Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

Sorry to derail your thread Manue. One more then I will shut up about this.
I think I need to list all the things the animals need. For example, overnight stay is not needed for the chickens and will upset the cats.
If that is what I have to have to get the other things, then OK, but I don’t need to start there.
Basic food and water I think I have sorted with some tweaks to my current arrangements.
What I think is missing is:
- health checks for chickens
- yard time for chickens with someone to oversee
- play with those cats that are interested in company
- ability to take someone to the vet if necessary
The lady who comes normally has a teenage daughter who seems to be an animal lover. I wonder if she would be willing to sit outside with the chickens for a few hours a couple of days a week for example.

You're not derailing at all, I raised the subject and I think it's a concern to a majority of chicken keepers!
I guess the most difficult part is the one that requires some knowledge of chickens : being able to see if there is a problem and eventually take a chicken to the vet if really needed. Just catching and carrying a chicken isn't something anyone who has never done it before can do, unless they are very good with animals.
One of our friend who did the best by our chickens was actually someone who had never been around them before but was really interested and felt a huge responsibility. But we were able to spend a few hours with him before, showing him all the things that could be useful.
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It was a bit warmer today and a good day for all, except Blanche who seemed to be at the end of her life. Chipie was very active and kept picking fights. I wonder why she is being so aggressive, and if it's related to health issues. I've noticed before that hens can turn aggressive when they molt or when they are beginning to be unwell maybe because they feel vulnerable and attack is the best defense.
Merle seemed better than yesterday. Théo also has his hormones beginning to act up and he is now trying to mate the hens when Gaston isn't looking, which obviously doesn't help their relationship. We are going to make the second small entry to the run tomorrow now the chickens have all gotten used to the new different one (the second small size entry will be where the old one used to be) which should help Théo get in or out more easily.

I was very ashamed to realise I've missed an important chicken anniversary this month. On the 7th of January, it was exactly four years ago that my six ex-batts arrived in a cardboard box !
So today I made everyone rice with scrambled eggs, peas, tofu and peanuts. I'm not sure they realised why, but they liked it.

Can you spot Hibou ? She got that name because of that look.

 

[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]

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 .

 

[ManueB]

Chipie's behaviour
I'm wondering what's in little Chipie's mind ask she's creating havoc. For several nights she hasn't been sleeping with Théo anymore but on the roost above him, in a space on her own between the four younger chickens and the ladder where the ex-batts roost. Tonight she was roosting in the middle of the four younger chickens, next to Gaston, and they spent the morning together. I even saw Léa grooming Chipie's molting feathers and they both seemed to enjoy it.
So I was thinking she had made up her mind to be head of a new tribe. But this afternoon she spent under Théo's wing! All chickens were staying very much under cover as there was a lot of wind and the gallicus circaetus and the sparrow hawk flying above. She stayed with Théo who was dancing and shuffling his wing around her.
So, I don't know if she was just wanting protection, if she doesn't know what she wants, or if she's a trouble maker .
Théo is getting irritated with the younger chickens because of it- he maybe thinks they're stealing her ?

Otherwise coexistence between the two groups went a bit better today, maybe because of the danger from the sky.
Only Blanche and Nougat laid today and for once Nougat's egg was weird. Hard to say if behaviours were normal or not since they spent most of the day hidden . I can see feather quilts growing on most of the chickens including the two roosters, except Blanche. I'm not sure that she will be able to regrow her feathers.

The clip shows all the chickens together until Théo scares the younger ones away.

A first: 8 chickens on one photo!

Little Piou-piou has been really growing her feathers this last week. I'm finally convinced she's a girl and she'll survive! She has quite a temper and gets well along with Chipie.

Théo and Chipie

 

[ManueB]

Wonderful to see all of your chickens. I will be following for the pictures alone.

Well, I may feel a bit of pressure to add a lot of pictures to compensate for my blabbering in broken English!
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Not much to note today, a lot of social interactions between the chickens. The four younger chickens play at fighting in the morning, maybe to sort out some kind of hierarchy. The bigger hens and Théo chase and scare them around, especially away from the feeders. Chipie flirts with both roosters.

Nougat and Brune decided to lay in the same nest at the same moment but I only found Brune's egg, so either Nougat gave up, either she found a new laying place. I'll have to pay attention and check if she lays tomorrow!

Piou-piou's new tail is just like Léa, black feather.

She may be four times smaller but she definitely intends to kick Gaston's butt.

First sunflower of the year : Gaston and Merle were very, very afraid of the sunflower. Only Merle tried to peck it and it unfortunately attacked her, resulting in high pitched screams. The ex-batts on the other hand remember it very well from last year.

Cleaning and resting couples.

Cannelle found a big caterpillar and had to make an epic chase to keep it for herself. She didn't seem to feel very well after eating it though.

Hawk appears an hour before bedtime, every one looking at the sky.

 

[ManueB]

A beautiful Sunday today with temperature rising to 10/50 in the morning and 23/73 during the day.
Three of the four ex-batts had laid by eight thirty, and Cannelle then went in the same nest. An hour later, I found all three eggs thrown out on the floor (none broken) and a soft shell broken egg in the nest. She's coming back to laying - hopefully it will work better next time. Did she know she was going to lay a no she'll egg , or did she just thrashed around a lot to get all three eggs out of the nest ? Anyway she was doing good today and so was Chipie.
The chickens enjoyed the sunny day. Gastounet proved once again that he is not the bravest of roosters, getting in a panic run around after a bee flew close to him .
In the evening there were a lot of very small insects flying around and the chickens went crazy running after them. A sparrowhawk took his chance and landed just at that time, but I was warned by Théo and scared him away. Théo may be a pain in our butt but he's doing good on keeping watch and now all the chickens heed his growling alert calls.
Chickens are now coming out of the coop at 7.20, and going to roost around the same time pm.

Nice rising sun.

Cannelle

Merle is so pretty and confident.

He's still very ridiculous without any wing feathers and with his molting head but he is such a sweet funny guy.

Piou-piou was grooming Gastounet's molting feathers .

 

[ManueB]

Seems to me you've got proper chicken lives enough to keep you entertained for ages. Lovely pictures.

I don't have TV but I spend way too much time watching chicken TV !

Poor Merle, Mama was not kind enough to get all the seeds out for you.

I like giving them the whole thing to peck. It takes them quite a bit of time so they don't gobble the seeds too quickly, it can last for a few hours and it makes a fun occupation.
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Today was another warm lovely day and no hawks, so the chickens enjoyed the sun. At some moments both groups seem to coexist peacefully and then a bit later, it's raging war. The younger stayed outside the chicken zone all afternoon; they have understood that the vine above the house still has some grapes in it and they tried to eat all that was left.
Théo attacked Chipie several times this morning and she stayed clear of him for the rest of the day !
There were three eggs today, but one was slightly cracked by pecking.

Another pic of pretty Piou-piou.

I caught Gastounet flying and screaming away from Cannelle pecking him . Happens twenty times a day.

Théo potato inspector.

He got on the wood shed roof, like when he was a baby, and cried because he didn't remember how to get down.

Going at the grapes.

Even the boss rests sometimes. He's having a lousy day with Chipie snubbing him and the ex-batts all going after my partner.

 

[ManueB]

Today was another beautiful and abnormally warm day, up to 27 /80 . Only 10 days without rain and it seems like the soil and the vegetation have dried up again . Everyone here is worried that we will get another winter without snow.
The chickens enjoy the weather but there is little left to forage inside the chicken zone. We try to bring the ex-batts green stuff daily from the vegetable garden. We have also been giving them the last melons and watermelons and they went crazy over those. The smaller chickens can help themselves.
Unfortunately Cannelle spent again time trying to lay without success today, i'm worried again. Other than that her behaviour seems normal though.
I spoke too soon saying molt was over - today there were feathers everywhere! Théo, Gaston and Chipie are looking rough. Chipie is very pale. I don't like the molting, even if it's not hard molt. I find it hard to know if they are just tired from the molt or if there is a problem.

In bad news we had for the first time someone come to clean the wood stove's chimney (we usually do it ourselves but it's required to have a professional for insurance). Of course he said the chimney wasn't up to standards, we need to break it to replace it with a tube. We looked at the cost and one meter of the insulated tube is 300 hundred euros . We'll do it at the end of next spring though, and try not to set the house on fire in the meantime, because we don't see ourselves breaking up the chimney and having to camp outside for several days now !
In better news we only have two sets left of shutters to install in the old barn, and we can start at last redoing the run for the chickens ! At least if there's not something else to cause yet another delay .
Evening vibes.

Morning

Gastounet has discovered that he's able to catch some olives if he tries hard enough.

Chicken power games.

 

[ManueB]

I locked Théo, Chipie and the ex-batts for an hour to go running this morning. When I came back, they were in the coop and didn't want to come out. This means they were scared of something - either hawk or another predator possibly. I went to check everything was fine in the coop and guess what I saw ? Théo mating Chipie ! And it looked like he was successful, which is almost never the case with the ex-batts, as they are too big for him.

Gastounet has changed so much in a week, it's like he turned from a cockerel into a rooster overnight. He's stopped growing upward and now he's growing some bulk. He is still mating only Piou-piou about ten times a day, but tidbits for the other hens and watches over them. He's still a bit clumsy but he's getting better.
There was a really funny moment in the middle of the day when he was scared by something and asked to go back inside the netted zone, to hide in the coop. Ten minutes later, Théo found him and started chasing him around. Gaston was in such a panick he ran straight to the netting and just jumped over it squealing ! His power to weight ratio is impressive.

This morning, Nougat laid again a very strange egg-huge, white, with a very thin porous shell. That was certainly the reason she was looking off yesterday and not too good today. She's began molting from the head and neck now.
On the other hand Cannelle really seems better. She still had moments when she looks very ill, but most of the day she was active and eating. I don't know what to think ! She's in full hard molt mode though, she's loosing her wing's feathers now.

My partner brought some food for the chickens from our elderly neighbour Robert. Everything he doesn't eat he gives us for the hens, but some stuff we throw away without telling him, because his notion of food hygiene is pretty hardcore. This seemed to be polenta with some meat in it, we mixed Nougat's egg with it, and everyone loved it.

Roosting was difficult again. Not because of Chipie who this time moved out to the far right before Gaston went to roost, but because Théo was really decided to jump up and attack Gaston. I finally went to get a stick to restrain him. When he's roosting, he's exactly at the level of my face, so it's kind of akward to go scream at him to stay away from Gaston . He's never shown aggression to me from his roost, but I suppose putting your face a few centimeters from a very angry if small rooster is not the smartest thing to do.

Koffee Klatch began by Gastounet's greetings

Nougat looked not too good, but she's eating and acting relatively normally most of the time.

Food party. Gaston's gang, Théo's team, and Chipie gets her individual spoon as she's rejected by both groups.

This is... a huge cockerel mating a runt pullet.

Piou-piou is so cute ( but so hostile to humans).

I think there is a likeness in Grochatila's and Merle's look. Wisdom of magical jaded creatures?

 

[ManueB]

Random ramblings

This (very long) post has nothing to do with chickens. I figure I can do that once in a while. It's been quite some time since I wanted to do something on local recipes, but this is not it yet. I will just be rambling because sometimes, like right now, it feels like I spend my days staring at my chickens in a microscope while the world is crumbling around. I want to talk indirectly about the earthquake in Kahramanmaras but more directly pay a tribute to my late uncle.

It has always struck me how Murphy's law apply to some people. A person's life can completely turn around because of a series of unfortunate events : a separation, loosing a job, illness..is it because fate or bad luck stacks against some people, or that one event will cause another ? Or, some would say that maybe the person has some responsibility for not being strong enough to cope ?
I believe this also applies to countries. Some really seem to have drawn the worse cards. Poverty, war, corruption, political oppression, natural disasters, epidemic outbreaks, ineffective or harmful foreign intervention... everything adding up. Haiti has made me, a hardcore atheist, wonder if the word curse could hold some truth. For other countries it has been the downward spiral from a situation that seemed not that bad to a very dark place, I'm thinking of countries with widely different situations, like Lebanon, Afghanistan, DRC, Syria now.

When the state of the world and a particular event hits me in the gut I instinctively think of my uncle, who passed in 2014. First it used to be with a mixture of anger, sadness, and relief that he didn't get to see it because it would have made him so mad. Now it's turning more into a kind of loving memory. We've always been rather close on my mother's family side and two of her siblings died too soon. My uncle was in many ways an insufferable man. He knew everything about everything, he was stubborn and always did things his ways whatever you or anyone that old him. But he was also a man who could not abide injustice, poverty and oppression. When he retired from his career as a civil engineer he went on doing the same job for humanitarian organizations. He travelled to various places in the world but the two countries he stayed the longest, and was the most implicated with, were Palestine and Afghanistan. He was not naïve about humanitarian help, he was a pessimistic man and knew exactly the flaws of the system. But he said it was better to do something than nothing, and the truth was he couldn't stand doing nothing.
As he grew older, he stayed more and more with his wife in France, he became a grand father and that made him much more sufferable and not so impatient. He was 71 when he left for his last to be humanitarian mission to build an irrigation system in Tchad, and he died of heat and dehydration during the travel to get there.
So I think a lot about him with what is going on now. I'm sure he would be moving heaven and earth to go help with the rebuilding even though he would be too old. I'm very reconciled with his death, but not at all with the state of the world. I wish there were more people like him. I'm not one of those, I very rarely take actions against all the things that repel me. I donate money but I doubt it changes anything. One thing my uncle did was to work with local organizations, even if they were more messy and chaotic, on the principle that it's better to teach someone to fish than to give him a fish, so when there is a local organization that seems serious enough like the white helmets I will give to them instead, or simultaneously , to french or international organizations.

This is my uncle Bernard on the day he married my aunt, one of the most wonderful woman I know, but that is another story.