Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Noisy "neighbors" have arrivedView attachment 3794225Sandhill cranes in courtship

Oh how amazing! Love to have something like that here. Well we do have Cranes and Herons but they stick to the creeks and ponds. I should take a walk over in the tree farm and go to the pond… who knows what’s there!

 

[Ponypoor]

Oh! Thanks for sharing- those are three very different outcomes.

So far, Becky seems better! She has plenty of spunk to cause mayhem, chasing after everyone below her in the Order. And she has resumed laying eggs, although very very thin shelled ones. I try to get out to the coop several times a day so I could catch them in the nest box before someone else lays on top of it and clobbers her egg. They are still enormous, so it’s a huge mess when they do pop open.
View attachment 3794246
Throw back to our last sunny day.

Editing to add: I didn’t get the antibiotics on time, so Becky’s better self came from no treatment at all. I’m considering starting calcium again, like Sharpie.

I have kept Larry on calcium since last year and today I found a glorious egg from her. I was suspicious of her laying again but as I am not home now all the time I couldn’t catch her at it. But today I got lucky!

If she pops out a couple like this when I set the silkie eggs I’ll give my niece a few of hers. They should be sex linked so Roos will be barred.

I candles it and the yolk looks great and shell also.

 

[rural mouse]

Just took Sherlock for a walk around the house. Had a hawk type bird swoop out of the spruce trees on the west side, loop the house, cause an ALERT call and vanish. Based upon the long narrowish striped tail, I think it was either a cooper's hawk or a sharp shinned. It had something in its talons. Then I found feathers...lots of feathers. I think it dined on a pigeon.

Sherlock left the chickens alone. We got down where I could see the bird hatch on the coop. PEAR was doing sentinel duty squarely in the doorway. Babies (who had been out earlier for breakfast) were clearly NOT allowed out until all clear was called. She was NOT budging until that call came.

Now that I'm writing this up, I'm at the table and can see her browsing on grass next to the water dish the gutter runs into. I like seeing wildlife, but that's a mite close for comfort (the hawk). Seeing the reactions of the whole group is a delight. The babies are getting schooled well.

 

[rural mouse]

The courting couple moved into the alfalfa field

 

[Sally PB]

Editing to add: I didn’t get the antibiotics on time, so Becky’s better self came from no treatment at all.

I am "cautiously optimistic" with Pip's lotus leaf extract treatment. She has been in the nest box she likes a few times. I don't know for sure if she has laid, but all the eggs I taken from that box have had good strong shells.

 

[BeastBaby]

I have kept Larry on calcium since last year and today I found a glorious egg from her. I was suspicious of her laying again but as I am not home now all the time I couldn’t catch her at it. But today I got lucky!

If she pops out a couple like this when I set the silkie eggs I’ll give my niece a few of hers. They should be sex linked so Roos will be barred.


View attachment 3794275

I candles it and the yolk looks great and shell also.

Good work Larry!
Is there any concern that her propensity for thin shelled eggs would be passed down?

 

[BeastBaby]

Just took Sherlock for a walk around the house. Had a hawk type bird swoop out of the spruce trees on the west side, loop the house, cause an ALERT call and vanish. Based upon the long narrowish striped tail, I think it was either a cooper's hawk or a sharp shinned. It had something in its talons. Then I found feathers...lots of feathers. I think it dined on a pigeon.

Sherlock left the chickens alone. We got down where I could see the bird hatch on the coop. PEAR was doing sentinel duty squarely in the doorway. Babies (who had been out earlier for breakfast) were clearly NOT allowed out until all clear was called. She was NOT budging until that call came.

Now that I'm writing this up, I'm at the table and can see her browsing on grass next to the water dish the gutter runs into. I like seeing wildlife, but that's a mite close for comfort (the hawk). Seeing the reactions of the whole group is a delight. The babies are getting schooled well.

That is fascinating about Pear’s behavior!

 

[BeastBaby]

The courting couple moved into the alfalfa fieldView attachment 3794339

Lmao I see it now. At first I was thinking How unusual, RM posted a photo of a plank of wood?

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Well, well, well, I still have it. I personally have neglected the horses and stalls for a good year and a half now. I did not have time to do outside chores. I went out yesterday afternoon for a egg swoop. Noticed a hen in Russ's stall so went in to see if she had a egg, she didn't. Scratched Russ's butt a second and spied the pitch fork leaning against the stall. Before, if it did not require a deep clean I could have a stall spotless in about 15 minutes. That allowed time to scratch on said horse, shove their butt out of the way and such. It took about 20 minutes start to finish. Russ was itchy, he is shedding and he kept getting in the way asking for a butt scratching. Once I was done I grabbed the ShedEz tool and went to town on him. Ahh springtime, I came in wearing more horse hair then he has on him. Rosie popped her head out of the door to scold me. Yes, I know it is not smart to wear crocs out working with the horses. Do not follow my example and go away, dishes are calling your name.

 

[rural mouse]

That is fascinating about Pear’s behavior!

Silver did similar with Pear's group as babies. They were exploring around the deck lilac bush when Silver (just 18 months at the time) sounded an alert and ran a arc around them with wings out and stiff (no flapping). Babies ran to the bush. Silver stood with back to the bush just outside the overhead protection of it, looking toward the patio. I was thoroughly confused and starting to go remove her from the babies proximity when several deer walked around the house to browse on the grass in front of the patio. Come to think of it, I think Pear, Rusty, Mama, and the rest were about the same age (approx 6 weeks). That incident told me Silver would look out for the babies even though she hadn't been broody. We moved them all out to the coop within a week. I wasn't so sure about Buster (the roo), but Silver avoided him and he started keeping watch over the littles too.

Edit: this was back when I knew NOTHING about chickens and hadn't found BYC yet.