Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

Hopefully she has flown up high into a tree or something.

 

[Ponypoor]

I admit I have had a hard time keeping up the last few weeks. How old are Cotton and Ebony?

If you are a member on facebook, local livestock and poultry groups can be your best friend. You can use them to guage just how popular silkies are in your area. You can also use them to advertise hatching eggs and chicks.

I am a member to several local to me groups. They are a wealth of knowledge. Silkies are wildly popular and sought after. They are also hard to come by in my area. Colored silkies are even more in demand. A member is currently searching everywhere for paint chicks or hatching eggs with no luck locally right now.

Thanks to these groups I know while hatching eggs can sell, it is way easier to sell chicks. Mine and everyone else's silkie chicks that have been listed this summer have been claimed within minutes to a hour of posting. That is why I'm hoping to fill up the incubator this time around. I'm not hatching for myself or my boss, all chicks would be available at a few days old for $8 each. Thanks to my groups I know I can list a young silkie cockerel for around $15 and he should sell easily. If I were to choose to sell a pullet or hen which at the moment I have no interest in doing, they would be priced no less then $40 each.

Next to impossible to get a silkie hen here, and no less than $100 was the last one I saw posted. Not that I want any more.

 

[featherhead007]

Hopefully she has flown up high into a tree or something.

Thanks kelly, it’s just that there are so many places to hide, and so many predators around, I fear for a loss.

 

[rural mouse]

Well, took the 2nd pair out to Cardhu. 1 had heavy feathered feet. Pair was peeping in my hands.... Cardhu came of the nest flying at me. PITA was all puffed up too. While Cardhu was on the ground, babies went into the nest. She settled back onto the nest TALKING to babies. It looks like she's taken all 4 rather well. I have the battle scars to prove it. She got my ankle rather well. #5 is working on getting out of the shell, but not there yet. I think she's going to get the rest of today's hatch tonight, and PITA will get tonight/tomorrow....depending upon how many hatch.

 

[rural mouse]

#5 is out...and blonde with a couple dark spots, brown egg. #6 is also out, dark, white shell.

 

[Marie2020]

So many lovely chooks, and I don’t have a big enough barn!

Or cheque book hahahaha!

You would need to own a few banks my dear

 

[Marie2020]

Look what I found today

 

[Marie2020]

Thanks kelly, it’s just that there are so many places to hide, and so many predators around, I fear for a loss.

 

[Marie2020]

One of my little ones never made it back to the coop last night. I searched through the whole property until late after dark, she was nowhere to be found. It’s a sick, panic feeling when I lose one of my babies! View attachment 4162951

Hopefully she's hiding somewhere. Princess often did this to me and spent the night outside a couple of times

 

[ChicoryBlue]

First off, I am sad to hear Hazel isn’t feeling great still.

I would give her some aspirin or Tylenol to help her feel a bit more comfortable, she will be happier if she isn’t miserable and more inclined to eat and drink. They need to be treated like kids, something to help them along, and let them be as active as they wish, maybe also make sure she is getting some special foods like left overs all for herself to make sure she is eating well.

Clyde is sniffly all the time now, and wheezy. When he gets really wheezy I give him some prednisone. It’s all about maintenance - he and I wheeze together some days! There are no perfect chooks, they are living beings prone to the foibles and failings of all our bodies.

As for your chicks, if you don’t feel comfortable putting them out with the main gang them wait another month. As long as they are getting some outside time though they should be fine.

Regarding your chick with the bulging eyes, I would just take it one day at a time. And remember each is an individual, some are more active and others more sedentary. I have had chicks that have no interest in running around, they want to stick by mama, and I have had chicks that race around like crazy creatures.

There isn’t anything you can do but take it one day at a time and don’t borrow trouble; I know that’s hard to do, I am the worlds biggest worrier, I stare long enough and imagine all sorts of things. Just this morning I was looking at the barn cam and couldn’t figure out what was behind old Red on the roost. Was it a rat? When I went out it was a shadow I found.

Enjoy them, try not to worry.

Thank you so much, your words are comforting. It’s very hard to wait for the vet, now I am on the fence about waiting, as her one eye is pretty well mostly swollen shut this morning, and I’m blaming myself. Not sure how to get pain killers into Hazel without stressing her, but I also think that she’s hopefully going to get medicated tomorrow with the vets advice, so why not start one day early.