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.

 

[ManueB]

Feelings on my first chicken's deaths.

Two nights ago I woke up and realized I had come to peace with Vanille's and Caramel's death. It took me two months, you could say that is short or long depending on how you look at it.

I don't have a heart pang everytime I count four ex-batts instead of six anymore.
I don't start crying when I wake up at night and think that they are dead.
I have been wanting to run again. Running has been a big part of my life for the last ten years and not wanting to run was a first for me.
I think I found it so hard because chickens are my daily companion in my solitary life here (apart from my partner who is rather extroverted ), because I experienced my first two chickens deaths a week apart, and because I felt responsible. There were some lessons to be learned. I hope to accept the next chicken's deaths more gracefully.

Caramel is the reason for starting this thread. I mentioned having forgotten health issues that were scattered on other threads. About a month ago, I checked an alert for someone that was going through one of my old post and had reacted by a sad face. It was a post about Caramel having laid internally at the beginning of June. I had completely forgotten about it.
If I had thought of this immediately when I first noticed that she started having trouble breathing, there is a very slight possibility that I would have been able to get her on antibiotics and saved her from EYP. It's rather unlikely for a number of reasons ; but it could happen that such an information makes a real difference for making a correct diagnosis, and I think keeping track of health problems is part of correct chicken keeping.

I believe that the way we are afraid of illness and death is a disease of our society. Everyone die eventually but chickens just do it much quicker than us. I don't mind grief, it's a normal process, but I don't want to be afraid of my chicken's deaths.

 

[ManueB]

Yesterday afternoon there was a nice sunbathing session. Then in the evening the four younger chickens decided to dustbathe in the barrel they loved as chicks. It was really funny because they barely fit in there, and everytime Gaston made a move he sent half of the barrel's earth flying over.

There was also a weird moment when Théo and Gaston stayed side by side and Théo started crowing. I didn't know if he was asserting his authority by showing what a great crower he is, or trying to teach Gastounet

Second day of dewormer went well even though I was on my own.

 

[ManueB]

I was pleased when I opened the coop this morning to see slightly less feathers on the floor. Hopefully everyone has done the worse of the falling feathers part of the molt. And I checked poops carefully and didn't see any worm segments, or dead worm, neither during the day. Hopefully the Flubendazole worked.
Blanche and Brune both laid with a lot of drama. Théo isn't escorting any of them now, and they are very unhappy about it. Nougat took her weekly day off- she's the only one of the ex-batt that's still laying huge beautiful eggs. And still nothing from Cannelle who spent again too much time resting, and Chipie, who has lost the most feathers of all the flock.

The fragile truce is gone- now it's war again with Blanche and Nougat being the main instigator but Théo, Brune and Cannelle also participate in the chasing and pecking. Poor Gastounet got stuck by Nougat trying to go out through the chicken net (which he hasn't been able to cross for about six weeks now ) and instead of going backwards, insisted on trying to get through while Nougat was attacking him. Good thing he was making so much noise that I heard him and went to his rescue. Now he knows that if he bleats loud enough, we come around to see what's going on and he calls when he wants to cross the nettings.
I can see that the four of them are growing more confident, because they don't stay together all the time and one will often go to roost later than the others. They do check on one another very regularly though.

Smaller chickens enjoying the garden

Chipie's hiding pretty well the huge amount of feathers she's lost

Chipie and Cannelle both not quite feeling right

Finally decided to go lay after screaming about it for half an hour

 

[ManueB]

Tonight we're having the human Gaston over for dinner. He's the old farmer related to my partner's family that gave us Théo, Chipie, and the four fertile eggs the younger chickens hatched from! We named Gaston the cockerel after him, they even have the same nickname Gastounet! It will be the first time they meet .

My partner's cooking the traditional local raviolis that are stuffed with squash and chard, with a walnut sauce, and a rabbit our elderly neighbour killed and skinned for us. He doesn't see anything anymore (he's 96) so there was some bits of fur left .

 

[ManueB]

Another windy day but temperatures have gone slightly warmer (10 in the morning, 20 during the day). Three eggs today but all were a bit strange .
There was a lot of quarrelling and bickering between the chickens and for the first time, Théo actually went after Gaston (who ran away honking with fright).

My partner gave them some party food- the remains of the raviolis with a shredded chicken thigh our elder neighbour gave us . It was quite a success - cannibalism doesn't hurt chicken ethics. Meat is meat !
On this subject, my stepmother came for lunch today ; she told us as a child she had been terrorized by her mother's hens, because she had been unable to stop them from killing and eating the baby rabbits.

At night we had another roosting drama session. It's the third time that Blanche goes past the other ex-batts to attack the younger chickens that roost on the highest bar. I had to go catch her, which is quite a hassle because the roost is very high and she was just above Théo, so that I had to put my face right next to him to catch her. Since we're not on very good terms, he wasn't happy about it and started growling, but I quickly put her lower on their ladder and closed the coop so they were in the dark and she didn't try again.
I will have to eventually let them sort it out, but last time I didn't intervene, she actually threw Gastounet to the floor, and he was so scared he tried to go roost in Piou-piou's nest in the wall, which is about a third of his size .
Chicken drama...

Dustbathing: big girls inside the netting, four younger outside.

Théo doing a war dance before attacking Léa behind him

Merle and the first fallen leaves- autumn vibes.

They love the black radishes and turnips leaves.

But of course Gastounet prefers the chicken forbidden zone, kale, salads and broccoli's leaves

Piou-piou .

 

[ManueB]

Bye 44, can't say I'll miss you.

-worse chicken event : Vanille and Caramel's death a week apart
-best chicken event : watching Chipie hatch and raise chicks .
-best life event : going twice for several days mountain hiking with my partner.
-worse life event : lots of small evil stuff 1. the nine months drought 2. experiencing anaphylactic chock from a hornet sting. 2. ex-aequo: setting fire to the chimney. Oh, and maybe also my partner's mother almost dying and spending two months hospitalized from smoking.

-Books I enjoyed the most : the poppy war trilogy (R.F. Kuang) and Bewilderment (R.Powers). I read quite a few good books, some were maybe better but didn't touch me in the same way, and a lot, lot of very bad books (cheap fantasy).
-Films I enjoyed the most : didn't watch many as it's requiring me too much concentration now. Maybe Nomadland and Once upon a time in Hollywood.

The chicken lesson I valued the most : this quote from the Instagram account alltheprettychickens (aka Beazy farms, a small animal rescue).

I used to think of losses as failures—I want to save them, and if I don’t, I’ve failed. I think experience has started teaching me that “saving” a living being is impossible—it always comes to an end. It’s not really saving so much as stewarding: we’re all just walking each other home, as long as we can, with all the love and watermelon and mealworms we have, knowing the walk will end so much sooner than we’d like, whenever it does.

 

[BDutch]

This photo would make a great jigsaw puzzle.

What’s wrong with a jigsaw of a painting?
: Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue III by Barnett Newman.

I got a colourfull present from my daughter. For no reason, except that she saw this biscuit tin in a second hand shop.

 

[MaryJanet]

Still bummed out I could not save Skeksis.

I feel the same about Big Boy.

And I'm still sad about Lorna the Dorking pullet.

They're a very endearing species.

 

[ManueB]

Isn't it wonderful!

Will you put it in picture of the week, MB?

I have quite a few i’ve been wanting to post in POW and I keep forgetting !

These are good ideas. But it should effect only the abuse and wrong doing. Not hobbyist who care for their animals.

Here we have lots of restrictions too like:

• Only smal pets / rodents such as rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, white mice and aquarium fish are allowed in the shops. Poultry, cats and dogs may not be sold in a shop.
• Its only allowed to kill rabbits and poultry for your own consumption. Other animals need to be slaughtered by someone with a licence.
• Recently the gov. added rules to breeding with cats and dog who have headaces and other pains because of their extreme looks.

I think regulating with legal means is important, but it's effective only if there are ways to make sure the laws are applied.
Abandoning animals is quite severely punished legally, and in all our different countries we can see that the numbers are frightening. The french are the European champions at it.

I’m not sure I feel completely good about selling animals, pets especially , but in a way, it's one of the means to be sure buyers will take care of them. Humans unfortunately tend to think that what has no financial value isn't worth anything. On the other hand they tend to think they're allowed everything once they have paid money .

How do we feel about selling humans ? I know selling animals is not the same for many reasons, but still a thing i’m not totally confortable with.
********
The roosters are starting to get angry at one another again, Gaston threw Théo out of the coop three times tonight before letting him stay. Good thing Théo and Pied Beau are keeping out of the chicken's yard that is Gaston's territory for the time being. I think he doesn't like that Lilly hangs out with pied beau as Piou-piou and Merle with Théo ; he tried to tread Merle today which I think has not happened for months.

Lilly has had enough of Pied Beau. This morning he jumped on her as soon as she crossed the netting to go out, and she attacked him after that. It is the first time I see her doing something like this! And she ran away from him several times today.
I think he is mating her too often since she is the only hen that stays with him. He is definitely going through the hormonal phase !

Pretty fog and light from running this morning.

Piou-piou's wound is healing nicely ! Now if she would just stop plucking her new quill feathers away .

I'm trying to get Laure to be less afraid of me and it's working a bit, but she is still scared of other chickens and of my partner. She is growing big, I think she will be the size of my bigger hens. And she has a huge comb and wattle!

The four pullets. It's rare they regroup all together now !

Kara

Blanche