Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

@BY Bob if it isn't too difficult personally, could you post some pictures of Sylvie and Legertha, Betty, & Phyllis? I know I need more chickens like I need a hole in my head - especially at this point with everything going on - but I do want to order more chickens this spring - and polish are soooooo alluring.

Given I don't want high product breeds, and am good with broodies - but it is just too cold here, especially with my set-up, for silkies.....they might be a good option

@Debbie292d breeds Silkies in snow area I believe & might be a good one to get opinions on Silkies for your climate? Silkies brood continually year round till they stop laying eggs at around 5 to 6 yrs old. Out of 9 Silkies I've had only one that went broody once in her pullet year & then never again ~ Ginny!

Ginny

 

[BY Bob]

I do, I get patches and...plaques? My ankle is the worst, it will bleed. But LOTS of lotion multiple times a day helps. I'm an amphibian, I crave moisture
So, here is my current order with egg man across the state. He has all the orpington colors we like (no silver laced though). He has a bunch of colors of most breeds.
View attachment 4038332
This will be divided between now and April, depends on who is laying and what I get with the first set of eggs. He has crested cream AND opal legbars and his Tolbunt should lay by April.
His deathlayers actually don't lay very often, he says they lay less a year but their whole lives.

That looks like a fun list!

 

[BY Bob]

Positively balmy! It's finally warming up to the -8C. Been fluttering down close to -20C...and sunny and still. That helps.

Blurry picView attachment 4038373

That is serious cold. Wow!

 

[Sylvester017]

You are not old! Unless you have abducted by chickens!

 

[Debbie292d]

@BY Bob if it isn't too difficult personally, could you post some pictures of Sylvie and Legertha, Betty, & Phyllis? I know I need more chickens like I need a hole in my head - especially at this point with everything going on - but I do want to order more chickens this spring - and polish are soooooo alluring.

Given I don't want high product breeds, and am good with broodies - but it is just too cold here, especially with my set-up, for silkies.....they might be a good option

We just went through a week of -35F. Every winter we get a few weeks of -20F. In the summer, a week or two at most of nearly 100F.

Eight years ago we remodeled one end of an Amish garden shed. It's 5'x12" and kept to 40F all winter long with a thin oil-filled radiator heater. It's vented only by one digital exhaust fan and a vent in the human door. We use horse bedding pellets which eliminates moisture so ammonia, smells, and humidity isn't an issue.

For the grow out pens, hubby makes insulated hutches for the pens, sort of like a doghouse, and a cozy coop flat panel heater inside keeps them warm.

They free-range any days around 20F and up if it's not too windy causing sub-zero windchill and as long as there are paths. See this post for proof.

If you have any questions, I would love to answer them!

 

[Debbie292d]

This is one of my favorite poems.

It is best read out loud. I delivered it on stage at my retirement bash instead of some sappy appreciation speech (well I did some of that too).

Warning
by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.


Getting old tax: Calypso is still pushing out new feathers!
View attachment 4038983

That poem is awesome. I read it twice and relate to some of it. Purple has always been my favorite color too.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yea two of their eggs on toast is perfection

I find Fluffy does ok with the cold but poor frizzle Curly struggles - her feathers are just not insulating enough.

My wee dumplings are finally getting feathered enough they can enjoy digging around, the was worried about them for a bit, but mama Georgie did a good job with them.

Should keep this for fluffy butt Friday but I laughed at Mr P roosting away from the savage hyenas who peck at him. He was watching the babies run about

View attachment 4038796

He tried to breed Georgie this morning and he got told off by me. But Georgie didn’t seem overly worried, hoping she isn’t thinking of dumping her babies!

They are already wandering off on their own when I let them roam the barn in the morning before I let the main gang out.

Of course then they freak out when they can’t see mama - who most time now ignores them. They then come running to me hahahaha so cute

In watching videos of different mama chickens they seem very protective at 1st & gradually get more aloof w/ the chicks as the weeks go by. Maybe hens get tired of raising squawking chicks the way tired human moms might feel like throwing their screaming babies out the window sometimes?!

 

[Sylvester017]

Your elbow will hopefully straighten out with time. Just don’t over do it!

Yep getting old is not for the faint of heart.

I aim to be one of those cranky old ladies who says anything to anyone, I’ll walk around with my cane and tell youngsters off for being rude. Cough and hork and sniffle…. All the things that I can think of to make people move out of the way in the check out lane at the store….

Getting old tax

Raven (BSL) will be 6 maybe 7
View attachment 4038928

And so will Red (RSL) - good ages for production breeds
View attachment 4038927

Most excellent lifespans for production sweeties!

My mom was a meek lady but after 65 she started speaking up for herself. She said if she didn't raise her voice in the dept store complaint line she would've just been ignored as just another sweet old lady. She got results in her old age Her damaged hutch was replaced & delivered the next day!

 

[Sylvester017]

I always wondered:
If coconut oil is made from coconuts
And olive oil is made from olives
Then what is baby oil made of?

The answer to that is worrisome...

 

[Sylvester017]

I love sultans! And crevecours!

Yep, they were both on my wish list...once.