Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

It's Friday

Freshly re-striped bum

Mum Bum

Young Bum

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm so pleased. I was very concerned that your arm wasn't working.

I put a hot water bottle on my shoulder last night and it's really helped.

Amazing how heat helps. Heat soothes. It's why many seniors retire to desert communities.

 

[Sylvester017]

Walked down to get the mail with Sherlock. He was poking around in the grass across the road. A car turned down the road. Sit, stay...he sat where he was and stayed until released after the car went by.

Pics from the walk @Ponypoor for you.

Spoiler: four alfa word

View attachment 3967285Snow line from between 2 and 4 hundred feet higher than my place
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Rain during the night and again midday

View attachment 3967287Fun clouds yesterday as the weather started coming in
View attachment 3967288Early this morning

View attachment 3967289And the "did you come out with treats" flood of mugs.

Your rural pics are so pretty! Your chicker-doodles must love their Garden of Eden

 

[Sylvester017]

Raked up two totes of pine straw. I wanted to fill four totes but I was not feeling good so I had to stop. View attachment 3967298
had to get a different brand of chicken feed and we're trying this. 19% protein...
View attachment 3967300
Just look at that pretty bird on the bag!

A lot of work. Good to stop when our body tells us

 

[Sylvester017]

It's Friday

Freshly re-striped bum

View attachment 3967756View attachment 3967757

Mum Bum
View attachment 3967758

Young Bum
View attachment 3967759

Good clear pics! Pretty bums!

 

[Sylvester017]

She sits normally and seems to have full mobility of that leg.

I can feel the head of her femur moving when I press on it; it will slip back. I really don’t want to try forcing it around too much. Without an X-ray I don’t know if it’s fractured or not. The call I placed to a Vet today was very dismaying, they quoted my over $800 to do an assessment and X-rays. No way I can afford that.

So my plan is to give her 6 weeks to see if she heals to the point where she can walk around and roost. If not then I will have no choice but to cull her.

Anyways I gave her more calcium and Tylenol. She is good enough in her crate so she can stay there, her being out for an hr or so in the evening will help keep her from getting depressed and give her some exercise.

Also she has laid 2 soft eggs since she did this Monday. I have noted that I had a soft egg layer the past month, and it was blue eggs so she is the one who was laying the soft eggs. I am hoping she stops laying and takes a break now that she has an injury. My luck she will start moulting too

So heartbreaking! That is so expensive. Maybe just an Xray expense will be affordable enough just to see what the issue is & go home to treat yourself or cull if not treatable at home? Either way its a tough choice. & when did vets get so expensive? We'll be out of chickeneering about the same time our vet retires. He's not as expensive as some vets but the meds are thru the roof expensive!

 

[BY Bob]

Hawk vs Kitten

As we are onto hawk discussions and google has told youtube, this video came up today. Crazy!

 

[rural mouse]

Your rural pics are so pretty! Your chicker-doodles must love their Garden of Eden

Tell them that when there's no snow when they go to roost and several inches when they get up.......

Ummm...what the BOK happened here why is it white....and cold....?

Nope, not happening! (Nov 2022)

 

[Sylvester017]

Cooper's Hawks will go to the ground to kill prey. They will even walk into a run to hunt. Here is a video of a juvenile Coopers Hawk hunting a song bird in a trumpet vine. I have lost a pullet to a Cooper's Hawk that had to come down through the magnolia tree to reach it.

You can find the video in this post.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...es-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/post-25174409

I am so sorry about the Cooper's getting your hen. It's a travesty to see the loss & a nightmare to visualize!

Hawks are tenacious but their success in brush is hit-&-miss. It's been suggested our Cooper's here are not in our migratory path? Or that maybe the nearby Santa Fe Dam Park offers them better hunting area?

• 

The Cooper's we see here are only a couple fledglings during Spring & they are not very alert & stupidly stare into space w/o a clue what to do. It's like they don't even know what a human is cuz they don't fly off when we come outside until we shoo them or water spray them. They look menacing but also look confused & awkward in movement & flight ~ as I shared earlier about the one who knocked itself out flying into dog kennel wire. Our thick extremely thorny trees offer no perching support & most yard aerial space hinders hawk flight which they prefer.

Do we feel 100% protected? Of course not, but the hens so far for generations have been passing on their hiding skills. We keep our old hens to teach younger ones. Our longest lived Silkie Violet lived thru many hawk sightings over 11 yrs & she passed on her eyebrow grooming talent, foraging skills, & hiding techniques to successive Silkie generations. She was a special little lady

 

[Sylvester017]

Hawk vs Kitten

As we are onto hawk discussions and google has told youtube, this video came up today. Crazy!

Fearsome shot but in a way it was kinda funny too. At least this hawk didn't knock itself out like our hawk did on the kennel wire!

The video kitten had the prettiest blue eyes. Our Dominique juveniles had pretty blue eyes before turning orange as adults.