Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Marie2020]

Aero was even pecking at the lock on the back room door. She thinks SHE’S 007

Bond James Bond

 

[Marie2020]

She wants to be a locksmith!

Not Aerosmith

Walk This Way

 

[Ponypoor]

Wow! Those added roosts really opened up thhe space! & TY for getting Betty Georgie Clyde & Shorty in the videos. Shoot ~ they're all cute! One of these years those youngsters are gonna get too old to get to the top of that door!

Since we have 5 Silkies now the 4 nestboxes straw has to be poop cleaned more often cuz they sleep plus lay their eggs there too. All our Silkie hens have been nestbox snoozers. DH found 4 of them crowded in one 11x11 inch box! It was 34F at night so they piled up!

I keep hoping they would stop flying up there.

It’s even easier now with that new added level of roosting ledge.

Sunday I had to go chase down Tippy and Butterscotch, I forgot how annoying that is when they fly over the fence and ‘free range’ - having
To chase them down is tiring!

 

[RoyalChick]

Maybe that what happened to my earring

Chickeennnnsssss!

Here are last year’s (2023) school chicks from my older hens and Mr P.

View attachment 4017715View attachment 4017716

Butterscotch and Little Grey whom I suspect are from same egg mama
View attachment 4017717
Rebecca I tried to ‘clean’ that orange ‘stain’ off her - hahaha.

View attachment 4017719

I do love that last picture! Lovely smile, and who wouldn’t want a chicken on their hat.

 

[rural mouse]

2 fers

Whiskey and Violet

Nimbus and Pippa....

and 1 of the trio of deer

Nimbus is a bold one

and so is the deer.

Sherlock stayed quiet cause he knew I knew they were there.

 

[RoyalChick]

2.2mg copper ( as copper ((11) sulphate penahydrate )1.32mg
What on this freaking earth is that.

Just reposting your photo so I can read it properly while replying. The 2.2mg is before the comma and refers to the Manganese.
The thing you are worrying about is written as:
Copper (as Copper (II) Sulphate Pentahydrate) 1.32mg.

What that means is that the feed includes 1.32mg of copper, provided in the form of copper (II) Sulphate Pentahydrate.

As I mentioned previously, copper is a necessary addition to the diet and at least in the US is required to be added to dog food.
Like most metals you can't just add bits of copper (for starters it won't get absorbed well) so they add a compound made with copper. That is copper reacted with something else to make it able to be absorbed, stable etc.
As an example, the green you see around copper pipes is copper carbonate - a compound of copper reacted with carbon dioxide and oxygen.

So, copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate is another compound of copper. Fun trivia fact it is also called vitriol. And as @Sylvester017 said, it is bright blue.
Its chemical formula is: CuSO4.5H2O
Pentahydrate refers to the 5H2O at the end (H2O is the formula for water). SO4 is the sulphate.
It is a compound of copper with sulphur, oxygen and hydrogen.

So my bottom line is that they are adding it because your dog needs copper and that form of copper is their way of providing it.
Like many things that are necessary to support life, an excess can be toxic. But I would be surprised if they were adding toxic levels of copper (for a start they will always add the minimum for cost reasons!).

Sorry for the long chemical geek post - but hopefully it will reassure you a bit that the food is probably fine for your dog.

Chemistry tax: preening party!

 

[Marie2020]

View attachment 4017802

Just reposting your photo so I can read it properly while replying. The 2.2mg is before the comma and refers to the Manganese.
The thing you are worrying about is written as:
Copper (as Copper (II) Sulphate Pentahydrate) 1.32mg.

What that means is that the feed includes 1.32mg of copper, provided in the form of copper (II) Sulphate Pentahydrate.

As I mentioned previously, copper is a necessary addition to the diet and at least in the US is required to be added to dog food.
Like most metals you can't just add bits of copper (for starters it won't get absorbed well) so they add a compound made with copper. That is copper reacted with something else to make it able to be absorbed, stable etc.
As an example, the green you see around copper pipes is copper carbonate - a compound of copper reacted with carbon dioxide and oxygen.

So, copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate is another compound of copper. Fun trivia fact it is also called vitriol. And as @Sylvester017 said, it is bright blue.
Its chemical formula is: CuSO4.5H2O
Pentahydrate refers to the 5H2O at the end (H2O is the formula for water). SO4 is the sulphate.
It is a compound of copper with sulphur, oxygen and hydrogen.

So my bottom line is that they are adding it because your dog needs copper and that form of copper is their way of providing it.
Like many things that are necessary to support life, an excess can be toxic. But I would be surprised if they were adding toxic levels of copper (for a start they will always add the minimum for cost reasons!).

Sorry for the long chemical geek post - but hopefully it will reassure you a bit that the food is probably fine for your dog.

Please don't be sorry I've always valued your input.
But I have read up on this "sulphate pentahydrate". It is known to be "irritating to the respiratory tract" as well as "severely irritating to the gastrointestinal tract".
This is not what I want for this dog.
It's used to control the fungicide; which as I already wrote to them should not be in a pet food in the first place.

Chemistry tax: preening party!
View attachment 4017814

Love the preening girls

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Far as I can tell, it's a dominate trait: shows if they have it. Beard/muffs seem to be one size and they get it or they don't. Crests look to be a 2 gene trait: the partial crest with 1 copy and the full pom-pom/Einstein look with 2 copies. ALL of Mr. P's offspring will have a crest. His offspring from the partial crested ladies will either result in more partial crests or full sized ones depending upon whether they get the crest trait from the hen also or not. (How the crested legbar works where its ALWAYS partial crest, I have no idea). That's how George got the full sized crest: mama gave him a crest gene, too.

Frizzle genes are also dominate in that they show over non-frizzle, but for healthy offspring, avoiding the double frizzle (frazzle) is wise. That's why George isn't frizzled. He didn't get mama's frizzle gene. Sadly for @RebeccaBoyd, he cannot make frizzled babies as a result.

I can see some very, very interesting looking crosses happening if I choose to hatch from him. All my silkie's now have nice crests. So in theory crossing George with them should result in full crests. 3 of the silkie's have beards and muffs, those could result in some very pretty mixes. Color on those can be all over the place, who knows what they are hiding in their lineage.

If I used him on Owly, Goose or Spooky I can get partially crested with a 50/50 shot of beards and muffs.

I think my Cochin girls would make very pretty chicks with him. I highly doubt it ever happening. Even in the best of circumstances when I could get their eggs their fertility was always crap. I think I only managed so far to hatch 4 of their chicks. I did hold one back, perdita who had turned into a lovely young hen when the Husky got her while she was broody. Their fertility issues could have been Branch's fault. They were "HIS" hens, they had nothing to do with Bubba. Branch bless him always tried to breed them and really he was just to little to really hit the target well with those big girls. George may in time have better luck. If I can get their eggs before they eat them.

The one George cross mom really wants me to hatch is between him and Mrs. E the bantam dark Brahma. Once she starts laying and her eggs come up to size, the first girl that goes broody will get about 6 of her eggs.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

I should also point out, in the long run it is for the best that George is not a frizzle. Yes I wanted a frizzle from either the curly eggs or the betty eggs.

If George was a frizzle I would be tempted to keep every single one of his frizzled chicks. That would be ok for eye candy but would cause nightmares in the next generation. Mistakes happen and as hard as I would try the thought of creating a frazzle is just horrific to think about.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

George's highlights.

Interestingly enough, if the flash was used it washed them out.