Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

Tax: Here is Sylvie getting in on the dinner roll action.
View attachment 4047757

Is Sylvie not just the most beautiful girl

 

[Sylvester017]

I had a dream last night that my eggs were hatching, but the babies were popping out all dry and fluffy. And one of the ayam cemanis immediately crowed

A dream? Or wishful thinking? A nice dream

 

[RoyalChick]

Is Sylvie not just the most beautiful girl

Yes she is!!

 

[Sylvester017]

2fer Tuesday.
Piglet and Sylvie. They have become like mirror images.
Piglet is creamy white with grey flecks and Sylvie is grey with creamy white flecks.

View attachment 4047822

This pic was last week in the brief period of snow melt.

Mirror twins ~ lovely patterns. That's one thing hardly shows on Silky fluff ~ patterns or speckles only show a little on firm wing tips.

 

[Sylvester017]

TERROR AND PANIC

That is the only way I can describe how I felt this morning.

Petunia is dead. She died in the Hen House on the roost ledge with the others in the wee hrs of this morning. Well before I got out there at 4:30am.

Why?! That’s what terrifies me and makes me panic. Was she not feeling well? Yes - she had been I’ll for about a week, had yellow poops, Sunday I started her on amoxicillin. Yet she died. Why? Did she have health issues? Yes - she was plagued with soft eggs last summer, and then an impacted crop, but once she moulted she blossomed. But she became ill again. And now has passed away rather suddenly.

Now I play the watching game with the rest of the flock, see if anyone else becomes ill. Meanwhile I think I will worm and treat for coccidia, just to cover all bases.

And then there is this in the News:

AI has now been detected here in Ontario, the Rouge is not far from me…

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7452738

I'm so-o-o sorry Being near our Santa Fe Dam Recreational Preserve worries us too ~ miriads of duck, geese, large waterfowl species use the dam on their migratory routes. I additionally worry that picnic tables & other people facilities will have AI spread to people if AI is ever tested positive there. Additionally a Renaissance Faire is hosted here for 4 weeks in April just as the Dam is teaming w/ migratory waterfowl. My DS/SIL are active participants in the Faire each year ~ another worry!
SANTE FE DAM RECREATION

 

[rural mouse]

I'm so sorry for Petunia, and that it's all happening at once.
To me AI does not sound likely if she had been not well for a week, and with them locked up most of the time. At this stage, I would think that it is just a sad coincidence between an elder hen passing away from old age and Petunia whose reproductive issues may have caused her death, or be a symptom of something serious but individual like cancer.
But I also don't feel worms and coccidia are very likely at this time of year and locked up most time. Lots of other things can cause yellow poops - in facts anything that affects digestion, kidneys, and liver.... Have you seen other yellowish poops ?

Hang in there, you should know more in a few days .

Burying horses at home is also not allowed here. People still do it, but it's potentially a 4000 euro fine if you get caught. I do hope Trudy gets better - she might not yet be at the stage her mum was, and I hope she sees another spring. But you're so experienced with elderly horses you will do whatever is best for her.

Now she truly looks like some mystical magical creature. A bearded dragon ? Or a griffin ?

A sun visor that stays on when it rains ...leghorn Tuefer !
View attachment 4047828
The visor belongs to Nieva. Behind her is Alba, who has survived her dramatic soft egg issue and is slowly getting better, for the time being.

Another Tuefer : Mélisse and a slowly recovering Alba.
(followed by a floppy comb question )
View attachment 4047900
About this picture : Mélisse is a backyard mutt, (like her siblings Annette, Lulu and Laure). I think Annette and her have body shape rather similar to that of my leghorns, and slightly similar floppy combs.
Their mother was a mixed type layer. Are there other breeds that have this type of floppy comb and slim figure ? Or does this indicate they are likely part leghorns ?
Happily they don't lay at all like the leghorns - they make two or three big eggs a week (70g+).

Most of the Mediterranean built chickens have slim bodies and large combs. Historically, at least what we can find in America, the Spanish Pendeseca and Empordaseca are older than Leghorns (Livorno) as breeds. It's possible that one or both of those is in some of the French lines. Both were in existence pre- revolution/Napoleon. With the occupation or Spain and the retreat into France, those lines could easily have been brought along. Still, that was 200 years ago and several wars since. Modern influences could just as easily happen, and the

Buttercup (Sicilian) is one of several Italian region breeds that could also be present. For that matter, a Hamburg (German) or a Swiss (such as Appenzeller Spitzhauben) could also be there. Build for both is also in the slim lines.

 

[Ponypoor]

News rebuttals said she didn't directly order euthanizations of healthy poultry during AI inspections but she was the inspector general head of USDA so therefore responsibility fell on her for those actions. But who knows? After 22 yrs as general maybe she should have been more active ~ should have researched vaccinations to avoid mass extinctions? So many ???? We've many of us wondered why vaccinations weren't initiated when some other countries are/have been doing it already.

Mareck's is a horrible death & vaccinations are available to hatcheries here so why not have AI vax available as a choice today ~ when AI was going rampant as far back as 1985? I don't know if commercial poultry vaccinates for Mareck's but hatcheries offer it as a choice (there are 5 known Mareck's mutations but the vaccine virtually stops deaths & using AI mutations as an excuse that vax won't work doesn't make sense). So far no AI choice is offered. Wheels at USDA turn too slowly while our birds & other livestock suffer & poultry prices soar.

My AI pet concern tax
2-FER TUES ~ Violet & Mini 2015
View attachment 4047991

I too would vaccinate my birds but was told by a veterinarian that only the large factory farm do vaccines for their birds, it’s not available for backyard flocks.

The Hoovers chicks I got are vaccinated for Mareks but none of the others are, so should I worry about my others somehow being affected by leakage?

No easy answers. With the horses it’s easy; rabies, flu, tetnus, west Nile, equine encephalitis, Strangles….. many vaccines to keep them safe. A $40 vaccine to help guard against a hefty vet bill for Strangles or West Nile ($40 or $4,000 - easy choice!).

I guess chickens are a cheap commodity easily and cheaply replaced. Why invest millions in a vaccine for an animal that will only live a year and half anyways.

It’s all about the money.

Irreplaceable tax

Nov 2024 was the last time they were able to enjoy this.

 

[Ponypoor]

I'm so-o-o sorry Being near our Santa Fe Dam Recreational Preserve worries us too ~ miriads of duck, geese, large waterfowl species use the dam on their migratory routes. I additionally worry that picnic tables & other people facilities will have AI spread to people if AI is ever tested positive there. Additionally a Renaissance Faire is hosted here for 4 weeks in April just as the Dam is teaming w/ migratory waterfowl. My DS/SIL are active participants in the Faire each year ~ another worry!
SANTE FE DAM RECREATION

Huge worry for sure.

 

[Ponypoor]

Is Sylvie not just the most beautiful girl

Yes she is!!

Agreed - I love her colouring and that lovely fancy topknot

 

[Sylvester017]

Do you have any mint at hand for the collick? It worked for a lady horses that I once knew

As you shared about castor oil my DH ordered organic arriving today for my surgery scar treatment. Therapist said I can start touching scar & treating w/softening oil/cream/lotion. Hope I'm not skin allergic to castor oil so will patch test a little on elbow before application on scar. There's a lot of debunking on castor oil uses but there are at least 4-5 proven uses & scar tissue is a good use.

Busy looking for crickets