Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Caturday Saturday

Nothing sharpens the claws like a nice granite boulder

There, all ready for the day!

 

[notabitail]

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Good reporting! So, where are the photos of your new Easter egger w the beckoning eyes I mean surely you couldn’t say no- look at that awesome patterning!

And what was your limiting factor on flock size again? The size of your coop, or just wanting to keep it small?

How does the chick pattern translate to the adult feathering? I wondered that, there seemed to be several types in the bunch! Hard to say no, indeed! I wanted to check them out, and see how happy they seemed, listen for any distress. I couldn’t tell how they regulate the heat, and where the chicks go if they are too warm, for instance. On the other hand, the little chick feeders inside and the slot trough looked clean and nobody couldn’t get their head in or out the day I was there.

My coop right now will hold 6 large hens, though some get more in there. I have five now, and could take two-three more since someone is often sleeping in the nest box, and that whole area can be configured as a roosting area, the wall is removable. I’d put covered nest boxes elsewhere, like off the front porch.

Some have found all of their hens want to roost together, no matter the numbers or available coops (13! Though that includes a couple bantams, and some end up roosting in the runs according to the poster), so I contemplate another coop, a bigger one, and using this coop for an extra. But I would also need to increase the run size too. I’m in no hurry, I don’t know how everything would go, for winter and summer quarters.

I think I’d like a flock size anywhere from six to nine or ten. I had thought to bring in pullets in little groups every other year so there will be staggered ages, some laying and some not, also so they don’t all get old and die all at once. But that doesn’t seem to happen as planned of course, two died this last year at only around three years old.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Yep - I have a $500 chicken who doesn’t lay eggs apparently.


You guys Vets are way less expensive than here!

Maybe….I’ll check but here it is something like $140 base charge for the visit, non-emergency, before time and tests. That’s if I bring the hens there. $250-$500 was most visits? I’d have to check my bills. And I don’t know that any final outcome was different, but the draining, X-rays and euthanasia were something I would not have tried or could do on my own. I was happy to find a vet that would see chickens. I did buy a microscope to do fecal float tests. That should pay for itself over time.

 

[Ponypoor]

View attachment 3786685

Exchequer

Lovely

 

[BeastBaby]

Only you can decide, but my Maggie lived well over a year after her first lash eggs. A full good life including normal egg laying.

Edited to add: I just checked my notes. Maggie lived two years and 6 weeks after her first lash eggs. She laid normally and then laid another set of lash material about two months before she died. She was very much alive and well in the two years.

Wow! That’s game changing information. Did Maggie get treatment/antibiotics, or just time to wait it out?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Dad was surprisingly not upset. He told Mom and I that we did the right thing by taking her. He would only pay money for dogs, no other creature. He always tells me that my chooks are livestock, not pets. I tell him that they are not and then he gets mad… it happens almost every day. He has gotten better now though, and he knows most of their names.

Livestock require care and money too actually.

 

[RoyalChick]

Wow! That’s game changing information. Did Maggie get treatment/antibiotics, or just time to wait it out?

I am trying to remember.
I definitely gave her antibiotics (Baytril) after the second bout (two months before she died) and she definitely stayed well and chirpy until her last few days. What I can’t remember is if I treated her the first time around.
I didn’t make a note of it - but I am not reliable at record keeping.
I will dig around a bit to see if I can figure it out.

 

[RoyalChick]

Livestock require care and money too actually.

 

[BeastBaby]

As RC pointed out, one lash egg on its own doesn’t mean a death sentence, if you have some amoxicillin I would dose her for a week with that, after all it is an infection, and treating it as such will give her a good quality log life.

Nothing is guaranteed, she could be killed by a fox, or hawk. There are plenty of hazards out there for the chooks.

In fact Red is proof that they can be on deaths door one day and months later still be with you, jumping up I n the air for the piece of bagel her Hooman so kindly is offering (owww! Leave the finger sister).

Here she is under my lawn chair snoozing - hoping I’ll drop my bagel
View attachment 3786407

I don’t have a vet willing to see/prescribe meds for a chicken; is there a different way to get amoxicillin in the US?

Mmm Red, I hope you got a nice bagel brunch!!