Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Happy Friday

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Is this the start of a new romance?

Bubba is a lazy rooster in the morning, my kind of boy. Where Branch is one of the first off the roost he is always the last one. The hen beside him, why that is little Owly. She sleeps in the coop but the last few mornings after she eats she flies up to sit with him until he gets down. She is also starting to hang out with him during the day. These are terrible pictures taken from my living room. It is 26 out, too cold for me at the moment to go out for a picture.
Look at her face though, I should not have to wait much longer I think.

 

[Grandma The Chicken]

Snow is coming, Grandma. They want to see your footprints.

Yes. Even you, Mozzarella. That comb and yellow beak is not doing you wonders, but first snow, then hot weather. Let's live like that.

 

[BY Bob]

Is this the start of a new romance?
View attachment 3719537
Bubba is a lazy rooster in the morning, my kind of boy. Where Branch is one of the first off the roost he is always the last one. The hen beside him, why that is little Owly. She sleeps in the coop but the last few mornings after she eats she flies up to sit with him until he gets down. She is also starting to hang out with him during the day. These are terrible pictures taken from my living room. It is 26 out, too cold for me at the moment to go out for a picture.
Look at her face though, I should not have to wait much longer I think.
View attachment 3719539View attachment 3719540

I would for sure say it's a budding romance. I think it's very sweet that they spend their mornings together.

 

[BY Bob]

Snow is coming, Grandma. They want to see your footprints.
View attachment 3719542
Yes. Even you, Mozzarella. That comb and yellow beak is not doing you wonders, but first snow, then hot weather. Let's live like that.
View attachment 3719544

Ah but Mozzarella gets to blend in when the snow comes!

 

[Grandma The Chicken]

Ah but Mozzarella gets to blend in when the snow comes!

View attachment 3719618View attachment 3719619

That does sound interesting. There's someone else who wants to join.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

I was wondering. White chickens are pretty good at keeping themselves clean. I had a wet stretch a while ago and Glynda was rubbing her tail on the Cluckle Hut when she went under it. They hold their tails so straight up that they rub on things all the time.

I do believe you are on to something there. I have 2 out of the 4 leghorns who insist on laying underneath the hay pile. I have tried blocking it, stuffing the entrance and they just dig a new way in to get to the spot. They have to go under the plywood that the hay is stacked on so their back and tail feathers are constantly rubbing against the wood. Oddly enough it is just 2 of the girls whose tails and backs stay dirty or stained. The other 2 girls behave and lay on the porch when the hay stack is not super tall. When we get in a new load of hay though then they are bad girls and try to kill me by laying on the top bales as far back as they can go. Mind you it is stacked 5 bales, sometimes 6 high making it a death trap for me to get the eggs. I actually need to climb the hay today, it will make 3 days since I have raided the top nest. I do not look forward to it.

 

[Ponypoor]

My neighbor said they were spending $650/month. They got an outside wood burner/boiler and turned their propane off. The boiler heats their (biggish) house to 75, and supplies all their hot water.

BIG caveat: They are burning a TON of wood. They have gone a couple cords, at least, in a month. And it's been unseasonably warm and dry. When their current pile is gone, I don't know where they will get more. Buy it, maybe? I think it's going for $250-300/cord around here. Not much savings there! I think the salesman may have oversold them on this thing's efficiency.

We also heat with wood, but have an interior wood stove, heating a MUCH smaller area. (It doesn't include hot water, so we still burn propane.)

I wish we could get 4-6" of snow. We have had diddly, maybe 2" so far this season. By this time last year, we had had about 4-5 FEET of snow. Hubby wants to go cross country skiing and use his rat rod Falcon plow!
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Wood is extremely inefficient for heating - not to mention the amt of work to cut dry and store, then haul it in, keep the boiler stocked, clean out the cinders….. many farmers here use wood boilers, the amt of air pollution on some of the more foggy days with no wind makes it hard to breath at times!

Heat tax

Dreaming of July…

 

[Desertvalleychickens]

Love Ijak's crow.

I love it too. One of the most unique crows I've heard in my life.

 

[Desertvalleychickens]

Fluffy Butts

And a video:

And my hen Sheenfeather: