Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

My Dakota is not feeling well today. Soft crop and she is thirsty.
I told her that nobody is to die today. And that includes her!! I have her in the house now, watching her carefully

Oh, I hope Dakota gets better. For such fabulous birds to own chickens have way too many issues to deal with. Black Hen Rescue Farm says a lifespan for chickens is 25 years! Really?! Show me one!

2021 ~ Our Violet made it to 11 yrs, one month, & 3 days before her wee heart stopped. She & her brother were our very first backyard chickens

How did your lesson turn out this morning?

 

[featherhead007]

Oh, I hope Dakota gets better. For such fabulous birds to own chickens have way too many issues to deal with. Black Hen Rescue Farm says a lifespan for chickens is 25 years! Really?! Show me one!

2021 ~ Our Violet made it to 11 yrs, one month, & 3 days before her wee heart stopped. She & her brother were our very first backyard chickens
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How did your lesson turn out this morning?

Actually my sermon went very well. I empathized the need for more prayer in church. Everyone was in agreement, and hugs were shared all around. I’m not like pastor, who teaches his congregation.
I just follow what the Holy Spirit says to me. I let God do all the talking. Everyone loved how I spoke about everything honestly and to Jesus gets the glory.

 

[Ponypoor]

My Dakota is not feeling well today. Soft crop and she is thirsty.
I told her that nobody is to die today. And that includes her!! I have her in the house now, watching her carefully

That’s how my moulting ladies start. Then it’s a few weeks of ‘poor pookies’ until they get feathers again.

 

[Sylvester017]

I have a soft-close mechanism that I used for a while on my first treadle feeder. It was quiet but that model’s early design made the closure not as firm as I wanted so I took it out. My second newer model feeder is said to be firmer with it on, but the sound has not been an issue and is a benefit because I can tell when the feed is low. Thats a fail-safe for me not forgetting to check it.

Maybe the silkies couldn’t reach the feed? That’s an issue, to get the distance correct for the size bird. And they have to be heavy enough. They are so tiny they might not be. Did your silkies have other options for feed, a big disincentive?

The most nervous hen here, Hazel, has gotten used to it and will go to it on her own, now. But as part of the first group of chickens introduced to it she was particularly skittish in training, and I could not ever get her to step on it by herself even after a week of training just her.

They all were afraid, but the other three Buckeyes learned within a few days. Hazel never went hungry though. She figured out a work-around, and from then on had absolutely no incentive to change: she just kept an eye out for when anyone else went to eat, and then would join them. As second in command she kept tabs on everyone anyway, and she did not have to deal with a more dominant hen not wanting her there. Peanut (#1) always let her eat next to her.

I think with the passing of Peanut and then Butters she decided to go by herself. That’s when I recall seeing her use it alone. She would also join Popcorn, and sometimes now she joins a Spud, and sometimes a Spud joins her. With the Spuds it never was an issue beyond initial scariness, because they grew up watching and hearing the older hens use it.

We had 2 kinds of treadle feeders a large & a small. The standard hens are easier to train. But the Blue Wheaten Ameraucana & Silkies would not step on the treadle because the lid moved & it scared them sh*tless! Watching the standard hen use the feeder was no incentive for the timid birds even though she was a kind hen.

For training there are several adjustments to do gradually & nothing worked. If the one hen stepped on the treadle a Silkie walking by would haul off running when she saw the lid moving. The feeders were low for the Silkies but they preferred starving! We followed so many incentive suggestions & even tried some of our own ideas ~ nothing. After 4 weeks of trying we scrapped the treadles! We tried again a couple years later w/a different flock but Violet the Silkie would never go near the treadles so we stopped again.

 

[featherhead007]

I feed my chooks the old fashioned way. By hand and a few bowls of seed available for them any time they want.

 

[Sylvester017]

Wait, you like classical music too?

Yep teehee! ~ Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, Haydn, the Bach's, Handel, Schubert, moody Chopin, military Strauss, etc etc etc etc etc since 1950's. Hearing Elvis & The Beatles turned me off to rock/pop stuff.

It's not that there isn't talent or an occasional good voice in modern tunes but there's something about classical that even the hens love! Modern Day John Williams' compositions are worth my ear.

We often play soft classical for sick or isolated hens.

Blue Wheaten Ameraucana "Taffy" in isolation 2016

Blue Breda "Ichabod" & Blue Ameraucana "Gemma" in quarantine 2015

Buff Leghorn pullets "Danni" & "Buffy" 2013

 

[Sylvester017]

I feed my chooks the old fashioned way. By hand and a few bowls of seed available for them any time they want.

That is so fun hand-feeding! The same food can be in a dish but it's more delicious to them if they crowd around your hand!

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm so relieved that they are all okay
Darned hawks should be on barbecues

My DH agrees ~ bring out the grill!!!

 

[Ponypoor]

I enjoy all music. Rock-n-roll, old country, traditional Newfoundland and Irish, classical, easy listening……

But not all songs

 

[featherhead007]

I enjoy all music. Rock-n-roll, old country, traditional Newfoundland and Irish, classical, easy listening……

But not all songs

I love the sound of a rooster singing in the morning.
Both my guys have wonderful voices