Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

Money, mostly. We'll end up getting whatever they have at the Family Farm & Home or TSC because that's cheap and all we can afford.

Nothin' wrong w/ TSC or feed store birds. They're just sweeties wearing different color jackets.... We got boring-looking Dominiques at the feed store cuz they are considered rare by some hatcheries. & they turned out to be one of our smartest people-friendly, flock-friendly birds we ever had in a standard size hen.

 

[notabitail]

Mugs Monday.
I can't remembet what I posted last week.

 

[Sylvester017]

@Ponypoor ~ good job w/Laverne

 

[notabitail]

Two-fer Tuesday.

 

[Sylvester017]

I think I'm late for the party on the coop design. We actually have 4 coops in our run because we always seemed to need another one for a broodie coop, or a bachelor pad, or a grow out pen. We have fences dividing our free range area so that these coops can be in separate runs. Then we decided to make one big walk in coop. This is the inside design, when we thought we were finished. The raised roosting bars with sandboxes under them are an idea we got from someone else on BYC. They are so easy to clean daily just like you would a cat box. Perfect. I recommend it. Since this photo we have added another raised roosting bar with sandbox on the opposite wall. It means they can all choose where they want to be and who they want to roost with. In this coop, we have room to divide off a heated area to raise chicks, that is, if one of our hens doesn't do it for us. Hoping for the latter, but no broodies yet, so may be headed to Wilco to take a gander at their chicks soon.
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ETA: None of this includes our original coop, which was a great coop but only sized for 8 hens. Well, that idea didn't last long, so we added coops. It was a very nice coop, so we gave it to a neighbor for her flock.

Nice! & roomy

 

[featherhead007]

Nothin' wrong w/ TSC or feed store birds. They're just sweeties wearing different color jackets.... We got boring-looking Dominiques at the feed store cuz they are considered rare by some hatcheries. & they turned out to be one of our smartest people-friendly, flock-friendly birds we ever had in a standard size hen.
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If they are so wonderful, then why do they grow up wearing prison clothes?

 

[ValerieJ]

PeeWee the rescue Cockatiel came to us about 30 yrs ago w/chest bald & some belly & body feathers gone. His senior owner passed & the granddaughter took possession of PeeWee in his cage & kept him in her enclosed laundry room w/no windows, lights off, plus she kept a cover over the cage 24/7 & lifted it only a few seconds to sprinkle seed into his feeder & add water to his waterer. How the poor little guy survived for weeks in the dark is remarkable.

My DD saw his pathetic existence & pleaded w/me to adopt him (cuz we raised Cockatiels before) if she could convince the granddaughter to give him up. The granddaughter was happy to get PeeWee out of her laundry room so he came to us in a bald mess. His senior owners never kept him caged & he was accustomed to a lot of interaction w/his senior owners. PeeWee went on car rides w/them, motorhome camping sitting on the back of front seats, went into showers w/humans, & he spoke some words.

Once we got PeeWee we let him come out of his cage & he was so happy chirping & exploring but he was still picking his feathers. We made a cone for him & kept it on him till he grew out new feathers ~ several weeks he wore that cone like a champ. He learned to share our bigger cage w/our 2 English Budgerigars & they would grab his cone & drag him around but he would break loose from them when he wanted. After we removed the cone w/ his new feathers all grown in he never picked again. We expanded his & the budgies diet to fresh fruit & veggies. We took him on car rides ~ he would wolf whistle at pedestrians in the crosswalks, not anything we taught him so must've been learned from his previous owners.

We taught him the Andy Griffith Show whistle tune, & he loved the Sit N Sleep Mattress commercials! We were his 4th owners but we think we did right w/him. His senior owners were smokers so he came to us wheezing. After a clean air home w/us he gradually lost the wheezing. The vet said he was small for a Cockatiel but otherwise healthy. He lived to 23-1/2 before his little heart stopped. We never got a picture of our PeeWee w/his dog cone.

New type of bird cones on Amazon

Here's a parrot cone on Amazon but bird cones were not a thing we could find 30 yrs ago & I made one out of milk gallon plastic shaped like this parrot cone which should work for chickens just as well if it's an adjustable closure!

Pee Wee's story made me cry. I'm so grateful he found his way to you!!! Thanks for caring for this special bird.

 

[ValerieJ]

Arizona and Dakota were thrown over the fence by a group of kids. They wanted to see if my girls would kill them. That was almost three years ago. Arizona was poisoned, but Dakota is still with us, and a respected member of the tribe. She’s quite a character

A terrible event, but led to paradise with your flock!

 

[featherhead007]

Coco missed me so much, she jumped off her perch onto my head. She obviously wanted something from me. I took her in the house and fed her some leftovers

 

[Ponypoor]

Lulu isn’t doing well, she has laminitis which is a serious condition in horses

I had my farrier out to trim everyone’s hooves and I dosed poor Lulu with extra pain meds.

Meanwhile check out good Reenie, her stall guard is broke, but she just hangs out in her stall - good girl!

And guess what it’s doing again here

Yep snow.

The fabric shed across the way at work collapsed.

And here are two buff Orps to enjoy.