Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Marie2020]

@Marie2020 ~ our chickenlandia lady on Red Mite info worth a watch for us w/coops/chickens/cats ~ about a 17 min video

Thank you

 

[RoyalChick]

Mr Pumpkin head is doing better than the last one, but has definitely had his eyes pecked out.
One more to go which they can have next week for Thanksgiving.

 

[Marie2020]

Our place is at 3500 feet. The village and our property are on a very steep slope, so just an hour walk gets us much higher in the mountain.

The chickens on the picture don't free range, they are enclosed in a yard. Some of my chickens do free range on our property : they stay surprisingly close. I would say they don't use more than one third of an acre, and they have five or six places where they hang out most of the time.
Of all the chickens who ranged here at some point, only two young pullets ever ventured below the chicken's yard, all the others only go above or stay on the same level ! I've wondered why, and I suppose they want to be able to come back very quickly to their safe place in the chicken yard.

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I bet it's so lovely living where you are

 

[Debbie292d]

Neighbors watching out for each other's animals is the courtesy of farm living. The time for biosecurity isolation from wandering neighbor livestock is when your area has an AI or chicken disease alert. Still biosecurity wearing disposable baggies over shoes, changing clothes, thorough handwashing when caring for other animals is wise.

We have an animal rescue friend that will not go into a backyard & has her own carrier & the rescue bird is brought to her carrier directly for quarantine. She wears shoe covers & disposable gloves too when handling. Sounds pretty tedious but she takes biosecurity seriously.

About 1/4 mile the opposite direction, past two tree lines, is the couple that own the feed mill. They have chickens. Both the lady across the road and myself have had issues with chicks from their mill a couple years ago; my neighbor bought a dozen turkey poults and wound up with two. I bought eight chicks and wound up with three. We've never heard of them having any diseases, but it's not like they'd talk about it.

When we needed more grain for the ferment, I asked hubby to go to a different feed mill; otherwise, if he didn't, I told him he'd have to change shoes and strip at the end of the driveway. Nobody'd probably see him do it, but he did agree to drive to a mill a half hour away for the grain instead of going to the one in town.

 

[Marie2020]

@Marie2020 ~ our chickenlandia lady on Red Mite info worth a watch for us w/coops/chickens/cats ~ about a 17 min video

her "hands crawling with mites" nightmare

 

[Marie2020]

@Marie2020 ~ our chickenlandia lady on Red Mite info worth a watch for us w/coops/chickens/cats ~ about a 17 min video

I used diatomaceous earth and still do. It's amazing stuff

 

[Sylvester017]

I used diatomaceous earth and still do. It's amazing stuff

DE is one of those issues that conflict w/owners. The main negative is that the powder dust can clog up the lung sacks of humans or animals so extreme info/care of using it needs to be done. Then there's the positive that its good parasite/insect control but so are a lot of other options. It boils down to a lot of individual factors whether its a good choice or not for an owner's flock situation. I think every owner knows/decides what's best for them.

I bought a small sack of DE years ago & decided for myself I didn't want to deal w/ its warnings & gave it away to a neighbor who had way more hens than us.

 

[Marie2020]

DE is one of those issues that conflict w/owners. The main negative is that the powder dust can clog up the lung sacks of humans or animals so extreme info/care of using it needs to be done. Then there's the positive that its good parasite/insect control but so are a lot of other options. It boils down to a lot of individual factors whether its a good choice or not for an owner's flock situation. I think every owner knows/decides what's best for them.

I bought a small sack of DE years ago & decided for myself I didn't want to deal w/ its warnings & gave it away to a neighbor who had way more hens than us.

I was warned about the breathing issues years ago by two very wise men and was made so aware , that myself and my animals never had one single issue.

 

[Debbie292d]

I used diatomaceous earth and still do. It's amazing stuff

We've used it for over 20 years. Parrot cages, coops, the house, etc.

 

[Sylvester017]

Our place is at 3500 feet. The village and our property are on a very steep slope, so just an hour walk gets us much higher in the mountain.

The chickens on the picture don't free range, they are enclosed in a yard. Some of my chickens do free range on our property : they stay surprisingly close. I would say they don't use more than one third of an acre, and they have five or six places where they hang out most of the time.
Of all the chickens who ranged here at some point, only two young pullets ever ventured below the chicken's yard, all the others only go above or stay on the same level ! I've wondered why, and I suppose they want to be able to come back very quickly to their safe place in the chicken yard.

View attachment 3995142

Beautiful ~ very rural/isolated yet w/ many neighbors at the same time. Does your village have a general store or clinic facility for emergencies or do all rely on each other? So so lovely!

Village talk tx ~ a view across our street showing how close all our suburb homes are.

However, our backyard helps us have some privacy