Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

I stay with starter/grower until they are mostly grown. Here that means crumbles. I've not seen starter/grower in pellets. Where do you get it?

It is a 20% protein all flock pellet. Kalmbach. I got it on Chewy. Their starter is actually only 18% protein but I haven’t done a full side by side comparison.
It is more expensive than what I was feeding before but I switched after the weird pink feed problem and losing all those lovely Princesses.
This food smells delicious - like the kind of thing you add to olive oil and dip breadsticks in at Italian restaurants. Every time I restock the feeder I am tempted to try a pellet myself!

 

[BY Bob]

I was bad yesterday, it was Derby day so during the 7 hour broadcast coverage I did not go outside. I went out early, let everyone out and fed and watered. The chickens were on their own. When it was over it was time to round up the mommas and chicks for the day to put them up. While doing that I spot a pile of white feathers beside the creek. My heart drops and I start looking and trying to count the Marshmallows. I only find 1. Ok panic really sets in and I circle the yard and yup just 1. I run in to ask mom if she had saw them as she had been out several times, she had. She must have realized I was upset about something and she asked if I saw the feathers. YES, yes I have and I am missing 4. She laughs....literally laughs at me. There was nothing funny about my panic, I was missing 4 white chicks and there is a pile of white feathers out back. She then told me Momma Hen had been in rare form and was whipping everybody, cats, dogs and the other chickens. Apparently one of the Marshmallows found themselves in her line of sight and she whipped it pulling out the feathers. Ok, I can breathe a bit now and go back out to find my missing chicks. By the time I get around the house here the 4 missing chicks come.....off the hill. They look at me and then scamper straight into the coop to put themselves to bed like they had been caught red handed in mischief. The Marshmallow mafia is going to drive me crazy before long.

Oh those leghorns. They are the children that get into trouble, create mischief, and generally give you grey hairs.

God I love them.

 

[Ponypoor]

All we can do is hope for the best my wee ones are showing zero indications either way. I read Orpingtons take a while show their sex, not as long as silkies but I’ll probably be guessing for awhile.

This is why I am getting the silkies gender tested, I don't want to keep them here too long, once they are 4weeks old I want to send the pullets back to my friend for her flock. I don't want to keep them here for months on end!

 

[BY Bob]

They died? I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. I'm also sorry to hear they died.

That is the one hazard to replying on old posts. I will hold off on telling you any more. You will learn soon enough.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I would have to get my head around them not being pets. I would need a lot of them and there would be high losses.
I am not sure I could handle that.
And then what if they were wildly successful and took over the neighborhood? Would I have to deploy Guinea-hunters to control the population?
It feels complicated!

I think your foxes would prevent any population explosion. Guineas will roost in trees during the summer, but you’d at least have to house them for winter, or buy them new every spring. Guineas will return to a coop at night but they have to be trained to, from the bit I’ve read they need more training than chickens do, as they are basically more wild - less domesticated. Also I heard they call a lot, and some people don’t like the calls.

I go on too long here, but I think it illustrates the kind of mental framework you might have to adopt if you let guineas free range:

I’ve mentioned our previous FedEx delivery guy, he and his wife kept chickens for sale eggs and meat, maybe 25 topping out at 35, in a large flatbed tractor coop with wire flip-down sides, which he moved every day around a large fenced field in summer and parked over the garden in winter. Guarded against fox and coyote by an insanely prey-driven German Shepherd from the field perimeter when they were out of the tractor and inside the field (and the shepherd killed any chickens that got out of the field fence, or if he got into it).

But they also kept guineas against ticks and for some food, and those could roam where they wanted. He was mentally fairly separated from the chickens like an old-school farmer, and they were mainly his wife’s project, but he liked chickens’ personalities I think. So the chickens were semi-pets, but on a regular 2-3 year harvest schedule except for a few favorites. Kind of like @bgmathteach? He liked watching the gang here do their thing while we talked. He noted the Buckeye’s difference in shape from the breeds they had, their strong legs and wide-body stance (and he couldn’t tell me what they had, they were originally some certain breeds but now all mixed together and his wife kept adding in). He admired their thighs, but not for beauty queen purposes!

Anyway the guineas he did not like. He showed a caring and fondness for chickens but not much for guineas. Not clear why. The ones they kept were so wild and untrained they never got a chance to relate to them? So no love lost when they disappeared, and neither he nor his wife tracked them closely. They were outstanding tick protection and he felt they served that purpose really well. But they were also a sort of property boundary bait, providing an easy snack for predators on the property edges (fox / coyotes during the day when they were on the ground, owls at night). He felt that took a lot of pressure off the chickens.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

That is the one hazard to replying on old posts. I will hold off on telling you any more. You will learn soon enough.

I am not going to lie, I sometimes go back and read old posts. Drumstick's life is documented here. There are times I miss that boy so bad and it gives comfort now more then sheer pain to remember him.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

Oh dear. Hope recovery is as fast as possible. And just reminding you that you will be of no use to him or your animals if you overdo it with your leg. So look after yourself too!

Thanks.

The best tick-eaters apparently are opossums. I have some of them around but I could encourage more by building them some nest boxes. I know they can kill chickens - but that is mainly chicks and at night when mine are safely locked up - so I think I am OK having more opossums.

Guess that is why I am not overrun with ticks. We have a fair amount of possums in the area. Even found this little guy hanging out on the fish trap one night.

I am sitting here fixing to do something that I never thought I would. That is to cook a beef brisket in the oven. It is pouring down rain here and I don't have a shelter to cook under. Found a good basic recipe to set my time and temperature for but I spice to my own taste. Anna will get her brisket tomorrow. I just hope a baked brisket meets her high standards.

So much rain. But at least yours is filling your pond. Ours still has a long way to go. Even though we had a stream of water running between the barn and the trailer a few days ago.

Raven you evil conniving wretch. I have already broken her up once this year, and it took some doing. Grandma has declared that any hen who wants to go broody in her porch nest boxes gets to hatch. I swear she heard this. Guess who is broody AGAIN, and guess where she is at. One of grandma's 2 porch nest boxes. Grandma knows, declared this morning if she was still sitting tomorrow evening she was giving her eggs. I am going to try but there is no way I can break that hen up in 2 days.

Cage her up somewhere out of sight??

Caturday

Frogger bird watching from the back of the couch.

 

[GregnLety]

Best of luck. That is a hard cut off meat to cook right. Trying a new method on top of that would be nerve racking for me.

Tax
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I'm a little apprehensive but after reading several recipes for the oven I believe I can cook it to my normal level of tenderness but I worry most about using liquid smoke. I only used a little because I don't want it to overpower the flavor. This makes me want to get a pellet grill so I can set and forget until it's ready.

our frizzle bantam rooster for tax

 

[Ponypoor]

Furious

Mr P just earned himself a 'grab by the tail and fling off into wherever he lands'.

I could hear the mamas getting upset so I went to see what was up and some of the ladies were congregating around the doorway were the mamas are hanging out, and the white chick became separated away from mamas it seems and I caught Mr P peeking at it.

To say I was furious is an understatement - anyways he earned a grab and toss for that and a hefty glare from me.

The chick seems non the worse but still, they are teeny tiny, and he hasn't done any of that crap with the Tweens.

Not very happy so far with Mr P and the mamas and babies.

 

[featherhead007]

Outing fail (no harm came to anyone):

Its quite warm today but not super hot, figured perfect day to get mama and the chicklets out to see what grass is all about.

It idyllic for the first 10 minutes:
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Then chickens do what chickens do and caused chaos. The first one realized that it could fit through the bars with no issues and then the rest proceeded to hop in and out at which point it decides to rain .

We gather up the chicks which made Brownie very mad. She was so disgruntled with our actions she flew at me at one point, but they are all safely back in the tent now.
I tried to explain to her I was helping to ensure one of cats, who was watching this whole affair, didn't decide to snack on one of her chicks but she is still peeved about the whole situation.

Annnddd once again I find myself apologizing to a CHICKEN!!!

As you should! (apologizing is good for the soul)