Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RebeccaBoyd]

Good. They're reassuring you.....before you find them out catching minnows....

She was, had to run outback for a water jug. They were in Russ's stall.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

No pictures but I got a message that Twig and Madea are settling in well. Me and mom have had a few serious discussions on boys the last couple days. While she would like to hatch off a pure Marans this summer or fall to raise up that would put us back in with 3 boys. She has come to accept that I will never get rid of Branch. She promised me she would back off trying to get me to get rid of the silkies in general and never ask again to rehome him. She does not want anymore silkie roosters but has come to appreciate him and likes him to a point....her words. He is also a little sh*t at times, again her words, but he will live forever to torment her. What she does want to happen is the day one of the boys passes I have free reign to find another boy to raise up. We both want to have a older rooster to teach the new one the ways as it is just easier. She would prefer another Marans or a Buff Orp boy but will leave that decision to me. I find this more then fair. I pray it is years before I have to do this. My flock is happy and stable now. Bubba and Branch are so relaxed and all the hens are finally staying home and not following a rouge boy. Branch has also got to finally meet the new chicks. Once more his purpose in life is being fulfilled and he has no time for me. Bubba is responding to every escort call and leading the girls to and from the nest to lay. Bubba even let me hold him and take a nap in my arms the other day. I really have not appreciated that boy enough lately and I promised him that would change.

 

[LhickenChicken]

A farewell to Eli: The little chicken who lived large

I am mourning the loss of my little Eli. She was only with me for a very short time, but she burrowed deep into my heart with her quirky ways.
She never showed any respect for the forces of gravity, and was always on the move, so I do not wish for her to 'rest in peace', but rather to fly to the limits of the sky.

Eli was all about food
I loved Eli and Eli loved food.
In her first few days with me she demonstrated her willingness to embrace the unconventional in order to achieve her goals: sunflower seeds were her drug of choice and there was nothing she would not do to get her beak on some.
Here she is on her first day with me tunneling under her sister Babs to reach the seeds without getting too close to me.

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Later she would burrow under my thick winter jacket to reach the seeds I kept in an inside pocket.

Let's face it, food was the way to Eli's heart!

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She was bottom of the pecking order but she was so fast and so fearless that she always got the lion share of what was on offer.

Eli was a troublemaker
She was full of mischief. You can see it in her cheeky little face.

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She led expeditions to tunnel under the fencing designed to protect the shrubs (useful fact: 3 chickens can dig up a year old, 3' shrub in under 3 hours).

And of course the first thing she did in any circumstance was go up. Here she is testing out the rafters on her first day post quarantine. Those are human sized doors and the floor is steeply sloped. She is a long way up!

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She led her sister into roosting in the rafters going up to about 11' seemingly without much effort.

Eli was a beauty queen
I have a thing for black chickens. Eli took that to a new level because she was black but with flecks of gold. Sometimes she wore green (to match her green snakeskin boots), and sometimes she wore purple, and many days she wore both. I could look at her for hours.

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Eli went broody
At the end of May she suffered some kind of neurological event - maybe even a fit - and she fell off the roost (fortunately not the rafters). Immediately afterwards she took to her nest box and became full on broody.
Every day I carried her out of her nest and she chowed down on the sunflower seeds in my hand while I took her outside for some personal care time. She flared her tail and hackles at anyone in the vicinity. Who knew such a small chicken could make herself so big? She was magnificent - like an ancient battleship in full sail!

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When her eggs didn't hatch (there weren't any eggs under her) she finally emerged but she had one more thing to do.

Eli was an Aunty
Although her eggs didn't hatch, Eli adopted the five chicks I had brought in while she was broody. They were already a month old when she first encountered them but she immediately responded to their little peeps. And maybe even more amazingly they seemed to accept her as their mother.

They were always together. She called them to her and they came. She showed them the good places to dig. They were always talking to each other so I am sure she imparted lots of chicken secrets to them. I hope so.

Here she is showing Sylvie how the worms gather in that little patch because it is usually damp.

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I know it is fanciful, but in retrospect it is hard not to believe that she knew she was dying and wanted to bring a clutch of babies into the world before she left it.

Eli's last day
Eli's last full day with us was on Sunday June 11, 2023. She sat quietly in a sheltered part of the Chicken Palace. She seemed calm and content. She was alert but napped from time to time.
I sat on a tree stump right near her so she would know I was there but not stress about me reaching for her.
Together we watched the other chickens running around and digging in the shrubs. I got lots of pictures.
Bernie stopped by and I was on high alert. Bernie was never vicious to Eli, but Bernie is a big chicken and Eli was quite small and even a well intentioned nip from Bernie can be painful. But Bernie stopped and groomed Eli's head, cleared some bits of bedding dust off her and then moved on.
Babs came by a couple of times and groomed Eli and preened herself and sat for a while.
Her brood of almost grown 'chicks' came and visited often. They are high energy and I was worried they were disturbing her - but she seemed happy to have them around her.
Here is the last picture I took of Eli - it was taken on Sunday evening just before dark. Her kids are settling in around her a bit puzzled why she is not in her usual spot.

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Also fanciful but I feel very sure that the chickens knew this was Eli's last day and they were coming to say goodbye.

Just at dark I shooed the little ones into the hen house and gently carried Eli in as well.
At 4am Babs triggered the coop cameras by coming down off the roost to visit Eli.
Eli was still alive.
An hour or so later Babs triggered the camera again coming to check on Eli, but Eli was gone.

***
It has been an emotional couple of days for me with feelings of guilt and loss, but also of awe at how these wonderful creatures behaved to her at the end.
Mostly now I am just so happy that Eli got to experience what I am sure she believed was motherhood and I hope she has passed on a lot of wisdom to the next generation.
I feel reasonably confident she didn't teach them to roost in the rafters as they never witnessed that directly, but as I am not fluent in Chicken, who knows what she might have told them!

Farewell Eli. Fly to new heights. Know you were much loved and that we all miss you.

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This is a beautiful tribute to such a pretty and gracious hen.

 

[featherhead007]

No pictures but I got a message that Twig and Madea are settling in well. Me and mom have had a few serious discussions on boys the last couple days. While she would like to hatch off a pure Marans this summer or fall to raise up that would put us back in with 3 boys. She has come to accept that I will never get rid of Branch. She promised me she would back off trying to get me to get rid of the silkies in general and never ask again to rehome him. She does not want anymore silkie roosters but has come to appreciate him and likes him to a point....her words. He is also a little sh*t at times, again her words, but he will live forever to torment her. What she does want to happen is the day one of the boys passes I have free rein to find another boy to raise up. We both want to have an older rooster to teach the new one the ways as it is just easier. She would prefer another Marans or a Buff Orp boy but will leave that decision to me. I find this more then fair. I pray it is years before I have to do this. My flock is happy and stable now. Bubba and Branch are so relaxed and all the hens are finally staying home and not following a rouge boy. Branch has also got to finally meet the new chicks. Once more his purpose in life is being fulfilled and he has no time for me. Bubba is responding to every escort call and leading the girls to and from the nest to lay. Bubba even let me hold him and take a nap in my arms the other day. I really have not appreciated that boy enough lately and I promised him that would change.

Good news about Twiggy!

 

[notabitail]

Two-Fer Tuesday
Gaby and Felicitas.

 

[featherhead007]

Today turned out to be a bad day for me. All I asked my front tenant to is wire up the trash trailer and connect the truck to the trailer. Both the wiring and the hookup were done totally wrong. The wiring fell apart, the trailer came off the ball and tipped my helper to the ground.
The tenant said he knew what was needed and he could do the job. (Obviously he was wrong!) I thank God no one was injured.
And No Chooks were injured in the process. I’m done with that situation for now. I’m too tired to take the truck to the dump.
. Saving a duckling from the hungry cat
.buried the hole the neighbors chooks dug up.
. Cutting trees (so many more to still cut)
. Re-wiring the trailer lights
. Connecting the trailer to the truck correctly.
. Cleaning the yard, mowing the yard where the trailer was.
. Taking down the chook fence and replacing it when I moved out the trailer
. Cleaned out the poop in the coop.
. Hung up a cabbage for the birds.
Even stopped and said a prayer and a goodbye to little Eli
Now it’s time to recuperate.

 

[featherhead007]

Two fer Tuesday

 

[featherhead007]

Kidding….. here’s two of my friends

 

[featherhead007]

I’m realizing that I’m becoming the titular leadership figure of this small town I live in!
(Never mind that, I just wanted to use “titular” in a sentence today)

 

[LhickenChicken]

I am feeling like trash right now. Lhicken is there suffering and I can't do anything for her. I feel like GARBAGE

She pooped out egg membrane this morning, ate some mash, and drank water. But now she is so weak she can't even stand. Every time I put her on her feet, she just plops down. < that emoji describes exactly how I am feeling right now. Or more like this: