Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

I would absolutely love to chain link fence my entire yard. Sadly after being here for 23 years I can tell you 100% chain-link fencing is not a option. At some point each year, many times several times in the spring there is flash flooding and my entire back yard turns into a lake. We are fortunate and blessed that while the yard floods, and 3 times the horse stalls the house itself has never flooded. My next door neighbor has a chain link fence and I will use her as a example. The floods wreck her fence and she has to redo it about every 2 years. A few years ago she had to redo the back section twice as flooding just ripped it out. I'm looking at options right now. I'm exploring moveable electric fencing as a option. I also would ideally like to turn Russ's empty stall into another closed off coop. Dad is halfway on board but he also has a plan for that stall. He wants to turn it into a hay shed and fill it up with hay. Right now is the prime time to do it and if he does Dirt would be solid until up into April. Seeing as how hard it can be to find good hay December through April that is a hard one to argue with. Last year and this spring was horrible to find hay. Mom panics when we get below 5 bales. This march we were down to 1 before he could find some and then it was not the best but what we had to use until the first cutting came in. Dad also made a good point to me. As far as predators go, if I am dealing with a coyote, my troubles always seem to fall in July through September. Normally when the young males are kicked out of the packs. I've never had a coyote issue the rest of the year. Right now, with everyone locked up maybe said nasty critter will move on. This has just been a hard year, one of the hardest for me. The supervised turnout, even for just a hour has helped the girls who until now have never been locked up 24/7.

Coyotes are not just a rural problem plus I believe you're correct about the young ones prowling a certain time of year.

We are in a city suburb neighborhood where there's only about 10 ft sideyard distance between homes & we are on a cul-de-sac end. We tore out the old approximately 60-yr-old chainlink fencing (useless fence IMO for so-o-o many reasons) & put up a block wall/iron fence all around our property w/ over 8 ft high backyard wall. & still we got a female Coyote in the back yard in the early morning around 5:30 a.m.

The birds were still locked up in the coop TG! But the rascal Coyote got into the yard by hopping from a neighbor's roof into our yard. It was shocked seeing my DH at the back door & w/ 2 tries was able to jump out of our yard over the 8 ft block wall! DH called animal control who captured it in the neighborhood. They said they captured another male earlier that week in our 'hood!

We're only a couple miles from the San Gabriel Mtn range & Angeles Nat'l Forest so our 'burbs get all kinds of wild animals & birds showing up ~ especially during fire season when animals are fleeing the smoke!

Our backyard block wall w/added redwood privacy fencing added on top ~ 2016. It's very tall but the female Coyote used the neighbor's roof to jump in!

W/ all the thorny trees we've planted (Pomegranates, Lemon, & Grapefruit trees) in the back yard it's difficult even for stray cats to get in over the wall... but the cats still manage & we don't mind them so much... especially if they catch a rat in their clutches

Hard to see but there are a couple Silkies near bottom of this pic!

 

[Sylvester017]

Yes - I was just about to say a Wheaten Marans. That would be my guess, lucky! I would have love some of them also.

I really need a HUGE barn

Plus a huge electrified foraging field to go w/ that barn !!!

 

[Sylvester017]

So here are my thoughts:

Hay storage - YES use that stall for hay storage. There is nothing worse than not being able to get hay.

Temporary electric fencing - YES you know I love electric fencing of any kind. I like my temp poultry netting fence. I have never electrified it, and have had the rabbits chew through it. Little flockers! But I have no plans on powering it up, I don’t run my flock outside unless I am home.

I would go even further and I would use those plastic electric fence posts along with electric twine for the perimeter - zap those predators!





I had a Laverne and Shirley

Shirley turned out to be a Sir Surely

He was a very handsome Roo and very quiet. I do miss him but he has his own Harem now.

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But he was very big boy well over 10 lbs way too heavy to have around my petite hens.

He is such a beauty too There are absolutely no roo rescue farm contacts left around here. The two we used have both moved out of Calif

 

[featherhead007]

I have so many Roos now it’s crazy here. There’s
-Mr Wyandottey
-toothless cogborne
-amityville rooster
-handsome jack
And sweet Gizmo!

 

[featherhead007]

My friend from church has gifted me with a secondary air conditioning system for the chickens room . Walmart $249.99
(I checked) I set it up, but nobody wants to come into the house to try it out. I guess they like to hang out in the waterpark.
CeeCee is broody, and so is Nacho (again) two of the Rockettes are molting, those broody hens are fighting over the same eggs, in the same box.
There’s no winning with chickens!
Maybe I should just get feather dusters. At least they aren’t considered chickens!

 

[notabitail]

Maybe I should just get feather dusters. At least they aren’t considered chickens!

They sell those at walmart too.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

My friend from church has gifted me with a secondary air conditioning system for the chickens room . Walmart $249.99
(I checked) I set it up, but nobody wants to come into the house to try it out. I guess they like to hang out in the waterpark.
CeeCee is broody, and so is Nacho (again) two of the Rockettes are molting, those broody hens are fighting over the same eggs, in the same box.
There’s no winning with chickens!
Maybe I should just get feather dusters. At least they aren’t considered chickens!

I know I sound like a broken record here, but you need a silkie. More importantly, you need a silkie rooster. Jaffar can never be replaced, and for that matter neither can my Branch.

From the stories you told of Jaffar I could look at my Branch and say the exact same thing about him. Right down to watching tv with me. I think maybe silkie and cochin roosters run parallel on personalities.

My current boys, Barbosa and Davy are a work in progress but they have both came a long way. Bosa now loves to be held and will sleep in my arms. I've brought him inside my room a few times and he's relaxed and sat with me on the computer for a bit. I've not breached putting a towel down on the bed yet and watching tv with him, but we are close. Davy is the stubborn one of the two which is shocking as how when I first got them it was Bosa who was scared of me. Davy prefers to sit beside me or infront of me and tell me all about his day. He is a very talkative little chap. I can hold him but he does not fully settle down to sleep. He is always busy watching what is going on with the girls and the teens. Then we have young Q. I'm farther ahead with Q thanks to brooding them myself from day 1. Falling asleep in my arms, check. Brought into the house to sit on my lap at the computer desk, check. Brought over to the bed to sit in my lap with the tv turned on...check. Remind me of his Grandpa Branch even though he is a white marshmallow, triple check and he is not even 4 months old yet.


You know, Bingo is still having me guessing whether or not he is a he or a she. I'm leaning towards pullet, but I have a nagging doubt at times. If Bingo is a boy, I will need to rehome him. I also will be extremely picky as to where Bingo goes. I also have a small airport 10 minute drive from my house....just saying.

 

[featherhead007]

They sell those at walmart too.

Yes they do!

 

[SimpleJenn]

They ran away when I got the camera out. I had them all lined up using birdseed and everything.

Delft is broody. That's 3/3 on my blue satin mix girls. So very tempting to slip a couple eggs under her. Ethel, RoadRunner, Chocolate...those would be a pretty mix with Riddick as the dad...

Misty asking who we ate for dinner last night, and were there any leftovers for the chickens?

Quite the poof coming in on Brainiac. She has a lovely white tail too.

One of the legbars picking Megaminds pin feathers.

Buff satin...going into the run with Riddick. Either this weekend (6 weeks old) or maybe I'll delay until they're 8 weeks before I move them to their respective coops to integrate.

Look at Navy and her babies. Just so precious. She's a great momma.

 

[drstratton]

You should post your covered field space again... & anyone else who has a large covered or netted space for their foraging birds like SimpleJenn or TX Chick Noob or drstratton or whoever else has a very roomy protected foraging space where the birds are getting some foliage foraging or large pen space w/ tree stumps/branches, chairs, ladders, swings, stimulating toys, etc. The ideas are very helpful how to keep confined birds from boredom.

In our suburb cottage yard renovation we managed to keep our birds out to forage. A moveable rabbit fence was all we needed to keep them confined while workers were on the property & they enjoyed watching our chickens too (chickens are a fun rarity in the suburbs!).
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We have the enclosed pen attached to our coop. There's a chicken door with access into the free range pen. It's about 100'long x 50'wide.
Here's a couple of fun video's of my girls & roos from 2020.

Here's the coop and enclosed pen.
Our fence is over 80" tall.

The coop in 2020 with a fresh coat of paint and a new nesting box. We used to have bantams, so the nesting box was inside. We had to make room for 20 full size chickens.

The enclosed pen.

We added chicken wire to the nesting box for the hot days of summer.

View of the enclosed pen and gate from the free range pen. The gate is big enough for our tractor.

A favorite roosting spot is this volunteer grape behind the enclosed pen.

Their favorite dust bathing space between the back fence and the back of the enclosed pen.

Looking towards the far end of the free range pen. A nice sheltered area with rocks, trees and space to dust bathe.