Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Different bird species recognize each other's speech ~ our chickens recognize the Sparrow alerts when there's a hawk or a creeping cat , or recognize Sparrow happy chitters when all is well, & ignore a Crow's caw at the top of the telephone pole cuz he's just talking to his fellow Crows in the sky, etc. When the wild green parrots fly overhead constantly cawing w/o stop our hens don't even look up anymore. But....they will suspiciously eye any silent floating party balloon till it disappears from sight!

Oh the dreaded balloons! The downfall of my quiet ride on Truly. She doesn’t mind my neighbour’s vehicles backfiring and revving but a balloon or floating leaf - yep those are dangerous items and one must run away from them!

Pony Sunday

Brought the horses in a bit early last night, they have learnt they can tear the hay out of the hay net if they go and grab it from the top opening of the hay net.

Truly

Reenie

 

[Ponypoor]

Eek! They're on their way! The babies are coming, the babies are coming! I'm torn between excitement and worry. They hatched sooner and shipped faster than expected and I'm hoping they aren't going to try to deliver to the door instead of the post office. The last steps are preparing for delivery, out for delivery, and delivered. And I'm worried about them sitting in the post office through Sunday too. Prayers for their safe arrival would be much appreciated, I'm so nervous that I'm checking the tracker every five minutes!

I also would be hovering over the computer! As long as they are warm they will be fine. Chicks are pretty tough.

Oh I can’t wait to see them!

 

[RoyalChick]

Happy Pony Sunday everyone.

This is the closest I have to a pony. She is right outside my back door and seems not to be bothered by seeing me.

 

[Ponypoor]

I love that you care so much! She is definitely misunderstood by me; if there is a way to deal with her I don't know it. I'm afraid I have not unlocked the secret with this one. I'd say with the onset of regular laying she is pretty intense now. She is very high-strung, or something. Is there such as thing as a calming pill for a hen?

She is not squatting for me but when she gets a gleam in her eye, all growly, looking for a fight, I have taken to pressing down on her, hand on her back until she sits on the litter, and gently but firmly holding her there for 10 seconds or so. Hazel will sometimes come over and give her a couple of pecks. I release her and that seems to break it temporarily and she walks away. But she will come back again aggressively, sooner rather than later. I don't know if this is reinforcing a sense that she has to dominate me, as if I am a competing roo?

I have also tried ignoring her, or moving into her a little with my elbow or body so that she is not in a position to peck a hand while I do something like pet somebody else or lay down some pellets on their treat block. If she sees that I have pellets to eat she'll eat from my hands with the others, but pauses to glance up at me in between bites. Whereas everyone else just chows down.

It's very hard to do the normal things I do with the chickens if she is looking for a fight. (Tedi wants to stand and lean against a leg, or have my one hand a little under her, while being pet with the other; so then Diane comes over to bite any exposed hand. What do I do?) I sometimes pet Diane too as she passes by, I'm trying to normalize being touched, but she appears to not like it and takes it as an aggressive move by me.

Sometimes when I have to get something done and she wants to get all up in my business and bite me I pick her up and hold her with one hand against my side while I move about, either her head facing backwards or forwards. She might be quiet for a bit, or not, all growly and keening, but if quiet soon she complains and I let her down.

If I carry a stick around with me she generally keeps clear once she sees it, but sometimes charges to peck as I walk away unless it is behind me right in her line of sight. She wants to silently run at my legs and boots when I am moving away from her.

She is getting good at grabbing skin and twisting, if she catches me unawares. I had so many bites on my hands a couple of weeks ago before I realized how ramped up she's become that DH noticed. I also got a couple of marks on my forearm, and these were bites through exercise shirts plus a sweatshirt.

When I pick her up she is strangely compliant, though she might be growling. But if a hand is available in front of her she will likely try to peck it while held. She won't or can't bite very well unless her feet are on something solid. So I have held her on my lap for a minute or two, her feet off but her keel resting on my hand or leg. Only once last Fall did she relax enough to take even a one-eyed nap.

A hen on my lap brings Tedi around gently bokking, asking to get on too, because she loves lap time. Annie likes it too, but is asking less these days. Having another hen there and loving it, all happy, doesn't change anything for Diane though. She's usually just as upset or fearful or high-strung no matter who is with her.

Hazel will let her forage next to her. She will rest near Hazel. Tedi and Annie don't let her forage next to them for very long. Rest and preening times she's with anybody. But she's not that polite with Hazel either. Last week when Hazel was bathing, Diane decided to get up on the edge of the dustbath pool and step in - but decided to step right on to Hazel's back. Hazel was not impressed!

Like humans, animals also have mental health issues. Not much you can do, except the accept who she is and just come to terms with her actions.

If she gets aggressive with the other hens she may need to be separated; but otherwise I would just continue as you are doing.

 

[Ponypoor]

Happy Pony Sunday everyone.

This is the closest I have to a pony. She is right outside my back door and seems not to be bothered by seeing me.
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Wow! Awesome photo!

 

[TOMTE]

You can resist as long as you like. You can call them feather dusters until the end of time. It will not change the fact that silkies are one of the friendliest, in your lap snuggle buddy breeds of chickens. They are clowns.

I'm telling you right now if you let yourself give one a chance you will be hooked. Nothing will ever replace Jaffar, or my Branch. Look at Barbosa now. He came here at 5 months old, not frequently handled and very untrusting and skeptical of me.

Look what happened the other day....
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He willingly jumped into my lap and buried his head, started purring and went to sleep.

I have done nothing special to cause this. I simply did what I always do, I gave him time. The first week I was very much hands off. I then worked on him eating out of my hand. He then started shadowing me, developed a love for shoelaces. I let him come to me on his own terms and when he gave me the opportunity I massaged his crop. Imagine if I had hand raised him myself from day 1.

You have stated it countless times. "all roos need love too." Let yourself love a silkie roo.

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I want silkies...

 

[Ponypoor]

Star Trek has a name for that species: “Tribbles” loving and sweet until they breed rapidly and eat up all your food supply!
I do love those little creatures (Silkies) but they are not chickens.
Barbosa for example;Is that the way a normal chicken would act? I don’t think so.
It’s quite possible that Silkies are those gremlins that taunt airplanes and wing controls. Even Naval Aviation has stated that Gremlins are a problem with their aircraft.

Hmmmm well now I have many who hop up on me to visit. Poopy feet and all!

Twister sure isn’t a silkie!

 

[TOMTE]

I wish I got pics of that cute little silkie chick at the feed store. The little thing was so calm and curious! I was tempted to put it in my pocket and walk out of there!

 

[Ponypoor]

March isn't done yet & the feed store was sold out of chicks 2 weeks ago ~ unprecedented. Once they sell out they don't reorder. Even the bantam Silkies are gone! If they can get more from the Belt hatchery they might order more but usually the temps get unbearable by mid-April here so they don't like to keep chicks then. We'll watch & see since more people are getting into backyard chickens for the eggs.

Our nearest feed store

Similar here but with the cold temps they generally don’t have chicks on order until mid April.

I would say Freys is stepping in to take up the slack Peavey left - I would say that Freys will start offering more varieties now. They have started offering silkies!

The only issue with Freys is that they want you to order 10 at least. Or you pay a penalty if you only want two or three.

 

[Ponypoor]

& I might add....more than 1 Silkie in a flock...there should be 2 to 3 (or more if there is space) so they can toodle together in their own tribe away from older or bigger breeds.

Our youngest trio are their own little tribe
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Such cuties.

Well this morning I had to trim up Holly’s topknot, I put it off but she was having trouble seeing so trim it I did. And she protested quite vocally. When I put her down she looked up at me with the stink eye and marched off - the told her ‘hey kiddo at least you can see me now to tell me off!’.

Jolly will be next.