Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Bob l, another vet I follow closely recommends these five ingredients along with your medication...
1: honey 2: concentrate elderberry 3:quercetin 4: liquorice root. 5: cbd oil

Many of the above you can get in tinctures one example, elderberry.

Thinking of you and hoping with all my heart you can beat this.

Thanks Marie.

 

[rural mouse]

2fers day

More of the courtship

JUST 2 is HARD! Horus is very attentive, and Silver isn't all that appreciative. Neither is Jessica (who seems to prefer Hector)

 

[Ponypoor]

Thanks for asking.

She is not good. Same as yesterday. Lethargic, only drink water sometimes, all liquidy poop. She occasionally ate some grass. She took a tiny bit of egg from me. She did not want to take a bath at all. I have decided to give her a course of antibiotics (Amox) starting tomorrow. I have suspected for a while that she is laying internally.

Hope Wendy is helped by some antibiotics today

I will check in later to see how her first dose went.

 

[Ponypoor]

Tonight's Update
We brought Lady Featherington in tonight. At first I was pretty excited because I could hear no wheezing. Her lungs and throat are clear. As I was carrying her back to the roost I thought I heard something. So I checked closer and she has a rattle up high, likely in her nose. It is a wet noise.

Good News: She is clearly better than she was when every breath was a wheeze.

I do think this may have been bacterial infection. Everyone else seems just fine at this point.

tonight's Cluckle Hut

View attachment 3454686

I have noted a couple of my gals with what I would call “snotty nose” - clear watery discharge, but they are active eating and no coughing. I have heard a few sneezing when eating, I am putting it down to dust, molds and other evil things causing allergic symptoms.

Question: do you take temps of your chickens?

 

[Ponypoor]

adult chickens are not usually threatened by cats. It does depend upon the size of the chicken and the size of the cat. It also depends upon the hunger of the cat. A starving cat would likely be a threat while a well fed cat likely wouldn't. Chicks could certainly be viewed as dinner, much less so with an alert mama/papa. A stray cat struggling to feed her kittens could decide a chicken is worth the risk. Generally speaking though, cats will leave anything around the size of a pigeon (or larger) alone due to the size/potential threat to the cat. (Based upon average size cat, scale the bird size relative to the size of the cat).

I also don’t think the cat would be an issue - I bet your Roo would protect your gals.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hmm, if all Roos, guess you will be enjoying some roasters. (rooster roasters, yummy)

Hahahaha, yup I am already planning for roasters, I have a place to process them and I will not be naming them. I have purposely only put two silkie cross eggs (Marty’s) in the bator, the rest or from the big hens, so hopefully if any Roos then they will be a decent size for the roaster.

Anyone suggest an age to process “non broiler type” birds?

 

[Ponypoor]

Well, I don't know about you, but I like to snuggle with the ones I love!

Hopefully no one snores!

 

[Ponypoor]

Ok, so since y’all liked one of my pics so much, need your advice. Which of these three do you like the best to submit to POW?

1
View attachment 3454727

2
View attachment 3454728

3
View attachment 3454729

I love all of them! You can submit more then one

 

[Ponypoor]

That’s a big job… makes the prospect of another project out west seem even more appealing?

I bricked the whole barn floor over the years those 3lb bricks end up being 30lb by days end!

I had to laugh yesterday, I could have finished it was faster without the help of the chickens hahaha. But, hey, there are worms involved!

 

[Ponypoor]

Flash and Little Mill

Overall, my tribe is doing well. Bridge, the alpha and oldest at age seven, continues to amaze me with how robust she is. Here she is this past weekend:

View attachment 3454749

View attachment 3454751

The girls are laying up a storm. I think even poor Buttercup, who barely fits in a nest box and rarely lays anymore, laid an egg:
View attachment 3454753

Now here’s the not-so-great news. While Little Mill eats and poops well, her limp is as bad as ever, she has a swollen belly, she occasionally sounds like she has stridor, and she sometimes breathes heavily. Often she sits while the others are foraging, but sometimes joins in the fun:
View attachment 3454758
View attachment 3454759

And then there is Flash. Flash started laying an egg every day right out of the gate this season. Lately, I’ve noticed seeing fewer blue eggs. And then yesterday morning, I found this in the poop under the roost and she was acting a little funny, waiting for nest box. She went into the box, but did not produce an egg. She’s not produced an egg today, either. Except for yesterday morning for just a little while, she’s behaving. Totally normal.
View attachment 3454761

I do not have a current photo of Flash, as she is the hardest to catch on camera, or in the hands, but this one is from a couple weeks ago, I think.
View attachment 3454765

The rest of the tribe seems to be doing well. We’re having a wonderful break in the rain… it was sunny and clear today, but quite cool for April in California.

Thanks for letting me share an update.

Last year Blanche laid soft shelled eggs for a few months then stopped laying al together!

Lately she has been laying eggs, normal lovely eggs. I grabbed two and threw them in the incubator. Now she hasn’t laid an egg yesterday so hopefully today she will.

Not sure why last year she laid those soft shelled eggs and then stopped. Hopefully your gal will settle down after the spring rush of egg laying