Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Now I am feeling bad about doing it.
Does anyone else let their chickens eat chicken?

The cause of the rotisserie chicken emergency
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I don’t have an issue with left over scraps, but really roast chicken rarely last here! If mum cooks one for company we send left overs home with them.

For me, I don’t like to throw out any good and high protein of any sort is good for them, in Newfoundland in my gramma and mums time chickens where given everything, meat, fish, ‘vegibles’, bread there where no feed mills.

 

[bgmathteach]

Now I am feeling bad about doing it.
Does anyone else let their chickens eat chicken?

I do not. However, it is for an entirely different reason: I do not buy store chicken. All of the chicken I eat are mine ('extra' roosters and older hens) I feel it would be wrong to feed them their friends. Besides, I eat all of what I make/cook, even making broth and/or chicken soup with the remains...so there would be little if anything nutritious left. Plus, cooked chicken bones is a bad combination with a dog. He (Elroy) does peruse the chicken run on occasion - especially in the evening - we put him on rat duty! And, he is good around the chickens - though it is still only when we are out and around that he gets to be in the chicken run!

That said, I think no less of you for doing so - nor should you think less of yourself. You and @BY Bob can choose to do what you feel is right (just as I do for myself), and no one should judge, since neither of you are neglecting nor harming your feathered friends. So, the real question is: can you live with what you have done? If so, fine - drop it. If not, okay, don't beat yourself up - what is done is done, so, drop it! (See: all is okay! Let it pass from your mind either way!)

 

[rural mouse]

A BIG CAVEAT - the darkness is what's keeping the peace in the coop here now. So if you have any coop shenanigans, darkness is best I think.

Last night, in trying to teach the pullets to go in I laid the red light inside the pop door, and it helped draw them in. But they went in and out, dawdling around, and soon Popcorn woke up enough to get annoyed, and she stood up, approached the door and pecked one (probably for disturbing her sleep!). That set everything back and put fear of staying in there into the pullets.

So I doused the light, went around and opened the back, and put them in one by one that way. I stupidly turned on the red light to see better and again they all just wanted to be with me, on me, and definitely outta there away from Popcorn. Popcorn again stood up, no pecking yet but that freaked them out even more and they started trying to scramble up and out the back door.

I doused the light again and just used my hands and arms and voice to try to calm them all down for a bit and I held Popcorn back too, and she sat down again. Then I used the phone app placed on top of the coop to see what was going on. I pushed the door closed but not locked just in case, shut my mouth and was quiet, and let them figure it out. Popcorn tucked her head in her wing, and the pullets ended up in new places. One (Anna I think) had scrambled around the nestbox divider in the panic so was in there with Hazel, who was talking quietly but moved forward a little to accommodate her. Hazel was really pretty nice when one was scrambling around her back even, just some boks. That pullet (Ida Diane I think, because she always wants to be with Anna) ended up perching on the divider between the nestbox and the roost platform facing her friend and Hazel, and the first pullet in there (Anna) snuggled her beak up into Hazel's fluffy butt and leg feathers. The third (Tedi, who often roosts more alone) was near them but on the platform right next to Popcorn. I locked the door and left as quietly as I could.

I don't know how to get them to go in to the coop voluntarily. Suggestions welcome. Tonight just stick them in the back door again, without any fanfare or "training" on where the pop door is, how to go in, etc., like the disaster last night. They'll just start understanding that's where they need to get themselves for the night?

I bet this is why young chickens stay out later - they let it get really dark, so the adults are half-asleep first. That way they don't have to run the pecking gauntlet. It took awhile for Popcorn to bother to do anything about the pullets, she was quietly sitting for most of the pop door "training." This means to me that I need to keep the auto-door timer on the late side to accommodate them.

My experience with the young ones: if tiny, they go in first to find hiding places/warming center. Once "abandoned" by mama (change to roosting), they change to loitering outside while the bigs settle down. Then they start slipping in and going to roost in places the adults choose to ignore. If the door is open before daylight, they're the first out to get breakfast. If the door isn't opened until daylight (+), then the skedaddle out wherever they can to avoid adult ire (much like teenagers when adults are looking for idle hands to put to work).

 

[bgmathteach]

I am not vegetarian - I just find that I don’t eat that much meat.
But I totally believe in ‘best use’ and I hate waste. So throwing out the carcass would have been hard for me.
I guess I could see it as feeding the foxes.

No, as much as you don't love the thought of a fox eating a chicken, you also don't want them to be 'stabbed' in the intestinal track by a splintered bone. Though boiling the carcass may someone ameliorate that... roasting dries out the bones and makes them more prone to splintering - particularly since they are hollow (unlike mammalian bones of, say, a cow)

 

[rural mouse]

My coop is far enough away that I cant hear it when I am inside, so honestly its not a problem Truly though @ 23 weeks I am beginning to wonder if they ever will

They will when they're ready. Just as the girls laying eggs will happen when they're ready. I got the notification yesterday that the Invasion is 20 weeks now. No eggs yet, but Chia likely will any day now. Tuff has only been crowing for the last week or so (and sounds terrible so far)


Of course this also means that the ThunderStorm is 12 weeks. Nimbus is bigger (taller, rounder, not quite as long) than Lark and Indigo. The rest not yet. Storm is still hanging on to them, but they're spreading out more. I have witnessed ( in the last week) Storm attacking both Jessica and Pear (she actually squawked) for being too close to her babes. Twirp, on the other hand, is allowed in amongst them with impunity. T, J, and P are all above Storm in pecking order, but she seems to not care about it at the moment.

"Rules are more like guidelines"

 

[Ponypoor]

Wonderful photos!!! What a dashing crew!

I agree and this isn’t going to be permanent, I was trying to see if it would make a difference. Ironically, the one roost bar that is turned wide side is the one none of them will use. Now that I know it worked I will have my husband remove that unusable(to them) bar and stick it on top instead of underneath and remove the pipe altogether. Thank you for looking out for their toes

My coop is far enough away that I cant hear it when I am inside, so honestly its not a problem Truly though @ 23 weeks I am beginning to wonder if they ever will

I feed mine leftovers on occasion and sometimes that includes chicken. I have zero issue with it myself. It’s a wonderful source of protein for all meat eaters and that includes chickens. I wouldn’t worry over it, way better to use it than it going into the garbage.

Re: crowing

I am beginning to think my pullets will just wait till Spring to start laying.

Tippy is 26 weeks (or 6 months!)

School chicks are 23 weeks (5 months)

Sophia’s girls are 16 weeks (3 months)

Yep I am sure they will wait till Spring, maybe your boys will do that also.

 

[Ponypoor]

Chicken bones will splinter and damage a dog's mouth and throat. This is the voice of experience as our dog got into the trash once and I have the vet bills to prove it.

That and a baby back rib bone that got wedged sideways between the teeth on the top of her mouth. They were both vet visits.

Stupid dog tax
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Is that a lovely new feather is see poking up with Sydney she is looking good.

 

[featherhead007]

Chicken bones will splinter and damage a dog's mouth and throat. This is the voice of experience as our dog got into the trash once and I have the vet bills to prove it.

That and a baby back rib bone that got wedged sideways between the teeth on the top of her mouth. They were both vet visits.

Stupid dog tax
View attachment 3660955

No more stupid than a cat getting stuck in a tin can! (Just saying)

 

[Ponypoor]

I do not. However, it is for an entirely different reason: I do not buy store chicken. All of the chicken I eat are mine ('extra' roosters and older hens) I feel it would be wrong to feed them their friends. Besides, I eat all of what I make/cook, even making broth and/or chicken soup with the remains...so there would be little if anything nutritious left. Plus, cooked chicken bones is a bad combination with a dog. He (Elroy) does peruse the chicken run on occasion - especially in the evening - we put him on rat duty! And, he is good around the chickens - though it is still only when we are out and around that he gets to be in the chicken run!

That said, I think no less of you for doing so - nor should you think less of yourself. You and @BY Bob can choose to do what you feel is right (just as I do for myself), and no one should judge, since neither of you are neglecting nor harming your feathered friends. So, the real question is: can you live with what you have done? If so, fine - drop it. If not, okay, don't beat yourself up - what is done is done, so, drop it! (See: all is okay! Let it pass from your mind either way!)

Haven’t seen any photos of Elroy in a bit

 

[featherhead007]

Taxes owing

This is we’re everyone is today, they have no interest in going outside and why should they? It’s miserable out there, windy drizzly dreary.

Meanwhile I clobbered myself fixing up the run, squashed my fingers, dropped a panel on my toes (yes I do have steel toe boots - but to lazy to put them on), numerous splinters, and they do t want to enjoy the great outdoors.

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I don’t blame poor Misty for staying in.
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But Tippy is young healthy and hearty.
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Doctor appointment at 2:00 maybe you should take it. You seem to need it more than me today!