Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

I've been posting a lot of information about my chickens in the various threads I follow. Some of that was retrospectively useful to me, and reading my posts back, I also unfortunately realized I had forgotten some health details that could have made a difference.
So I'm starting my own thread as a diary welcoming everyone along. But be aware that although I will post pictures there will be a lot of daily mentions like the number of eggs and the quality of poops which may not hold the same interest for other readers than it does for me .
I have an article in my profile describing my flock and settings here : https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-chickens-des-sauches.77857/
(I may even do individual chickens presentation posts on rainy afternoons).

Théo is my nearly adult rooster. He is probably around one by now. He was given to us by a friend / farmer in my village at the end of November 2021.
Recently he has begun acting up on us- chasing our calves when we bring food to his hens, especially in the morning. Two days ago he flew for the first time at the water pot I was bringing them after opening the coop.
I made the following changes :
- I set all feeders and waterers in place before opening the coop directly outside
- I'm not having them stay for thirty minutes in the run first thing in the morning. I was doing this to try to make the four younger chickens, hatched 5 June so almost 16 weeks, get used to being with the adults. It wasn't working as they just stayedd on their roosts until I opened the run and meant I had to get the feeder from the run, which inevitably seemed to get Little Théo's hormones riled up.
It seems to help as our interactions have been more civilized although he is still being wary of me and me of him.
(He's a tiny thing, cross bantam I think).

Merle, a black pullet from the June hatch, probably a bantam. Chipie the broody was quite feral and didn't let the chicks come out for 36 hours. We know there was one bantam egg and since the first chick we got a glimpse of, born 12 hours before the rest was black, we suppose it was the bantam.

Léa and Piou-piou. Piou-piou has worried us a bit as she was and is a runt chick - very tiny and a month behind. Her behaviour has always been completely normal and she has finally grown a tail as of yesterday.

Gastounet (real name Gaston) the huge funny goofy cockerel.

 

[Sc_chickengirl]

I've been posting a lot of information about my chickens in the various threads I follow. Some of that was retrospectively useful to me, and reading my posts back, I also unfortunately realized I had forgotten some health details that could have made a difference.
So I'm starting my own thread as a diary welcoming everyone along. But be aware that although I will post pictures there will be a lot of daily mentions like the number of eggs and the quality of poops which may not hold the same interest for other readers than it does for me .
I have an article in my profile describing my flock and settings here : https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-chickens-des-sauches.77857/
(I may even do individual chickens presentation posts on rainy afternoons).

Théo is my nearly adult rooster. He is probably around one by now. He was given to us by a friend / farmer in my village at the end of November 2021.
Recently he has begun acting up on us- chasing our calves when we bring food to his hens, especially in the morning. Two days ago he flew for the first time at the water pot I was bringing them after opening the coop.
I made the following changes :
- I set all feeders and waterers in place before opening the coop directly outside
- I'm not having them stay for thirty minutes in the run first thing in the morning. I was doing this to try to make the four younger chickens, hatched 5 June so almost 16 weeks, get used to being with the adults. It wasn't working as they just stayedd on their roosts until I opened the run and meant I had to get the feeder from the run, which inevitably seemed to get Little Théo's hormones riled up.
It seems to help as our interactions have been more civilized although he is still being wary of me and me of him.
(He's a tiny thing, cross bantam I think).
View attachment 3267043
Merle, a black pullet from the June hatch, probably a bantam. Chipie the broody was quite feral and didn't let the chicks come out for 36 hours. We know there was one bantam egg and since the first chick we got a glimpse of, born 12 hours before the rest was black, we suppose it was the bantam.
View attachment 3267040
Léa and Piou-piou. Piou-piou has worried us a bit as she was and is a runt chick - very tiny and a month behind. Her behaviour has always been completely normal and she has finally grown a tail as of yesterday.

Awww I love bantams! Theo looks like some sort of OEGB. I have a black pullet just like her!

 

[Perris]

I look forward to reading more about your growing flock

 

[RoyalChick]

I look forward to reading more about your growing flock

Me too - but now I have another thread in my watch list and I will never keep up!

 

[ManueB]

My original chickens are ex-batts and only four of the six remain with us today. They should be around three years old, we don't know their exact age.
All adults chickens are molting right now and Gastounet is also molting even though he has just finished growing his feathers! He only kept them for three or four weeks.
Cannelle, an ex-batt, was the first to start molting and she has also stopped laying even though she spends time in the nest box every day. I'm worried for her as this is the behaviour Caramel, one of our passed ex-batt, had before she died of EYP.
Nougat on the left, Blanche in front, Brune on the right and Cannelle behind.

I've been noticing ten days ago what really looks like tapeworm segments in the poops. I've ordered fenbendazole from Belgium as it's only sold with a prescription here, unfortunately that very day my bank had an app crash that lasted four days, so the order was delayed. Yesterday I began adding a drop of oregano eo in a smalltea spoon of ACV to their water, hopefully it will give some support until the fenbendazole gets here.

Got three eggs today for the 2d day in a row, maybe because I gave them a tuna mix yesterday. I haven't found any of bantam Chipie's egg for the last 8 days so I hope she has stopped laying and that she's not trying to start a nest somewhere.
Chipie and Piou-piou

 

[ManueB]

I look forward to reading more about your growing flock

Me too - but now I have another thread in my watch list and I will never keep up!

I know following threads take quite some time and I hesitated a lot to start my own because I don't want to spend more time on the web, or ask people to spend more time following me. I will certainly still ask my questions and post things of interests on Shadrach's and Bybob's thread where many people with more experience than I are active. This will only be my chicken daily diary and I promise I won't mind if you don't comment .

 

[Perris]

I haven't found any of bantam Chipie's egg for the last 8 days so I hope she has stopped laying and that she's not trying to start a nest somewhere.

Dream on ManueB

 

[ManueB]

I had the confirmation yesterday of what I was beginning to think - there's something going on with Chipie. She's spending a lot of time with the four she hatched and making friend with Gaston, whereas she had been terrorizing them ever since she stopped caring for them as their broody mama.
This is a bit long and boring, but to me it seems like they are now hanging out together as a new tribe.

This morning when coming out of the coop she ran away from Théo, who sprinted and chased her around. She got outside to join the four younger ones. However, when Théo came after her she let them run away on their own and stayed with him.
She is shedding a lot of feathers and was shivering when she was dustbathing even though it isn't very cold yet. I hope it's just the molt and not an health issue and that the molt is why she's rejecting Théo.
Théo tidbitting for Chipie after he scared the four younger chickens away.

 

[ManueB]

Pictures from this morning. Just after I took those a couple of sparrowhawks flew in circle above the chickens for maybe an hour and a half, only to be replaced by the pair of eagle that lives higher up, so the chickens were quite stressed and stayed all morning under cover.
Piou-piou and Merle took a tour together to enjoy the view.

Then they found the place where my partner crushes the corn

Molting Chipie begging for grapes at breakfast

And this, is a picture of the mites I still see a few of in the coop, on the lid of the feed bin. I still don't know what they are- seems unlikely for red mites as they stay mostly on smooth surfaces and don't scatter in the light.

Sad to say the forecasted rain for yesterday never happened. Temps are still around 10 in the morning and rise to 18/20, but the days are really getting shorter. Sun rises at 7 and chickens come out at 7.15, the younger ones are roosted at 7, and the adults at 7.30.
Two eggs this morning from Blanche and Nougat.

 

[ManueB]

Deworming
The flubenol KH arrived yesterday. It's a paste in a syringe but it's dosed for cats or dogs, which doesn't make dosage simple for chickens. I weighed the heavier ex-batt and the lightest : there wasn't that much difference so we made an average and divided for two for the smaller chickens. We injected the paste in an individual grape for each chicken. That went really well with the ex-batts. We waited until the smaller chickens were roosted and the ex batts still out to give them the grapes on their roost and that worked well too. The only failure was Théo. He wouldn't take it from me on his roost, and this morning when I gave the grape to him on the ground as he came out of the coop he tidbitted it to Nougat .
Today I found a dead tapeworm in one poop, so my guess was right. I don't think all the chickens are infested, but I can't tell which are or not so they will all be treated. We also have to do the cats because I suspect them of being the culprits.

Locking the younger chickens
I had to leave for an hour and a half this morning and since the sparrowhawks had been circling yesterday I didn't want to let the four younger chickens out on their own. I wasn't sure I could get them to come back in the coop, so I locked them up in the coop as soon as the ex-batts were out, with Chipie. They were unhappy but the loudest protest came from Brune - she wanted to lay in the coop, and nowhere else! I had to let her in as she was causing chaos. Then out again when she laid, and then back in the run with the other ex-batts and Théo when I left. Not a simple arrangement .