Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

My thinking on them getting stuck is that it will simply slide off the rafter to the floor. I won't 'fix' them in any way to the rafter - so pulling on them will have them fall down.
That is the theory!
And yes, of course I can be there - either in person or maybe better watching on camera from outside so I don't influence what they try to do.
And you are right - my guidebook will not help me answer your question about chicken breeds - but I believe it is a trait that the crosses (aka Easter Eggers) inherit from Ameraucana parentage. Ameraucanas did originally get the blue egg gene from Auracanas I believe.
OK - I am so far out over my skis on chicken breeds that I will just shut up and go look for what hessian sacking I have in stock!

You are absolutely correct on the blue egg gene.

@ManueB The Auracana is also a tailless bird which seems to go hand in hand with a high chick in egg mortality rate. The Ameraucana was developed to try to keep the blue egg while changing the mortality rate. Australia also has Auracana chickens. From what I've seen of those, they have wide muffs or ear tufts. What some of the other differences are, I'm not sure. @LozzyR may be able to help with the Australian breeding.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Happy Monday

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Glynda’s front comb points that frosted look pale yellow but good, don’t they?

 

[bgmathteach]

Yes, Elie is truly a lovely hen ! I have a question (I'm pretty sure it is not for you RC unless you have just made a jump to the next level in breed knowledge). Some of the black hens who have been shown in this thread share that look (like Maleficent, and Bella also did) with a kind of beard, and a slender neck and face. I don't see at all hens that look like this in France. Does it come from the Ameraucana ?

Yes, EE/Ameraucana are 'related' in that they are partially from the Auracana from South America. Eli is 1/2 that (Dad) and 1/2 Dark Cornish (mom), as is Babs. Amazing how differently colored they are with the same parents! (and built! Babs is built more like Mom, Eli is built more like her EE half)

 

[RoyalChick]

Yes, EE/Ameraucana are 'related' in that they are partially from the Auracana from South America. Eli is 1/2 that (Dad) and 1/2 Dark Cornish (mom), as is Babs. Amazing how differently colored they are with the same parents! (and built! Babs is built more like Mom, Eli is built more like her EE half)

Maybe Eli will fill out over time, but right now she looks like she is built more like Glynda. She has a really lean build - her fluffy face makes her look bigger, but from some angles she looks more like a crow than a chicken!

Any excuse to post an Eli picture.

 

[ValarieF]

Its pouring outside but that dont stop my chooks. Good thing part of the run is covered on all sides and roof. Zeus is started his usual (all day) crowing.

 

[featherhead007]

Its pouring outside but that dont stop my chooks. Good thing part of the run is covered on all sides and roof. Zeus is started his usual (all day) crowing.

All day?

 

[ValarieF]

All day?

The coop door is open all day and theres a camper shell in the covered run they like. My chooks are weird. I dont have drama much but I do have weirdness. lol

 

[rural mouse]

The coop door is open all day and theres a camper shell in the covered run they like. My chooks are weird. I dont have drama much but I do have weirdness. lol

Have the littles started venturing forth from the coop?

 

[ValarieF]

Have the littles started venturing forth from the coop?

They have ventured out and even eaten and drank with the others. Sometimes i coax them outside.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I have these, I got them at Tractor Supply.

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Little Giants - 16.5 in. long by 15.88 in. wide by 19.75 in. high. The opening is 7x7. I just came back inside from sitting out in the coop after putting peanuts in them. They still wouldn't go in them and they adore peanuts. I even moved one to where they were laying and put down even lower then this one is. All they did was move to the even harder to get to spot in the other corner.

I was watching Oreo he seems to indicating to them to lay at least by the nest boxes picking up straw and chips for them in that area but they are not listening.

They just do not feel comfortable going in those boxes I will have to find different ones I imagine deep sigh

Are they new-ish to the coop, meaning did the chicks grow up with them there, and had time to explore them? I wonder also if the small entrance is putting them off, from the outside it perhaps looks small to them.