Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

Wow gorgeous, and do you think Shan is Jessica’s baby? I love that feather pattern.

Is that pencilling pater on Pear? Looks similar to dark brahma pattern

Shan has feathered feet. The only options are Primula or Belladonna. Chia, on the other hand has a neat rose comb. Only way she'd get that with her colors is Jessica x Cheetah.

Pear's got the same chevrons as the dark brahmas. For some reason, when those are on a red background, it's called partridge.

Chia in the background, Havoc fore

Re: Thing. If she went broody, then babies before Halloween. If snatched by something, no traces.

@bgmathteach

 

[rural mouse]

Beautiful colours and patterns. Shan shines like gold.
How are you coping now ?

Mugs Monday. It's 28c, sky has been clear blue for days, and the sun burns so much it's impossible to get out of the shade. I’m wishing for rain, fog and dead leaves.

Merle
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Tiny but mighty Théo
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Lulu loves mugs.
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Closer.
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Laure has the biggest comb and wattles of all my hens , at 21 weeks... but her feathers are very girly, so it's likely just one of those big red flashy comb girl ?
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Gaston, sweet rooster..Molting badly..and upset that Piou-piou and Merle are leaving him for Théo and Lilly for Pied Beau. He likes the four pullets though and they like him too !
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I'm doing OK. I've pretty much resigned myself to Thing being gone. If she turns up again, I would be truly shocked. I'm more determined than ever to teach Sherlock to leave chickens alone. Trying to spend time with the chickens, too. Going to try to get a snippet of sardine into all of them this week, and simply reaffirm binds with them.

 

[rural mouse]

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?

See reply to pony, tagged you for it.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

The rain let up just long enough for me to uncover the sawdust so I could clean out the coop. I also took the opportunity to gather eggs while I was at it. Houston we have a problem. My leghorns are the only white layers besides Momma Hen. Yesterday while gathering eggs one of the kids pointed out a few eggs underneath the boards the hay is stacked up on. Mixture of white and tan. I assumed it could have been a old stash but just incase I spent a hour blocking any spots I thought a hen could maybe sneak under and tossed the eggs as one had been broken and they were dirty. I really thought it was a sneaky leghorn and my lone buff orp laying under there. No, no it was not. This afternoon almost everyone is done except for a cinnamon queen when I gathered. All the leghorns laid in the porch boxes this morning. Imagine my surprise when I find a extra white egg along with a tan egg in the big wooden feed bin that the lid is propped open on. I knew she would make a liar out of me. That hidden nest had to be hers, it is so typical momma hen and she has nested under there in the past. I have replaced the fresh egg with a store egg that is marked so she will think it is undisturbed. I really thought she was not laying, she broke pattern the brat. She is pulling the same stunt she did in December which was immediately hide a nest and go to setting.

 

[featherhead007]

The rain let up just long enough for me to uncover the sawdust so I could clean out the coop. I also took the opportunity to gather eggs while I was at it. Houston we have a problem. My leghorns are the only white layers besides Momma Hen. Yesterday while gathering eggs one of the kids pointed out a few eggs underneath the boards the hay is stacked up on. Mixture of white and tan. I assumed it could have been a old stash but just incase I spent a hour blocking any spots I thought a hen could maybe sneak under and tossed the eggs as one had been broken and they were dirty. I really thought it was a sneaky leghorn and my lone buff orp laying under there. No, no it was not. This afternoon almost everyone is done except for a cinnamon queen when I gathered. All the leghorns laid in the porch boxes this morning. Imagine my surprise when I find an extra white egg along with a tan egg in the big wooden feed bin that the lid is propped open on. I knew she would make a liar out of me. That hidden nest had to be hers, it is so typical momma hen and she has nested under there in the past. I have replaced the fresh egg with a store egg that is marked so she will think it is undisturbed. I really thought she was not laying, she broke pattern the brat. She is pulling the same stunt she did in December which was immediately hide a nest and go to setting.

I sent you all the clear skies I could. The powers of weather formation are limited to me. Jaffar can summon the lightning and the thunder, and I’ve seen Hen-Rietta (the beautiful) stop the rain long enough to get across the yard. That’s about it!

 

[bgmathteach]

The rain let up just long enough for me to uncover the sawdust so I could clean out the coop. I also took the opportunity to gather eggs while I was at it. Houston we have a problem. My leghorns are the only white layers besides Momma Hen. Yesterday while gathering eggs one of the kids pointed out a few eggs underneath the boards the hay is stacked up on. Mixture of white and tan. I assumed it could have been a old stash but just incase I spent a hour blocking any spots I thought a hen could maybe sneak under and tossed the eggs as one had been broken and they were dirty. I really thought it was a sneaky leghorn and my lone buff orp laying under there. No, no it was not. This afternoon almost everyone is done except for a cinnamon queen when I gathered. All the leghorns laid in the porch boxes this morning. Imagine my surprise when I find a extra white egg along with a tan egg in the big wooden feed bin that the lid is propped open on. I knew she would make a liar out of me. That hidden nest had to be hers, it is so typical momma hen and she has nested under there in the past. I have replaced the fresh egg with a store egg that is marked so she will think it is undisturbed. I really thought she was not laying, she broke pattern the brat. She is pulling the same stunt she did in December which was immediately hide a nest and go to setting.

But that is why she is 'Momma Hen" she wants to be a Momma.

My sister was like that. She loved having babies around. As soon as a kid was at toddler stage, she needed another baby! (i.e., in the chicken world, as soon as she was done 'brooding' them, she needed another batch of chicks to brood over!)

 

[RoyalChick]

The rain let up just long enough for me to uncover the sawdust so I could clean out the coop. I also took the opportunity to gather eggs while I was at it. Houston we have a problem. My leghorns are the only white layers besides Momma Hen. Yesterday while gathering eggs one of the kids pointed out a few eggs underneath the boards the hay is stacked up on. Mixture of white and tan. I assumed it could have been a old stash but just incase I spent a hour blocking any spots I thought a hen could maybe sneak under and tossed the eggs as one had been broken and they were dirty. I really thought it was a sneaky leghorn and my lone buff orp laying under there. No, no it was not. This afternoon almost everyone is done except for a cinnamon queen when I gathered. All the leghorns laid in the porch boxes this morning. Imagine my surprise when I find a extra white egg along with a tan egg in the big wooden feed bin that the lid is propped open on. I knew she would make a liar out of me. That hidden nest had to be hers, it is so typical momma hen and she has nested under there in the past. I have replaced the fresh egg with a store egg that is marked so she will think it is undisturbed. I really thought she was not laying, she broke pattern the brat. She is pulling the same stunt she did in December which was immediately hide a nest and go to setting.

The rest of us are not remotely surprised. Go Momma Hen!!

 

[bgmathteach]

See reply to pony, tagged you for it.

I didn't realize the Dark Brahmas (well, more like remember) had penciling/lacing. That makes much more sense - a white & black laced hen is mom- I was trying to figure out who other than Jessica had the lacing, as it wasn't Pear/partridge marking! I somehow missed in the picture that she had feathered feet.

P.S. This just proves that you need to post more pics of your Dark Brahma ladies...they don't get the spotlight near enough

 

[RoyalChick]

Sketch of the run
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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
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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?

I just got back in - it is cold out there!

Here is my guess at what is going on and what to do.
I think the French drain is the key to this. It is supposed to carry water from the East (down the steep slope into the French drain and away) and you can see from the water flow that it is also pitched to take water from the North West (where you drew the arrows of visible water flow).
If it is stops working, or is simply inadequate for the volume of water then you will get pooling at your lowest point which should be next to the French drain - and clearly is because that is where you get pooling water in the chicken coop.
French drains without landscape fabric get clogged with soil and even with fabric you sometimes have to flush them out.
So, I think the first thing is to really establish if that French drain is working - should be easy to test by seeing if water emerges out of both ends (I am still trying to fathom why a U-shaped French drain is needed but that isn't important for the chickens!).
If it isn't working it is worth trying to clear it. The problem is that it may be the stones that are bunged up rather than the pipe itself. I don't have any good ideas for how to do that beyond a pressure washer and some digging around with a pickaxe.

What I fear is that the French drain actually needs replacing. That is a big job and not one I could do without a pro to help.

In case you or hubby go - 'all that for a chicken coop' - my thought is that a failed French drain is going to get you into a swamp and probably compromise the barn it was built to protect - so it might need to be done anyway.

I would bet good money that solving the French drain issue will solve the chicken coop issue, but just in case I would probably do something on the North side.

On my own I would construct a berm of compacted dirt to divert water away from the coop and into the French drain - could also be a low wall or even some of that plastic garden edging. Anything to make it easier for the water to head East rather than SE.

However, if you are going to have to get someone in to redo the French drain I would probably ask him to throw in a mini French drain along the North face of the coop.

I think the damp areas in the South part of the coop are wicking from the drainage issue which in the North and so I don't think you need to do anything specifically for those.

Short term, I would throw a pallet or something like that over the spot marked 'very wet' until you can sort out the drainage.

I know this is a major pain but I am sure it will be worth it in the end!

Drainage tax: Sylvie, another judgmental chicken!

 

[BY Bob]

Ok soo. Tomorrow evening I will no longer be silkie hen-less. They actually offered to deliver to me since they know where I live and will be headed my way anyway. I am only getting 1. The other 5 they have available are all boys already crowing.

Congrats! This is very exciting.