Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

Good morning. I was trying to get caught up on this thread. Not saying y'all are talky but I could read a novel in the time it takes to read the last 24 hours of all y'all's adventures in chickening.

I have a bunch of medical/dental appts the next 2 wks so imagine my dread to catch up maybe 50+ pgs teehee

 

[Sylvester017]

I can’t count on neighbors to save my wild birds every day! I think you get my meaning. The rooster Mr. Wyandottey chases the girls everywhere. My problem is with him.

Poor guy... just learning to so what roo's naturally do. How old is he now?

 

[Sylvester017]

I have room for four passengers, one copilot and myself (pilot) that’s all the weight my SkyHawk can lift.

Sounds perfect!

 

[Sylvester017]

Flash is chowing down on some feed this morning. I did love it when she talked with me all night long last night. She obviously had things that needed to be said. I listened. Who needs late night tv when we have chooks in the house?

We haven't had TV or cable since 2010.

These were our 1st entertainment features:

 

[Sylvester017]

Interesting link!
Tripods - the idea of something to be able to quickly lower the netting in case of an early storm before I put it away for the season came from a post on BYC. The poster had netting permanently attached to their deep-posted permanent wooden fences, but had a central, very tall freestanding pole holding it up in the middle. The netting is just loose enough that when the pole is lowered most of the netting lies flat in the field. Only the edges where it goes up to the fencing is going to catch snow and pull. I looked for it and can't find it, but this poster also does similar on a bigger scale, and it looks great. They're in Ohio https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...t-from-aerial-predators.1473213/post-24546386


Yes, I remembered it was you that night, sorry!

And yes the welded wire here functions like your links, only your links are probably stronger. I can't picture how to do the doorway gaps with HC that would work against weasels. The coop is great weasel protection for nighttime, however.

I've had a bear inspect and scratch the small coop but leave, and have found raccoon prints on it, all before I got electric poultry netting. Fox and coyote go by but don't linger. But I've had roaming domestic dogs come through, a big reason why I rarely do even supervised free-ranging sessions anymore.

The electric fence kills some toads trying to go through it every year, which is really unfortunate and sad, and I don't know how to fix that. Used to kill just one each Spring and Fall, but this year there have been four killed so far, and we're not into real Fall yet.

I did rescue a medium-sized toad out of a big garter snake's mouth this year. Both were inside the run. The chickens found them and were bokking about it each time the toad thrashed. It was up to it's hip with one leg down the snake's throat. I thought about it and decided to help the toad, since it seemed very much alive and uninjured. I understand about Nature's Way but I don't like it. I decided I didn't have to be a bystander with this right there in our run. I think the slowness of the attempted kill was hard for me to handle. I always want to rescue a hapless small frog the chickens come across when I witness it, but they usually kill it and eat it so quickly I get over it quickly too.

So I gently and very slowly applied pressure to pry the snake's jaws apart being careful of it's teeth, with my fingers between it's "canines", and it suddenly unlocked and let go. The snake left; the toad had just one small spot of blood on its upper leg and I placed it in wet woods 300 feet away beyond the fence.

That guy in rural Ohio has a huge variety of poultry. Great that you came across his thread! It's people like that who have good contributions

Not much we can do about night predators except to feel secure about our coop lockups. Years ago I watched an Omlet video about how one of their customer's small coop washed away in a storm flood w/ chickens still intact inside. I wasn't into a tiny coop then but it did impress me.

I agree about daytime problems being loose dogs which is why when we remodeled the yard we put up block walls & iron fences ~ deters vagrants & mostly bratty kid mischief too.

Old front yard had no fence & big dogs broke our wooden side gate to get into the back yard!

Block & iron gate & fence front yard now

Chickens having fun in the front yard before we paved almost all w/ paver stones.

 

[featherhead007]

I have a bunch of medical/dental appts the next 2 wks so imagine my dread to catch up maybe 50+ pgs teehee

 

[featherhead007]

Poor guy... just learning to so what roo's naturally do. How old is he now?

Not even a year old yet

 

[Sylvester017]

Not even a year old yet

Well. if it's like others say, he'll settle down after the juvenile stage. He's probably still learning I miss having a roo... probably would want a Dominique like @Desertvalleychickens if I had my druthers.

So majestic, calm, & alert!

But alas! Our final 3 added fluffies & no more from here on.

 

[featherhead007]

Well. if it's like others say, he'll settle down after the juvenile stage. He's probably still learning I miss having a roo... probably would want a Dominique like @Desertvalleychickens if I had my druthers.

So majestic, calm, & alert!

But alas! Our final 3 added fluffies & no more from here on.
View attachment 4213875

I wish you could have a roo too! They are really fun to have. Sadly, I hatched too many Roos, but I can’t get rid of any. They are game birds and would be used here for cockfighting. I couldn’t live with the thought of any getting hurt that way.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

No, insurance won't cover the cost of tree removal. They consider it 'upkeep' to protect your property. As for covering the loss of hte coop...they probably would, but it wouldn't be worth it. Between teh deductable...and the subsequent increased rates for filing a claim (it they didn't drop up - someone we know had a tree fall on their house during this storm. Insurance company has already put them on notice they will not be renewing their policy - just the day after they filed their claim - well unofficially, the agent they spoke with stated that - I assume within the next week they will get said notice in the mail. (their policy was due to renew in Nov.....)

So, I lost 2 girls so far. One was the hatch-mate to my big multi-colored girl that I thought was a roo. She was only about 12 weeks old, and was a sweetie. The other was one of my older Welsummers. She would come looking for me...for treats...but was happy to have me pick her up when I was in the barn ('cause she knew treats were coming!). She wouldn't let me just pick her up in the yard or run, though - ONLY when she knew treats were forthcoming if she obliged.)

I am hoping everyone else is okay...but I feel I need to give it another day or two to be sure......It narrowly missed me when it fell, and I thought for sure it had gotten my geese as they were just rounding the corner of the pen (the corner it fell on) when it fell. At the time I was running up and down the downed tree trying to find them, yelling for my 'Gee-Gees'...with nor response. They must have just RUN at the last second and it missed them....as I found them at the other entrance to the run...standing there watching me (but did they honk once??? NO, and they can be noisy buggers!). I am guessing they were traumatized, hence the quiteness at the time. It was really scary, and with the torrential downpour at the time, it was really hard to see anything. I really, really am lucky it was't worse...if it had fallen slightly more left a number of adults would have been killed. If it had fallen slightly more right, my 5 ducklings and the trio of young pulets (5 weeks?) that are in with them would have been killed.

So much work to do to clean everything up and replace the coops. What with working f/t and being given a 1/2 teaching load - and additional class just days before the semester started...I am really feeling overwhelmed at the moment. Work usually requires 8 weeks notice, but I am going to try to take 1/2 day Wed. so I can take some of the mangled metal to the transfer station to get it out of the way (and work more on disassembling the mangled coop), and maybe Friday off to try to get started on building something. Yesterday, other than weekly cleanouts - most time ws spent cutting limbs and dragging them after my neighbor helped cut the trunk into sections and pull them to the side. (plus, lots of work for my classes)

I probably won't be on much this week.

Oh, and vote for my posts in the caption contest!

So sorry for your losses and that you are having to deal with all this. Thankful that you were not hurt, and sounds like it could have been much worse.