Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

Rat update: Moved the chickens into their run for there safety during high winds. Which is quite far from where they have their food and water usually, where the rat hole was. (At least for rats) I have seen no more activity. Went to let the chickens out to free range again and a rat was in one of the traps! I think baited with either liqueurish or peanut butter!

Hurray for the trap!

DH uses store-bought cheese-filled crackers or real cheddar cheese cubelets to bait our Kensizer. Odorous foods/flavours attract them. We catch 1 to 3 rats weekly. I'm curious about how many we'll get in winter...

We never had rat holes in our yard so I figure our rats are a sewer rat species since we are a city suburb. In fact, while driving down our street at night I've also seen a huge city raccoon the size of a goat emerge from our street sewer drain!

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

It is time for my weekly Shrimpy Sunday update.

The shrimplets are 3 weeks old and growing. I actually managed to get a halfway decent video this week where they do not look like blurry objects in the tank. They are now all over the tank and honestly I have no clue how many little ones there are as they are constantly popping in and out of hiding places. Momma shrimp is berried up again and spends most of her time hiding once more in the green ball. I think I saw her twice this week. I've found when she is berried up, the ball is her "safe" spot. When she is not carrying eggs she is all over the tank.

The biggest tank news of the week is one of the snails finally laid a clutch of eggs. I'm not exactly 100% thrilled about it to be honest. Rosie is tickled pink though as the snails are her babies. I told her we would allow this clutch to hatch but I will remove any future clutches that are laid. I just hope I can spot them before she does so I can sneakily do it without grief from her. Honestly the snails and the shrimp work together and are beneficial to the tank, I just do not want overrun with 1000 snails.

A new tank is in the works, I have it picked out I'm just waiting to see if it goes on sale in one of the many Black Friday deals that will start popping up next month. The second it goes on sale it is go time. Those future baby snails, they will be key after about a week and a half of cycling empty to jump start the process. I can toss a few in to kickstart the beneficial bacteria growth needed and they are hardy enough they should survive with no harm to them.

Now for a video, have fun trying to count the shrimplets.

And a few pictures.
The snail eggs, There are a lot of eggs in that clutch. I do not need them laying multiple clutches and letting them all hatch no matter how much Rosie complains.

Look who is now big enough to properly show up in a picture. Those snails.....stop that now.

 

[RoyalChick]

It is time for my weekly Shrimpy Sunday update.

The shrimplets are 3 weeks old and growing. I actually managed to get a halfway decent video this week where they do not look like blurry objects in the tank. They are now all over the tank and honestly I have no clue how many little ones there are as they are constantly popping in and out of hiding places. Momma shrimp is berried up again and spends most of her time hiding once more in the green ball. I think I saw her twice this week. I've found when she is berried up, the ball is her "safe" spot. When she is not carrying eggs she is all over the tank.

The biggest tank news of the week is one of the snails finally laid a clutch of eggs. I'm not exactly 100% thrilled about it to be honest. Rosie is tickled pink though as the snails are her babies. I told her we would allow this clutch to hatch but I will remove any future clutches that are laid. I just hope I can spot them before she does so I can sneakily do it without grief from her. Honestly the snails and the shrimp work together and are beneficial to the tank, I just do not want overrun with 1000 snails.

A new tank is in the works, I have it picked out I'm just waiting to see if it goes on sale in one of the many Black Friday deals that will start popping up next month. The second it goes on sale it is go time. Those future baby snails, they will be key after about a week and a half of cycling empty to jump start the process. I can toss a few in to kickstart the beneficial bacteria growth needed and they are hardy enough they should survive with no harm to them.

Now for a video, have fun trying to count the shrimplets.

And a few pictures.
The snail eggs, There are a lot of eggs in that clutch. I do not need them laying multiple clutches and letting them all hatch no matter how much Rosie complains.
View attachment 4227838
Look who is now big enough to properly show up in a picture. Those snails.....stop that now.
View attachment 4227839View attachment 4227840View attachment 4227841View attachment 4227842View attachment 4227843View attachment 4227844View attachment 4227845View attachment 4227846

When did they turn pink/orange? I don’t think they were last week.

 

[Sylvester017]

I am thinking they might have been a year old there.

Now they are older ladies, they'll be 5 yrs old this coming April.

We have two 5-yr-old Silkies too. One nice thing is they usually stop laying & should never go broody again. Although, once we had a 6-1/2 yr Silkie Mini who still layed but she passed from ovarian bleeding tumor ~ her reproductive system was always messed up... I'm surprised she lived so long ~ our vet kept saving her.

Our two old ladies Suzu & Ginny ~ 5 yrs

Our really old lady who still surprises us w/ eggs is over 8-yr-old Dominique Dana ~ she's moulting in this photo but she had no bald spots & she had a decent appetite for an old moulting bird thx to Missing Link enhancer. Most of her missing tail feathers gave away her moulting status plus a pillowfull of loose striped feathers around the yard.

 

[Sylvester017]

DH sneaked a pic of me feeding organic raisins to the girls, we feed them organic cuz what they eat goes into their eggs & we eat their eggs...

 

[Sylvester017]

It is time for my weekly Shrimpy Sunday update.

The shrimplets are 3 weeks old and growing. I actually managed to get a halfway decent video this week where they do not look like blurry objects in the tank. They are now all over the tank and honestly I have no clue how many little ones there are as they are constantly popping in and out of hiding places. Momma shrimp is berried up again and spends most of her time hiding once more in the green ball. I think I saw her twice this week. I've found when she is berried up, the ball is her "safe" spot. When she is not carrying eggs she is all over the tank.

The biggest tank news of the week is one of the snails finally laid a clutch of eggs. I'm not exactly 100% thrilled about it to be honest. Rosie is tickled pink though as the snails are her babies. I told her we would allow this clutch to hatch but I will remove any future clutches that are laid. I just hope I can spot them before she does so I can sneakily do it without grief from her. Honestly the snails and the shrimp work together and are beneficial to the tank, I just do not want overrun with 1000 snails.

A new tank is in the works, I have it picked out I'm just waiting to see if it goes on sale in one of the many Black Friday deals that will start popping up next month. The second it goes on sale it is go time. Those future baby snails, they will be key after about a week and a half of cycling empty to jump start the process. I can toss a few in to kickstart the beneficial bacteria growth needed and they are hardy enough they should survive with no harm to them.

Now for a video, have fun trying to count the shrimplets.

And a few pictures.
The snail eggs, There are a lot of eggs in that clutch. I do not need them laying multiple clutches and letting them all hatch no matter how much Rosie complains.
View attachment 4227838
Look who is now big enough to properly show up in a picture. Those snails.....stop that now.
View attachment 4227839View attachment 4227840View attachment 4227841View attachment 4227842View attachment 4227843View attachment 4227844View attachment 4227845View attachment 4227846

Count the shrimp? ... I think I counted the same baby 4x!!!

 

[Sylvester017]

Pony Sunday

I am dog sitting for my Vet who has flown out to a horse show.

This is George

View attachment 4227742View attachment 4227743View attachment 4227744

Hard to get a photo he’s worse than the chickens running around!

Do you like his heart he has?

A friend of ours rescued a loose Jack Russell ~ same day it got into his chicken run & killed all 5 of his hens. Hope this JR is good. Love the heart... what are the odds that mark happens?

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

When did they turn pink/orange? I don’t think they were last week.

Some of them have developed color in the last week. I suspect Momma shrimp is not actually a true Ghost shrimp. I believe she is considered a snowball variety of "Neocaridina" shrimp otherwise known as cherry shrimp. My Bumblebee shrimp are a color variant of those and they are the orange, yellow ones. I do not have any other Ghost males and Ghost shrimp and cherry shrimp are not able to hybridize yet I have shrimp babies and the current eggs are fertile.

 

[Ponypoor]

It is time for my weekly Shrimpy Sunday update.

The shrimplets are 3 weeks old and growing. I actually managed to get a halfway decent video this week where they do not look like blurry objects in the tank. They are now all over the tank and honestly I have no clue how many little ones there are as they are constantly popping in and out of hiding places. Momma shrimp is berried up again and spends most of her time hiding once more in the green ball. I think I saw her twice this week. I've found when she is berried up, the ball is her "safe" spot. When she is not carrying eggs she is all over the tank.

The biggest tank news of the week is one of the snails finally laid a clutch of eggs. I'm not exactly 100% thrilled about it to be honest. Rosie is tickled pink though as the snails are her babies. I told her we would allow this clutch to hatch but I will remove any future clutches that are laid. I just hope I can spot them before she does so I can sneakily do it without grief from her. Honestly the snails and the shrimp work together and are beneficial to the tank, I just do not want overrun with 1000 snails.

A new tank is in the works, I have it picked out I'm just waiting to see if it goes on sale in one of the many Black Friday deals that will start popping up next month. The second it goes on sale it is go time. Those future baby snails, they will be key after about a week and a half of cycling empty to jump start the process. I can toss a few in to kickstart the beneficial bacteria growth needed and they are hardy enough they should survive with no harm to them.

Now for a video, have fun trying to count the shrimplets.

And a few pictures.
The snail eggs, There are a lot of eggs in that clutch. I do not need them laying multiple clutches and letting them all hatch no matter how much Rosie complains.
View attachment 4227838
Look who is now big enough to properly show up in a picture. Those snails.....stop that now.
View attachment 4227839View attachment 4227840View attachment 4227841View attachment 4227842View attachment 4227843View attachment 4227844View attachment 4227845View attachment 4227846

Oh I have got to get myself some of those!!! How much weight is a tank 4’x2’x10’? I want a whole wall!

 

[Ponypoor]

A friend of ours rescued a loose Jack Russell ~ same day it got into his chicken run & killed all 5 of his hens. Hope this JR is good. Love the heart... what are the odds that mark happens?

George is not allowed loose near small animals. They are bred as ratters and kill other small vermin.

Still Missy gave him the evil eye and the ‘really? You want to take me on?’ Look. I reminded her she was soundly thumped by a 1.5lb chicken yesterday.