Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Marie2020]

Old age - she is elderly, and she has health issues. She will be 10 this year.

That's a very good age. Well done Kelly, you're a great chicken keeper

 

[featherhead007]

Paul is here finally. It must have taken him a long time to wind up that rubber band that I call an engine on Marie

 

[Sylvester017]

@BY Bob,

I have figured out what you are up too. You are keeping Queen Aurora distracted by showing her my silkies. She can issue royal decree after royal decree that silkies are not real chickens all she wants. If she is focused on putting me in my place she will not notice until it is too late that the "other" not real chickens have once again rejoined her flock.

Sneaky. Very, very sneaky.

I shall do my part. I will have to post lots of pictures of my feather duster Pomeranian's with beaks to keep her sidetracked for you.

 

[Sylvester017]

Adorable

Garden bantam Cochin cuties

Yes, when we decided to have backyard chickens yrs ago, this garden video of bantam Cochins inspired us to lean toward having bantams rather than standard size breeds. It was going to be Cochins or Silkies. We hadn't made a decision yet when our chicken enabler friend said she knew someone who paid a premium for Partridge Silkie hatching eggs & I could have two chicks for free. That was it ~ our 1st backyard birds were Partridge Silkies & we continued w/them to this day. The little girl Violet lived over 11 yrs.

Our chicken enabler friend inspired us to try standard size chickens & we did but here in the end of our chickeneering yrs we're back to a Silkie flock for pets, eggs, & entertainment. The old Dominique stays w/us from a previous flock ~ she's a very kind alpha over the littles.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Bantam cochins, little balls of fluff!!!
I just love how ROUND cochins are

 

[Ponypoor]

Those two look like they are having a right old good gossip

Two old bossy pants.

 

[Sylvester017]

I’m really in the mood for some cottage cheese and blackberry jam. I’m out of cottage cheese but I have fresh blackberry jam, oh so yum !
Maybe I’ll take Dakota with me to the store, she loves car rides.

Give her a taste of jam as a reward for keeping you company. We give our girls a little taste of blueberry jam sometimes. They love fresh blueberries so the jam is a winner. Just a taste of jam ~ don't want them bouncing off the walls from a sugar rush!

 

[Sylvester017]

Mugs Monday
View attachment 4042755

Hi, Stormfeather!

 

[Ponypoor]

Congratulations ! It seems like you made many people on this thread happy, so you can be assured you've done a good deed .
But does the FBA world realise what that Silkie enabler living 30 mn away from you will really mean in terms of enabling ?
**************

@Ponypoor I remembered you asked me to tell how long Laure's implant would last. Well, she laid last week on the 27 January, and she was implanted on the 17th of August, so that was five months and ten days.
Unfortunately her first egg was fine but she passed two soft shell eggs since and the last one made her awfully unwell. So I will likely make an appointment to get her another implant. Apart from a very difficult molt at the start, she was doing great with it.
View attachment 4043132
And I have another very unwell hen, Nieva the leghorn. She laid a soft shell egg three weeks ago and since then has been very sick. Looking back, there were forewarning signs of reproductive issues. Since she was moulting, I thought it was due to that. She is too unwell to make the two hours drive to the vet without taking the risk that she has to stay at the clinic, which I really don't want, and she is also utterly terrified whenever we come near her. So she's on her own ; if she makes it through and gets better, we will also get her implanted (if she does not already have cancer, which would be my guess).

I don't feel good about it, but I have not really grown attached to the two leghorns that live here, Alba and Nieva. It's strange because we spent hours caring for their bumblefoot, brought them both to the vet, but I still feel estranged to them and they are both terrified of me. And I have been so sad when Piou-piou died that I feel a bit numb now, like I will never care that much for a chicken.

While I've come to acknowledge I don't feel the same way for all my chickens, I agree it's not helpful to compare them ; and that we should take them as they are. For me it's important to have thought about personal guidelines for chicken husbandry, it helps to know what to do in situations where you have to make choices, whatever your feeling for the chicken may be.
Then of course...Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ignore...

Tuefer : we all know it takes two to lay an egg, especially the first one after three weeks on broody pause !
View attachment 4043131

That laugh is for the two-some love it!



I think Bob and I had this discussion on feeling numb after so many of our pets passing.

Consensus was it’s a protection measure for our feelings. While we acknowledge the passing (or imminent passing) of our pets (and even friends and family), after experiencing a number of deaths one becomes less emotional and more detached. There is nothing the feel guilty about, it’s a coping measure, if one were to constantly be emotional and stressed with each passing it would build up to become unbearable. The body learns to deal with the experience the same as it would any experience.

Then of course “the heart wants what the heart wants” for many reasons.

I personally am resigned to the fact everything dies, that an end must come to all. The dead have no worries.



To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep, to say we end The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die to sleep, To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub.

(Shakespeare: Hamlet)

 

[Ponypoor]

Congratulations ! It seems like you made many people on this thread happy, so you can be assured you've done a good deed .
But does the FBA world realise what that Silkie enabler living 30 mn away from you will really mean in terms of enabling ?
**************

@Ponypoor I remembered you asked me to tell how long Laure's implant would last. Well, she laid last week on the 27 January, and she was implanted on the 17th of August, so that was five months and ten days.
Unfortunately her first egg was fine but she passed two soft shell eggs since and the last one made her awfully unwell. So I will likely make an appointment to get her another implant. Apart from a very difficult molt at the start, she was doing great with it.
View attachment 4043132
And I have another very unwell hen, Nieva the leghorn. She laid a soft shell egg three weeks ago and since then has been very sick. Looking back, there were forewarning signs of reproductive issues. Since she was moulting, I thought it was due to that. She is too unwell to make the two hours drive to the vet without taking the risk that she has to stay at the clinic, which I really don't want, and she is also utterly terrified whenever we come near her. So she's on her own ; if she makes it through and gets better, we will also get her implanted (if she does not already have cancer, which would be my guess).

I don't feel good about it, but I have not really grown attached to the two leghorns that live here, Alba and Nieva. It's strange because we spent hours caring for their bumblefoot, brought them both to the vet, but I still feel estranged to them and they are both terrified of me. And I have been so sad when Piou-piou died that I feel a bit numb now, like I will never care that much for a chicken.

While I've come to acknowledge I don't feel the same way for all my chickens, I agree it's not helpful to compare them ; and that we should take them as they are. For me it's important to have thought about personal guidelines for chicken husbandry, it helps to know what to do in situations where you have to make choices, whatever your feeling for the chicken may be.
Then of course...Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ignore...

Tuefer : we all know it takes two to lay an egg, especially the first one after three weeks on broody pause !
View attachment 4043131

That implant lasted longer that I would have thought. Something to keep in mind for some of my ladies who are having egg issues.