Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

The list currently doesn't have lavender orpingtons either. That's why I'm wondering where they're getting their eggs....the breed list seems to keep changing.

Lavender Orpington was assumed. Sorry

 

[RoyalChick]

The cats are now all in full-on welcome mode. They take turns interfering with me trying to get stuff done at my desk (seems like bills pile up over 6 weeks).
Here are two patiently sitting in the waiting room until it is their turn on the desk!

But I need to go outdoors as it seems the chickens are getting impatient to be let out.

 

[BY Bob]

What a gorgeous picture!

She is a gorgeous chick.

 

[featherhead007]

I can hear my Wyandottey Rudy, out in the coop crowing his little heart out. He still sounds like a rubber chicken being squeezed, but he’s trying. I want to go out there and give him a big hug and kiss . But I don’t think he would understand the sentiment.

 

[featherhead007]

I can hear my Wyandottey Rudy, out in the coop crowing his little heart out. He still sounds like a rubber chicken being squeezed, but he’s trying. I want to go out there and give him a big hug and kiss . But I don’t think he would understand the sentiment.

The girls all think he’s handsome:

 

[SimpleJenn]

The girls all think he’s handsome:View attachment 3907390

He's very handsome.

 

[Themellowyellows]

Definitely not a black sex link...maybe a f2, 3. She's got the look of a mix. The sex links are a first generation cross between 2 breeds. It making the cross, offspring can be identified as male or female by down color/markings at hatch. (Auto-sexing breeds do the same thing, but breed true, so every generation hatches that way unless other breeds get into the mix). Breeding sex links to each other allows the parent breeds characteristics (that don't show in the first cross) back into the offspring. These are NOT sexable by color at hatch. Mix in an entirely separate breed and everything gets more interesting, but less predictable.

I'm thinking that's what happened here. She's beautiful, but breedwise is a Bitsa: bits of this and that.

Oh ok, I dont have a rooster, but I wish, even though she does not have a excact breed, I still love her build, eggs, and pattern.

 

[featherhead007]

He's very handsome.

He’s a good boy

 

[featherhead007]

He’s a good boy

I plucked him off the roost and held him in my arms for a little while. He didn’t seem to mind too much, but it happened in front of his ladies (and that’s not acceptable to him)
I’m glad he’s growing up to be all that rooster that I know he could be!

 

[ManueB]

Thirsty Thursday
View attachment 3907379

Her colours are very fashionable indeed ! Also between the plumage and the haircut, I find she gives off native american vibes on that picture.

I have a question related to the risks of getting adult chickens and the necessity of a long quarantine. For context, here in France while it is possible to buy days old chicks, it is rather unusual. Hatcheries for backyard keepers don't exist. The two most usual ways to buy chickens are getting adults from breeders that may also come to sell them in AG stores ( usually point of lay or just younger for hens), or buying fertilised eggs.

I've had a bad experience myself buying point of lay pullets from a local breeder who sells to many people around here. The hens don't have any serious viral disease that I know off, they were vaccinated in fact for Marek's among other things, but they arrived in a very poor condition and keep having health issues, which I suppose come from both genetics and how they were raised the first months.

What I don't understand is why buying chicks would pose less of a risk of introducing a disease, than adult chickens. Sure, the chicks will be kept separated from the adults for at least six weeks, which is more or less the same as what many folks on BYC do for quarantine. But if they are carrier of a disease that doesn't reveal itself in that time like Marek's, avian leukosis, IB or IL could do, they would still introduce it just like adults would ? Or am I missing something ?

I had such a bad experience that if I decide to get more chickens one day, I think I will do mostly closed flock or eventually get again eggs from close neighbours where I know more or less what the chickens keeping conditions are and would have heard if they had some serious infectious disease.

Also, I realise it's a cultural thing and that I am just not used to it, but I still find buying days old chicks as pets a bit strange, especially in stores. You would never buy days old kittens or pups. For mammals there is an obvious physical reason that they are not weaned but still I'm not sure any other pets are sold so young ?

Thirsty tax from a year ago (BFTP right ?) the day Chipie had a sip of coffee.