Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Pastel the Rooster]

For what it's worth, here's dad and 2nd mom. Likely one or more is hers. She has a lovely beard and muffs. View attachment 3577931

The one with a but of black on it is likely hers. I saw a beard on the chick. Not sure about the others.


I'm gonna say, this are Manny's babies!

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

I’m not getting any grapes from my broken grapevine. They are still growing, but not ripening yet. View attachment 3578171

Try giving them grape leaves. Those are my chooks favorite treats. And it's nice because I have a whole vineyard.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

I’m still not caught up, but only four days behind now instead of a week.

Found an article on heat and chicks on here that says 95 to 100 the first week, down by 5 degrees every week after. So, I think we're okay here.

Haven’t made it far enough to see if the chicks have arrived yet. I did want to mention that there is a difference between “available heat” and “constant unavoidable heat”. This is why they always say when setting up a brooder you need to have an area that is cooler than the heat lame/heating pad area, so the chicks can find a comfortable area and go warm up as needed. So the chicks will probably be fine, but keep an eye on them. Maybe even have a frozen water bottle wrapped in a towel at one end that they and/or mom can use to cool off a little when desired.

Peanut passed very peacefully this afternoon. Late yesterday I became pretty sure the great time she had really was likely her last and best hurrah and I called and made the appointment for today. She had all of her mates with her. She ate a blueberry, a bit of scrambled eggs and some peanut bits. Then when it was time, Peanut fell gently asleep.

Dear Peanut, this morning
View attachment 3571850

Sorry for your loss. You did a great job of making her last day a good one.

Please pray for my friends horse.

I have a really close friend who lives on a farm and has a bunch of horses. She has borders (people who keep their horse/s at someone else's barn) and she owns her own horses. She has an instructor out at her barn, and they are doing really well.
There is this one horse named Ruger. He has a chronic infection in his upper front right leg. The vet gave him a 50% percent chance to live, or a 50% chance to die.
Dakota (that's my friends name. She is a few years older than me.) drained all of the pus that was in the infection out, before the vet got there.
The vet told her that was a very smart decision.
Ruger has holes in his shoulder and around his upper leg, most of which has draining tubes in them. Some holes are/were open to drain, because the vet couldn't get tubes through them.
Dakota sent me a picture today. Ruger's let was covered in blood. She told me that the vet came again and cut all if the dead tissue out. I don't know how he is doing besides that.
A few days ago, I decided that I was going to paint a horse model accordingly. I think that it looks quite similar to Ruger.
I will get pictures of the model tomorrow.
I am supposed to go over to Dakota's farm/house on Wednesday. I will give her the finished model, and of course hang out with horses.

Please pray for Ruger. He is a very sweet horse, and he means a lot to Dakota's family. He also means a lot to the students, as he is a lesson horse.

Sending prayers and healing thoughts, hope he gets well soon.

Crack up at this I really believed it was the chickens talking

Hi! I don’t think you have been on here since I started posting, but I have read the first 1000 pages of the thread and remember you. Hope you are doing well.

Just once yesterday and then I tried again today, but she is not acting well, in fact my guess now is her heart is failing. She did seem to be eating a bit more when foraging today this afternoon, but I mean a tiny bit. She took a little greens - baby's breath - from me, but she alternated between looking fine and trotting with Popcorn a few times to looking tired, and when she stopped to rest she half-closed her eyes. I know she dust-bathed earlier today, because when I checked her at noon she was wonderfully full of dirt. Between 4:30 and 7pm out and about, she just was closing her eyes every time the group stopped to hang and preen. Twice she hung out by me and napped briefly. So when I tried the feeding at 7pm or so what happened there was not good, and really made me think for sure her heart is failing, and the stress of the procedure exacerbated it. Or she's just so skinny she's too weak?

I stopped after about 10-15 ml because she really gave a good wriggle, and with that effort her eyes half-closed, so I immediately got the tube out and it seemed to me her legs failed, she was passing out. I let her down keeping her head and front part supported a little to not push anything in her crop up, she lay sort of on her side, then in 2-3 seconds she was awake and quickly got her feet under her, stayed that way a couple seconds, then stood up. I'm calling the vets tomorrow to see what they think. I hate to travel with her but maybe they can come here on Friday, if she lasts that long.

She pooped a tiny watery poop waiting while I got the tube food ready, so I collected it and got it dissolved in a test tube and got a slide on it before starting the tube feeding. I didn't see anything remarkable.

Hope she feels better soon, and that you keep managing to get some nutrition in her.

I can't believe this is happening to you CB. I feel awful. I am sending millions of hugs and prayers for you and Butters.
Are Buckeyes (that's their breed, correct?) Known for having problems?
Oh my God, I feel awful. Between losing Peanut, and now (NOT) losing (hopefully for a long time) Butters, this is awful.
I'm tempted to just leave BYC for a while just because of all if the loss and death going on.
@TX Noob Chick lost her beloved Ms. Z (correct?) @RoyalChick lost Eli, @BY Bob lost Betty, @ChicoryBlue lost Peanut and now poor Butters is ill. And @Ponypoor's bird Tuff is sick.
And of course my BBQ is losing all of her feathers, and she is extremely underweight and skinny.
Being a poultry keeper stinks. We love our birds, but they live such shirt, sad lives. And the poor production birds live short and miserable lives. Us humans have ruined the health of poultry.
-Sigh- Yet there is nothing we can do about it. We can talk to people about how much of an outrage it is, but most people who don't own beloved chooks won't care.

I wish the world was a bigger and better place. Hundreds of animals lose their homes and lives every day. Poaching, hunting, logging, Global warming, pollution, cities growing etc.
Humans lose their lives every day. Cold, warmth, murder, kidnapping, abuse. It is a slightly brutal world we live in unfortunately.

I do realise that I got off topic, so tax is coming

Sweetheart I know the losses are hard. Losing Miss Z has been tough, especially since I feel guilty that I didn’t know enough to be doing what I could to prevent her getting sick, and didn’t realize what to watch for. But as Ponypoor has said, part of having livestock, or any type of pet, also means having dead stock. It is just a fact of life. And you have to also remember how much LIFE has been posted about I. This thread. All the funny antics, and all the na at chicks being born. Don’t let the bad outweigh the good.


We are still having unrelenting heat. Doing my best to keep the chooks cool. Put a rubber pan as a wading pool and they finally decided it was a good thing. Caught two of them in it today pecking at anyone else who tried to join them. Going to add a second one tomorrow. Every afternoon I take out a bucket of ice and add some to all the waterers and to the wading pool (after rinsing it out, there is rarely any water left in it).

For some reason everyone started bullying Buffy about a week ago. She ended up getting an impacted crop and I think it is partially from getting dehydrated. They were chasing her off when she would try to drink. I think I have gotten the crop issue resolved, and I have added water in two more places, and at least twice a day go “stand guard” while she gets a good drink and some food.

This was the extended forecast on Tuesday:

And here it is today:

Humidity has been 40-50%, so heat index is even higher.

Coco went broody again a few weeks ago, about three weeks after she finally broke the first time. Luckily after only about a week she decided it was too hot to sit in a nest box all day. All the girls have been eating less and not laying as much. Even my ISAs have taken a break once or twice a week. And the eggs are running a little smaller too. Hope we get a break soon, hasn’t rained in several weeks or even longer.

On a non-chicken note, DH had cataract surgery yesterday. It went well, but he is horrible about having eye drops out in so that is quite the chore. Will hopefully be doing his other eye in two weeks.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

@bgmathteach- it wouldnt link.
I feed mine Nutrena Layer Pellets. My dad went to buy food last week and he got a brand I've never see before. Oh well, at least they have food.

 

[bgmathteach]

A very gross thing happened today..

TW; I’ll be discussing something rotten/moldy and some graphic bug larvae depictions so if that makes you uncomfortable don’t read.

Spoiler: Rotten / Maggots

I got a kitten recently, and for weeks there has been a rancid smell, i figured “well, it’s been about 5 years since i’ve had a kitten, maybe i just didn’t remember the kitten food this stinky.” It would stink to walk in the door and was just horrible. Today, we found a tipped over can of cat food, lifting it up, got it all over the hands and had to go wash it off, to my suprise, it was completely grey, rotten, and moving with maggots! I don’t know how i didn’t see it to pick it up but that sure wasn’t something i expected to see tonight. At least the smells gone i suppose.

I hope you saved the maggots for your chooks!

 

[featherhead007]

I’m still not caught up, but only four days behind now instead of a week.


Haven’t made it far enough to see if the chicks have arrived yet. I did want to mention that there is a difference between “available heat” and “constant unavoidable heat”. This is why they always say when setting up a brooder you need to have an area that is cooler than the heat lame/heating pad area, so the chicks can find a comfortable area and go warm up as needed. So the chicks will probably be fine, but keep an eye on them. Maybe even have a frozen water bottle wrapped in a towel at one end that they and/or mom can use to cool off a little when desired.



Sorry for your loss. You did a great job of making her last day a good one.


Sending prayers and healing thoughts, hope he gets well soon.


Hi! I don’t think you have been on here since I started posting, but I have read the first 1000 pages of the thread and remember you. Hope you are doing well.


Hope she feels better soon, and that you keep managing to get some nutrition in her.


Sweetheart I know the losses are hard. Losing Miss Z has been tough, especially since I feel guilty that I didn’t know enough to be doing what I could to prevent her getting sick, and didn’t realize what to watch for. But as Ponypoor has said, part of having livestock, or any type of pet, also means having dead stock. It is just a fact of life. And you have to also remember how much LIFE has been posted about I. This thread. All the funny antics, and all the na at chicks being born. Don’t let the bad outweigh the good.


We are still having unrelenting heat. Doing my best to keep the chooks cool. Put a rubber pan as a wading pool and they finally decided it was a good thing. Caught two of them in it today pecking at anyone else who tried to join them. Going to add a second one tomorrow. Every afternoon I take out a bucket of ice and add some to all the waterers and to the wading pool (after rinsing it out, there is rarely any water left in it).
View attachment 3578284

View attachment 3578285

View attachment 3578283

For some reason everyone started bullying Buffy about a week ago. She ended up getting an impacted crop and I think it is partially from getting dehydrated. They were chasing her off when she would try to drink. I think I have gotten the crop issue resolved, and I have added water in two more places, and at least twice a day go “stand guard” while she gets a good drink and some food.

This was the extended forecast on Tuesday:
View attachment 3578280

And here it is today:
View attachment 3578281

Humidity has been 40-50%, so heat index is even higher.

Coco went broody again a few weeks ago, about three weeks after she finally broke the first time. Luckily after only about a week she decided it was too hot to sit in a nest box all day. All the girls have been eating less and not laying as much. Even my ISAs have taken a break once or twice a week. And the eggs are running a little smaller too. Hope we get a break soon, hasn’t rained in several weeks or even longer.

On a non-chicken note, DH had cataract surgery yesterday. It went well, but he is horrible about having eye drops out in so that is quite the chore. Will hopefully be doing his other eye in two weeks.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Happy Pony Sunday at 12 AM
A trip back into memory lane.

Dina, my Black Lab who passed away three years ago.
My dad and I made (snout saddles, I think it was called?) And we put them on Dina.
Oops, the next one is from yesterday. We had a rat snake sleeping where the chooks perch. I tried to catch him but he slithered down where I couldn't get him. (Taken at my farm)
Coach, my Aussiedor who passes away in April. (Australian shepherd Black Lab mix) (taken at my farm)
Coach resting his head in Dina in my old car we don't have anymore.
Dina being the perfect model for a picture.
I always used to dress Dina up. Here she is in some dog pj's
Dina again with the horse I drew for her.

All of these (except for the ones labeled ' taken at my farm' are from my old house. I didn't have chickens. I didn't even know how smart they are I just thought that they were some stupid birds. Nope.

I miss them, but I am focused on the future. I love the dogs I have right now, and I love my birds.
As much as I hate to say it, I have let go of both if these dogs. I wish they were still here, but they aren't. And that's okay. Now they are at peace together.

 

[notabitail]

It isn't available where I am, but thank you. I will have to look again at all my ordering online options - but in the past, it was just too expensive when I expanded my flock to approximately 100 birds,

Azure Standards has some kind of organic feed. See if they deliver in your area.

 

[Skyewatcher]

Have a restful night! Enjoy your day tomorrow.
I'm wondering if most people were busy tonight- usually ponypoor, by Bob, feathhead007 post more in the later evening. Hope everyone including animals are safe and sound.

 

[The Chick Addict]

Hey Y'all, it's been a bit of a while! Lost a lovely baby today, here is the thread link:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/remembering-restaurant.1590481/

Just wanted to share!