Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Marie2020]

Ooooo spots An Appaloosa chicken

If it snows again send her out in the snow to get photos - a snowflake chicken! Oh how I need another barn for all the chooks I want

How many acres of land my friend

 

[Ponypoor]

My DD & I did that once a few yrs ago (before chickens) sitting in the back yard & a small plane kept circling our yard overhead so we never did it again. Now DH & I have 2 large roofed patios, 4 trees, & 3 popup canopies in the yard so there's nothing aircraft peepers to see into our backyard.

Those training pilots from El Monte or Brackett airfields are the rudest around here. They aren't supposed to fly over certain spaces or altitudes & as soon as we bring out the binoculars to tag the wing ID they know & tilt the plane out of range! They knew they were in the wrong & didn't want us to report but rudely kept doing it over & over again. Best to avoid those taunting trolls who ruin it for responsible aviators!

Rant tx ~ nothing for pilots to stare at except patio roofs, popup canopies & overgrown trees or dying garden beds.
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I love your gardens - so jealous

 

[Marie2020]

I've just had a lovely shower and looking like royalty

 

[Ponypoor]

The video is so cute. He obviously loves his kitty if only he fed it unprocessed food instead. Cat food mfrs use chemical taste enhancers to the overprocessed fillers that cats no longer have interest in hunting mice, rats, gophers, etc, & instead wait around to eat the addictive additive flavors in cat kibble or canned food. If owners only knew.

My only pic of our farm Calico "Shirley Temple." Purchased pet food was not a farm practice. Meat scraps, eggs, leftover cooked veggies, goat/cow milk or homemade cheese, all other food foraged by farm cats was gophers, field mice, lizards, etc.
c. 1951-52?
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Awwww I love calico kitties

Missy - she likes to hunt squirrels, mice, snakes, and birds.

 

[Ponypoor]

Oh yes those are modern game birds

 

[Ponypoor]

The Hoover's website does not describe them as Old English Game Bantams but as Old English Bantams and to me their pictures look just like Mr and Mrs Little Chicken.

They are OEGB bantams at Hoovers I am sure.

There are also Modern Game Birds - oooooo I want a few of those too!!!

Don’t think they would handle winter too well though. mr & Mrs are having some issues with the cold.

 

[Ponypoor]

Why does the owner have livestock when he/she is not there for them? Seems weird?

Many ranchers have stock all over the place. It is very large territory, and they have large spreads of land.

They don’t get feet and feet of snow like here, so the livestock are able to winter quite well grazing under the snows. Horses and cattle are plains animals they handle cold-dry and hot-dry weather really well.

The rainy wet weather here in the east is miserable for them.

 

[Ponypoor]

As you probably all know by now, my coop is a vaulted ceiling that used to be a cow stable until the 50's, and the house is built on a slope, so that both the coop and our kitchen right above it are buried on one side.
I checked temperatures in the coop and outside since we had a bit of cold. The last three mornings, it was -5/23 outside when I opened the coop, and 6/43 inside the coop near the door (which has ventilation), likely one or two degree more at the back which is buried in the ground and where most of the chickens roost.
So it does make a nice difference. The first winter the chickens moved in, we had -10/14 for nearly two weeks in a row and it did fall down to 0/32 at the front of the coop. We had only six chickens then so they produced less body heat.
It stays warmer if I close the second door that blocks the ventilation, but since I've come to understand ventilation is more important than gaining a few degrees I don't do that anymore.
I do think that in colder weather than we have, if you included some kind of heat source inside that type of coop, it would keep the heat better than any other type of structure.
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The door is a typical stable door with mesh in the part above for ventilation.
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The marten broke in between the upper part of the wood frame and the house's wall.
Sorry for repeating myself but please, everyone, do safety checks regularly. We were sure our coop was super safe and didn't see that the wood had slightly twisted throughout the years.

She was a little runt who was very lucky to survive, and was all crooked and twisted...So no, she was one of a kind !

2024 was a good rainy year, but since november it looks like the drought is settling in again. Makes me so mad that the ski resorts around are all using snow guns. One normal year and everyone forget that we need to be careful with water !

Congrats to Mr LC for winning a beauty contest, whether he's a softer version of an OEGB, or something else ! To me he looks nearer to red jungle fowl than OEGB, but what do I know ?
Well, I do know that bantams roosters with a touch of game blood are obsessed with fighting.
You're talking to me ?
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Mugs for Mondays.
Three sisters :
Laure
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Annette, who started laying again three days ago.
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And Mélisse who started laying again five days ago.
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They are all backyard mutts but Mélisse's shape and comb remind me of my leghorns a bit.

And Lilly, who is having health issues again.
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Have a nice Monday and a good week, everyone !

Gosh Théo is such a character.

This morning Mr LC and Mr P we’re having a ‘tête-à-tête’, I didn’t want to interrupt them so I just watched, Mr LC backed down first thankfully.

It’s more Shirley I worry about, he is a very big boy. Thankfully he is terrified of Mr P!

 

[SimpleJenn]

Horses can go two ways. They can live just fine with no/ little human interaction OR they need constant attention and pampering. I have never met a horse that didn't fall into one of those categories, even when I helped train them as a teen. That said, they are domestic animals and need to be provided the bare minimum, even if it's just a neighbor checking in and tossing some food their way.

Also, that "meanness" is 100% mare behavior. They are so firey, especially when in season. I wasn't allowed to interact with the mares in season because I was pretty frail. The little elderly pony with cushings disease was the only safe one, because she didn't go into heat. She was still snappy and chased the gelding around.

Horse tax.
Hubby says cinnamon rolls won't work on him. Might have to do little caesers stuffed crust pizza.

 

[featherhead007]

This would only be an OBGYN chicken if you photo-shopped a chicken face over the human face...

Maybe that guy was chicken?