Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Cockerel in profileView attachment 4230489Jax is getting FANCY!

So gorgeous!

 

[BY Bob]

Oh and I should point out the poor Cayenne who was so sad a couple nights ago must be feeling better as she tried to fly up on my head and just about knocked me over!

In fact they all are looking better and more active, it was business as usual with squabbling in the hen house tonight at roost. Even Clyde was not coughing and clobbered a couple of the ladies who were not his harem for daring to try and roost with him and his girlfriends.

Now if everyone would get their feathers back and if Curly and Daisy would get better everything will once again be all good at the crazy farm!

So glad it seems you have weathered the sickness fully intact.

 

[kattabelly]

Tomorrow I break out the incubator

I'm really tempted to do the same. I just ate a BYM cockerel because he wasn't a great fit for my current flock right now and I don't have enough space to keep all the 'maybe's, but I do think he and my oldest pullet would make some great chicks. She's been a great layer for the short time she's been laying and they're both solid, meaty, nice-looking birds. I know her eggs are fertile and I've been saving and turning them for the last week or so, while telling myself I'm definitely not going to hatch any It's a stupid time of year to be starting chicks here, but I was already starting to get a small electric setup sorted for the plot (batteries initially, then solar to charge it in future) and the Brinsea heat plates run off 12V...

Someone enable talk some sense into me, please?

 

[BY Bob]

Big Doings at FBA

The fencing came down this morning and everyone met.

I love this photo. It's like they are protecting Joy from me.

Hattie really missed her house.

After a day of meeting through wire......

 

[rural mouse]

Parrot ducks

Fashion-conscious ducks

Lucky ducks

Attack ducks

Very Hungry Ducks

Derpy ducks

Diving ducks

Semaphore ducks

Bearded tree duck

Well done!

 

[Sylvester017]

I took a semester of Russian a little more than half a century ago.

All I can remember now is я студентка (pronounced ya studentka, I am a [female] student, and хулиган (khuligan, hooligan), which is a most satisfactory word to say, involving an impressive amount of throat-clearing phlegm for the initial consonant.

Depending on the region or era you're from in Russia will depend on how phlegmy pronunciations are. My folks & relatives came from a region that spoke soft consonants ~ to the point that the harsher current Russian spoken today almost sounds foreign to me. For instance my family pronounced the hard Russian "г"(hard Russian G) more like a soft American "h" ~ my college Russian professors instantly knew what region my folks were from when they heard my Russian dialect/accent.

The rare Russian Pavlovskaya chicken ~ nice bird for snow but our heatwaves aren't good for them here ~ also too expensive for my wallet

 

[rural mouse]

I'm really tempted to do the same. I just ate a BYM cockerel because he wasn't a great fit for my current flock right now and I don't have enough space to keep all the 'maybe's, but I do think he and my oldest pullet would make some great chicks. She's been a great layer for the short time she's been laying and they're both solid, meaty, nice-looking birds. I know her eggs are fertile and I've been saving and turning them for the last week or so, while telling myself I'm definitely not going to hatch any It's a stupid time of year to be starting chicks here, but I was already starting to get a small electric setup sorted for the plot (batteries initially, then solar to charge it in future) and the Brinsea heat plates run off 12V...

Someone enable talk some sense into me, please?

Babies raised within the flock should be monitored by the flock. The "mama hen heating pad" concept works well. I've used a tote with a "window" of hardware cloth and a chick sized port (blocked off to start) inside the coop. Chicks found the port for the heating pad plug at a few days, so chick port was opened. Adults didn't let them leave the coop until 2-3 weeks old, depending upon temps that day. Early spring here does get snow, and they did fine.

1st use June 2023

baby port closed

the brown area is the heating pad inside a pillowcase with a curl of of hardware cloth keeping it up

early exploration

which quickly became unnecessary, so the heating pad migrated as they needed it

it ended up wedged in vertically at the end of the roost they're on just off the right side. The 2 boys in this group are framing the ladies.

The next time it got used was March of 2024 and pics are on this thread then.

 

[kattabelly]

Babies raised within the flock should be monitored by the flock. The "mama hen heating pad" concept works well. I've used a tote with a "window" of hardware cloth and a chick sized port (blocked off to start) inside the coop. Chicks found the port for the heating pad plug at a few days, so chick port was opened. Adults didn't let them leave the coop until 2-3 weeks old, depending upon temps that day. Early spring here does get snow, and they did fine.

Yeah, I don't really have a big walk-in type coop and my oldest chickens are barely past the idiot teen stage

 

[rural mouse]

Yeah, I don't really have a big walk-in type coop and my oldest chickens are barely past the idiot teen stage

That sort of changes things a bit. But as long as the heat source (heating pad) stays on, they should be fine. The challenge is keeping the bigs from hogging the heat. Once they're integrated (tinies happen faster and more easily) they may snuggle together....then again, the bigs may refuse to have anything to do with them and you'll end up raising in the house.

 

[Sylvester017]

Does your sister know you’re allowing your ducks in her rose garden?


Bet you wouldn’t know if it’s a butt or not!
View attachment 4230490

If I hadn’t already told you that is!

Looks like the sweetie has been wrapped up in a paper maché garland