start to the day here at -8C - yay!

Still have a bit of a migraine from yesterday, the diesel fumes from the large trucks, and equipment just hangs in the air here - there has been no wind at all here lately. Wish it would start blowing and snowing a bit...

I have a video I will post tomorrow of a few critters our Environmental Inspector captured on Christmas Eve

Meanwhile Misty made an appearance on camera, and Marty once again has thrown herself out into the world and is nesting on the bottom roost. What does everyone think? should I just leave her down there at night? I am worried she will harm herself flying off her little roost at night.

 

[Ponypoor]

Yes I have binoculars. Where are they, where else, locked in the gun cabinet where dad put them after deer seasoned ended. I'm using my old coolpix camera which has a 42x zoom lens.

How is Momma Hen doing - didn't see any news yesterday.

Has your weather been warmer? Back home it has been very mild - thank goodness - I don't want mum to have to worry about the chickies, or drive around in snowy roads her truck doesn't have 4x4.

I have been checking out the hatcherly I found and they have this breed called a Sultan which really interests me - they have feathered feet and a crest - lovely!

Here is what I found out about them:
https://livestockconservancy.org/heritage-breeds/heritage-breeds-list/sultan-chicken/

 

[GregnLety]

Awww… just LOOK at that proud, happy mama hen. What do you mean you did not know about this batch? Do you mean you did not know she had chicks until she brought them there?

My wife is a master at hiding batches of chicks. I have been feeling crappy since I returned from Japan and had not searched every room. This mom and babies are in the dog room and the other batch that I did know about is in Lety's study. Of course she has eggs in the incubator. She rehomed 2 roosters and loaned 1 of our bantam roosters. With that being said I think we have 3 dozen-ish adult chickens and 2 clutches of babies.

 

[bgmathteach]

Coop Porch Project

Here's what they have now, to go into the coop they go either up the ladder or jump up to the perch and awkwardly walk over and up a bit to the pop door. By the way - you can also see the ventilation devices mentioned before that keep condensation down in this little run when the tarp is covering the run part so completely.
View attachment 3368766

So my idea has been to put two or more 2x2 boards across and into the welded wire on each side, the way the existing perch wedges into it on the right. Then put a piece of 1/2" plywood about 27" deep on top. (The run is about 36" wide at that height.) The ladder would then come forward. The ladder rails are pipes and turn down and usually hook into two vertical pipes attached to the coop. You can see the vertical pipes behind the wood crosspieces placed here as a test. The plywood would rest on those pipes and help with edge support there.
View attachment 3368767

I cross-sawed and then split with a chisel to make the thinner ends of the wood to fit into the welded wire rectangles. I made the boards too long here in this picture, I took them out and cut off 3/4" on each end and need to test it again. They are pushing the hardware cloth and tarp out too much. I wonder if I should make a little notch in each underside to stop it sliding side to side? I don't think they will fall but it would be a fail-safe.
Now that this might be a real hangout spot year-round (the existing perch is too small for the grown birds, only once is a while does anyone hang out on it) I have more hardware cloth to run up the sides and over the top. Need to do that before proceeding much further. The electric fence is down and I worry about predators.
View attachment 3368775

Here's what I need to figure out now:

1) How far apart from each other the crosspieces need to be to support a piece of regular 1/2" plywood 36" wide and 27" deep. (We happen to have a good piece of ply 6' x 27" that's why it's 27" to start. I also have many 2x2's left over from the Big Run roof job that morphed into using larger wood.) In the test above the back crosspiece could be further from the far end, yes, or no? I can make a third crosspiece if necessary.

and

2(a) Whether to place a crosspiece right at the front edge of everything and hook the ladder first through the 1/2" plywood (with two round holes made in it) and then over the crosspiece like this picture below (small piece of 3/4" wood standing in for 1/2" plywood thickness). I'm inclined to do this but I don't know exactly why.

(For anyone familiar with Omlet, I've removed the ladder rail catch wires from the ladder top end caps - these are wires that hook under those vertical coop pipes - and replaced the end caps without them. I think they are useful only when moving the coop tractor so the ladder doesn't come unhooked from the coop with a bump. But my ground is so gnarly I usually removed the whole ladder anyway).
View attachment 3368779
View attachment 3368780

Or,

2(b) I could have the cross piece not at the edge of the plywood but have the crosspiece further back / plywood sticking further forward from it, and have the ladder just set in holes near the plywood edge without a crosspiece under it. I suspect 1/2" ply will hold it, DH thinks so as there's not much consistent weight on it (and the ladder bottom sets on the litter, I could put wood or a brick under it too). There could likely be two chickens on the ladder and one or more on the porch during any roosting shenanigans.

Here I've put the ladder against the crosspiece to hold it and demonstrate the idea but it wouldn't be there, it would be forward of the crosspiece and just through the plywood.
View attachment 3368781

What do you all think?

I actually have a third option, but I'm working today for a special registration express, and can't get pictures right now - so it won't make much sense. I'll post later today when I can include pictures, so it makes sense.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I love this!
A couple of thoughts
- you might not need the ladder at all. My guess is they will be perfectly able to hop up and down off the platform without it. Or give them something like a concrete block or a tree stump to hop to first. The whole thing would just be simpler without a ladder.
- if you are worried about the cross pieces sliding you could fix them to the wire in a different way. You could sandwich the wire between two pieces of lumber screwed together tightly. That will create a little ledge that you can screw the plywood to directly, or screw the cross beams to if the span is too wide

One other idea - put a couple of holes in the plywood near the front edge so you can tie some string for hanging treats like an apple or cabbage.

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Fresh perspective from the Royal Palace School of Sky Diving & Aerial Acrobatics!

I had not considered having no ladder at all. I don’t know why, because that’s a reasonable option. They all do use it walking up, especially when there is a traffic jam at the door. It’s like they feel this need to go in but have to wait, so they go up slowlly, watching the proceedings up there. Popcorn does jump fly up to the side perch and wait, and sometimes Peanut too will fly up to the top at the end, going in last.

Your ledge idea makes me think of using that as some kind of safety catch. I want it to be easily disassembled so screwing it all together is more than I want to undo. Maybe a hook and eye, or a ledge but unattached to the crosspieces.

Right this minute I still want to try the ladder, because I know they do use it and I stubbornly want to explore a proof of concept with it anyway. This project all came about because I saw a few times how awkwardly Butters was dealing with the existing perch and ladder attachment. Leaving the coop she was hesitant and awkward getting on the top of the ladder. I thought, it won’t get better as she gets older. She also will walk down a couple of steps before launching herself off it. It can always be removed. It could be taken out and there would be the holes to hang something - if there’s no other holes - another interesting idea, thanks!

 

[RoyalChick]

Fresh perspective from the Royal Palace School of Sky Diving & Aerial Acrobatics!

I had not considered having no ladder at all. I don’t know why, because that’s a reasonable option. They all do use it walking up, especially when there is a traffic jam at the door. It’s like they feel this need to go in but have to wait, so they go up slowlly, watching the proceedings up there. Popcorn does jump fly up to the side perch and wait, and sometimes Peanut too will fly up to the top at the end, going in last.

Your ledge idea makes me think of using that as some kind of safety catch. I want it to be easily disassembled so screwing it all together is more than I want to undo. Maybe a hook and eye, or a ledge but unattached to the crosspieces.

Right this minute I still want to try the ladder, because I know they do use it and I stubbornly want to explore a proof of concept with it anyway. This project all came about because I saw a few times how awkwardly Butters was dealing with the existing perch and ladder attachment. Leaving the coop she was hesitant and awkward getting on the top of the ladder. I thought, it won’t get better as she gets older. She also will walk down a couple of steps before launching herself off it. It can always be removed. It could be taken out and there would be the holes to hang something - if there’s no other holes - another interesting idea, thanks!

Good luck!
My thinking in no ladder is I am sure influenced by the aeronautics I am living with.
But also, I think they find it harder to jump up into a small doorway than jump up on a ledge. I will be interested in seeing how they behave when they have a nice ledge to go to first.
I did think about you wanting to disassemble it. My solve for that would I think be to keep the pieces sandwiching the wire screwed in but either just rest the plywood on them or use a bolt with wing nut.
Either way, I think this will be a great enhancement for them and I think they will love it.