Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Snow thaws sounds like it can turn to slippery ice. Do you wear cleat footwear to avoid slippery ice spots? Ever since my fall breaking my arm I'm paranoid about hazards ~ & we don't even deal w/ snow!

Our closest snow are the mtns behind us. Pretty in the winter but scary fires in the summer.

Summer mtn fire pics taken from our driveway
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Winter serenity
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School campus behind our neighborhood
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Around here we use sand and salt on walkways and the roads. I use old manure and bedding around the barn were the horses are when the snow packs down, it’s particularly dangerous when it rains on top of the hardened packed snow, then it’s slippery as can be. Some old manure and bedding is great, the dark colour also helps to melt the snow, and the stuff embeds into the frozen icy crud making for good traction.

I also use this on the walkway to the house - good for the grass.

I do have cleats and when I worked out west you needed them on the work sites. Around here they are more trouble putting them on and off. They are horrible on tile flooring let me tell you

Oh and I use old bedding and manure on the snow so the chooks can get outside when it’s mild. They won’t walk on the evil white stuff if they don’t have to!

 

[Ponypoor]

Beautiful Apple Valley is where Roy Rogers & Dale Evans retired, died, & were buried. Nearby in Victorville was where the Roy Rogers Museum was located before family in 2003 relocated it to Branson, MO, where the museum failed & contents auctioned off. They should have kept it in Victorville on famous Route 66 where there's a lot more tourist traffic. As a kid in the 1950's it was a wholesome kids' TV cowboy show.

DALE EVANS, ROY ROGERS, HORSE TRIGGER
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We didn’t get a whole lot of that up here - but it was a treat when we did get those shows.

 

[Ponypoor]

Those are stunning pictures! My sons and I lived in Lakewood, Colorado for two years and I so miss seeing mountains every day. The winter there is awesome too. I remember one winter never putting my winter coat on. We would get a foot or two of snow dumped on, then by noon it was melting.

Sounds like chinooks

 

[Debbie292d]

No. Well below freezing. And that is the high for the day.

Our high today was 24F. Not much difference. We just get the dang wind every day lately. That drives the temp down. Today was the mildest at 8 mph. Yesterday 28, day before, 41.

 

[Ponypoor]

Our high today was 24F. Not much difference. We just get the dang wind every day lately. That drives the temp down. Today was the mildest at 8 mph. Yesterday 28, day before, 41.

It’s been chilly here but we are milding up tomorrow, hopefully the chooks can get outside tomorrow afternoon for a bit, I’ll throw down some old bedding and manure on the snow for them, as long as it’s not too windy or snowing….

 

[Sylvester017]

Very strange! Looks like something out of Star Trek.

Or maybe something out of Star WARS when the film opens on a snowy planet?

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

 

[Debbie292d]

It’s been chilly here but we are milding up tomorrow, hopefully the chooks can get outside tomorrow afternoon for a bit, I’ll throw down some old bedding and manure on the snow for them, as long as it’s not too windy or snowing….

Same here. "They" say high 42F tomorrow.

I'll believe that when I see it, but we too have one in the house that needs to go back outside, and 8 in the aviary that need to be let out to learn how to free range. We've only let those out twice since they went in there a week ago, and they didn't stay out anyway, too cold.

This one had an accident while still in the egg. The only time this year I let a broody sit on eggs, and someone pushed this one out of the nest onto the hardwood floor of the hutch (breeding coop). It didn't break, but was ice cold when I found it. I put it in the incubator and a couple of days later he hatched. He's had issues though so had to come back in the house. This is a cat bed next to my computer but he likes laying here too. He's a bit small for his age too at nearly 3 mos.



This is them in the aviary. There's a crossbeak and a half blind pullet we rescued in there, thus the additional waterer, but I learned today they've both figured out how to use the nipple waterer, so that stops.

 

[Sylvester017]

Same here. "They" say high 42F tomorrow.

I'll believe that when I see it, but we too have one in the house that needs to go back outside, and 8 in the aviary that need to be let out to learn how to free range. We've only let those out twice since they went in there a week ago, and they didn't stay out anyway, too cold.

This one had an accident while still in the egg. The only time this year I let a broody sit on eggs, and someone pushed this one out of the nest onto the hardwood floor of the hutch (breeding coop). It didn't break, but was ice cold when I found it. I put it in the incubator and a couple of days later he hatched. He's had issues though so had to come back in the house. This is a cat bed next to my computer but he likes laying here too. He's a bit small for his age too at nearly 3 mos.

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This is them in the aviary. There's a crossbeak and a half blind pullet we rescued in there, thus the additional waterer, but I learned today they've both figured out how to use the nipple waterer, so that stops.

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In case I missed it before, how many Silkies do you have? Do you sell or auction them? Special needs chicks do need a lot of attention. We got one Silkie chick that turned out to be special needs kept in-house but she didn't survive past 3 months. & she was such a dearheart too. 2020

 

[Ponypoor]

Same here. "They" say high 42F tomorrow.

I'll believe that when I see it, but we too have one in the house that needs to go back outside, and 8 in the aviary that need to be let out to learn how to free range. We've only let those out twice since they went in there a week ago, and they didn't stay out anyway, too cold.

This one had an accident while still in the egg. The only time this year I let a broody sit on eggs, and someone pushed this one out of the nest onto the hardwood floor of the hutch (breeding coop). It didn't break, but was ice cold when I found it. I put it in the incubator and a couple of days later he hatched. He's had issues though so had to come back in the house. This is a cat bed next to my computer but he likes laying here too. He's a bit small for his age too at nearly 3 mos.

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This is them in the aviary. There's a crossbeak and a half blind pullet we rescued in there, thus the additional waterer, but I learned today they've both figured out how to use the nipple waterer, so that stops.

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Are you sure it’s a he? Looks like a girly to me

I love your aviary

 

[Debbie292d]

In case I missed it before, how many Silkies do you have? Do you sell or auction them? Special needs chicks do need a lot of attention. We got one Silkie chick that turned out to be special needs kept in-house but she didn't survive past 3 months. & she was such a dearheart too. 2020
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I think 30 in total. I should get an accurate head count but that's pretty close.

That one I posted that's been in the house brooder, is one of six. One died, and two we culled. So we have a crossbeak (Nosy), one normal (Louie), and Merle, the one posted that are left of that batch.

We did physical therapy and had made chick chairs, but after two weeks we knew they wouldn't make it. They had kidney damage from calcium OD was the only thing we could come up with. Leg nerves run through the kidneys. Their legs were spastic, having tremors and sticking out in all directions independently of each other. They were hen-hatched in a very large breading pen with no access to anything but what I fed them, Kalmbachs Flock Maker crumbles. There was dish of oyster shell in the pen for the hens. The adults spilled it and scratched it all over and I didn't think anything of it.

I have hatched eggs from the same chickens numerous times and never had a single one with issues. I don't know if the crossbeak got that from the calcium or not, but that's the first crossbeak I've ever had.

Merle was out in the pen for a week when I noticed he had pasty butt so brought him in. That's when I realized he had some other issues from his egg falling 3'. He was bloated like a balloon, still is to some extent. So he's been in the house more than out in the pen, and got less or none of the calcium, and his problems are apart from theirs. No explanation for why Louie is the only perfect one other than he must've not gotten into the oyster shell.

I sell the vast majority of chicks I hatch, usually for $10 each, 6 for $50. I only rarely keep any that are something I might need, like I kept a couple of chocolate chicks needing a rooster, got one of each.