Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Desertvalleychickens]

He meant everything to me. He was 9 pounds of all muscle. He could almost beat me at a wrestling match. He had a deep voice (like Elvis) when he crowed and he was king of the neighborhood!

Quite the strong roo!

 

[BeastBaby]

You might consider enclosing a portion of your yard with electric fencing against ground predators, and then putting up aviary netting against the aerial predators, running the aviary netting to the ground within the electric fencing. That’s what I do.

I wish! How large of an area do your girls have within the E fencing?

Electric fencing unfortunately won’t be a solution for my yard. Between my spouse’s wishes, the steep grade of the slope, and the lack of external outlets on my house, running a power cord up the hill won’t be feasible. And we are wooded, so there isn’t enough sunlight to reliably power it via solar (not that the general lack of sunshine in this state helps, either ).

They seem to have enough space to keep them happy on the down days, though. Run 1 above is a Fort Knox- their automatic pop door releases them there in the morning.

Run 2 is an extension I added this summer that does use aviary netting! I feel confident it could hold off a coyote… but not a Racoon, so they get access to it most days while I’m home and can keep an ear out.

And I think that they’re satisfied with their digs because on free range days they put themselves right back in their run after like 30 minutes for a nap.

 

[featherhead007]

Quite the strong roo!

A lot of the time I would let him win the wrestling match. I didn’t want to give BEN an inferiority complex

 

[featherhead007]

A lot of the time I would let him win the wrestling match. I didn’t want to give BEN an inferiority complex

I would play dead, and he would stop playing aggressively and lay down right next to me very close and gently. He was known to cover me with his wing, just like my late hen Rocks-Anne would do.
I’m fortunate to have such wonderful pets in my life.
The truth is, chooks don’t live as long as we would like them to. So we must be prepared for the inevitable. It’s never easy to lose one!

 

[BeastBaby]

Piglet has blue ears - roughly the same color as the eggs she lays.
Pooh has green/yellow ears. Sometimes very green. This photo a bit more yellow. She hasn’t started laying so I don’t know the color of her eggs.

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Ooh I can’t wait to hear how related/unrelated their ear color is to egg color.

 

[Ponypoor]

Oh this is what the corn looks like. They couldn't figure out how to get it off the cob. So I took it off for them and scattered it. You know what they really wanted? To shred the husk! Next time I won't peel it and let them go to town. I'm sure they can pluck the kernels off if they think about it for a minute.
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Also got a cool pic of Liara all fluffed out. She was all hackles up at the dog. Too bad I missed full-flare by that much!
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I would just throw the stocks leaves and all in there and they will have a blast tearing it apart.

 

[Ponypoor]

Ooh I can’t wait to hear how related/unrelated their ear color is to egg color.

Butterscotch has blue earlobes

That’s also what threw me when she laid the pinkish egg

Or maybe they are white now…

 

[BeastBaby]

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Hahaha this cat was me today when there was a fire truck across the street.

 

[Ponypoor]

Drama… you all know I hate it.

Tonight they kiddos found out that I stapled the screening on the HH-A window, and in HH-B I stapled a shaving bag over the window so that Sophia’s teens couldn’t fly up and roost there.

So what did they do instead? One flew up onto the door to HH-A, but Buttercup gave her a thumping and she flew down. Two of them spotted the small high up window in Hen House A and flew up there - the 2 of them barely fit there! I got fed up and left them to figure it out.

Then Misty was mad she also couldn’t roost in the window in HH-A so she was going to roost in a nest box in Hen House B. Sheesh! I hauled her fluffy butt out and put her in a nest box in HH-A where she belongs.

The rest of them I left to figure it all out - I need to get HH-B DONE! Just the door needs to be hung, then they can all roost on there - tomorrow - that’s the plan!

 

[Ponypoor]

Mr P

I cleaned up more of his sores, and got a closer look at his ear - looks like gunk in it. I applied some antibiotic ointment and I also started him on amoxicillin - I figure with the extent of the skin involved, feathers and his ear, also he likely has some cellulitis going on with his skin and feathers. I also gave him some Tylenol and put him back to bed - he is not a happy fella being handled, and he is still finishing up moulting.

Boy these chooks are as much work as the horses!