Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

It must be so breed specific, because I look at Chippy and just see a regular pullet. Is it the stance too? Are there any of the famous pointy feathers anywhere? When compared to this one below, and I mean this kindly, I wonder what you're getting so worked up about, lol!

Okay I'm hijacking your post and saying stop worrying about Chippy and look at this one here!

Also, I'd like to see how Bucky is getting along. Any pictures? Got a bit of her in a Cookie picture...

I give you Shanai. 16 weeks, I think.
Hackles are not pointy yet, though the upper neck feathers are (but so are all of the pullets', to a lesser degree). Saddle is getting significantly defined with drapey & shiny feathers, but not pointy yet. Tail is very seriously roo. But two other pullets are beginning one or two pointy tail feathers now, nothing quite like this though. Leg length & size, game-bird reminiscent when seen from the side, is startling. DH is now stating/asking if she's a rooster. I have not been ready with the camera when there's been the opportunity to show this, but Shanai is 1/3 bigger/ taller than everybody else.

View attachment 4219209
View attachment 4219210
View attachment 4219211
View attachment 4219212
View attachment 4219217

The top of the cinder block is not a stretch for Shanai
View attachment 4219227
Some of the other Buckeye pullets. Demure little ones, they are, compared to Shanai.
View attachment 4219215
View attachment 4219216
View attachment 4219226

I got worried about Chippy because of comb and wattles.
I don’t see any pointy saddle feathers but I have no experience.
Chippy is assertive and energetic - but then so is Geronimo!

Bucky is doing great. Her legs are now bright yellow and not orange and she is turning that gorgeous mahogany color. Of the 4 of them she seems the most chill. I will get photos of her next. Here is a teaser.

 

[drstratton]

@BY Bob
I'm so sorry my friend.

 

[Sylvester017]

Oohh, that's a thought. Tons of those around here, and I'm sure a lot of them have at least some toxins.

Around here our mosquitos a few yrs ago infected our birds w/ fowl pox. We stayed on top of it w/antibiotic ointment for a couple weeks. The good thing is once a chicken gets over fowl pox they have pox immunity for their lifetime.

Last week a big black wasp fell on me from our pomegranate tree & I screamed in sudden surprise & I scared our 3 youngest Silkies & now I have to gain back their trust

Shiny black giant wasps are good solitary pollinator insects unlike the threatening hive-building yellow jacket wasps!

Giant Black Wasp ~ a good hunter of grasshoppers... grasshoppers are bad news in a garden.

 

[Marie2020]

We’re getting rain from tropical storm Mario. Much needed rain. Before heading out with a friend for dinner yesterday, early evening, we were all standing in the kitchen doorway looking at the rain starting to come down. Little Lacy marched right up the porch steps and walked between us three, and poked her head in over the threshold. Then the brazen little darling, thinking it looked like a good place to hang out, walked inside and sauntered around the kitchen. She came back to the doorway, looked up at us, then saw the open bedroom door and decided she needed to investigate there as well! Which was all very amusing, but as we were on our way out, needs must and we ushered her out the door and closed it behind her. We were off to dinner.

We came back and went to close the run gate, but there was one two few roosting. A quick count. It was Lacy. Damn. So of course it’s still raining, because that makes for the most fun searches, naturally. I searched the garage, the barn, the grounds, wet trees, the garage again, twice. No Lacy. Well I locked up and fretted over her all night as the rain continued. I pictured her cold and wet, all alone, shivering.

Finally dawn comes, and I don my raincoat to go search for her. She was right there in the garage, where I looked multiple times! I am so relieved. I don’t know where she was hiding.

The little pipsqueak giving me a beakfull like it was my fault she spent the night alone!View attachment 4219165

I thought for a minute while reading that she had managed to sneak back into your bedroom or kitchen

What a clever little soul

 

[Marie2020]

Around here our mosquitos a few yrs ago infected our birds w/ fowl pox. We stayed on top of it w/antibiotic ointment for a couple weeks. The good thing is once a chicken gets over fowl pox they have pox immunity for their lifetime.

Last week a big black wasp fell on me from our pomegranate tree & I screamed in sudden surprise & I scared our 3 youngest Silkies & now I have to gain back their trust
View attachment 4219256

Shiny black giant wasps are good solitary pollinator insects unlike the threatening hive-building yellow jacket wasps!

Giant Black Wasp ~ a good hunter of grasshoppers...

You wouldn't have needed a giant wasp fir grasshoppers when my old girls ran the back and front garden

grasshoppers are bad news in a garden.

 

[Sylvester017]

You wouldn't have needed a giant wasp fir grasshoppers when my old girls ran the back and front garden

I wish we only had squishy green grasshoppers but once in a while a giant brown locust gets a taste of some of our garden leaves & DH & I have to chase it down ourselves. The locusts are very dangerous when caught as their powerful razor-sharp hind legs will saw thru your hands/fingers & bleed bad.

Our chickens avoid those locusts so DH & I capture them w/ a stunning smash, then cut off their heads so the little Silkie beaks can eat the entrails. The outside armour & legs of locusts are too hard & razor-sharp dangerous to ingest.

Locust w/hard armour body & razor-sharp leg barbs

 

[rural mouse]

Here is a little Chippy butt to wish everyone a great Friday.
View attachment 4219145

And at 6 weeks and 4 days, still iffy???
View attachment 4219146View attachment 4219147View attachment 4219148

Still iffy

 

[RoyalChick]

Still iffy

Sigh.
Iffy and pretty which is something!

 

[rural mouse]

See if @rural mouse or @Debbie292d has insight on what colors these boys would throw after breeding w/ the pullet colors you have & that might help to narrow your need down to maybe ONE boy ? Otherwise ALL Silkies are adorable as you already know

Violet 2013
View attachment 4219194

She's got partridge in some of her hens. And silkies have been so mixed as far as colors go.... all I can say is self-blue is the same as lavender, BBS is pretty clear (until it mixes with lavender/self blue), chocolate (I think) is a brown version of BBS...? And lavender and chocolate together do odder things. Add partridge into that (along with whatever is hiding under other stuff) and I'm going with a variation of @RoyalChick and stating "gorgeous feather dusters" (yes, @featherhead007 , I'm acknowledging your term)

 

[Ponypoor]

I hope they start feeling better! What a worry it is

With Peanut, the ascites was due to cancer. That or infection was what I thought most cases were due to. The color and opacity of drawn fluid is a clue to which. But maybe I just assumed that. Interesting that the link you shared emphasized basically high blood pressure (?)

Not that what’s going on is molting for you but I notice some changes like acting a bit off and different foraging food preferences before molting becomes evident. Poopy butt could be a result. Also not wanting to move could be pain or weirdness of the pins beginning to grow?

When Dorothy first moulted she was so uncomfortable with the pin feathers on her belly she was walking backwards, circling, staggering…! I was sure she was dying! But when there was food involved she could walk and run fine!

So I gave her a closer inspection and noted she was just covered in pin feathers, esp on her belly.

Not sure what’s up with these kiddos, like us they too get sick. All we can do is treat as we see their symptoms.

Poor sweetie, I never imagined a Silkie w/ascitis. I hate the prognosis for it too

They are like us, prone to all sorts of issues. She is 4, so another couple yrs at 6 she would be elderly. As with anything, sometimes it’s a matter of maintenance.