Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[janiedoe]

This is Gus. She never hatched a single chick, never set on a nest, but she would steal other hens chicks. She would raise them until they were bigger than she was.
She is 8 years old now and still laying an egg once or twice a year.

 

[Ponypoor]

I had 3 broodies this summer. None had been broody before, and all were at the same time. I hatched chicks in the incubator (trying to time it for the nieces to watch, hatched early) and tucked babies under the broodies. The chicks shared the mothers (who didn't share nests), and 1 by 1 the mothers let the chicks go. The one who mother's the longest was my 4 year old white sapphire (basically a splash LEGHORN).....

Any hen CAN go broody. Not every hen CHOOSES to go broody. Just because a breed "isn't likely" to go broody doesn't mean a hen of that breed WON'T. PITA, my white sapphire, went broody. I lost her sister early this past spring to reproduction issues and she NEVER showed any interest in brooding or in chicks. PITA earned her name from her incessant pestering of broodies in the past. I'm guessing she finally told the rest she'd do it herself.

I’m thinking Marty was annoyed with her daughter and granddaughter not pay as close attention to the chicks as she felt they should have. Of course at 8 weeks old they are about as big as she is!

And laughed this morning to see all the Noirans around her while she broody talked to them and tidbitted bits of food. She really has mellowed as she has aged. But I am super glad to see them all snuggled up with Marty at night, she will need their extra warmth later this week when temps plummet.


Meanwhile - Misty is in bad broody jail. She has been fighting with everyone; and Raven waits for her now when she comes off the nest and the two of them have epic brawls. I cannot risk poor old Raven getting injured. Or Misty.

I tried to put her with Mr P’s gang but she and her sister Whiskers got into it - that Misty is a terror!

So I locked her away in Hen House A. The girls will just have to lay eggs in Hen House B. And hopefully being away from her nest will snap Misty out of being broody.

She’s also coughing so I don’t want her stressed fighting.


Sick update:
I now have three definitely coughing and wheezing (Sue, Whiskers and Misty); also suspect Daisy of not feeling well. Thankfully they are all eating drinking and toodling around.

I have the Tylosin water for them all; I’ll assess them all this afternoon when I get home. But Sue and Whiskers will also stay on the sulphatrim. I may put Misty on this as well, being broody I am hoping she drinks the Tylosin water I put out for her. But to be sure I will also dose her orally.

Other than that worry with all of them, they are eating and toodling around. I guess that’s all one can hope for at times.

Mugs Monday

Betty - she’s putting on weight and needs a diet.

Misty showing her battle wounds

Mr P with is rather rakishly handsome topknot.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Blaze

Blaze and Louis

Vuitton...she got too close to Delft yesterday and got scalped.

Brought her in, cleaned her up and applied neosporin and Banixx on the spot. Also trimmed her crest a bit so she can see where she's going now.

Last night it looked very bad, but today it's scabbed up. One of the satins keeps trying to preen her so I may have to seperate them.

 

[drstratton]

Beautiful tanks. Wow!

Thank you Bob! It was a fun hobby.

 

[kattabelly]

Two of my Shetlands are very tappit (crested/tufted) and keeping up with their haircuts is driving me mad. Hopefully it'll be better once they finally get out of that juvenile stage where they seem to moult continuously. Not sure if I'm impressed at the commitment of anyone who chooses to keep Polish or similar breeds, or if I think you must be daft!

Haircut tax: one of mine looking especially pathetic after some rain yesterday

I hope Vuitton recovers quickly and doesn't keep getting pecked at @SimpleJenn

 

[Ponypoor]

Two of my Shetlands are very tappit (crested/tufted) and keeping up with their haircuts is driving me mad. Hopefully it'll be better once they finally get out of that juvenile stage where they seem to moult continuously. Not sure if I'm impressed at the commitment of anyone who chooses to keep Polish or similar breeds, or if I think you must be daft!

Haircut tax: one of mine looking especially pathetic after some rain yesterday
View attachment 4228191
View attachment 4228192

I hope Vuitton recovers quickly and doesn't keep getting pecked at @SimpleJenn

Definitely once they get past the 20 week mark and slow down growing, their topknots slow down. The big thing when young is to not cut any pin feathers - they bleed like crazy!


You look cold! You need gloves

 

[Ponypoor]

Thank you. I haven’t gotten chicks in quite some time, so the flock has really aged. I am down to five, ages 9.6, 8.5, 8.5, 6.4, 5.2.

Minnie’s crop did not empty overnight, which is a HUGE bummer. Makes it tough to feed her if her crop is already full. It is not impacted nor sour, just slow. Very slow. This happened recently to Flash who went into full crop stasis and died. I assume she had a blockage further down, likely from cancer. I so hope that is not what’s going on with Minnie. I hope I can coax her GI tract along and it’s just temporarily slow due to her anorexia, but we’ll see.

As far as Bridge, do you remember her bum foot? Well, her mobility has only gotten worse and I’ve suspected Flo would want to dethrone her one day. It broke my heart when she was pounced on by a mob. I was in Guatemala on a humanitarian trip in June and my neighbor looking after them had to separate her for me. Thankfully, now she at least has her friend Buttercup in her part of the coop and run with her. But I have to hand carry them up and down from the loft part of the coop each morning and night, and still have not come up with a solution for when I get home after dark. That day is approaching, so I need to figure something out soon. I’m thinking some sort of dog house so they have shelter they don’t have to climb up to and I can still hand carry them upstairs when I get home.

Have you tried a crop support? It may help to hold it up so it drains better.

 

[kattabelly]

Definitely once they get past the 20 week mark and slow down growing, their topknots slow down. The big thing when young is to not cut any pin feathers - they bleed like crazy!


You look cold! You need gloves

Aye without checking a calendar they're something like 18 weeks old now I think, so hopefully not too much more of this for a while.

Not cold here yet other than wind chill at times, and it never gets really cold. I just keep my hood up as shoulder chicken poop defence!