Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

I am still working on the video. Lovely! It seems very stressful to be a mother hen with all those wayward babies who won't stay still!

They're minding her rather well. Coming when she calls them, not venturing far enough to stress her. Only time she's stressed is when she puffs up due to proximity of the curious adults.

The one I'm worried about stressing is PITA....with 12 and her smaller body size and older age (4). I am glad she's (so far) proven to be such an accommodating mother with the chicks jumping in with her. And with her being so calm when I chivvied babies back to her.

Focus is still a mostly unknown, so there's some worry there too. I'm glad she took the 4 so easily too, though.

Just unplugged the incubator. 21 babies should give us a 10 & 10 +/- 1 or 2 on the cockerel/pullet ratio....unless my keeping the eggs cooler before setting them weighted the scale in favor of more pullets....or the hens are like @RebeccaBoyd non-silkie ladies and throw nothing but males....

 

[thistlewick]

Random notes -

Vet said that My Pet Chicken is not NPIP [sic] - certified, news to me. [Edit: This is NOT TRUE! My Pet Chicien IS NPIPcertified!] My Pet Chicken is where the OG Buckeyes came from. New group is from Cackle. She thought the mycoplasma, if that's what it is, came from MPC [NOT TRUE, MPC is NPIP-certified] or from foraging near a wild bird feeder (we did have a feeder where they occasionally did supervised free-ranging, until over a year ago) or a rescue from a neighbor. I suggested it could have been Queenie, who wasn't laying when I got her.

I investigated NPIP to see if I wanted to get certified.

It checks for H5N1 (Avian Flu) and Salmonella.

That's it!

Also they can come and kill your entire HEALTHY flock if there is a nearby H5N1 outbreak, so have to be aware of that. They won't tell you, either. You will just have people show up and start killing your chickens and you get a letter in the mail about it. (This is NC and what I have personally heard locally from local experiences)

Earlier in the year, I believed one of my birds to have something - her eye was bubbling and she was acting poorly. I called around hell's half acre and back again and I found the USDA lab veterinarian who checks our region's industrial birds for infections. Dr. Charles Ivey - he told me that nearly every single backyard flock in the world has mycoplasma and that it's not a big deal at all. They get it from... living on the ground. It's almost impossible to not have any chicken flock not be carriers. It's so unimportant of a disease that some chickens never develop symptoms at all. Same with fowl pox. They just aren't a big deal and we shouldn't be scared nor worry too much.

He said the really only thing we can do, if we *wanted to* and it wasn't even a huge deal (he was super chill lol) was quarantine for 45 days to see if the actively sick bird would get better.

I put Pudding in a quarantine pen for 45 days, I did *nothing* for her beyond food and water and visits now and again. She got better, we put her back with the flock -- oh and they all remembered her and there was zero fuss with her going back (I put her in the downstairs brooder section for 2 days first, seems it was enough), which I thought was fascinating considering all the hell stories I hear of chickens being evil -- and not really had a problem beyond some chickens sneezing sometimes.

I don't think you have anything to worry or stress about! <3

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I think I would edit your post with a sort of 'FACT CHECK' - just so some random person doesn't stumble across the misinformation.

Done, thank you!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...es-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/post-28690572

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I investigated NPIP to see if I wanted to get certified.

It checks for H5N1 (Avian Flu) and Salmonella.

That's it!

Also they can come and kill your entire HEALTHY flock if there is a nearby H5N1 outbreak, so have to be aware of that. They won't tell you, either. You will just have people show up and start killing your chickens and you get a letter in the mail about it. (This is NC and what I have personally heard locally from local experiences)

Earlier in the year, I believed one of my birds to have something - her eye was bubbling and she was acting poorly. I called around hell's half acre and back again and I found the USDA lab veterinarian who checks our region's industrial birds for infections. Dr. Charles Ivey - he told me that nearly every single backyard flock in the world has mycoplasma and that it's not a big deal at all. They get it from... living on the ground. It's almost impossible to not have any chicken flock not be carriers. It's so unimportant of a disease that some chickens never develop symptoms at all. Same with fowl pox. They just aren't a big deal and we shouldn't be scared nor worry too much.

He said the really only thing we can do, if we *wanted to* and it wasn't even a huge deal (he was super chill lol) was quarantine for 45 days to see if the actively sick bird would get better.

I put Pudding in a quarantine pen for 45 days, I did *nothing* for her beyond food and water and visits now and again. She got better, we put her back with the flock -- oh and they all remembered her and there was zero fuss with her going back (I put her in the downstairs brooder section for 2 days first, seems it was enough), which I thought was fascinating considering all the hell stories I hear of chickens being evil -- and not really had a problem beyond some chickens sneezing sometimes.

I don't think you have anything to worry or stress about! <3

Thank you so much for your reassuring words! I didn’t know they don’t test for MG with NPIP certification. I read a comment on BYC just earlier this morning saying the same thing.

I have thought that if it is MG here, which it likely is, the ground and wild birds is where they got it, though you never know. Yes, Tedi and Annie sneeze now and then, I hear at least one a day from one of them. It was worse with a nasal discharge after the heat wave we had. Diane, my personal torturer wanna-be-a-roo, is completely asymptomatic.

 

[Grandma The Chicken]

I know... weird! Lykoi Werewolf kittens on purpose!

The Enigmatic Lykoi Cat Breed

That second photo kind of resembles a charatcer out of Where The Wild Things Are. Perhaps a lynx? I don't know. I just find it really odd. Too much fur for one cat.
All that aside, I'll have chicken photos later today. I'm just a bit busy right now.

 

[rural mouse]

Good morning! Mamas have stayed put for the moment. Letting the morning feeding frenzy subside and the night temps warm up before venturing forth, I think.

 

[rural mouse]

Baby updates, vid style

 

[featherhead007]

I had first thought that he tangled with an animal. Is it a clean knife-like cut, or a ragged tear?

Scissor precision cut
What kind of animal would do such a thing to an innocent creature like Chick-fil-a? That kind of evil is unforgivable!!

 

[featherhead007]

I investigated NPIP to see if I wanted to get certified.

It checks for H5N1 (Avian Flu) and Salmonella.

That's it!

Also they can come and kill your entire HEALTHY flock if there is a nearby H5N1 outbreak, so have to be aware of that. They won't tell you, either. You will just have people show up and start killing your chickens and you get a letter in the mail about it. (This is NC and what I have personally heard locally from local experiences)

Earlier in the year, I believed one of my birds to have something - her eye was bubbling and she was acting poorly. I called around hell's half acre and back again and I found the USDA lab veterinarian who checks our region's industrial birds for infections. Dr. Charles Ivey - he told me that nearly every single backyard flock in the world has mycoplasma and that it's not a big deal at all. They get it from... living on the ground. It's almost impossible to not have any chicken flock not be carriers. It's so unimportant of a disease that some chickens never develop symptoms at all. Same with fowl pox. They just aren't a big deal and we shouldn't be scared nor worry too much.

He said the really only thing we can do, if we *wanted to* and it wasn't even a huge deal (he was super chill lol) was quarantine for 45 days to see if the actively sick bird would get better.

I put Pudding in a quarantine pen for 45 days, I did *nothing* for her beyond food and water and visits now and again. She got better, we put her back with the flock -- oh and they all remembered her and there was zero fuss with her going back (I put her in the downstairs brooder section for 2 days first, seems it was enough), which I thought was fascinating considering all the hell stories I hear of chickens being evil -- and not really had a problem beyond some chickens sneezing sometimes.

I don't think you have anything to worry or stress about! <3

Sam and Ella, are two of my best friends! (Just saying)

 

[featherhead007]

Baby updates, vid style

Loud rooster!!