Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Marie2020]

Plenty of people and chickens disagree with me but I don't disagree with me.

Now this is where we are different. I often tell myself off when I feel I've got something wrong

 

[Marie2020]

I would not give molasses as that may cause runny stools. My chooks are having runny stools for the past month or so, and I am sure it’s because everyone is now in some sort of stage of moulting.

I don’t worry about poops being different as long as I don’t see parasites in it or blood, also if they are behaving normally and have normal crops I don’t worry.

Thank you for your advice, I'll put the molasses away.

She grabbed a Berry off the honey suckle Bush so I got worried. I took it off her before she ate it but I didn't know if she'd had one before

Of instance over the past few years I have noted the Sophia gets runny watery poops and a soft crop when she is moulting. I make sure she is eating well and she is active. The first year she moulted here she was really poorly, I was giving her scrambled eggs to get her to eat.

 

[bgmathteach]

Mugs

View attachment 3655387Little Tuff, obviously Horus' offspring, via either Maizie or Pippa. He's been vigilant, but quiet since Zulu was grabbed. Hoping he keeps his mother's personality traits. (Havoc behind him).

View attachment 3655388Whiskey, lots of pins around the ears. Based upon the fluff/slightly rumpled look of the rest of him, he's got pins all over. Has been maintaining distance from everyone.

View attachment 3655389Nellie, rumpled but alert. Her new tail feathers poked through yesterday, giving her weather vane back. She's definitely feeling better, so closing in on the end of her moult.

View attachment 3655390Pear, looking smashing!

View attachment 3655391Shan....oh, you beauty!

View attachment 3655392Jessica, also a stunner.

Do you think Jessica is Shan's mother? If so, who is the Dad, as she is lighter than Jessica.....or is she the one that was from your M-I-L's egg?

 

[LhickenChicken]

Mugs Monday!
Ellie looking very picturesque in the nest box.

Blueberry mug. I have an awful suspicion that she may just be going broody, if so I will let her brood.

 

[bgmathteach]

That is a gorgeous photo of Laure, you should archive it and put it in the Calendar contest next year!

 

[bgmathteach]

Happy Monday.
Here is Bernie’s mug looking at me in a disapproving manner. She did not explain my transgression. Nor would she face me head on so I fear I have disappointed her big time!
View attachment 3655414

Really, RC, you don't know what your transgression was??? Maybe you should go sit in a corner and think about it!

(Oh, and drop a few mealy worms on your way by to the corner!)

 

[RoyalChick]

Really, RC, you don't know what your transgression was??? Maybe you should go sit in a corner and think about it!

(Oh, and drop a few mealy worms on your way by to the corner!)

That is exactly the look she was giving me!

 

[featherhead007]

Knighted? Jaffa should be the king

Where is Jaffars crown

Every morning, sir Jaffar announces his loyalty and appreciation to the Queen (Aurora and her court.) He’s a loyal little man for sure. He starts sounding off at 0:530 in the hope that She can hear his music, from Her kingdom far away!

 

[knoturavggrl]

Mugs Monday:

He seems to be doing much better. Tonight after dark, I will move him up onto the roosts instead of on the ladder, which is indeed where he was when I went to get him yesterday evening.

My husband and are brainstorming a way to change the roosting situation.

Brownie who says I may be molting but you wait I will be fabulous soon!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Sketch of the run

Below is the West side and where I started the trench. Partial there because I wanted to save my energy to do the North side. Very hard work, cutting into shale, but that it was raining helped - it makes the stones easier to dig into, and then I could see the muddy water move and clear water entering the trench. I had an adze, a shovel and a big long metal pointy thing to pound and break up big stones. I couldn't find our pickax.

Looking North-East, the driveway on the left, opening up to the turn-around /parking lot sort of straight ahead

We just had more shale put on the driveway but not all the flat area beyond, you can see that darker spot is water pooled because it was just raining. The flat area was carved out of the hillside, and a French drain put in where the area meets the base of the hillside.

Continuing around to the North side. I tried to make a little trench out from the run because right in front of the dustbath pool was pretty wet. Water just filled in as I dug, so I stopped for now.

The North-East really wet corner, and the trench meeting the French drain stones. That black pipe is the gutter take-away, just lying there right now. I found water pooling where it met the French drain stones so I thought it could be clogged there and dug into them a good six inches down and a foot in, and then water began draining away.

Closeup on how wet it is there. This spot had the chicken run on it two years ago. I cleared away most of the litter when the next Spring came and I moved the run to the woodsy area. The run now has been there since last October. So the bottom of the new litter has composted and now it's all muddy muck?

As you go around, the East side gets drier further South. The gutter take-away pipe has let out there and that water just goes down into the stones. So thinking the clogged French drain corner was a big part of the problem. I worry or wonder if the trench needs to be bigger and deeper maybe, in case water is flowing through the ground under the shallow trench and could seep up into the run corner? That corner under the predator skirt is mucky, muddy soil and decomposed litter.

Here's the long view looking South more or less (the right side of the run toward the light is West). Water closer to the left side drains south and east, toward the French drain which the dismantled gutter is pointing down at. But where the water in the foreground is, covered by the new shale, I couldn't detect any water motion, but it does seep away eventually. Around where I was standing the water flows more West.

Continue digging the trench, making it deeper, and then fill with stones / gravel? Clear out the muck under the predator skirt, replace with small gravel? What about inside the run, at least in that corner - gravel topped with bricks or pavers, and then litter on top? I'm thinking something easily removed in case that doesn't work well and I need to do something else?