Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[bgmathteach]

Twofer Tuesday and a thank you

Someone nominated me for the friend medal and I am 100% sure it was someone from here, thank you so much whoever you are

Two old friends pecking about together:
View attachment 3651129

View attachment 3651130
Two of the dotty crew from behind
View attachment 3651131

Congratulations! Well deserved for you, too!

 

[RoyalChick]

Oyster shell

This is what is on the bag:
View attachment 3651118View attachment 3651119View attachment 3651120

This is what it looks like, I just throw a pile in the ground and they peck and dig through it.
View attachment 3651123

That looks quite good - it is crushed shell at least. Mine I think is crushed coral which is upsetting on a whole other level.

 

[notabitail]

Hello everybody!!!

How is everyone?

Life has been busy but good. I'm still chicken-less, but please enjoy "my" breeding pair of vultures!

View attachment 3651099

Hi! So far I'm doing fine.
Do your vultures live by your house?
We have these little birds with long beaks, dark brown/gray feathers and yellow eyes that come around. I think they are looking for a nest.

 

[notabitail]

That looks quite good - it is crushed shell at least. Mine I think is crushed coral which is upsetting on a whole other level.

CRUSHED CORAL?! You're kidding, right? The stuff from the coral reef?

 

[RoyalChick]

CRUSHED CORAL?! You're kidding, right? The stuff from the coral reef?

Yeah. I can’t access anything at the moment but I read that what is sold as oyster shell is often not all oyster shell but contains a lot of crushed coral.

 

[RoyalChick]

Yeah. I can’t access anything at the moment but I read that what is sold as oyster shell is often not all oyster shell but contains a lot of crushed coral.

This isn’t where I first read about it but I found this on BYC.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/oyster-shell-options.1474392/

 

[rural mouse]

Oyster shell

This is what is on the bag:
View attachment 3651118View attachment 3651119View attachment 3651120

This is what it looks like, I just throw a pile in the ground and they peck and dig through it.
View attachment 3651123

That's the Limestone pebbles

 

[rural mouse]

Gutter and drain pipe on, but I need to cut it a bit shorter I think
View attachment 3651108

Clearing out the run down to earth and shale. This is Butters' inspecting. And eating worms! She has lost weight though, about 6 oz, down to 2lbs 15 oz from 3lbs 5 oz.
View attachment 3651111
View attachment 3651110
View attachment 3651109

Got a quarter of this run clear, started on hardware cloth all around, some old boards for the sides - I keep debating using treated wood, or just seeing how this works and changing them out when necessary.
Our excavator/ driveway guy has a gravel mix he thought would work well for drainage and raising the floor so he brought over a bucketload.
View attachment 3651114
Starting to fill in
View attachment 3651115
Doing it in sections, this is 25% so far. Using boards to keep the old litter and gravel sand separate between work sessions.
View attachment 3651125
My idea is to cover this with landscape fabric to not clog the gravel stuff? And then pile shavings thickly to make the litter on top? Or since this is more like a sandy mix and not all just pebbles shall I just tamp this down and build litter thickly on it? That would allow bugs and worms etc to move through it better, all those microbes everyone says we should encourage? Or, I'm saving some old litter that's stayed dry and could "inoculate" the new litter so it could be good even if over the landscape fabric?

The fabric will rip apart (under the vigorous scratching of chicken feet) especially if they decide to dustbathe somewhere....

 

[Ponypoor]

Hi! So far I'm doing fine.
Do your vultures live by your house?
We have these little birds with long beaks, dark brown/gray feathers and yellow eyes that come around. I think they are looking for a nest.

You should try for a photo of those birds maybe someone can identify them for you

 

[Ponypoor]

That's the Limestone pebbles

It’s states right on the bag ‘shell product’ in the ingredients, so I have to go with it being a shell product.

Maybe I’ll give them a shout and see what they say, just to make sure what it is, but it is packaged in Mobile Louisiana so I would think they have access to a lot of shells.