Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

I didn't read or know this until now, Saturday! She was a beautiful hen. I'm sorry she couldn't pull through her troubles, maybe her body was just failing her overall, but I'm glad it appears she died quickly when death did come, and was active up to then. You gave her a good home and a good life in the tribe. RIP Sansa.

Thanks so much. Yes, obviously more was going on than the labs revealed.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

My beloved Amber has now left us. She was struggling today and it was her time to leave.

Her final time was spent with her sisters
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Oh I'm so sorry about Amber! You did your best caring for her and she was with her friends, that is good.

 

[Ribh]

Bit of a soapbox moment there for @Shadrach!
As you were doing exactly what he advocates, I can only assume the lecture was intended for the rest of us.

You are probably right there, RC! I think his present situation is driving him slightly crazy & it was let off some steam moment. Very few of us can meet Shadrach's ideal. I doubt it was a personal attack. He knows Bob too well. Hugs all round.

 

[Ribh]

Goodbye to a Friend

Today I said goodbye to another friend. This time in the pouring rain. The rest of the tribe watched from the open door to the complex wishing it would stop so they could come out and enjoy the yard but alas it did not.

She is buried next to Patsy. Both of Lilly's friends together. Someday Lilly will join them but hopefully not for a long time yet.

Goodbye my friend, rest in peace.

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Because there was no real free ranging today, I hung out with them in the run. I can't really tell what if any changes are happening in the tribe as a result of their loss. Once i see any I will share.

Sydney did spend some in the Cluckle Hut today.

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I will miss her too, Bob. She had personality plus & was a looker to boot!

 

[RoyalChick]

It is a lot for sure. Remember when everything was going so smoothly?

I think a picture may help clarify the situation.
Maggie is out of sight having gone to bed in her nest box. But first she climbed up and threw the Roadrunners off the roost. She will sleep tight until 4am when Minnie will get up in the dark and go wake her up and maybe lay an egg in her bed.
Minnie is settled on that roost that is facing the camera which has no ladder up to it. It is the same height as the big roost that is nearer the camera.
Diana is scanning the ceiling to see if she can find a better roost. At this point she has considered flying to join Minnie and thought better of it. She has gone down to the ground, examined her options, come back up, examined her options, gone back down etc etc 10 times.
Meanwhile Dotty just sits by the window patiently waiting for all the fuss to die down.
Eventually Diana will settle on the big roost far over to the left by the wall and Dotty will join her. By the time that happens I am exhausted and have every sympathy with Maggie for just climbing into a nest box for some peace and quiet!

 

[Shadrach]

This is going to be my last post on this thread. I may post on my Ex Batts thread for a while I expect if I can keep the chat about other topics off it which seems doubtful.

I’ve seen what chickens can be from the years I lived with them in Catalonia. The things I’ve seen are spread all over BYC from the roosters who died for their tribes, to the mother hens who fought off Goshawks ten times their weight to protect their chicks. I’ve seen the love between roosters and hens that make what humans call love a pale shadow in comparison. The chicken must surely be the most mistreated and misunderstood creature by humans in the sorry history of our species.

I’ve read the posts where people claim to be disgusted at the conditions battery hens are kept in who then get their own chickens and do much the same; keep them in cages that are just bigger versions of the batteries, feed them the same feed that gets promoted by the various chicken forums knowing that the creature is omnivorous while supporting the businesses who all make money on the back of the chicken keeping hobby.

Does it ever occur to any of you that your hobby is in fact helping to turn the chicken from a noble, long lived, independent, adaptable creature into some pathetic simile of what their ancestors were and still are?

Very very few of the breeds kept by the backyard chicken keeper would even exist if it wasn’t profitable to supply the backyard keeper with these breeds. Most are genetically compromised and badly bred. Very few even get the chance to carry out the most basic natural activities because people can’t keep roosters or don’t have the space to let the chickens roam.

The hatcheries most buy their chickens from are just as disgusting as the large commercial egg producing batteries yet the backyard chicken keeper doesn’t want to acknowledge this and fight to get these places shut down because they want chickens. The hypocrisy is truly staggering.

I read post after post of how this person wants this breed or that, this colour or that. These people don’t care that their wants translate into more badly bred hatchery chickens and if this trend continues, it wont be long before the so called heritage breeds have a similar lifespan to the battery hens. At least the batteries only ruin one, or two species.

People order these poor creatures from catalogues, pick them out of bins at their local “farm” stores and the hatcheries throw yet more eggs in the incubators and churn out still more chicks that have never known the sound of their mother talking to them or the calls of their brothers and sisters. For many they will never even know that there are brothers, fathers, male chickens in the world who got chucked into a grinder or gassed because males are an inconvenient fact and don’t lay eggs. Worst of all, many will not even know they are chickens.

The chicks get packed into boxes, sometimes surrounded by a few “excess” males whose corpses are meant to help stop the females from freezing to death in transit, or to cushion them from the impacts as the parcel of terrified chicks gets chucked about while on its way to yet one more chicken lover. Thousands each year die in transit. When those that do survive get to their destination they are put in yet another cage and molested by someone who wants a pet or someone who wants the chicks to provide them with eggs.

This is what humans do to other creatures.

Have a look at some of the threads where chickens are dressed up in skirts or made to wear nappies or left to some teenager who wonders what will happen if the manage to cross breed this breed to that.

There are regular hatch along threads where people incubate eggs in a machine to produce yet more chickens that will never know what it is to be a proper chicken. It’s all such great fun I read. Fun for who? I don’t think it’s much fun for the chicken.

Some people will tell you they get chickens because of the conditions they are kept in at the commercial batteries, or some nonsense about wanting to know the providence of the food they feed to their families. There are places where chickens “free range” in far better conditions than the vast majority of backyard chicken keepers can supply. Why not buy eggs from such concerns? If consumers refused to buy eggs from concerns that still keep chickens in cages they could improve the lives of millions of chickens, not just the very small percentage kept in backyards.

Does your backyard match this?

Most of the myths about chickens many of you know to not be true, from the broodiness has been bred out of them to ten square feet in a run is perfectly fine. How can an hour, or two, once or twice a week so called free ranging in someone's quarter acre backyard be anything like adequate for a creature that will roam over acres. We treat human prisoners better than that.

Every time I read that a rooster has attacked a person a little bird in my heart flutters and flies and I retain some small hope that the chicken isn’t fully tamed yet and while they still have the spirit to attack those that would own them and turn them into slaves, hope for the species will live in my heart.

What has been inflicted by humans on the chicken is one of the greatest evils inflicted on any creature on this planet.

I’ve tried my best to get my message across with minimum offence only to read that one, or the other of you, have ordered yet more chickens to turn into prisoners from yet another hatchery which will pack yet one more batch of terrified chicks into a box and send them to you like some mass produced lifeless product.

There are many ways to keep chickens in the backyard environment but not all backyards are suitable.

Sometimes one just has to accept that the environment you can offer just isn’t suitable and put the best interests of the chicken before your own wants.

There are other ways of having chickens live with you other than buying from hatcheries, or the plethora of money centric breeders that have no real regard for the species and inadequate knowledge of the consequences of their meddling.

I can’t support this thread, or what many of you do any more.

 

[MaryJanet]

This is going to be my last post on this thread. I may post on my Ex Batts thread for a while I expect if I can keep the chat about other topics off it which seems doubtful.

I’ve seen what chickens can be from the years I lived with them in Catalonia. The things I’ve seen are spread all over BYC from the roosters who died for their tribes, to the mother hens who fought off Goshawks ten times their weight to protect their chicks. I’ve seen the love between roosters and hens that make what humans call love a pale shadow in comparison. The chicken must surely be the most mistreated and misunderstood creature by humans in the sorry history of our species.

I’ve read the posts where people claim to be disgusted at the conditions battery hens are kept in who then get their own chickens and do much the same; keep them in cages that are just bigger versions of the batteries, feed them the same feed that gets promoted by the various chicken forums knowing that the creature is omnivorous while supporting the businesses who all make money on the back of the chicken keeping hobby.

Does it ever occur to any of you that your hobby is in fact helping to turn the chicken from a noble, long lived, independent, adaptable creature into some pathetic simile of what their ancestors were and still are?

Very very few of the breeds kept by the backyard chicken keeper would even exist if it wasn’t profitable to supply the backyard keeper with these breeds. Most are genetically compromised and badly bred. Very few even get the chance to carry out the most basic natural activities because people can’t keep roosters or don’t have the space to let the chickens roam.

The hatcheries most buy their chickens from are just as disgusting as the large commercial egg producing batteries yet the backyard chicken keeper doesn’t want to acknowledge this and fight to get these places shut down because they want chickens. The hypocrisy is truly staggering.

I read post after post of how this person wants this breed or that, this colour or that. These people don’t care that their wants translate into more badly bred hatchery chickens and if this trend continues, it wont be long before the so called heritage breeds have a similar lifespan to the battery hens. At least the batteries only ruin one, or two species.

People order these poor creatures from catalogues, pick them out of bins at their local “farm” stores and the hatcheries throw yet more eggs in the incubators and churn out still more chicks that have never known the sound of their mother talking to them or the calls of their brothers and sisters. For many they will never even know that there are brothers, fathers, male chickens in the world who got chucked into a grinder or gassed because males are an inconvenient fact and don’t lay eggs. Worst of all, many will not even know they are chickens.

The chicks get packed into boxes, sometimes surrounded by a few “excess” males whose corpses are meant to help stop the females from freezing to death in transit, or to cushion them from the impacts as the parcel of terrified chicks gets chucked about while on its way to yet one more chicken lover. Thousands each year die in transit. When those that do survive get to their destination they are put in yet another cage and molested by someone who wants a pet or someone who wants the chicks to provide them with eggs.

This is what humans do to other creatures.
View attachment 2947225

Have a look at some of the threads where chickens are dressed up in skirts or made to wear nappies or left to some teenager who wonders what will happen if the manage to cross breed this breed to that.

There are regular hatch along threads where people incubate eggs in a machine to produce yet more chickens that will never know what it is to be a proper chicken. It’s all such great fun I read. Fun for who? I don’t think it’s much fun for the chicken.

Some people will tell you they get chickens because of the conditions they are kept in at the commercial batteries, or some nonsense about wanting to know the providence of the food they feed to their families. There are places where chickens “free range” in far better conditions than the vast majority of backyard chicken keepers can supply. Why not buy eggs from such concerns? If consumers refused to buy eggs from concerns that still keep chickens in cages they could improve the lives of millions of chickens, not just the very small percentage kept in backyards.

Does your backyard match this?
View attachment 2947229

Most of the myths about chickens many of you know to not be true, from the broodiness has been bred out of them to ten square feet in a run is perfectly fine. How can an hour, or two, once or twice a week so called free ranging in someone's quarter acre backyard be anything like adequate for a creature that will roam over acres. We treat human prisoners better than that.

Every time I read that a rooster has attacked a person a little bird in my heart flutters and flies and I retain some small hope that the chicken isn’t fully tamed yet and while they still have the spirit to attack those that would own them and turn them into slaves, hope for the species will live in my heart.

What has been inflicted by humans on the chicken is one of the greatest evils inflicted on any creature on this planet.

I’ve tried my best to get my message across with minimum offence only to read that one, or the other of you, have ordered yet more chickens to turn into prisoners from yet another hatchery which will pack yet one more batch of terrified chicks into a box and send them to you like some mass produced lifeless product.

There are many ways to keep chickens in the backyard environment but not all backyards are suitable.

Sometimes one just has to accept that the environment you can offer just isn’t suitable and put the best interests of the chicken before your own wants.

There are other ways of having chickens live with you other than buying from hatcheries, or the plethora of money centric breeders that have no real regard for the species and inadequate knowledge of the consequences of their meddling.

I can’t support this thread, or what many of you do any more.

For what it's worth, I'm grateful for what I've learned from you. The hens at my house have a better life because of your advice.

Also, I understand your frustration and I think taking time away is a good call.

 

[bgmathteach]

I will. It's all about doing what needs done today and worrying about that. Eventually you plow through it. I have certainly learned that by now.

Please know these are heartfelt hugs.

If, for now, you are able to focus on the needs and antics of the girls you have, you will slowly be able to enjoy them again. It won't be easy, but is anything?
I know this is cliche', but the more you love something, the greater it's loss. But, it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved in the first place....I actually think you wrote something similar to this: the more you love something , the harder the loss, but it is worth it for the joy you got.

 

[featherhead007]

Another night of BayWatch. (Beetov-Hen) watch that is! She coughs and sneezes, and her breath is pretty bad. But she’s still alive!

 

[bgmathteach]

Ok - question: my chicks are 11 weeks old, I figure the two hens will start laying around 18 - 20 weeks, so that would be spring; will they hold off to start laying do you think? Does anyone have experience with late season chicks?

My experience with late season chicks (where I am...if more south, with longer days, it doesn't hold as true) if they aren't yet ready to lay by late October, then they hold off and are some of the first to start laying in late Jan/early Feb as the days lengthen. In your case, your chicks are really late season, so wouldn't be coming into lay until late Feb. I don't think they will start laying earlier than the 18-20 weeks.

I've forgotten, do you have a Roo? If so, it sometimes hastens their sexual maturity by a week or two from what I have read. Since I have always had at least 1 Roo, I don't have any first-hand comparison of Roo/no-Roo to support or negate this.