Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

At coop close, I found 3 chicks up on the high roost, Cardhu's black, and 2 new ones. PITA joined them....maybe feeling they needed parental supervision? One of the little daredevils rand off down most of the roost....started to settle at the other end, and got roundly thumped by Primula....then Belladonna as it slid between her feet on the roost...then encountered Enigma who was no more pleased....Tuff left it alone, but by that point it was in a mad scurry to get back to mama PITA.

It started to settle down, then managed to slip off the roost....and ended up BEHIND the crate on the floor. I started sliding the crate forward (setting the other 17 atwitter and sending Focus back out to the floor). Little bit turned out to be perched on a nub of cardboard halfway up the side of the crate....and was perfectly willing to step onto the more secure footing of my fingers when I reached back to scoop it up. I ended up with a black (well really dark) "parrot" on my hand. It had surprisingly good balance and didn't wobble when I lifted it up to rejoin PITA. I got a resounding NO, NOT STAYING UP HERE! when the little one refused to let go of my fingers.....and happily hopped off when lowered into the crate to join the rest.

Focus was keeping a close watch on this whole process from behind me, which I hadn't quite realized....so she sort of got stepped on when I took a step back to slide the crate back into place. I got chewed out for that and she joined the 18 in the crate. PITA stayed up on the roost with the other 2.

I'm anticipating the numbers on the roost increasing over the next few days.View attachment 4186468some of the crowd

They are growing up so fast.

 

[BY Bob]

Niamh, "Wanna trade houses? I dig all the space in here".

Not to mention the air conditioning!

 

[BY Bob]

So, I found a small patch of grass WITHOUT "landmines" and sat out to take pics of the littles/do some observations (my brick is in the wrong spot for where they were hanging). Near the water bucket....so go NO thirsty pics of the adults who kept strolling by and checking things out.

Instead...
View attachment 4186537Belladonna started checking out my clothes....to the point of trying to scratch at my shorts. I put and hand down, so she stepped on it, then settled in to keep checking things out by sitting on my leg with 1 foot and my hand with the other. Taking pics with your NONE dominate hand is hard!View attachment 4186538just before she stepped up..View attachment 4186539View attachment 4186539

Then she hopped down and circled to check out my shoes, too.View attachment 4186540

View attachment 4186541Whiskey supervised the whole thing. I kept movements slow (no startling any of them) and did nothing more than breast rubs.

Cumulo came along and had a restView attachment 4186544while Enigma (among others) grazed.


Thirsty chicks (after I moved)View attachment 4186549

Sounds wonderful

 

[BY Bob]

Happy thirsty Thursday.
My washing machine just broke and flooded the floor. Hope the day improves!
View attachment 4186556

Oh no!

 

[TX Chick Noob]

That had to be so miserable, ouch!

This was a black ant of all things. He bit me four times before I could get my pants off...lol. The bites are bright red, hard and itch like crazy. Thankful it's not like your poor foot.

Mr P is awesome!

I stepped on a fire ant nest in the garden a few days ago.
I was wearing shorts and tall mud boots. Saw them swarming up the boot and thought I got them all brushed of quickly enough (which resulted in a few bites on my hand). But some still got down in my boot and stung my shin and calf.

Happy Caturday! Baby Pip!

Absolutely adorable!

My phone does that sometimes. I don't know why. I've never been able to make it happen on demand.

What kind of phone do you have? It’s a really cool effect.

Pony Sumday

Penny and Cotton Buns - just hatched!

Soooo long ago…..

View attachment 4183786

Awww! And I never knew a horse could hatch.

Definitely not, everyone should have a Tonka in their lives, chickens included.

They are almost as expensive as the real thing!

Let me bug my dad, my brother gave his (our) tonkas to kiddo so dad needs to get them up from the basement and cleaned up for her. We have a dump truck, excavator, and a crane I believe. From the late 80s early 90s I believe, maybe older I have no clue. He also has our old pedal john deere tractor

I had a large collection of Tonka toys, and Matchbox cars, when I was little. This would have been in the late 70s. I think they were all given away or sold at garage sales when we moved to Hawaii, because shipping was so expensive and we were only allowed to take a few toys and keepsakes.
They would probably be worth a fortune now.

Curiosity has started to do the courtship dance. I saw him do it once yesterday to Einstein and again today 3 times around the first of the pullets to get down from the roost. So cute! She looked unimpressed.

I have never seen Cotton or Nestle dance, and have only seen an attempted tidbit once or twice. But they crow a lot, and Cotton keeps getting in trouble for chasing down bantam pullets against their will. I will hear a ruckus and see one trying to run, with Cotton right behind them yanking on to a beak full of neck feathers. So he ends up being carried around or in “cockerel jail” a lot of the time.
Nestle has been chased off by the older hens a few times, and has made a few failed attempts with the larger pullets. But he politely backs off so he hasn’t ever been in jail.

The ducks are a different story. Every morning when we let them out, they go jump in their little “pond”. Cypress and Willow, who is apparently his favorite, will start head bobbing at each other and then she lets him crawl on top in the water.

Tax and other pics.
Nestle has really long “eyelashes”. They are hard to get a picture of.

Nestle and Sheila, with a Hershey tail in the middle.

The Lavs on the roost for the night.

Cypress and part of Willow.

 

[rural mouse]

Forgot to slide the rock in front of the door again. This is what I encountered when I went to open the coop

And to the left

Sigh. 2nd coat of polyurethane on 1 side when I get home tonight is the plan.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Thirsty Thursday


And a bonus NavyBeans and her sprouts

 

[kattabelly]

A good problem to have, I need a new egg basket

Love this! Did you make it yourself and if so, do you have a pattern you could share or was it a make-it-up-as-you-go kind of thing?

 

[TOMTE]

SOMEONE'S getting a booty bath today

 

[drstratton]

Happy thirsty Thursday.
My washing machine just broke and flooded the floor. Hope the day improves!
View attachment 4186556

Sorry RC! That is not a fun way to start the day.
Love your flock!