Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Good afternoon everyone ( or morning depending where you are!)
I'm just popping in to share some thirsty pictures, as I haven't posted in a long time.
I certainly hope that you will stay on BYC @BY Bob even if you are really angry against social media. As long as you still enjoy posting about your chickens and hosting this wonderful thread, it would be very sad to give it up.

Youtube belongs to Google. If it would be very easy for me to boycott YT, doing without Gmail and Google photos would feel more difficult, all the more as I have accumulated a lot of data.
I also use Brave and Adblock browser and Tor on my computer.

Théo and his three funny ladies.
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Brune and Nougat
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Cannelle and Merle drinking some herbal tea this morning
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So nice of you to drop in. I love seeing your wonderful chickies.

 

[BY Bob]

Missing! Oh no!

That darn Buttercup, she is going to give me a stroke! I dont know how long she was outside, likely almost an hour, it was when I did a head count I noticed I only had 12… who’s missing? Well of course it’s Buttercup!

I grabbed some scratch grain, oh how I so happy I have them conditioned to come running for food, but no Buttercup, now frantically I went out the back looking around n Mount Poopmore, around the back, nope, run to the front, open the door and there she was outside the run, of course she must have heard the rattling of the food bowl so she came running.

I let her in, scolded her and gave everyone some grain; I cannot wait to get the run finished so she can’t get out.

Who knew chickens were such a worry! I told her all about Phyllis and how she was being a good hood hen looking for nest sites, not off gallivanting looking for treasures, I told Buttercup she needed to be getting broody to raise up some chicks. She pooped in front of me and ran off to eat - guess she told me!

This is Betty not Phyllis.

This is Phyllis. They do look quite similar.

 

[BY Bob]

Good news! It is a fracture. They will splint the leg and Lety can pick her up in a few hours.

Hooray! That's great news.

 

[BY Bob]

Yes but had to beat my way through declining to sign in to Dropbox and then accept cookies and “continue with web” version instead of getting the Dropbox app. Also, when it played, there were two small blue lines animating a small square on the picture right in the middle.
Seems to be opposite of others experience?

Well crap.

 

[bgmathteach]

Taxes due. Hope no interest is incurred:

Will you ladies just hurry up, pick a nest box and lay? No more dawdling - I'm getting stiff in the knees standing guard here - chop, chop, girls! (It is rough being an old man!)

 

[ValarieF]

I already checked on the chooks and babies today. And got my biopsy results which are inflammation and gastric ulcers. Im calling the dr tomorrow to see if I can get in earlier. Im still waiting on my Gallbladder test to see if its good

 

[BY Bob]

Thirsty Thursday

In deference to Bob I tried to upload this using Vimeo in spite of my privacy concerns. But something went wrong and the platform rejected it.
Sorry Bob, it seems I am a creature owned by Google.

You use what you want. I will not enforce my position on anyone else.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Good news! It is a fracture. They will splint the leg and Lety can pick her up in a few hours.

So glad there’s hope for healing with her! Thanks in advance for updates!

 

[Ponypoor]

I was just going to ask about Jolene. I hope she makes it!

So after your shock and dismay, realize at least the information allows you to adjust your plans, and be as ready as you can be for what happens next. But don't blame yourself for bringing it in - yes, it's there in your soil and surroundings now, maybe from that person's flock, but also it maybe always was there in your soil, or it came to you through the air, or vehicles that come to your house.

We can faintly smell a neighbor's 300 or so meat chickens (the fields of poop) when they are maturing each summer and near ready for market, because though their farm is more than a half mile away as the bird flies, the wind often blows this way. They are "down the "hollow" sort to speak, and west of us. Like @bgmathteach I gathered it's really hard to avoid a contamination from something that travels on dander. EDIT to add - so their egg flock's dander is no doubt coming up this way too!

Along those lines, re the article @bgmathteach speaks of - do we all wear hairnets or surgical head coverings when with our chickens? I don't. I gave up changing my clothes too, though often I wash anything after I have been handling a hen. I do wear different shoes I change into when going into their coop. But I don't dip them in Lysol when I come in, and I keep them inside the door on a mat, after one winter of getting into freezing boots kept in the barn. There are poops on the driveway I scoop up after the hens have been out and about, but remnants are inevitably left. We get UPS and FedEx and mail deliveries, where have those cars and trucks been? Other people's houses with chickens running around no doubt!

There is one thing I have learnt with regards to bio-security - you can be as secure as you like but things will get in. All one has to do is look at this Avian Flu, every day I let my kiddos out I think, am I doing the right thing? Maybe I should keep them locked away until after spring migration.

And then there is my neighbour a few houses down, her older horse came down with Strangles, it a highly contagious disease but she doesn’t have horses coming and going, she doesn’t show. Her horses are an even more closed herd than mine are!

We figure her blacksmith brought it in to her place, but then why was he the only one to catch it??? Why not the other 4??

Infectious diseases are very interesting, and a great mystery - we humans don’t know everything about why some catch things and others don’t. And sure we can minimize things with bio security but even that isn’t 100 percent foolproof.

Best we can do is ensure our flocks and herds are not stressed with over crowding, kept well fed and have plenty of exercise. And hope for good luck!

 

[Ponypoor]

It was a nice day yesterday (though very windy) and we took the chickens down to the front yard but had to close them again because they kept digging up the mulch. Didn't get photos of them at the front yard but I'll make funny captions with the photos.

You want to go to the front yard, Tony? Okay, but don't go down to the sidewalk. They're for humans, not chickens.
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You four didn't listen to me. Now don't go crying, Grandma! I gave you a few more minutes but you kept crying oh, so quietly and when I let you go, your sneaky little a-- goes running to the corner of the house! You are hiding from me! Dinner, then bed! That goes for the other 3 as well! Don't give me that I-wanna-peck-you look, Parm!
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Now what did I say about going on the sidewalk?
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Your neighbours should like your chooks - don’t they? Love the caption’s btw

Meanwhile they are all looking very lovely!