Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

rural mouse · Wednesday at 10:47 AM

While family was here, discovered that these

are Nanking Cherries? They're the bushes between the rose patch and the lilacs with a couple of stand alones on the other side of the house.

and a partial from a colander full. If these meet the taste test, going to be enjoying in the future. Had enough hit the ground while picking for the chickens to enjoy also. I've never seen/noticed much of a crop before so thought they were a decorative viburnum.

breakfast time explorations

TOMTE · Wednesday at 10:59 AM

rural mouse said:
While family was here, discovered that theseView attachment 4169665are Nanking Cherries? They're the bushes between the rose patch and the lilacs with a couple of stand alones on the other side of the house.

View attachment 4169666and a partial from a colander full. If these meet the taste test, going to be enjoying in the future. Had enough hit the ground while picking for the chickens to enjoy also. I've never seen/noticed much of a crop before so thought they were a decorative viburnum.

View attachment 4169667breakfast time explorations

Yummy!

I just read about them! They're more closely related to plums than cherries, and have a sweet-tart flavor that's closer to grapes! Would love to try some.

rural mouse · Wednesday at 11:11 AM

TOMTE said:
Yummy!

I just read about them! They're more closely related to plums than cherries, and have a sweet-tart flavor that's closer to grapes! Would love to try some.

Interesting. The raw taste test was odd....think lemon meringue pie tartness, without the sweet meringue....sort of.... the finger across the back of the hot spoon was good but not really describable

featherhead007 · Wednesday at 11:57 AM

Beings that taxes haven’t been paid for, here is some tax:
(But you owe me)

TX Chick Noob · Wednesday at 4:05 PM

featherhead007 said:
Ps I pray that you’re in a high area. That Texas flooding is no joke, hundreds of people have died because of flooding.

Thank you. Luckily I am 1-2 hours from the worst of the flooding. But we did get close to 5” of rain since Friday, and it is raining again today. Everything is wet/muddy. Really glad we put the concrete floor that is about 4-5” thick in the coop last year.

SimpleJenn · Wednesday at 4:24 PM

Some wattles for Wednesday

TX Chick Noob · Wednesday at 4:25 PM

rural mouse said:
I have to state that I have no experience with bantams. Cheetah and his daughters are pretty small for standard breeds and Hector, while currently my largest roo, isn't the largest I've ever had.

1. My experience with the little ladies and the large roos: the ladies are way to agile to get caught by the large roos unless they CHOOSE to be.

2. Space, space, and more space. If the ladies get cornered, the roo can nab them anyway. You've got pretty good space, but more is ALWAYS smart. How cluttered is the run? Ways for birds to go up? Things to dodge around? Hide under? Roos can't mate hens if the hens can't provide a stable stand. If where the hen is standing is small, wobbly, has no head space above her, he can't do it.

4. Cotton's behavior is currently hormonal idiot: trying to mate everything he can see/catch. It is a problem when he's not leaving the ladies who aren't ready alone. It also becomes a problem if he's mating one female on an endless repeat. She can't eat, drink, bathe without him hopping aboard.

5. If Nestlé isn't coming to the rescue of the girls too young, then he's not viewing them as his. He sees them as Cotton's ladies. As far as relations between Nestlé and Cotton, this is a good thing. If Cotton is going for Nestlé's girls, and Nestlé isn't defending them either, then Cotton is viewed as senior roo....and a possible solution is to temporarily split the run/coop with Nestlé with the bantams and Cotton with the big girls. The reason I say split is to keep them as a whole flock rather than breaking up the integrations.

6. Can you build some sort of "tree" in the run for perching on/dodging around? I'm sort of envisioning something like a coat stand with much lower/longer "branches". Maybe a 4x4 embedded in a bucket of concrete with 2x4 cross pieces at various heights around it.

7. Bantams (I think) typically reach maturity sooner than the large breeds can...and some of the large breeds take even longer (brahmas for instance don't reach Point Of Lay until 6-8 months and jersey giants don't stop growing until close to 18 months). It's entirely possible that Nestlé hasn't matured yet and is still feeling his way into it. It's also possible the cochin bantams are closer to POL than you think. This part all requires more observation.

8. Chickens feel comfortable when they can see out and feel the predators cannot see in (crawl under a bush and sit looking through the leaves for a bit). Putting things in the run that will emulate that will also help. Roos tend to be Line Of Sight. If the can't see the lady, they aren't trying for her. When they're all lounging under a bush/tree, the roos can see the ladies, but it seems to be a mating isn't allowed safe space. Even chicks doing the head bobbing spat step outside the shelter to do so.

The “mini-coop” that I use as a hospital or brooder coop is in the run. That provides both ways to get out of site and multiple levels to get on. There are also 5 gallon buckets/coolers that have food or water in them that can break line of site. We never removed one of the ladders when we were done with the new netting because they like perching on it. And the large wire crate I sometimes use as a brooder is still sitting out there and frequently has someone on top of it. I will think about trying to add something else to “get under” as well.

Run

Closeup of mini coop that has a large gathering on top right now, lol.

I definitely think Cotton views the bantams as his and Nestle feels the same way about his “brooder mates” since they started on those groups. Neither has tried anything with my older hens yet. I wish they would so the older ladies can teach them some manners.

Ikslo · Wednesday at 4:31 PM

I may have woken my flock checking on them when we got home at 2 am last night…

I am happy to say all are healthy and accounted for. Boy did they get big in 2 weeks! And we definitely have a crowing cockerel. He was happy to show off his new skill to me multiple times today.

Pictures of some of my flock: