Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm with you guys. Overly warm chicks, IMO, get pasty butt, cool ones do not. Is it bc cool chicks move around more, stimulating their guts? Idk. Our cooler chicks have been healthier, stronger, more robust, had less pasty butt and we had fewer or no losses.

 

[rural mouse]

Morning walk. Stars were still out.

Night mode captured some of them.....



Sherlock swept the floor yesterday...

Playing at in-laws.

It rained the night before pic was taken, so going with thirsty for wild water

 

[Ponypoor]

Pear is next oldest. She's the logical choice. Chickens are logical, right?

Quartz: Mama Storm is not QUITE as bad as the Evil Ol' Bat aka Momma Hen. She didn't draw blood. So zero chance to inspect. I will make sure water and food are in the coop tomorrow and NOT try to catch a little, so it doesn't squirt out the door to get away from me. Hopefully, Quartz will stay put instead of following Storm around. If Storm starts abandoning Quartz, then I might be able to do an inspection. Meanwhile, make food and water available in close proximity to hopefully minimize movement.

Good plan, chickens are tough, and if given a chance to rest they will do so. And youngsters heal fast.

 

[Ponypoor]

I promised to post a pic. I am not a great photographer by any means! The best chicken portrait I have is of my late great Toby, a Dominique. Behold!

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Then there is Rojo, my current rooster. He is always surrounded by his entourage of about 7 or 8 hens; he is a great favorite with the ladies!

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Finally here is a pic of most of my flock enjoying their afternoon treat under the watchful eyes of their LGDs, Sammy (left), and Gracie (right), both Shelties, who enjoy the corn and dried mealworms as much as do the chickens. Supervising all is Diva, the black cat in the center.

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Toby was gorgeous

I really love when animals all get along and seeing dogs cat and chooks together is wonderful

Thanks for sharing. And the best way to get good with your photos is to take more

 

[Ponypoor]

Oh no! What happened?

Red had a poopy butt, and flies laid eggs in the poop and she then had a maggot attack. I cleaned it all up removing all the maggots and dosing her with pain meds and antibiotics

So far she is doing ok, and this morning she pecked another hen and chased her away. She is a tough old bird.

 

[Ponypoor]

So it's 71F in their room and the 3 1/2 week old chicks are roosting on the open air highest bar/roost and not on the hemp floor under the brooder plate. Aren't they going to get cold? I was working at the computer nearby and maybe the light and my presence attracted them up there?

They are bunched up together and sometimes look a little puffed up but aren't complaining, and they're dozing and sticking their beaks under their wings or onto their neighbor's back.

I put on some low light and tried out putting the plate higher near where they are but decided it wasn't stable there and put it back down. Meanwhile they came down and drank water and ate some crumbles, then ignored the brooder plate and went back up to their spot on the bar.

I'm sleeping near them, so I'm hoping they'll start complaining if they get cold and need help moving. There is a low nightlight next to them....

I find that as long as they have a place to get back to and warm up they are fine running around in the cool temps. Back in April the chicks I had at that time were out and about outside when it was barely 50F. Granted I didn’t keep them outside for too long, but inside the barn it wasn’t any warmer - and they would run around in there - when they needed to warm up they would go under the heater plate.

Not sure about feather growth being faster. But they deal well with cooler weather fine. I feel all animals deal better with cooler rather than hotter conditions.

 

[Marie2020]

Went out to close the coop this evening. Probably the first true head count I've done in a week. Between shock, grief, exhaustion, and home after full dark, the head count hasn't happened.

Silver was missing. Went looking. Finally found her body. Other side of the olive trees, near the favorite dust bathing area. Over the last several weeks, I would occasionally see something that made me look at her more closely. I checked her over and the only thing I found was she was on the skinny side. Mixed up an easy to eat, loaded with extra nutrients mash which got her eating again. Kept an eye on her to make sure she was eating (she was), but the niggling thought of something internal going on popped up. I suspect that's what took her. She passed with the whole tribe around her, but I couldn't say for sure when.

Silver was the Queen. She was also the last of the 4 that started my tribe, gift from my much-loved MI, who raised her as a chick. Silver is now with the wonderful lady who raised her, cuddled her, and let her go to become Queen here.

I will have to do some observation to see of Pear stepped up or not. She was up around the house some yesterday (kind of unusual for her) and Cheetah and Blanche were on the south side at one point (also unusual) and Twirp was on the west side (not unusual). All while we were dressing for the funeral. Pear is next oldest. After her, Cheetah and the 7 ladies are the same age: Blanche, PITA, Cuckoo, Thing, Twirp, Jessica, and Nellie. Storm is 9 weeks younger and was raised jointly by Silver and Pear when she was orphaned at 3 weeks.

Rest in peace sweet lady. May your raising of every single one of the rest of the tribe demonstrate your smarts, sweetness, and common sense.View attachment 3617021View attachment 3617023View attachment 3617026View attachment 3617027

I'm sorry
RIP Beautiful Silver

 

[Marie2020]

Tina seems okay but I'm not happy with her wings so low, could it be the heat or is it heart problems. She's breathing okay so I can't work it out.

 

[Marie2020]

A 2fer of some Tomato Thieves

 

[Marie2020]

This morning Red is still with us; I checked her abdomen and didn’t see any maggots. Is that a good thing? I don’t know, but I am going with it that’s it’s a good thing.

I will need to give her a bit of a soak to get some shavings removed that have adhered to her overnight.

She ate a handful of mealworms and some scratch grains I placed on top of some mash.

I also gave her more Tylenol and 1/2 a low dose aspirin.

When I head back out I will give her more antibiotics.

Meanwhile I just checked her on the camera and she is up on a chunk of 4x4 I have in the crate.

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Keep fighting Red, you can do this