Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Mr Rat makes an appearance in Lulu’s old stall. That’s were the new tiger chickens stay during the day, I normally remove spilled feed but today I had my uncle up helping with some winter preparation.

This rat is a big one

And for pony Sunday here is Reenie from the other night. Wish I could sleep like that. Tonight it am having a bad night with my RLS. One can only check the barn cams so often and watch sleeping creatures….

Good thing I can stream shows now hahaha! I recommend Agatha Christie’s Poirot.

Hercule would be an awesome Rooster name.

 

[Sylvester017]

Until this time around, Sydney has always been pretty laid back. Not this morning.

Now in her defense, she did not bother them the rest of the day.

View attachment 4235328

First time introductions ~ a bit of dominance is expected. When we introduced our last three Silkie pullets our Dana (Dominique) wasn't bothered w/them. Barred Rocks & Doms have a shared ancestry & both have good temperament reputations where I wouldn't IMO expect overly violent aggression from them.

Funnily, our Silkie Ginny was the brat but as Silkies have excellent maneuvers the newest Silkies moved fast out of her way. She's too lazy to chase but she will grab feathers if any other Silkie gets near a food she WANTS!

 

[Sylvester017]

Mr Rat makes an appearance in Lulu’s old stall. That’s were the new tiger chickens stay during the day, I normally remove spilled feed but today I had my uncle up helping with some winter preparation.

This rat is a big one
View attachment 4235531View attachment 4235532

And for pony Sunday here is Reenie from the other night. Wish I could sleep like that. Tonight it am having a bad night with my RLS. One can only check the barn cams so often and watch sleeping creatures….
View attachment 4235533

Good thing I can stream shows now hahaha! I recommend Agatha Christie’s Poirot.

Hercule would be an awesome Rooster name.

The big rat could be a pregnant one & hungry for nourishment. Hope you can catch it. Sounds like you have more than one rat ~ not surprising ~ they can breed as young as 3 months old. Weird that it's in a stall? Probably scoping out the territory discovering droppings from the other rat you video'd.

Wish I could loan you one of our Kensizer's just to see if it would work capturing your particular species of rat. They have such sensitive ears I'm thinking they may be put off by the energy emitting from your zapper battery. We can't sense energy but they have a super 6th sense.
Comes in 2 sizes... we got the smaller one to trap a little squirrel & were surprised when it caught a rat instead. It's been set out for rats all the time now. Some weeks nothing & other weeks anywhere from 1 to 3 rats.

 

[BDutch]

The big rat could be a pregnant one & hungry for nourishment. Hope you can catch it. Sounds like you have more than one rat ~ not surprising ~ they can breed as young as 3 months old. Weird that it's in a stall? Probably scoping out the territory discovering droppings from the other rat you video'd.

Wish I could loan you one of our Kensizer's just to see if it would work capturing your particular species of rat. They have such sensitive ears I'm thinking they may be put off by the energy emitting from your zapper battery. We can't sense energy but they have a super 6th sense.
Comes in 2 sizes... we got the smaller one to trap a little squirrel & were surprised when it caught a rat instead. It's been set out for rats all the time now. Some weeks nothing & other weeks anywhere from 1 to 3 rats.

What do you do with the rats you after trapped them?

 

[Sylvester017]

What do you do with the rats you after trapped them?

DH dumps the whole cage in water & drowns the rat... takes the same amount of time to kill it as a zapper... about 2 minutes. DH doesn't open the cage to discard the carcass until he's certain it's dead. Sad to kill... but they are vermin! Then he puts the cage back in exactly the same spot where other rat droppings have been left... future rats smell the droppings feeling it's safe to get at the yummy bait & then trip the trap.

On youtube I've been fascinated watching Joseph Carter the Mink Man capture ground burrowing farm rats, roof rats, hay rats, city rats, river rats, muskrats, etc, using his dog pack along w/ his minks who kill the rats fast!

There's even youtube showing one of his homemade rat traps.

 

[BY Bob]

First time introductions ~ a bit of dominance is expected. When we introduced our last three Silkie pullets our Dana (Dominique) wasn't bothered w/them. Barred Rocks & Doms have a shared ancestry & both have good temperament reputations where I wouldn't IMO expect overly violent aggression from them.
View attachment 4235549

Funnily, our Silkie Ginny was the brat but as Silkies have excellent maneuvers the newest Silkies moved fast out of her way. She's too lazy to chase but she will grab feathers if any other Silkie gets near a food she WANTS!
View attachment 4235551

They just don't look mean no matter what you say.

 

[RoyalChick]

Honk honk
As it is Pony Sunday I am going to ask if one of these is a goose in disguise. Really I just think it is a cute video.

 

[bgmathteach]

Hattie must have ducked behind Aurora. There's only 7!

Here she is a few seconds later after Aster left! How long until I can get 8 in a photo?
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Actually, you can see a smidge of her tail in the original photo - I could see all 8.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Heard squawking and saw Shehnai was balancing on a pullet yesterday. There’s been helping but haven’t seen himgo that far before. Maybe their hormones are starting up? They are 20 weeks old tomorrow.

Working hard on excavating for the second coop further away, run still not finished but DH was available. RC, what, me calm? The great weather and worry about winter approaching had me leaving a classical guitar symposium early yesterday to get back to work here. Worked way past sunset, good amount got done. @RoyalChick

 

[Ponypoor]

First time introductions ~ a bit of dominance is expected. When we introduced our last three Silkie pullets our Dana (Dominique) wasn't bothered w/them. Barred Rocks & Doms have a shared ancestry & both have good temperament reputations where I wouldn't IMO expect overly violent aggression from them.
View attachment 4235549

Funnily, our Silkie Ginny was the brat but as Silkies have excellent maneuvers the newest Silkies moved fast out of her way. She's too lazy to chase but she will grab feathers if any other Silkie gets near a food she WANTS!
View attachment 4235551

Fluffy is boss hen here these days, even Raven gives way to her.