Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

This is a great video, I found it soothing to watch and listen. First off, Aurora is just magnificent. Great to see the colors move with her, just outstanding. Nice fluffy butt, too!

I thought Glynda knew what might happen with Sidney, Lady Featherington saw it coming too, and Glynda held her ground well enough. I thought she submitted, by lowering her head and being still, but also by not leaving she claimed some dust bathing rights. Yay for Glynda!

Nice dust bath companion in Lady F, though as @RoyalChick noticed, when LF got into it too it became a tight squeeze! What a big round floof lady, Lady F is!

Phyllis also struck a pose a couple of times, nice. I wondered about Hattie, but caught a glimpse in there, she was enjoying the sun?

Hattie loves to sunbathe on the other side of the run from the camera. They had a good day yesterday. There are times I feel I am.doing them a real favor by not letting them out to free range. If I had let them out yesterday they would have been huddled in Hattie House doing nothing. Instead they were quite active in the complex enjoying the sunshine, scratching, dustbathing, and being active chickens. It is much warmer in the complex in the winter because of the sunshine than under the magnolia or apple trees.

 

[BY Bob]

I loved how she had that dirt flying

I always love that. They are little volcanic eruptions throwing dirt high into the air.

 

[BY Bob]

My SHRA tax

Gosh I love this photo of Henny and her brood

View attachment 3752781

I love that they are still hanging with their mum. She must be one cool lady.

 

[BY Bob]

Hey everyone.

I think it is time for another update on my grandmother. As you all know she entered hospice care the first week of January. The nurses, nurse aids and the doctor overseeing it are wonderful people and are angels. The nurse aids are out 3 times a week to help with bathing and the RN is out every Thursday to take a assessment, document changes and touch base with the doctor. This coming Thursday will make 3 weeks since the latest diagnosis which has been difficult to come to terms with. She is in Cardiogenic Shock. Nothing can be done to cure this, it is part of the end stage congestive heart failure she has. I had never heard of this so I googled and fell into the rabbit hole of too much information out on the internet and had a breakdown. Our dear friend @Ponypoor has been a great listener and someone I can talk to. There is not much we can do for grandma except try to pull as much fluid off of her as possible and keep her pain levels under control. No matter how much we up her lasix, added 2 different fluid pills on top of it it has not gotten any better. There is mottling on her lower legs that is spreading indicating her organs are starting to fail and she has been having extreme difficulty breathing. Her pain has also gotten way out of hand. This morning we called the hospice nurse out. It was decided and the doctor agreed it was time to start her on morphine. It can also help calm her breathing and hopefully alleviate the smothering. She was started on it this afternoon and for the first time in a while she is truly resting. Me and mom, we feel helpless watching her go through this.

 

[Desertvalleychickens]

And this will make all of you cringe I am sure

https://www.treehugger.com/creepy-mystery-ingredients-in-fast-food-4863024#:~:text=One of the more-enduring,ingredient commonly derived from such.



I don’t generally eat processed foods, and after reading this will definitely NOT eat processed food again

Sand in your sandwich?! That makes me wonder what else they mine other than borax in this desert....

 

[BY Bob]

So why do they eat feathers when protein deprived?
Maybe that is just another of those things that are known about chickens but turn out to be not true.

Any source of protein is better than no source of protein

 

[BY Bob]

Maybe because they can tell there is protein in them but cannot properly digest them....or cannot get to other protein? Most (but not all) of the reports of feather picking involve large egg production facilities: low quality feed, high demand on bodies, not a lot of access to options to supplement through forage, lots of bodies, and BOREDOM. The last one probably accounting for most (again but not all) of the outlier exceptions.


Disclaimer:
Pure speculation on my part

These are my thoughts as well. It is important to remember that a lot of the chicken "behaviors" we take as gospel come from these terrible living conditions and were spread by factory farmers and the universities that helped them.

 

[BY Bob]

These are my thoughts as well. It is important to remember that a lot of the chicken "behaviors" we take as gospel come from these terrible living conditions and were spread by factory farmers and the universities that helped them.

Rant continues...

That is why it is important to observe and learn how your chickens behave in different situations. How they relate with each other, etc. Then you need to share it on BYC.

This website is doing more for advancing chicken knowledge than any university any where.

 

[Ponypoor]

I love that they are still hanging with their mum. She must be one cool lady.

They are showing signs of leaving her, they are venturing away from her more and more. But, at night they always snuggle up with her, she goes looking for them to get them in bed

 

[featherhead007]

Hey everyone.

I think it is time for another update on my grandmother. As you all know she entered hospice care the first week of January. The nurses, nurse aids and the doctor overseeing it are wonderful people and are angels. The nurse aids are out 3 times a week to help with bathing and the RN is out every Thursday to take a assessment, document changes and touch base with the doctor. This coming Thursday will make 3 weeks since the latest diagnosis which has been difficult to come to terms with. She is in Cardiogenic Shock. Nothing can be done to cure this, it is part of the end stage congestive heart failure she has. I had never heard of this so I googled and fell into the rabbit hole of too much information out on the internet and had a breakdown. Our dear friend @Ponypoor has been a great listener and someone I can talk to. There is not much we can do for grandma except try to pull as much fluid off of her as possible and keep her pain levels under control. No matter how much we up her lasix, added 2 different fluid pills on top of it it has not gotten any better. There is mottling on her lower legs that is spreading indicating her organs are starting to fail and she has been having extreme difficulty breathing. Her pain has also gotten way out of hand. This morning we called the hospice nurse out. It was decided and the doctor agreed it was time to start her on morphine. It can also help calm her breathing and hopefully alleviate the smothering. She was started on it this afternoon and for the first time in a while she is truly resting. Me and mom, we feel helpless watching her go through this.