Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[LaFemmeKatia]

I don't use it. Well not for the chickens. I make a fall salad with ACV and cranberries in the dressing.

Nice! Sounds like something I would like to eat!

 

[notabitail]

If one of my chooks dies, I make it a point to show all the remaining chooks what’s going on and they participate in the funeral process.(that way, they know for certain) chickens are not stupid!

Mine all saw Abigail dead in the coop. So they knew.

 

[lightm]

@RoyalChick I hope you have fully recovered by now. And I think Sylvie a) Learned well from her surrogate mom! B) Doesn't truly understand the limits of her hooman servants. She should get 'grounded' (ha, ha) for her indiscretions, and not get any of the next treat offerings - but her sisters should. (So , yes, toss treats in a few different places, and make sure there are some obstacles between the spots - like shrubs or something) I vote for some of this next time you have to chase Sylvie (eat it in front of her, but don't give her any!!!)

@lightm How is Honey tonight? I read that she wasn't drinking but was eating yogurt and raisins - that is a good sign, but I will still keep my fingers crossed for her until she has had at least 48 hours of improvement.

@ChicoryBlue How is Butters doing today? I hope she has continued to improve, and is eating more and more.

@rural mouse : just some for the heart, and this for the knee (all natural, of course)

@knoturavggrl : I hope you are feeling well and are healing where the lesion was removed. I'll keep you in my thoughts for the next week or so until you get the results of the biopsy back.

@BY Bob How is Hattie's ulcer on her breastbone doing? I hope it is healing okay and that she is more comfortable laying down. Poor sweet Hattie

@Ponypoor I am so sorry you lost one of the production girls. I know you treated them well while she was under your care. Takes nerves of steel and a generous heart.

So much hardship and loss - on many levels. I hope I didn't miss anyone, but I probably have with my crazy, hectic life these past few weeks. Please accept my apologies if I did - it was definitely NOT a slight.

Condolence charge (re) compense:
View attachment 3629071
Bottoms up!

This is a lovely post!

Honey was almost developing a sour crop as she kept drinking water yesterday. Her crop was full of water. So I'm really happy that she was eating some food today.

Late afternoon it was a big bathing party. Honey even attempted at dust bathing but she didn't quite have enough energy. She then foraged a bit and went to roost really early (1 hour before everyone else)

I got my camera too late but I still got some bathing pictures.

Only found half of Light after an hour long bath.

Poopy

 

[LhickenChicken]

Laure and Annette. Color genetics is a mistery to me because all the possible mums are plain black or brown and the daddy is silver.

Well... I had a Delaware bred with Leghorn and got a very beefy hen that looked like Ellie. Both the pullets are laying.

 

[LhickenChicken]

@Gigachad poultry - just a reminder that you are running up quite a tax bill there. Coffee Creamer tax (I have no idea even what Coffee Creamer is!) and pesto tax.

And here is tax for being a tax collector. Tassels.
View attachment 3628617

Awww! Tassels looks like my Aurora who sticks up for miss Muffin who has leg problems.

 

[featherhead007]

Mine all saw Abigail dead in the coop. So they knew.

Some take loss worse than others

 

[BY Bob]

Yes, thank you!
I came back in and drank a large amount of cold water - and then I remembered that woman who died from drinking too much water and stopped to eat a salty cracker too.
I considered diving in to the packet of Sav-a-Chick that I spotted on the shelf!
Geez it is very hot and very humid out there - honestly I get drenched in just two minutes without running around trying to persuade Sylvie to go back home.
She is not even supposed to be a flying breed of chicken, but she doesn't seem to have read that memo.

I'm glad that you are ok. This is not the weather to be chasing anything outside.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I've missed all this. How is she doing now?

She seems to be much better! She's gained a little weight even. Over the first part of the weekend she did not get a late afternoon feeding due to my schedule. She seemed to be eating more on her own too. So yesterday and today I did not tube-feed her. I am weighing her now each day, and she's holding her own.

Have you tried a little olive oil and massaging her crop? A trick @RoyalChick taught me

The problem was not her crop, it was / is further down, and I put coconut oil in the baby bird formula I tube-fed her, to help things move along and to try to add calories.

I gave BBQ and Splotch a Diatamatious Earth dust bath today, doused Bolt in Permethrin yesterday with a spray bottle, and dunked Pastel in a permethrin bath today. Yes, I diluted it with water. I’m not gonna dunk and spray my chickens in a strong chemical! When the chicks are older I will treat them with DE or permethrin. And Willow. Splotch is starting to lose all of her feathers like BBQ. My poor babies. I’m going to spray Bolt with permethrin next Saturday, to kill any eggs or hatchlings. I’m going to need to spray their coop I guess. Ugh. Why are the crazy birds so high maintenance!?

Not a fan of diatomaceous earth, it is sharp and fine, a dusty material not good for their lungs, in my opinion. I think one has to weigh the seriousness of an infestation and what options one has, and their relative side effects.

Just checking in to see what’s what.

Also in news my side of things, mum found Tuff passed away this morning, we knew it was going to happen, she was old for a production breed at 5. My BIL came down and buried her in the paddock by the fence we’re she enjoyed hunting for bugs and such.

You gave her a great life, and a long one for a production hen. I'm sorry for your loss, even expected ones are hard, and it's even harder being away.

I am afraid Honey is dying from reproductive issues. :-(
I may provide more details tomorrow. For now I just hope that she stays alive tomorrow morning for me to give her more treatment such as Baytril.

Thinking of you all and Honey, and have been following your updates. Such heartbreak but if she passes know you've done what you could, reproductive issues are really tough. Hoping she'll pull through

Speaking of guineas, I am considering this as a pen for the guineas. During the hot weather it can be under our huge live oak and when it gets cold we can move it close to the garage or house and close it up for warmth. It is 4 x 4 and 6 feet tall. Should be plenty of space for those 3 crazy birds.View attachment 3628810

I have similar concerns as @bgmathteach about predators - here in the north raccoons can reach through that wire size, weasels can totally get through it, & both can climb. As a daytime run it might be okay with your dogs around, would be concerned for roosting at night.

This may be a odd question, but:
Those of you who have had chickens die:
Did any of your chickens try calling the dead one?
Felicitas did this for a few days after Abigail died and still does it occasionally.

They all seemed a little out of sorts for several days, so I felt they were grieving her, and adjusting to her not being there. They knew she was ill, and were there with her when she died, and were with her body for several hours.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

@bgmathteach Butters has gained weight to 3lbs, 5 oz and has held it for two days. So she's gained at least six ounces. Developments in the last few days are that she seemed to be favoring the bigger crumbles, so I'd try to gather them in my hand when offering her feed, and today I got into town and got a bag of Nutrena Feather Fixer pellets,18% protein which would be good for Hazel and Popcorn to be eating because of the calcium.
Oops accidentally hit the post button. Editing --
So they all loved it, fed them out of my hands which Butters seems to like, and she stuffed herself on it this evening. She still favors the smaller bits, but she'll take a bigger one and break it up. She stopped to do some crop adjusting, I am hoping it just feels funny to her because her crop has not been filled like that for so long. Later I felt her crop and there was a nice firm ball of feed in there, comparable to Hazel's but a little smaller. This is new and good I think.

 

[Ponypoor]

@bgmathteach Butters has gained weight to 3lbs, 5 oz and has held it for two days. So she's gained at least six ounces. Developments in the last few days are that she seemed to be favoring the bigger crumbles, so I'd try to gather them in my hand when offering her feed, and today I got into town and got a bag of Nutrena Feather Fixer pellets,18% protein which would be good for Hazel and Popcorn to be eating because of the calcium.
Oops accidentally hit the post button. Editing --
So they all loved it, fed them out of my hands which Butters seems to like, and she stuffed herself on it this evening. She still favors the smaller bits, but she'll take a bigger one and break it up. She stopped to do some crop adjusting, I am hoping it just feels funny to her because her crop has not been filled like that for so long. Later I felt her crop and there was a nice firm ball of feed in there, comparable to Hazel's but a little smaller. This is new and good I think.

Sounds really promising - sure hope she is turning a corner.