Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Sir Jaffar has made his intentions clear to me. He would prefer to be inside the house tonight instead of in the coop. As soon as he saw to it, that all his ladies were in the coop/run area, he ran towards the house and was waiting at the porch steps. I locked up the coop and brought (Mr. Determined) inside.
Chooks are crazy peoples!

He has you well trained!
I spent 30 min chasing bad chickies around the barn! Must be a full moon

 

[rural mouse]

@RoyalChick, moult warning on the last pic.

Yesterday, went to close the coop.

Head count 27. Recount...27...who's missing?.....

No Chia. Go back out at nearly dark....still no Chia.....uh-oh.... what happened?

Open coop this morning, no Chia (have had them turn up inside somehow before)..... 1 thought: did she go off to lay a first egg somewhere else, have it take a while and "shelter in place"? No discernable tracks in snow. Head to work (can't get around that) while still mostly dark, so if she did shelter, wouldn't be out yet.

Temps warm up from around 12F at dawn to 38ish. Work is a free-range zoo.

Get home as sun is close to setting, shadows are long. Go to close the coop. Hector is out with Enigma, looks like she's starting to think about eggs. Shan is on the coop porch. Closing isn't happening quite yet.

Both girls on the porch. Tuff came out to check on them as Hector went in.

Meanwhile, up on the HIGH roost (where ONLY the adults are allowed to roost, and not even all of them) is Chia, all fluffed up and settled....until I pulled the camera. Then she turned elusive. At this point, I am only speculating, but I suspect she laid her first egg in a "wild" location (as yet undiscovered).

Maizie has her feathers mostly in, still some growth needed, but she's getting active again.

Storm (and her girls, Granite is on nest boxes behind my shoulder) are testing roost sites (the littles weren't allowed to stay there and Storm moved with them).

Nellie has laid a couple of eggs again (several days apart, good) and is looking great!

Primula is pretty much done, but Belladonna is still miserable and is huddled up with P.

And Indigo just turned into an explosive feather cloud

They're dropping with each movement...
I'm glad the weather is warming up. The moulters need warmer weather.

Also discovered that the power to the coop isn't working, so am replacing the cords. Better to know now than in deep winter. Old ones lasted 4 years, so I can't complain...aside from the hassle of running new ones.

 

[rural mouse]

He has you well trained!
I spent 30 min chasing bad chickies around the barn! Must be a full moon

That was Saturday....

 

[RoyalChick]

@RoyalChick, moult warning on the last pic.

Yesterday, went to close the coop.

Head count 27. Recount...27...who's missing?.....

No Chia. Go back out at nearly dark....still no Chia.....uh-oh.... what happened?

Open coop this morning, no Chia (have had them turn up inside somehow before)..... 1 thought: did she go off to lay a first egg somewhere else, have it take a while and "shelter in place"? No discernable tracks in snow. Head to work (can't get around that) while still mostly dark, so if she did shelter, wouldn't be out yet.

Temps warm up from around 12F at dawn to 38ish. Work is a free-range zoo.

Get home as sun is close to setting, shadows are long. Go to close the coop. Hector is out with Enigma, looks like she's starting to think about eggs. Shan is on the coop porch. Closing isn't happening quite yet.
View attachment 3672045Both girls on the porch. Tuff came out to check on them as Hector went in.

Meanwhile, up on the HIGH roost (where ONLY the adults are allowed to roost, and not even all of them) is Chia, all fluffed up and settled....until I pulled the camera. Then she turned elusive. At this point, I am only speculating, but I suspect she laid her first egg in a "wild" location (as yet undiscovered).


View attachment 3672050Maizie has her feathers mostly in, still some growth needed, but she's getting active again.

View attachment 3672048Storm (and her girls, Granite is on nest boxes behind my shoulder) are testing roost sites (the littles weren't allowed to stay there and Storm moved with them).

View attachment 3672051Nellie has laid a couple of eggs again (several days apart, good) and is looking great!

Primula is pretty much done, but Belladonna is still miserable and is huddled up with P.

And Indigo just turned into an explosive feather cloudView attachment 3672052They're dropping with each movement...
I'm glad the weather is warming up. The moulters need warmer weather.

Also discovered that the power to the coop isn't working, so am replacing the cords. Better to know now than in deep winter. Old ones lasted 4 years, so I can't complain...aside from the hassle of running new ones.

Thanks for the warning - I was prepared. Poor girl!

 

[Ponypoor]

That was Saturday....

No wonder they are so full of beans this past weekend!

How’s the snow situation? And are the chickies used to it by now?

 

[lightm]

And who is that looking in the back door?

You mean everyone?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

More pavers down, this pic is from standing at the door, south-west side, looking north. The trench I dug starts just a few feet to the west (left) and goes around the back, north side. Now with the sandy gravel gone in this doorway area (which was always damp) I saw some water from the recent rain seeping in here.

BTW I think that's Tedi looking around at the new pavers. Also looking at the fake eggs I just temporarily stored here while changing out the roost and nestbox materials...

The Spuds are just 13 weeks old now, and nobody is laying, Popcorn is molting and has lost her over-conditioned fat keel (maybe she gets that way because she anticipates the hard molt?) and Hazel is doing a slow molt too.

Here you can also see the dripping from the sad roof situation, I'm attempting to address it.

Only good thing about the doorway seep is it's not a huge amount of water and it does drain away through the ground reasonably quickly. I don't think I have it in me to try to make a 20' trench going south the other way around the extended run and coop, over to the French drain, or alternatively extend the first trench up this way another five feet, is it deep enough to accommodate an extension?...I'm thinking of seeing how the pavers here at the door work for the winter and put off more major excavation. I think they will stay above the wet when it rains again, but I can deal with a bit of wet if they don't, by piling on more shavings. In the back in the picture, the north side floor, it's doing really well now with the rain because of the trench, I checked under the pavers.

 

[RoyalChick]

More pavers down, this pic is from standing at the door, south-west side, looking north. The trench I dug starts just a few feet to the west (left) and goes around the back, north side. Now with the sandy gravel gone in this doorway area (which was always damp) I saw some water from the recent rain seeping in here.

BTW I think that's Tedi looking around at the new pavers. Also looking at the fake eggs I just temporarily stored here while changing out the roost and nestbox materials...

The Spuds are just 13 weeks old now, and nobody is laying, Popcorn is molting and has lost her over-conditioned fat keel (maybe she gets that way because she anticipates the hard molt?) and Hazel is doing a slow molt too.

Here you can also see the dripping from the sad roof situation, I'm attempting to address it.
View attachment 3672026
Only good thing about the doorway seep is it's not a huge amount of water and it does drain away through the ground reasonably quickly. I don't think I have it in me to try to make a 20' trench going south the other way around the extended run and coop, over to the French drain, or alternatively extend the first trench up this way another five feet, is it deep enough to accommodate an extension?...I'm thinking of seeing how the pavers here at the door work for the winter and put off more major excavation. I think they will stay above the wet when it rains again, but I can deal with a bit of wet if they don't, by piling on more shavings. In the back in the picture, the north side floor, it's doing really well now with the rain because of the trench, I checked under the pavers.

Good job!!

 

[rural mouse]

Thanks for the warning - I was prepared. Poor girl!

She's not to growing pins, yet, so still very active and alert. Belladonna just looks miserable, but considering how much Kren and Horus went for her, she started with needing a HUGE number of feathers (and I suspect is a large part of the reason they're coming in so slowly). I'm hoping to get fresh pics of more of the crew on Wed. Mera's feathers are in between Maizie's and Belladonna's in growth, so she's starting to get past the uncomfortable stage.

 

[rural mouse]

No wonder they are so full of beans this past weekend!

How’s the snow situation? And are the chickies used to it by now?

They've mostly been turning up their beaks at the idea of doing more than setting a toe out of the coop. Deep winter, these temps are pretty normal. At the moment, though, there's still enough feather growth that hunkering down is the preferred activity, unless adding more fuel for feather production. The temps are climbing again over the next few days, so that will start shifting again.