Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RebeccaBoyd]

Just checked out Hoovers and they seem to have made big changes and acquired Privette Rarw Breeds - here is a list of rare breeds on the site

https://www.hoovershatchery.com/rare-breeds

I'm not intentionally setting out to add new breeds anytime soon. Mrs E was a surprise. Right now I am enjoying the chickens that I have. Maybe when the dreaded cochins are gone I will try to get a D'uccle. I swear I have a love hate relationship with those girls. They are beautiful. 1 of them is a sweetheart, Gryffyn, me and Gryffyn still have that love hate relationship. She does not like to be petted, I WILL pet her and she loves to bite me in return. 3 years now, I will break that hen, she will not break me. It is the egg eating that drives me up the wall. They go through periods where they do not do it, I think all is good and wham back at it with a vengeance. If it were not for that issue I would really enjoy them I think.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Double Laced Barnevelders are gorgeous & the double lacing is breathtaking. But we never got any large breed birds like Java, Barnevelders, Bielefielders, Jersey Giants or Brahmas, etc. They are gentle giants but not mixed w/Silkies ~ the weight difference between bantams & giants is too drastic for our small backyard flock.

Silver Double Laced Barnevelder.


View attachment 3992603

I also have a non-feathered foot wish list, and they are on my "I will have" one day list.

 

[ManueB]

Mélisse looks like most of her color is the feather shaft and possibly the immediate area along the shafts? With the light color around her ear lobes, I think (tentatively) that it is leakage....speculating that maybe 1 parent all black and 1 laced?

Annette looks more like transverse penciled (like Cheetah which is hard to see on a roo) except on silver or lemon (is she pale yellow or white?) Still looks mixed but not sure with what.

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/golden_penciled_hamburgs.html

Pic of a pullet there.

Thank you so much for the explanation !
They are sisters, from a plain black hen and this black and white rooster. I think it's what is called silver ?

Annette is black and white. Looking at the example you linked, she could be reverse pencilled but not "properly". These are her feathers I picked in the coop this morning.

In the same hatch, there is Laure whose feathers look quite like the reverse pencilled pullet you posted.

Lulu who is mostly black but like Melissa has a few white shaft (and the only chicken who went out in our first snow today)

Pied beau, black with yellow leakage, and Petit Blanc, white. This was when they were three months old.

All from plain black or brown pullets, but it's possible that one eloped with another neighbour 's bigger white rooster.

It remains rather mysterious to me and it makes it all a bit magical !
Another thing that had me wondering is egg size. The six eggs I was given to hatch were all rather small, between 55 to 60 grams ; but three of the four hens lay (or laid since Laure is now on an implant) much bigger eggs, around 70 g. Could this come from their dad ?

@RoyalChick and @rural mouse the other day I mentioned to my partner that you two use a wedge to split wood. This morning there was a surprise package in the mailbox for me . So please tell me again- what tool do you use it with ? Let me just say that if I don't succeed my pride will be very, very wounded .

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Afternoon everyone.

First snowfall of the year for us, ick. It was mid to high 50s yesterday and now it is 34. I'm thinking of grandma this morning. She had a old wives tale she always swore by when it came to that first snowfall. She claimed whatever day of the month the snow fell, that would be the number of days it would snow that winter. I never paid that any mind early on. The last couple years I tested her theory. She and it were pretty dang close to being right I will say. Sigh, actually the last few weeks she has been on my mind a lot. I know it is because it is coming up on the first holidays she has been gone. George also makes me think of her, she so wanted me to get a polish after she saw them in my McMurry catalogue 2 years ago. I know she would have loved him and his wild hair.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thank you so much for the explanation !
They are sisters, from a plain black hen and this black and white rooster. I think it's what is called silver ?
View attachment 3993097
Annette is black and white. Looking at the example you linked, she could be reverse pencilled but not "properly". These are her feathers I picked in the coop this morning.
View attachment 3993122

In the same hatch, there is Laure whose feathers look quite like the reverse pencilled pullet you posted.
View attachment 3993127
Lulu who is mostly black but like Melissa has a few white shaft (and the only chicken who went out in our first snow today)
View attachment 3993125
Pied beau, black with yellow leakage, and Petit Blanc, white. This was when they were three months old.
View attachment 3993140
All from plain black or brown pullets, but it's possible that one eloped with another neighbour 's bigger white rooster.

It remains rather mysterious to me and it makes it all a bit magical !
Another thing that had me wondering is egg size. The six eggs I was given to hatch were all rather small, between 55 to 60 grams ; but three of the four hens lay (or laid since Laure is now on an implant) much bigger eggs, around 70 g. Could this come from their dad ?

@RoyalChick and @rural mouse the other day I mentioned to my partner that you two use a wedge to split wood. This morning there was a surprise package in the mailbox for me . So please tell me again- what tool do you use it with ? Let me just say that if I don't succeed my pride will be very, very wounded .

Beautiful chickens and feathers - but definitely too advanced for me - I need to get a solid handle on penciling first!

Yay! I use a sledgehammer. For the first few taps I hold it near its head and just gently tap the wedge until it is embedded enough in the wood to stand upright on its own without me holding it.
Then I step back and strike the top of the wedge with the sledge hammer. It usually takes a few blows - but as the wedge gets driven into the wood it splits it.
The reason I like the star shaped wedge that I had posted earlier is that those first few taps are much easier.
I was looking for a picture of a sledge hammer to make sure we were calling it the same thing.
But I found this video instead which is quite good. He mentions a rescue wedge which is good to have - I have only had to use one a few times - but sometimes your main wedge gets stuck deep in the log and you need another wedge to split it elsewhere to release it.

I have a star wedge and use a regular wedge for rescue if I have to.

 

[featherhead007]

I'm not intentionally setting out to add new breeds anytime soon. Mrs E was a surprise. Right now I am enjoying the chickens that I have. Maybe when the dreaded cochins are gone I will try to get a D'uccle. I swear I have a love hate relationship with those girls. They are beautiful. 1 of them is a sweetheart, Gryffyn, me and Gryffyn still have that love hate relationship. She does not like to be petted, I WILL pet her and she loves to bite me in return. 3 years now, I will break that hen, she will not break me. It is the egg eating that drives me up the wall. They go through periods where they do not do it, I think all is good and wham back at it with a vengeance. If it were not for that issue I would really enjoy them I think.

Dreadful Cochins are always welcome at my ranch.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

In preparation for the temperature drop and snow coming yesterday evening me and mom cleaned the stalls and deeply bedded them. In the summer they get 1 to 1 1/2 wheelbarrow loads of sawdust. In the winter months when it is cold they get 4. I also cleaned and deeply bedded the coop too. My chickies need to stay warm. I told mom about Mrs. E Tuesday. She had caught glimpses of her. She was not thrilled at first, claimed we were not running a chicken rescue. While we were out cleaning Mrs. E introduced herself and was very curious about what we were doing. Actually she was underfoot the whole time being a busybody while we were cleaning out the stalls. Mom was amazed and said she had already made herself right at home. She has actually. She let mom pick her up and hold her while she was taking a break. Mom likes her, thinks her coloring is striking. While mom was holding her George walks by with his silkie army. She called him over to her and was like, here, meet your new girlfriend, introduce yourself. She then asked me what a cross between them would look like. I told her your guess was as good as mine, his chicks should have some form of his crazy head feathers. Well, mom is going to find out next spring. Little George is her boy, she plans to find out what all his crosses will look like next year. Umm...mom, you are the one person who has hissy fits when a hen goes broody and hatches chicks. I was told to shut up, her rooster is allowed to have as many babies as he wants. They will be her chicks and she will decide who and how many we keep. How can 1 little rooster have so many people fighting over who he actually belongs too? Back off people, George is mine. They have opened the door though. I do not want one complaint next year when every single hen that goes broody gets eggs.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Dreadful Cochins are always welcome at my ranch.

It is the egg eating that has earned them the term "Dreadful". I also was unable to teach them to roost. They spent the first 2 years while in a long coop not a tall one so they never had the opportunity to learn. Therefore they sleep on the ground, in their own poop on top of each other and are constantly dealing with dirty butt feathers. Again they are beautiful birds, get along with everyone and for them friendly. They came standoffish, they are leaps and bounds better then when they first arrived. Gryffyns sister Flurry is a downright sweetheart of a hen. She is also the prime egg eater. There is enough stuff to like about them that I am willing to try them again in the future. From chicks I raised myself mind you. Maybe bantam cochins next time. For such big girls their eggs are tiny. Not much bigger then a silkie's egg.

 

[SimpleJenn]

This isn't all of her chickens. She wants me to fix the 3d printer so she can have a big flock of them.

 

[featherhead007]

Spring, I’m getting a new flock