Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

I brought my dark sunglasses so I can sleep through my d session. The fluorescent lighting is too bright in here.:

 

[kattabelly]

Back to your birds. (Thanks for posting the kippenjungle, saves me some investigation time). You've got the barred figured out with the barred hen and the offspring being sex-linked. Are both black chicks head spotted? If 1 is NOT, it doesn't mean it isn't a cockerel. It could be from one of the black Shetland hens.

One has a head spot, so definitely a boy since I have barred pullets but no barred or cuckoo cock(erel)s. The other doesn't, so she's definitely a she because she hatched from an egg I marked as BPR (the barred boy chick hatched from an egg I actually thought was probably laid by one of the Light Sussex, but clearly not!).

I remember collecting the egg the black girl chick hatched from, right after one of my BPR pullets emerged from a nest box shouting about the egg she'd just laid. Shetlands should lay green eggs, so for that to be a Shetland egg you'd need:
Another of the Shetlands to have started laying without me realising (the confirmed layers, I know for a fact all lay green)
AND that Shetland to be laying the same colour as the Barred Rocks, not green like she should
AND the Rock pullet that I thought laid the egg had actually laid a "phantom egg" since there was only one egg in the nest when I collected it (this did actually happen recently but it was obvious that time because the only egg in the nest after she left was green)

So, TLDR: if that's a Shetland cross chick I'll eat my hat, muddy Fayoumi footprints and all

The yellow chick should NOT be from any of the black hens (papa is silver so wouldn't affect the black). Now, there are times when a yellow chick feathers out in shades of red (Buckeyes for example), but with a silver father, any red/gold based offspring should be white. A male might show more yellow (I think that's where the lemon colors come from) or be a brassy white (like Mr P kinda shows in his hackle and saddle feathers). That would be caused by the red under the white. You do have some red/gold based hens, right?

The yellow chick DEFINITELY hatched from a green egg, so it can only have been laid by one of the Shetlands. I have a red barnyard mix who lays pale olive, but a different enough shade that it's easy to tell at a glance whose eggs are whose. She sometimes lays slightly more of a pale sage/grey green, but never the green I get from the Shetlands. I do have a wheaten Shetland but I'm fairly sure she hasn't started laying yet, and even more doubtful that she was already laying decent-sized eggs three weeks ago. Could at least one of the Shetlands be something like E/E^Wh or E^R/E^Wh (would that fit the prime suspect pullet in the pics I posted?) and have passed on Wheaten, rather than Extended Black or Birchen, which was then diluted by dad's Silver?
Edit - I wouldn't like to say for sure until s/he feathers out, but the yellow chick also looks like it might be slightly crested, which again could only have come from the Shetlands.

 

[Sylvester017]

When i first got them, i was told i wasn't able to have just two, but @cavemanrich reminded me that Noah only had 2!

But don't forget... even though God instructed Noah to take two of each unclean animal, God also instructed Noah to take SEVEN of each clean (edible) animal . I consider poultry "edible". Thus you may adopt at least 7 chicks

 

[Ponypoor]

I brought my dark sunglasses so I can sleep through my d session. The fluorescent lighting is too bright in here.:View attachment 4303786

You need some of those eye masks that people wear to sleep. I use a folder hand towel myself.

Hope you were able to have a nap!

 

[Sylvester017]

I brought my dark sunglasses so I can sleep through my d session. The fluorescent lighting is too bright in here.:View attachment 4303786

That's a new problem I never considered at medical/doctor appts... what I find most annoying about medical offices or hospitals even more, is how cold they keep the room temperatures ~ the staff are all running around keeping warm while we patients sit waiting & waiting & waiting in drafty breezy A/C rooms! I have to bundle up just to visit a Dr, Dentist, or Lab facility!

 

[Ponypoor]

Thursday thirst

BFTP
May 2025

Warm weather will hopefully arrive soon!

Currently -5C (23F), overcast.

Last year
March 17, 2025

March 18, 2025

I fear we will not be clear of snow by mid March this year…..

EDIT
Hmmm ok well 24 Feb 2025

Maybe it will melt soon…

Today, 26 Feb 2026, is this more snow than last year?

 

[Sylvester017]

Thursday thirst

BFTP
May 2025

Warm weather will hopefully arrive soon!
View attachment 4303818View attachment 4303819

Currently -5C (23F), overcast.

Last year
March 17, 2025
View attachment 4303821

March 18, 2025
View attachment 4303822

I fear we will not be clear of snow by mid March this year…..

All the animals are pretty but I specially LOVE the Blue hen ~ lacing is so pretty

 

[Ponypoor]

All the animals are pretty but I specially LOVE the Blue hen ~ lacing is so pretty

Whiskers I also have her twin Misty.

It is my hope Whiskers goes broody in beginning of April so I can shove a bunch of chicks under her!

 

[Sylvester017]

Wild water
View attachment 4303686

Laced bird! Brahma? So pretty

 

[kattabelly]

Today, 26 Feb 2026, is this more snow than last year?

Could be you've had more fall in total but it looks like less snow on the ground today than the same time last year, going by the gaps under the bottom fence rail.

Depending on temperatures, could be that means it'll melt sooner?