Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[knoturavggrl]

Wow! Such gorgeous chickens! I love spotted or speckled hens!

Thank you The spotted crew: 5 are Swedish Flower Hens, including the rooster, the tiny one is a Calico Cochin.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

Pear (Partridge Rock) is the oldest hen. Cheetah (Gold Penciled Hamburg), Nellie (Brown Leghorn), and PITA (White Sapphire aka Splash Leghorn) the next oldest, with Storm (Splash Laced Red Wyandotte x Olive Egger (Cuckoo Marans x Cream Legbar)) a few weeks younger.

The next year's additions still here are Primula and Belladonna (Dark Brahmas) and Mera (Speckled Sussex). A few weeks later, Whiskey (bitsa, Wyandotte mixed with another mix), Pippa and Maizie (Buff Orp x EEs), and Lark and Indigo (Hamburg x White Sapphires).

The following spring/summer, Tuff (son of a Hamburg x Brown Leghorn and either Pippa or Maizie) joined the crew. He brought Enigma (Whiskey? X Colombian Wyandotte), Shan (Hamburg x Dark Brahma), Chia (Hamburg x Golden Wyandotte), and Havoc (Buff Orp/EE bitsa). Storm hatched out Cumulo (her daughter by Whiskey), Nimbus (her daughter by Black Australorp) and Cardhu (Whiskey x Partridge Rock).

Took a year off from cockerels and gained Kate and Jane (Rhode Island Reds), Blurr and Focus (Barred Rocks), Hetty (Black Australorp), and the "Bucket" ladies, Rose (Buff Brahma), Daisy (Light Brahma, Hyacinth and Violet (Silver Laced Wyandottes).

The junior additions will be a year about July 4 and consist of Jax (Bielefelder mix), Hawthorne (Blue birchen some sort of fancy hybrid), Tundra (a Colombian lightly foot feathered designer higbrid mix), Koonj (Hamburg x Mottled Houdan x one of the blue designer hybrids), and Arabel, Mortimer and Matilda (all some sort of mix of the designer hybrids, based upon their small size, related some how).

PITA, Nellie, Lark, Indigo, and Koonj all lay white eggs (Cheetah theows white). Pippa, Maizie, Storm, and Arabel lay green eggs (Arabel the incredibly dark green, so any of the designer hybrid boys could throw green, as could Tuff). The rest lay shades of brown.

Flock queen is Storm. Current top Roo is Tuff with Mortimer acting as his lieutenant. Pear will be 6 the end of July.

Does your husband know all of their names? I have only 10 and my husband doesn't know the names of easily half of them. We have discussions like "One of the brown chickens pecked me when I was working out there" or "The barred rock was really squawking".
My plan is to get up to 25 or so, in order to have all of the breeds and egg colors I have selected. He'll never get all of their names.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

Happy Thirsty Thursday!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Brough each group a half cabbage and hung them. But first showed Shehnai their cabbage, the cut side, and he took a jab at it and got a small bite. Then I tore pieces off and gave them to him, of which he ate one or two but called the hens and dropped the pieces for them. I fed a few hens too. Then I hung it and showed everyone, breaking a few more bits off, then went over to the Bigs and gave them pieces too and hung theirs.

Coming back later on I saw Shehnai standing at the cabbage, ripping little pieces off and bringing them down to the ground and then letting go. Hens were picking them up. I've seen him find good things for them, pick and drop, but never seen him "create" good things like this. Wonderful! I caught the end of it. Before this he was quickly picking off bits, one after another:

 

[RoyalChick]

Does your husband know all of their names? I have only 10 and my husband doesn't know the names of easily half of them. We have discussions like "One of the brown chickens pecked me when I was working out there" or "The barred rock was really squawking".
My plan is to get up to 25 or so, in order to have all of the breeds and egg colors I have selected. He'll never get all of their names.

My vet told me she has a client who has 4 identical black cats. Apparently it is so her husband believes they only have one cat!
You could try that strategy with chickens.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

My vet told me she has a client who has 4 identical black cats. Apparently it is so her husband believes they only have one cat!
You could try that strategy with chickens.

Oh my gosh that's genius!
I do need different colors though, but he might not even notice that. Or it would take him a while and by then it would be too late

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Infested

When i took this photo on Tuesday I noticed that Hattie's eyelids were swollen.

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I brought her in this morning and discovered that Hattie has mites/fleas.

Don't watch this unless you want to be itchy.

She has been treated with permethrin. When I returned her to the coop, Lady Featherington thought to challenge her. Hattie put her down quickly. There is still fight in the old girl.

She weighs 2.02 kg, essentially the same she weighed at last check-in so no further weight loss this winter.

Poor Hattie! Mites can get bad on an older hen, one with other problems, I've heard it seems to be worse for them. Did you check the others to see what's going on with them?
Today I was wondering when I'll see mites again, since we had that warm spell. It'll be a real pain to clean out and treat both coop and run now, and a spray would freeze, right? I'd be tempted to wait for warm weather again, when the eggs would hatch, and just treating everyone to beat them back, bringing inside, with spray (& drying them), or powder (unless you've got resistant mites).

 

[Labsandchickens8]

Snacks before bed at the Chicken Palace. There is a chicken in the long grass!

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BFTP: Bernadette was so well camouflaged! Such a cool picture.

 

[featherhead007]

From last Saturday until now, I have collected 58 eggs from all the chooks. I am impressed.

 

[Ponypoor]

Here is a better close up. He was found at just a day old running around a autobody. My friend named him Sylvester, and it stuck.
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I wonder if wild geese and domestic geese can produce progeny?