Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

I just love Whiskey, he is simply gorgeous eye candy!

He's an outstanding rooster, too.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I have been pondering for a while whether to do away with the electric fence and let them truly free range. I am a bit torn because they don’t really use the full extent of the fenced area and the foxes and coyotes clearly respect the perimeter. But maybe having a rooster will be what tips me over into doing that. Or maybe I will wait until the fence breaks because really it would be a pain to store!

It's up to you, and I respect everyone's choices here on BYC to do as they want. What’s changed? You used to have an insane level of ground predator pressure where you are.

 

[RoyalChick]

It's up to you, and I respect everyone's choices here on BYC to do as they want. What’s changed? You used to have an insane level of ground predator pressure where you are.

Yes I do have a lot of predators, and probably I won’t make this change, but what has changed is the available cover. I have been planting and letting areas grow wild and now there are lots of hiding places.

 

[RoyalChick]

Happy Monday everyone. Mugshots from Geronimo who is turning into a real beauty (well I think so anyway!).

 

[featherhead007]

You need a nice aquarium, a small one with some colourful fish to just sit and watch. Like the chickens!

I know what I need.

 

[featherhead007]

Yes I do have a lot of predators, and probably I won’t make this change, but what has changed is the available cover. I have been planting and letting areas grow wild and now there are lots of hiding places.

Nah, I think what changed was that flamethrower you now keep in your garage!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Yes I do have a lot of predators, and probably I won’t make this change, but what has changed is the available cover. I have been planting and letting areas grow wild and now there are lots of hiding places.

Yes your pics show a lot of great hiding places against hawks, I love your flower bushes. Would it be good against ground predators, that can sniff out animals? With no fence, the fox is free to explore at night and be very familiar with every nook and cranny. Maybe I'm too sensitized to all the predator losses that occur on this thread like clockwork. I'm too easily freaked out! It's bad enough they up and die so easily of disease by themselves and there's so little we can do about that.

Just yesterday Hazel was apparently nosing around in the woodsy area in the afternoon with everyone, and didn't appear with the Buff O.'s when everybody moved out of there, so a casual head count turned into a dread-filled check everywhere! She finally appeared after I had thoroughly scoured everywhere, lastly checking the nest boxes in case she had gone in there not feeling well and died.

She must have been foraging down one side towards me and my calls, but behind cover, as I was working my way up the other side. Of course she was unperturbed and looked at me like I was nuts. Which I am...!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Happy Monday everyone. Mugshots from Geronimo who is turning into a real beauty (well I think so anyway!).
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Gorgeous!
Geranium would be a close name change, if you need one.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

How old are they again, now? I have had a number of hens who have had a slight curve to one or two tail feathers. Her feather is no where near as long as a Roo's flag feathers. I don't see any pointy hackle or saddle feathers yet. What does the comb look like compared to your Shanai? Compared to the others?

16 weeks today. It's a pointy feather longer than the others, but her comb is very small and not bright red like his is, and is like the other pullets. She doesn't have shiny saddle or hackle feathers yet either.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Look at the saddle feathers. They're old enough that the pointy cascade is showing. The other is, I think, a moulting tail feather as most of the rest are growing in under it. That one's a pullet.

Yes, cascade is a good word for the fall of feathers on the saddle and hackles. I don't see that yet. Shehnai's aren't real pointy either but the "cascade" is quite evident.