Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

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Mama Phoebe laid her first egg! The Eastern Phoebe normally lays 4-5 eggs (but sometimes 2-6), and brown headed cowbirds, which are obligate brood parasites, often lay an egg or 2 in a Phoebe nest so if that happens, how cool! Would be fun to observe. Incubation is about 16 days and they typically raise 2 broods during the breeding season.

Happy mother's day, little Phoebe! Good luck with your clutch!

Hate to burst your happy bubble but the cowbird chick will be bigger than the phoebe chicks and will push the other chicks from the nest then the phoebe (or other song birds) parents will have that one chick to raise and it will do very well - no competition.

If I see cow bird eggs in a song bird nest I get rid of it.

They are not like chooks in that the chicks from many mamas can be raised together - unfortunately.

Cow birds here are an introduced species. Have to say though it was fun seeing my chooks chase after them when they were picking apart the horse poop the other day! Not that cow birds were so very worried seeing as how they can fly and the chooks not so much!

 

[Marie2020]

I’ll wash that shirt on Monday

Just put it in the pot

 

[Marie2020]

MOYHERS DAY

Happy Mothers day ladies and Alex

 

[Ponypoor]

CONGRATS!!

We have a Lifetime shed as my outdoor kitchen and love it! For the price it is extremely well built and easy to assemble. Of the other “some assembly required” sheds we have had over the years the only other one we have had that is even close is a Suncast. Just bought another one of those to use as a duck house, which we got finished well enough yesterday for them to sleep there last night. We got the Suncast because we needed something a little smaller to fit the space, and it was on sale for $350 at Sam’s.

Altogether it went well. We have done wood platforms in the past, but since they are a pain to keep level and we have the concrete mixer now we did a pad. Biggest issue we had was Bobby took all the panels out of the box the day before we assembled it, so we could go ahead and cut the holes for the “ducky door” and some ventilation. The base warped really bad from sitting on the pad in the sun and then cooling overnight.

But we managed to get it together, and after it sits for a while, fully assembled, and with a little bit of weight inside, everything should settle back down better. Especially when we eventually drill the four concrete anchors in the corners.

Here are some pics of the mostly completed project. Still have to seal around the ventilation panels, hang the light, do some other minor electrical work, and build their “staircase” of patio blocks to get in and out. Might end up having to mount a small section of 2x4 on the inside and outside of the door as another step, that can swing in and out with the door.

The plastic floor should be easy to clean out, and I can use the shelves we put in to store both gardening tools and duck supplies.

Concrete pad
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Ventilation
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Building in progress
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Is it ready?
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Looks ready
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Duckies ready for bed
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Duck Shangri-La (Still a lot of work to do. And they are going to need a bigger pond.
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I am probably going to build a low 2x2 frame around the floor in one side to help contain their shavings and might end up using puppy pads under the food and water. Will see how bad it is each day.

Wow nice! Good job!

 

[Marie2020]

Nancy has 3 beds and a couch. She just cannot decide where to sleep anymore. Decisions decisions

 

[bgmathteach]

How about Bobbie (

Ok so there are 2 possibilities in play here on "Splashy".

#1, she is the result of Poppet and Davy and is actually splash. That also means Poppet is a blue partridge. It could be possible as Poppet was snapping out of her broody spell around the last day or so I collected eggs. I could have had one from her.

#2, she is not splash and some random color. I know Davy and Barbosa are the result of a BBS pen. Poppets daughters are sired by Branch who was black but threw partridge. I do not know what Poppet's parents were. I do know that when I hatched Branch I did end up with a white chick that pipped into the yolk sac and died in the shell. That pen also produced I think 4 more solid whites. I think they are referred to as dominate whites. There really is a lot of colors that come into play with this pen.

What I do know is Splashy stays to be one of my grow outs. I'm praying she is a pullet, and if she is a Poppet daughter my odds are good she is. So far Poppet is a 100% pullet producer. I figure in a month or so we will have a better idea of her color. I do see in person yellow tones on her down coloring. She also has pale grey almost white mixed in. I cannot call her solid white though, there is color to her.

I also said I want pullets, I do not need more boys. If Splashy is a splash I will be hard pressed to let it go if it is a cockerel. The whole goal behind a blue pullet or two was hopes of splash chicks next year. Good grief I could be in trouble here. I think I need to start saving for another kennel for a blue and splash breeding pen.

I am going to be holding back and raising 8 from this group. 1 blue, the 2 blue partridge and Splashy. I talked to Betty this evening and for 2 months I will raise 2 blue and 2 black for her. She also said if any of the ones I list do not sell she will take them as well but she at least wants 4 fuzzy britches as she calls silkies.

I also need a good name for Splashy. I know I am calling her Splashy or Splish Splash but she deserves something better. I may end up calling her either Elizabeth, Carina, Angelica or Calypso as they tie into the Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

How about 'Bobbie' (for a girl) or 'Bobby' for a boy?

[Bobby Darin sang the song 'splish splash I was taking a bath - and as a kid, I always wanted to be called Bobbie - instead of Barbie - kids called me 'Barbie doll'...then as a tween, Barbwire & Bra, Bra - and I was always a tomboy - I hated my name and wanted desperately to be nicknamed 'Bobbie', but mom refused - and prohibeted my siblings from obliging!]

 

[SimpleJenn]

Wow! Gorgeous breed Hmong! Melanistic ...black meat bird. Bet @SimpleJenn 's hubby would love this one.

Showing hubby now!!! He's excited for possible zombie coloring from our Ayam cemani over leghorn hens. We're suckers for fibro coloring here

Wish o could get chicks through the name that shall not be named!!!!!

You can buy hatching eggs!!! I told hubby I want to one of these days just to see.

The way she was jerking/shaking, it almost looked like she was cursing herself out for breaking it. " IT IT IT!!!"

My thoughts exactly.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Happy Mother's day to all the moms. Pet moms count too!!!

 

[featherhead007]

That's a tough place to be. Have you considered taking them to church with you and giving them to people who may need them after the service?

I took four chicks to church with me today and they were so happy to be with me. Pastor wasn’t there. I preached the sermon. The littles sat in the pet tote and chirped the whole time.

 

[TOMTE]

Hate to burst your happy bubble but the cowbird chick will be bigger than the phoebe chicks and will push the other chicks from the nest then the phoebe (or other song birds) parents will have that one chick to raise and it will do very well - no competition.

If I see cow bird eggs in a song bird nest I get rid of it.

They are not like chooks in that the chicks from many mamas can be raised together - unfortunately.

Cow birds here are an introduced species. Have to say though it was fun seeing my chooks chase after them when they were picking apart the horse poop the other day! Not that cow birds were so very worried seeing as how they can fly and the chooks not so much!

I do know that they'll grow larger and faster and outcompete the other chicks (brown headed cowbird chicks do not push other chicks out of the nest though), but it would still be cool to observe from a ornothological point of view, because I never have before.

On top of that, here's an article by the Audubon society about why you shouldn't remove cowbird eggs from a nest.

"It’s a natural process and we shouldn’t attach human values about killing or being sneaky to the natural world."

Brown headed cowbirds are native here, so not only is it illegal to interfere with their eggs, it's also detrimental to their population.

"While permits for cowbird control are granted, it’s only done when they’re considered a threat to endangered birds. For example, in Michigan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service traps an average of 4,000 cowbirds every year to protect endangered Kirtland’s Warblers."