Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[GregnLety]

We had already eaten. Grilled chicken with my almost famous barbecue sauce.

Going to visit my sister in Kentucky tomorrow so today i gotta cut some grass.

Did you throw those bass on the bbq?

Good you’re home safe, hopefully for a few days now.

 

[GregnLety]

Lety will pick out a new roommate today. Probably a hen so she won't get harassed.

 

[GregnLety]

I am glad that 4 will have a flock of ladies at his new home and that the bantams will have more space for their high flying antics

 

[RoyalChick]

It is a lazy Caturday morning here.

 

[knoturavggrl]

Video of Story today he is walking like I have heard people describe egg bound hens walk. but I don’t see anything amiss with his vent. Maybe his leg or hip got tweaked?

 

[featherhead007]

Video of Story today he is walking like I have heard people describe egg bound hens walk. but I don’t see anything amiss with his vent. Maybe his leg or hip got tweaked?

Maybe he’s got a hurt leg or something. That’s not normal for an energetic little guy like him!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Heavy rain test today on the run’s so-called improvements - total fail. Water everywhere. Need to start a Plan B.

The gutter is working great, and the corrugated pipe is steadily flowing out beyond the run, and the swale is draining it, but everywhere else around the actual swale on the north side is pooled water.

The bad corner I had removed all the litter from and not put in the gravel sand has almost two inches of water in the deepest part. (I left it partly because I couldn’t do anymore but also to see how much water was coming from the roof versus elsewhere.) Popcorn had a nice drink of it.

New base material laid down on the other half of the run is not working, the sandy gritty part of it is wicking up moisture so it all looks dark and damp.
Where I stood on it giving the two poor souls in there some yogurt is soft-feeling and my shoe print was wet! I turned on the panel heaters in the one dry corner with litter and they are liking that.

Ideas -

• Get a machine in there to a dig a moat in the packed shale/dirt. But won’t that undermine the ground around the run if it’s right next to it? Maybe I can pickax a little trench away from the pooled corner and sides, I’ll try that first. But the entire run is wet enough that it needs to be on three sides at least.
• 
  
• I really want to move the run. I picked a terrible spot, I so regret it! Good for snowblower and closer access in winter. Thirty feet back and up it’s level and has forest floor dirt and doesn’t pool water. But DH thinks that can’t be done with out wrecking it.
• 
  
• Go with same idea as I started with, raise the base floor, but get the right kind of stones / gravel! Big ones first? then smaller ones on top? Then the litter on top of that.
• 
  
• Build a raised removable floor, like regular or other plywood set on piers of bricks or concrete blocks four or six inches high laid in a checkerboard pattern. Replace plywood as necessary every few years. Like a boathouse over the water. Is mold on the bare ground underneath, or on the underside of the plywood a possibility? At least this idea is not too hard to undo.
• 
  
• Build a real raised floor base like a treated wood frame with joists and all, frame on concrete block piers, topped with plywood. Same boathouse theory and possible downside.

 

[knoturavggrl]

Maybe he’s got a hurt leg or something. That’s not normal for an energetic little guy like him!

No, it sure isn’t

I added wood chips to the coop today and raked out the run to get it ready for the leaves we will rake up and put in the run. Free bedding material! So when I was done with that I scattered some scratch grain all over the run and all the chickens came in. My daughter brought Story in, in her arms and put him in the coop. He proceeded to come down the ramp and got excited about the scratch and leaped off the side of the ramp (this is a whopping 6” hop) and he fell. I am now 99% positive it is one of his hips or upper legs that is causing this. I watched to see if he could get back up and he did, he is clearly hurting though.

Now the chicken keeper’s dilemma keep with the flock or separate. I think I’ll set up the little tent and put him in there at night so he will have to just lay down at night. Then put him out with everybody during the day.

Thought?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Video of Story today he is walking like I have heard people describe egg bound hens walk. but I don’t see anything amiss with his vent. Maybe his leg or hip got tweaked?

Poor guy! Check his back? The whole length. Looks like both legs affected to me, which would indicate his back? Check his belly, the entire underside too.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

No, it sure isn’t

I added wood chips to the coop today and raked out the run to get it ready for the leaves we will rake up and put in the run. Free bedding material! So when I was done with that I scattered some scratch grain all over the run and all the chickens came in. My daughter brought Story in, in her arms and put him in the coop. He proceeded to come down the ramp and got excited about the scratch and leaped off the side of the ramp (this is a whopping 6” hop) and he fell. I am now 99% positive it is one of his hips or upper legs that is causing this. I watched to see if he could get back up and he did, he is clearly hurting though.

Now the chicken keeper’s dilemma keep with the flock or separate. I think I’ll set up the little tent and put him in there at night so he will have to just lay down at night. Then put him out with everybody during the day.

Thought?

Yes don’t isolate him during the day, but help him to sleep, if there’s no flat spot in his usual roost. Pain killer - Tylenol or part of a baby aspirin could help, I’d have to look up the dosage on those.