Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

All of the remaining incubator eggs are getting cloudy inside, I can't see any of the veins or spots I could see yesterday? That's uh...a sign they aren't gonna work right? The ones under the silkies are all veiny inside with little babies.

My silkies are still dutifully sitting on their eggs. I still have to make sure they go to the right nest whenever they get off for daily ablutions. But the other girls are letting them brood with occasional check-ins. Ash was even putting pine straw on Samaras back this morning, it was so cute.

The bitty birds in the house are all so cute! The ones I got yesterday are way friendlier about being handled. Kiddo got to see each one but no pets today. She got in trouble for squeezing Peepy so no touching until she practices gentle touch some more. She and daddy renamed one of the buffs "butterbird"

Can’t speak to the cloudiness, but I would stay the course for a bit longer. As long as they don’t smell your ok.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Which will end up as Butterball when all those fluffy feathers come in I named my one BOrp chicks Butters after Rebecca’s hen who passed away. I also have Sweetie and Goldie.

A bit put out with my Lavern and Shorley- I will need to get another chick now to be Shirley! Darn! Can’t have just a Lavern - need a Shirley to go with that! Hahaha. Maybe another lavender Orp next year…. Lavern is certainly very docile and quiet yep maybe another. Too late this year though.

Orpingtons are really nice birds, not sure what colour eggs they lay, brown likely…?

Yeah tan-brown eggs.
Bummer about Shorley though, the majesty marans are incredible birds. Shep doesn't even bokbok much, she mostly peeps. A bit heavy to do the parrot thing on my shoulder while I clean the coop though!

 

[Sylvester017]

She’s a cutie pie, and I agree they are smart little birds. And can be very devious - Marty is just a little terror, she used to hunt down the chicks last year and try to attack them. Luckily she has pretty much got over that.

We have one pretty Buff Partridge "GINNY" that's got a nasty temperament since she was a chick - I don't think she even likes herself ! She's not a team player and has so alienated herself that she pretty much is a lone forager. While the Silver Partridge "SUZU" we bought at the same time is only nasty to others when she's broody.

Suzu is the only Silkie Ginny will toodle with cuz no one else tolerates Ginny.

Meanwhile our 3 newest Silkie pullets toodle around like the 3 Musketeers and miss and call for each other until all back together again. Even as babies they would panic cry if they lost sight of each other.

When we raised our Dominique chicks they only complained if I left them alone but they were content to wander off confidently and independently.

The Doms were a flock together but did not miss each other the way our current 3 Musketeers Silkies miss each other.

Our one remaining Dominique today at 7 yrs old is still quite content to be independent and tolerates all our littles in the yard.

DANA -- our Dom top far left in pic

 

[RoyalChick]

We have one pretty Buff Partridge "GINNY" that's got a nasty temperament since she was a chick - I don't think she even likes herself ! She's not a team player and has so alienated herself that she pretty much is a lone forager. While the Silver Partridge "SUZU" we bought at the same time is only nasty to others when she's broody.

Suzu is the only Silkie Ginny will toodle with cuz no one else tolerates Ginny.
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Meanwhile our 3 newest Silkie pullets toodle around like the 3 Musketeers and miss and call for each other until all back together again. Even as babies they would panic cry if they lost sight of each other.
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When we raised our Dominique chicks they only complained if I left them alone but they were content to wander off confidently and independently.
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The Doms were a flock together but did not miss each other the way our current 3 Musketeers Silkies miss each other.

Our one remaining Dominique today at 7 yrs old is still quite content to be independent and tolerates all our littles in the yard.

DANA -- our Dom top far left in pic
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Love the picture of the 3 Dom chicks.

 

[Sylvester017]

I appreciated the leghorns. I found them very smart and really liked them. They are very alert and were excellent at free ranging. Sadly they were too good at it. Exploring the hillside is one thing. Spending about 75% of your day way up on the hill out of sight is another thing entirely. Sending them to my aunt was the best thing for them. They have a huge covered run, as big as my yard. The best part, my aunts house is on a hill. Her run, is on the hill. The girls get the best of both worlds. Exploring a hill and safely enclosed. They are thriving. The one thing she does not have that I do is the creek. She does have a ditch though that unless it is very dry has water flowing. After they got acclimated she started letting them out of the run when she was outside doing yard work. My "ducks in chicken suits" as she calls them head straight for the ditch every time.

I truly believe Leghorns are "water birds" -- our White Leghorn liked to stand in the water dishes. We switched to nipple waterers cuz she would stand in all the drinking water bowls and muddy them. We also got slow sprinklers so she could stand in moving water. All chickens seem to like running water to stand or play in.
Our Silkies love to play in water.

 

[Marie2020]

Oh absolutely. He may be nervous but when he was a pup he put himself between me and a police officer that knocked on the wrong door.
And when he was a bit older he chased off some kids that were breaking into my garage. He's an awesome guard dog and an angel to my kid.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

I'm terribly weary of cute and funny animal videos on social medias because sometimes the background can be quite horrid. I read a few posts from a french insta account who actually analyses animal reels that went viral, explaining if there's something wrong with the behaviour or if it's just really cute and funny...and that sort of ruined it for me.

The relationship with Alba and Nieva, our leghorns, is complicated . It's not so much that we don't like them, that they don't like us. And it has overall being getting worse now that they have spent more than a year here. When they got here in May 2023 at five months they were very weary, but curious. Now they are still curious but terrified! I'm not really sure what we did wrong. It's even more surprising since both had stubborn bumblefeet and spent for months half an hour daily or every other day inside our house. They didn't seem to hate the bath, the wrapping, and they loved the treats that came with it ; but whenever we approach them then and now in the chicken yard or outside, they shy away from us and especially from being touched. When we hand out some treats they really love, they will come near enough to grab a piece... and run. When it's just some more usual treats, they dont even come near.

On the other hand, they have not being explorers like some of our other chickens. When we fenced all the chickens in the yard, it took several weeks for some to accept that and stop trying to get out. Alba and Nieva tried once or twice and gave up. They could easily fly over our chicken fence which is only five feet high , but they don't seem to want to. They also adapted very well with the other chickens, they are confident, and have dominant tempers.

I could say they fear humans because they arrived here at five months already coming from a bad breeder, but the other two hens that came with them from the same place, Lily and Kara, the Marans x Harko, are not like this at all. And if it was only Nieva I could imagine she was traumatised by her surgery at the vet, but Alba is also like her although not as bad

It makes dealing with health issues a real pain. Right now, Nieva has a lice infestation that seems to resist every treatment supposed to be efficient (and which seem to have been efficient for the other chickens) and every time I have to catch her, it's like I'm sending her to the slaughterhouse rather than just applying some powder or spray. If I take her off the roost at night and she wakes up before I catch her, she will even risk getting hurt flying in the dark rather than being caught.

I'm interested to hear if anyone has tips to try make things better- more specific than handing out treats and spending time with them, which we already do a lot of . I also don't feel catching her to bring her inside with us would help much, since she already spent a lot of time in when we were treating her foot, and anyway at this time of year we only go in after dinner and crash to bed shortly after.

I have seen some of my other chickens who were either very scared or didn't like humans completely change and become more familiar for various reasons, like Piou-piou, or Chipie, or Théo in his good days, so I know it's possible even when they are adults !

Alba
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Nieva.
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Alba and Kara (yes, we just called them white in Italian and black in Turkish).
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Some content I find enjoyable or even relate to. A good majority though if it involves animals and children I cringe. My reliable choices if I need to unwind and laugh a few minutes is Useless farm, Diva Girl Silkies, Chicken Happy hour and Chookens. I also love Matt Mathews. He may not be for some, but his farm chores content is spot on 99% of the time. Granted I would be outside in more then my robe but in each reel I swear my crew have put me in the same scenario's. Well, except getting the tractor stuck I have not done that. Mostly because when the tractor has been used down at the barn I am not trusted to even turn it on. Oh and Useless farm and Karen and Brad. They get me cracking up all the time. Karen gets a bad rap, but honestly I am glad she shows "Mean Karen". If she only showed sweet Stanley many people would think emu's are sweet cuddly teddy bears. Witchy Karen lets people see that they are actually dangerous.

 

[Sylvester017]

Seems she broke a bone in her foot. Since it wasn’t displaced I let it be and just supported her with pain meds. But she seems to have aggravated it.

I will give her some Tylenol in the morning and if it continues to bother her I might lock her in the summer house with Mr P and the silkies. Try to keep her a bit more quiet rather than running around.

Maybe splint it?

 

[RoyalChick]

I truly believe Leghorns are "water birds" -- our White Leghorn liked to stand in the water dishes. We switched to nipple waterers cuz she would stand in all the drinking water bowls and muddy them. We also got slow sprinklers so she could stand in moving water. All chickens seem to like running water to stand or play in.
Our Silkies love to play in water.

Love the chicken water feature!
I really need to set something up for my Princesses.

 

[RoyalChick]

Happy Friday everyone.
Here is a nice fluffy butt. See how she poses for the camera? She even has the little one leg thing going just for Alex she sure is a charmer this lady!

Today is a big day. Tassels is getting a trial out of her cage.
I am cautiously optimistic.