Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Marie2020]

Such a funny pic

That's what happens to my DH when he puppysits my DD's two dogs! Wakes him at 3:00 in the morning & they go back to sleep while he's now wide awake

He's a glutton for punishment ~ he's puppysitting again on July 4th!
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Can't live with them but couldn't be without them

 

[featherhead007]

I've been traumatized since a child when relatives came over from a neighboring farm to my folks' farm to help dispatch a whole pen of Leghorns for the freezer. Such a nightmare & folks in the old days didn't bother to prepare youngsters for the bloody horror. After that effect Mom kept me away from processing days.

My neighbor couldn't/didn't want to cull in the suburbs & found a butcher who culled & dressed birds for a fee. Our neighbor moved to a rural state & now process their own poultry, goats, & rabbits.

Our birds here live out their lives. No roo so our eggs are not chick potentials.

Our former neighbor bought a gosling to raise for Christmas dinner but he was such a smart watchdog & herder of their wandering farm ducks that Mr Christmas is now a pet.
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Has anyone ever noticed that pet owners seem to resemble their pets? Looks wise anyways?

 

[featherhead007]

I should have filmed this, but my camera was in the house.
I opened the coop to let the birds out, and it looked very much like a scene from Jurassic Park!
So funny I could imagine the music in the background.

 

[Sylvester017]

I want eggs at some point! They're sharing the top of my wish list with Appenzeller Spitzhaubens and Russian Orloffs.

Beautiful breeds! Once upon a time when we considered moving to a rural area, those breeds were on my over 400 breeds wishlist ~ chicken math would've run away w/us if we had made that move

However, in the 'burbs, our very manageable Silkies are keeping the skelter filled. It's hard to believe how different the colors are but that how we know which Silkie layed which egg.

 

[featherhead007]

I had no idea that Coco was so needy. She’d rather hang out with me today, than be outside in the yard with the other chooks. I took her outside, but she only scratched around for a bit, then walked up the porch steps, and laid down at my feet. I took her back inside and now she’s preening and watching YouTube.

 

[featherhead007]

Beautiful breeds! Once upon a time when we considered moving to a rural area, those breeds were on my over 400 breeds wishlist ~ chicken math would've run away w/us if we had made that move

However, in the 'burbs, our very manageable Silkies are keeping the skelter filled. It's hard to believe how different the colors are but that how we know which Silkie layed which egg.View attachment 4151370
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Considering moving back to a rural area? My property is still available. (Just saying)

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm terribly sorry this has happened to the them. It's very tragic.

I have sort of been where you are. I once had some lost by the post office. They arrived 2 days late but alive. I lost each one of them over the next 3 days, one by one, despite my best efforts to save them.

This heartbreak has Mrs BY Bob adamantly opposed to shipped chicks. We won't do it again.

So sad. Hatcheries ship day-old chicks but those 1st days they are still very delicate as newly hatched babies as Mom told me on her farm. When I retired I took that info to heart & never ordered shipped babies.

In 14 yrs we've never had shipped chicks. Any shipped birds we ordered were at 2 months or older & we ordered a pair each order to keep each other company. It's still iffy w/ older birds cuz we don't know a breeder's reputation who might be located in the Midwest, New England, or the South. We had some great private breeders & others who were beyond flaky.

Some pics of our shipped juveniles. BFTP
2012 Buff Leghorns

2013 Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas

2014 Blue Ameraucana and Blue Breda ~ worst shipment ~ breeder was homeopathic thinking ACV was enough to cure birds of worms or cocci so when these birds arrived they were pooping watery & bloody. Not only that we ordered pullets & one was a cockerel! The pullet did not survive treatment at the vet & died while the cockerel survived & we had to rehome him.

When the above homeopathic breeder flaked out we scrambled frantically end of season to find another rare Blue Breda pullet contact who had one left & shipped her alone ~ the little sweetie was a trooper.
2015 Blue Breda

2016 Cuckoo Breda ~ breeder was closing their Cuckoo line of Breda so this one shipped alone but she was a trooper too at 6-months.

2017 Blue Breda pullets ~ our final shipping

Other birds whether juveniles or chicks we drove to pickup in person.

 

[Sylvester017]

Considering moving back to a rural area? My property is still available. (Just saying)

We have an acre in NoCalif but in our old age it's too remote to live there ~ lots of Calif forest fires too as you well know

 

[featherhead007]

We have an acre in NoCalif but in our old age it's too remote to live there ~ lots of Calif forest fires too as you well know

I know. But for 2.5 million $ dollars, you get the house, 2 barns, and 5 acres very close to town

 

[Sylvester017]

Breezy redecorated the nest box on the short brown coop...I say vandalized trying to steal decoy eggs for his nest.
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He's so huge he has a hard time maneuvering around in those nests. He also tore the straw and decoys out of the ivory coop nestboxes too. Gonna have to keep an eye out if he's encouraging them to lay elsewhere...

Chickens are all so different ~ I LOVE roo stories