Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

Walked out to the coop mid morning with feed and a 4 year old helper. (Coop opened at normal time, but no food/scratch due to drizzly morning and they protested the rain for a while). My helper started tossing grapes enroute to the garage: to Cheetah, Hector, Tuff, and Whiskey. Between her carrying the bag, 2 bananas in it, and working on tugging grapes free, boys kept up on the tidbitting easily.

Everything stopped at the garage when I got bombarded with "what's that?" Food bucket loaded, back out. She started tossing grapes again while I tossed scratch. Then a pause to go down the steps (talking about the next step as we went). More grapes and scratch on out to the coop area. She kept tossing grapes while I got the pellets dealt with and the rest of the scratch done. (FWI, what to do with empty stems is a puzzler for a city child). Bucked down, toss empty stem, bag into bucket, then start on banana. Again she tosses to birds I point out....aim drifts, but...it works. I toss farther out and to sides and behind and keep her in banana pieces.View attachment 3865540Last few in the scratch cup to toss. Lots of giggles, all good.


This evening after early dinner and family retreat for bed (jet lag is not fun for kids).

You guys want to watch this, if just for the crowing in the background

 

[notabitail]

100 Big Ones

It is over the century mark in the coop with the broodies.

View attachment 3865458

So I have cracked the coop side and added a second fan. Hopefully we can drop the temp a little.

View attachment 3865459

It is only going to get hotter this week. I'm worried.

What thermometer thing is that?

 

[notabitail]

I'm just going to flush her out of the box each night. I'll be here every day until hatch time.

I just envisioned a lever with the words "Flush Phyllis" over it that when pushed, flushes Phyllis out of the boxes.

 

[knoturavggrl]

I had to euthanize it was never going to walk or stand.

So heart breaking.

Oh goodness, that must have been very hard. Such difficult decisions we sometimes have to make when we choose to keep animals.

 

[Ponypoor]

Walked out to the coop mid morning with feed and a 4 year old helper. (Coop opened at normal time, but no food/scratch due to drizzly morning and they protested the rain for a while). My helper started tossing grapes enroute to the garage: to Cheetah, Hector, Tuff, and Whiskey. Between her carrying the bag, 2 bananas in it, and working on tugging grapes free, boys kept up on the tidbitting easily.

Everything stopped at the garage when I got bombarded with "what's that?" Food bucket loaded, back out. She started tossing grapes again while I tossed scratch. Then a pause to go down the steps (talking about the next step as we went). More grapes and scratch on out to the coop area. She kept tossing grapes while I got the pellets dealt with and the rest of the scratch done. (FWI, what to do with empty stems is a puzzler for a city child). Bucked down, toss empty stem, bag into bucket, then start on banana. Again she tosses to birds I point out....aim drifts, but...it works. I toss farther out and to sides and behind and keep her in banana pieces.View attachment 3865540Last few in the scratch cup to toss. Lots of giggles, all good.


This evening after early dinner and family retreat for bed (jet lag is not fun for kids).

I am so glad your family has arrived

And hopefully Mera has a lovely little family also!

 

[Ponypoor]

I had to go to town today. I met with my church friend, who bought me this device. He likes to make steaks, but my old rusty bbq wasn’t good enough. He is a very nice guy. He buys me things on a regular basis. Matter of fact, they all buy me things. I’m just blessed I guess:

View attachment 3865548

Wow that was really nice of them

 

[Ponypoor]

You guys want to watch this, if just for the crowing in the background

Yea I enjoyed that his crow is not what I expected.

 

[Ponypoor]

100 Big Ones

It is over the century mark in the coop with the broodies.

View attachment 3865458

So I have cracked the coop side and added a second fan. Hopefully we can drop the temp a little.

View attachment 3865459

It is only going to get hotter this week. I'm worried.

I broke down and bought an evaporative cooler, I checked the humidity in the barn and it’s around 38% so it should be low enough I can use it, I’ll set up a fan to blow air out of the hen house to the outside.

If it works well I will get one for Lulu in her stall - poor old girl - the heat is not great with her.

 

[rural mouse]

Yea I enjoyed that his crow is not what I expected.

Cheetah is....LOUD (they all are when they crow in the coop and I'm in there) and high.

 

[BY Bob]

What thermometer thing is that?

It is a thermometer base station. There are sensors in each coop. I got it on Amazon.