Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

I am most definitely an ‘odd ball’ and at my age I relish in being a complete nutter! The older one gets the less one’s social filter works!

!!! Age has it's perks!

 

[Sylvester017]

I see them yanking long pieces off and swallowing it, I hauled lots of that out.

The hay is the main problem I think. It’s dried and fibrous. Most of the stuff I hauled out was hay.

I have been removing all hay now from
The stalls, and will give them more items like cabbages to enjoy.

This is the first time I have had issues like this, not sure what’s changed as I have the hay all the time.

They have feed in front of them all the time but that hay must be tempting.

Or maybe cuz chickens like a full crop they like the feel of the hay giving them that full sensation? Or... they go for the seeds on the ends of the hay & the straw gets stuck in their mouth so they work their tongue to swallow the hay strand? I've seen our Silkies & Dominique do that tongue maneuver w/a spinach leaf. We chop up everything small for the hens if the food has any firmness or leafy stuff like cabbage/chard/spinach/cucumber/squash/etc ~ we chop up stuff for the bigger hens too. Soft things like watermelon or cantaloupe we don't chop... just leave out ring slices. Has that kept us from crop issues... who knows? Hindsight is just a guess.

 

[Sylvester017]

I’m not having much fun 🫩

A hospital for tests is never "fun" ~ surgery was more fun cuz there's a lot of hospital staff coming & going in the room to talk to. Surgery itself is nice cuz one is asleep during it. It's the "waiting" in the room that's the pits IMO. You can always bounce in here to pass the time

 

[RoyalChick]

Happy Friday everyone
I went and picked a pocket full of crab apples to toss around in the hope of getting some fluffy butt pictures.

Sylvie obliged with a half butt (it is at least fluffy).

Mr. Chips has quite a fluffy butt - and look at the green on his tail!

Cookie was keeping her fluffy butt well hidden but she did try and score a crabapple.

Unfortunately meany Calypso grabbed it from her so Cookie retreated back into the undergrowth.

 

[Ponypoor]

Or maybe cuz chickens like a full crop they like the feel of the hay giving them that full sensation? Or... they go for the seeds on the ends of the hay & the straw gets stuck in their mouth so they work their tongue to swallow the hay strand? I've seen our Silkies & Dominique do that tongue maneuver w/a spinach leaf. We chop up everything small for the hens if the food has any firmness or leafy stuff like cabbage/chard/spinach/cucumber/squash/etc ~ we chop up stuff for the bigger hens too. Soft things like watermelon or cantaloupe we don't chop... just leave out ring slices. Has that kept us from crop issues... who knows? Hindsight is just a guess.
View attachment 4251074

Nope, they grab the grass and tear it off and scarf it down…. The hay is grassy stuff, no seed heads.

Who knows what they think. But I have not had this issue before this year.

 

[Ponypoor]

Happy Friday everyone
I went and picked a pocket full of crab apples to toss around in the hope of getting some fluffy butt pictures.

Sylvie obliged with a half butt (it is at least fluffy).
View attachment 4251095

Mr. Chips has quite a fluffy butt - and look at the green on his tail!
View attachment 4251096

Cookie was keeping her fluffy butt well hidden but she did try and score a crabapple.
View attachment 4251098

Unfortunately meany Calypso grabbed it from her so Cookie retreated back into the undergrowth.
View attachment 4251099

Awww such a meany! But I am sure Cookie has stolen her fair share of stuff also It’s the way of the chicken.

 

[Sylvester017]

I've been skimming through posts, just catching up. I hope you're doing better and out of hospital soon @featherhead007 and that the tests are useful and not bad news in the meantime. And hope all everyone's unwell chickens are feeling better soon too.

Mine aren't really adults yet, they're only 5½ months and likely won't start laying now until it gets a bit lighter - we're on less than 8 hours of daylight at the moment. Based on what I've seen of mine so far and what I know of other people's birds, I'd say they're fairly hardy and self-reliant. Generally calm and easygoing, and not prone to panicking. Confident enough to be fine with bigger, more dominant birds but not especially bossy or mean themselves. Two of mine are complete numpties but the others are more clever. Not super friendly pet chickens, although a couple of them will come over and stand for a wattle rub or a short bit of grooming and I could probably get them tamer if I wanted. The others are less keen on being touched or held, but not all that skittish - they're comfortable just out of reach, or closer if there's food involved. Most of mine don't really have enough of a flight zone to herd without some physical prodding.

I'm very sorry about Dana, by the way. I was going to ask about how Dominiques compare to Barred Rocks - we don't really get Doms over here, afaik - but only if it won't make you sad to talk about.

TY for the Shetland info... let us know how they develop, temperament, broodiness, egg laying, etc. Breeders are forever coming up w/ new birds.

Barred rocks have a Dominique history ~ a book I downloaded from Amazon years ago:
(The American Dominique: a Treatise for the Fancier, Mark A. Fields, 1997, out of print)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24157657-the-american-dominique

Pilgrim Doms were good farm birds ~ softer feathers for bedding, less odorous feathers, self-sustaining broodies, auto-sexing chicks that are not afraid & actually crave human attention, hardy birds, busy foragers, people-friendly talkers, calm flockmates, good roos, etc. Doms were popular farm birds in the early 1900's but turn of the century Dominique fanciers had differences of opinion (surprise, eh?). Some fanciers wanted straight combs, some wanted bigger birds, some wanted better layers... so the groups split. One group took the straight comb standard for their registered birds & cross-bred them to become Plymouth Barred Rocks as better meat/egg birds, less broody, so that left the Pilgrim Dominiques to breed their standard as rosecombs & keep the original mid-size breed as is.

The Barred Rocks got more popular for being bigger meat birds & egg layers, less broody, but still w/ the good Dominique temperament.

Dominiques almost went extinct but in the 1970's a group of breeders brought the Dom's back into attention to keep the original Dom size & traits. However, it's suspected that hatcheries fooled around w/cross-breeding Dom's to be bigger & better layers by breeding out their broodiness which is a shame. There were some original USA Dom fanciers left a few years ago but not sure now. Either way... BRs & Doms share good ancestry reputations as calm adults & good flockmates. @featherhead007 has a few BRs & has good experience w/them.

We went w/Doms for the rosecombs & smaller size around our Silkies.

As for large European cuckoo Malines or Malines crosses I would not vouch for their temperaments in a mixed flock. I understand they are more aggressive & mostly used as meat birds.