Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

Is there anything natural to remove pine sap? P-nut butter? Olive oyl? Pine tar soap? Or...?

Does the sap drip year-round or just seasonally?

Sap can be cut with vegetable oil. Or baby oil. I had to use to use vegetable oil to remove one of my birds from a sticky mouse trap.

 

[bgmathteach]

Weighing Geronimo and Chippy (still a temporary name) is a great idea. But one with a fatal flaw: How to catch them? I might be able to get Chippy as he is becoming curious about where Tassels finds those blueberries he loves so much and what that big chicken has to do with their supply. He jumped up onto my little table to study me more closely.

If you are able to catch/slip them out from under mom at night, that is a very good time to weigh them!

I love @Ponypoor 's idea - that works great! And, the cloth bag that holds them kinda snugly but not restrictively will keep them mostly calm.

I was thinking a small container that you could slip a piece of mesh or cheesecloth over to keep them in...and set on your small digital scale should work fine.

If you have removed the dividers in the broody cage, you should be able to slip a hand under Tassels after dark and slide a little one out from under her...wear a lady's soft leather glove and a long sleeve shirt if she is still aggressively pecking.....

Digital bathroom scales works well. Stand on the scales to get your weight, then hold the chicken in your arms... the digital scales difference before & after holding the chicken will be the bird's weight.

Digital bathroom scales won't be sensitive enough for such a small bird to do this with and have any accuracy.

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Obviously, any Roo at your place also needs a royal name given he is living in a Palace with royal women....so here is some thoughts (but, I am sure you can think of others, too!)

Royal male names
Knights of the Round Table. I am partial to Sir Lancelot!!!! Tee, hee, Hee

 

[RoyalChick]

If you are able to catch/slip them out from under mom at night, that is a very good time to weigh them!

I love @Ponypoor 's idea - that works great! And, the cloth bag that holds them kinda snugly but not restrictively will keep them mostly calm.

I was thinking a small container that you could sip a piece of mesh or cheesecloth over to keep them in...and set on your small digital scale should work fine.

If you have removed the dividers in the broody cage, you should be able to slip a hand under Tassels after dark and slide a little one out from under her...wear a lady's soft leather glove and a long sleeve shirt if she is still aggressively pecking.....

Digital bathroom scales won't be sensitive enough for such a small bird to do this with and have any accuracy.

*************************************************

Obviously, any Roo at your place also needs a royal name given he is living in a Palace with royal women....so here is some thoughts (but, I am sure you can think of others, too!)

Royal male names
Knights of the Round Table. I am partial to Sir Lancelot!!!! Tee, hee, Hee

Good names there - thank you! Like Sir Lancelot indeed, but I don’t think he has grown into that yet.
I am going to order a luggage/fish scale on Amazon to weight them in a bag like @Ponypoor showed.
Meanwhile I think Geronimo, Bucky and Chippy all look pretty similar in size.

 

[RoyalChick]

Meanwhile Bucky - who is hard to photograph - is getting stylish black touches on her back feathers and her legs are definitely yellow now.

 

[Sylvester017]

Sap can be cut with vegetable oil. Or baby oil. I had to use to use vegetable oil to remove one of my birds from a sticky mouse trap.

Is pine sap always year-round? or is it worse in summer? or autumn?

I considered a pine tree for the front yard but finally decided on a pomegranate instead... messy but at least it gives fruit that the chickens love & it's easy to rake up dropped leaves.

 

[Sylvester017]

If you are able to catch/slip them out from under mom at night, that is a very good time to weigh them!

I love @Ponypoor 's idea - that works great! And, the cloth bag that holds them kinda snugly but not restrictively will keep them mostly calm.

I was thinking a small container that you could slip a piece of mesh or cheesecloth over to keep them in...and set on your small digital scale should work fine.

If you have removed the dividers in the broody cage, you should be able to slip a hand under Tassels after dark and slide a little one out from under her...wear a lady's soft leather glove and a long sleeve shirt if she is still aggressively pecking.....

Digital bathroom scales won't be sensitive enough for such a small bird to do this with and have any accuracy.

*************************************************

Obviously, any Roo at your place also needs a royal name given he is living in a Palace with royal women....so here is some thoughts (but, I am sure you can think of others, too!)

Royal male names
Knights of the Round Table. I am partial to Sir Lancelot!!!! Tee, hee, Hee

I never weighed chicks that way... only the big girls if I thought they were looking scrawny or else too hefty. The best scales were our veternarian's digital office scales. A moulting hen can lose an alarming amount of weight but have gained it back as soon as laying again! So much to worry about w/ pets

 

[Ponypoor]

Strawberries... not so much here either... have only one chicken who will nibble them

Dana ~ our 8-yr-old strawberry nibbler... sweet thing gave us 2 eggs last week...
View attachment 4219726

She’s a lovely lovely girl

 

[Ponypoor]

Is pine sap always year-round? or is it worse in summer? or autumn?

I considered a pine tree for the front yard but finally decided on a pomegranate instead... messy but at least it gives fruit that the chickens love & it's easy to rake up dropped leaves.
View attachment 4219794
View attachment 4219797View attachment 4219801

Warm and hot weather is when the sap runs. Winter is when all trees here go dormant.

When a branch is damaged it leaks sap, esp in Spring when the tree awakens and floods it’s system with sap. It’s sticky and hard to get rid of.

All trees will leak sap but pine trees are just really bad!

 

[Ponypoor]

@Marie2020 I found this one...

What type of chicken is that??? That type of chicken is the Northern Yellowbelly Snow Goose Chicken



Need to wear a hat on your head if you’re going to let them sit on your head!

 

[Ponypoor]

Slippered toe birds are fun... they break off a lot of toe feathers when foraging or dustbathing... which makes me wonder why they ever needed feathers on legs in the 1st place
View attachment 4219727

Ptarmigan have feathers on feet - they need them to stay warm but the feathers also enable them to walk on top of the snow! Snowshoes for birds.

In the summer they dig around like chickens do, and seem to have no issues.


Oh I wish I could find the picture I have of Henny in the snow, she reminds me of a ptarmigan!