Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

It was even cooler this morning, down to 16, and we were all happy about it, but we still got those hot winds in the afternoon.
The chicken's level of activity is obviously closely correlated to the heat and they were jumping and chasing around butterflies this morning while they spent most of the afternoon napping or resting.
It's very interesting to see how Théo and Gaston are faring together. At times, like early this morning, it seems worse than ever and Gaston keeps chasing Théo. But this afternoon they were actually both in front of the laurel tree, Gaston on watch while Théo was dozing two meters away.

I think on the whole, it will work out in time. I do need to make sure Théo can roost in the coop, and has access to food and water, but that doesn't seem to be a problem since there is food accessible the whole day in different places. He just doesn't get to choose what he wants.

I said some time ago that I was cooking the peas I bought, since they didn't eat them raw and I have 20 kilos to pass. I had the idea of cooking a big batch and freezing, and defrosting and adding some every day to the fermented grain. It's not optimal but at least like this I won't have to throw them away. Well they absolutely love it. In the beginning Gaston used to pick the peas out and tidbit it to the hens. Now the black pullets are going crazy over the peas : they run to the bowl, fly it over and go as quick as possible to eat all of them before anyone else can have any . I wonder if it's because there are just a few of them, or if they really love them once cooked : they wouldn't try them raw, even soaked for 24 hours.

There was some change at roost time yesterday. Since Cannelle was sick, she had been roosting on the back roost next to Piou-piou and they seemed to get along well. Yesterday she came back to the main roost. When the chicks went to the coop an hour later, several tried to roost on the main roost next to Léa and Cannelle but they didn't succeed, so they slept on their own roost. Pied beau however spent the night next to Piou-piou. She was already fast asleep and didn't bother him.

She was a bit more active today but she still has a very strange gait. She has always had mobility issue. I can't tell if the problem is her deformed leg or if it's her back that hurts.

Chipie needed my coffee this morning.

Lilly wants to lay but the nest is occupied.

Zooming in closely you can see the hole in my shoe

Oh oh..dreadful situation. Kara is laying and Nougat has decided SHE is laying.

Yes, there is no egg and the nest is blocked with mesh, tile, wood poles and a colander. Where is the problem?

2 roos in one pic again.

I thought only bybob's Hattie did this but I saw Nieva lying down to eat bolted lettuce. I can't believe she's sick because she spent the morning jumping after butterflies. Must be a kind of roman way to eat ?

Ready to blanch and freeze!

 

[RoyalChick]

So lovely as always.
What kind of peas are you cooking for them?
On the Roman eating style. Mine like it when there are some weeds overhanging their dust bath hole so they can nibble a bit without getting out of the bath. It always looks very luxury spa-like to me!

 

[RoyalChick]

I think Shad has a point when it comes to spending on looks by some groups of poor vs large groups of middle and upper classes in the UK/ many Western European countries. But I also can imagine its not the same in the US.

IMO: Were I live the social context, showing to which group one belongs, is very important and in Germany even more. In general young people tend to spend more time, and money (% of income) on fashion and looks as older people. But the people we call ‘green’ or ‘environmentally engaged’ tend to spend less money on fashion and looks. Some even want to show they don’t do fashion as a statement.

I think in the UK the ‘upper classes’ used to make a point of not dressing up. ‘The shabby worn out jacket was my grandfather’s - it came with the estate’ sort of thing.
The lower orders had a Sunday best and a party frock.

In the US it is superficially more egalitarian with everyone wearing various shades of slob. But there are subtle clues which over time I have started to learn.

The generic version of slob suits me just fine!

And here are some pretty chickens just because they are pretty chickens!

 

[RoyalChick]

Piglet sounds like my kind of buddy

I know all chickens are food oriented - but she is seriously something else.
When I brought them home at a week old they were of course terrified of me and terrified from the journey and just generally terrified.
So I make soft cooing sounds and carefully lift each one out of the box and gently place them one by one in the brooder where they stand frozen before scuttling away from my hand.
When it comes to Piglet's turn however, she leans forward out of my hand and starts eating from the food container before I have even set her feet on the floor.
She hasn't looked back!

 

[ManueB]

We have a thunderstorm! And it's been raining for ten minutes now !
Last rain was the 29 of June.

 

[Perris]

I also don't get a lot of the British humor.

Don't worry about that - I'm British and I don't either!

 

[ManueB]

Ah! Already answered!

How about a chicken photo to make up for my blunder?

View attachment 3603667

Gorgeous feathers. They really complement each other!

I'm wondering if a neighbour can stop by at dusk and shut the chickens' doors for the night? It's how I manage when I've got to be away from home at dusk.

I bought an automatic pop door. These devices are really very convenient to keep the chickens safe in the night in such occasions. Another plus for me: no need to get up at sunrise to open up.

At an other time, I could have asked my neighbour, but we have a bald eagle that's been showing up and circling around at 7.45, 8pm every evening, for about two weeks now. That's when the adults are all in bed and the young ones are still playing around crazily zooming and chasing one another in front of the coop. While during the day they are very predator weary, we’ve noticed they don't pay attention at that time, either because they are too excited or because there is no adults to give warning calls. That's why my partner insists we lock them up, and I don't feel like asking the neighbour to stay for half an hour on watch, especially on such short notice.

The automatic pop door wouldn't have worked for the same reason. But I've been thinking of it, while it would only be useful two or three times a year, it would make things a lot easier in those cases, or for when people come to house sit for us. However it wouldn't fit on our actual door, we would also have to make another lower part. And I like the inclusion of a band of mesh because it allows the chickens to see through, I'm not sure we could have that adding a pop door.

So for this time Théo will have to sleep in the shed. If it turns out to be havoc and we can't leave them at 7 at worse, I have the option of biking there later on, but since I don't bike anymore, it will likely take me 1h15, 1h30, so I would be really late. I personally wouldn't mind but my partner and his family do.

Léa is half broody again. I won't let her set but if she takes a week or two off lay, that would be a good thing with the issues she has been having.

Yesterday evening Gaston the farmer came to see us and the chickens. I was a bit offended when he asked who that pretty pullet was, showing Ann, and saying "the one that looks just like a tiny guinea" .
He said that if we don't find any home for the second roo he would take him, which would be much better than my partner's father. Even though his chickens are a bit neglected, and may easily die being eaten by a fox or if they get sick, at least they are outside all day, with a big bunch of other chickens and they get better fed as he does the old way of giving them kitchen and farm scraps on top of grains.
I asked him again how old Chipie was and he said again he didn't remember, but at least 6. So she’s our senior resident, maybe it explains why she’s convinced she should be the master of the chicken's universe ?

Sorry, no time to take photos today. Just got shots of miss Ann Guinea and some pictures of the mountain from my run yesterday.

 

[BDutch]

However it wouldn't fit on our actual door, we would also have to make another lower part. And I like the inclusion of a band of mesh because it allows the chickens to see through, I'm not sure we could have that adding a pop door.

A pop door doesn’t have to be on the ground. Mine is about 20 cm up. The chickens hop over the entrance.
To install the door above the wire is fine.

A second possibility would be to make an opening with mesh in the pop door itself. I use an old plastic Ikea cutting board as pop door. The slides are made from wood.

but we have a bald eagle that's been showing up and circling around at 7.45, 8pm every evening, for about two weeks now. That's when the adults are all in bed and the young ones are still playing around crazily zooming and chasing one another in front of the coop.

This problem remains of course, but I wonder if it is possible to train the young chickens to come in earlier by giving some scratch inside the coop around sunset, before 7.45 when the eagle shows up. After a few weeks they even might take on this habit to enter the coop earlier, even if you are not around. But its also possible they change this stupid habit if they grow older.

 

[Perris]

Glad it's over.

Sounds like a tough evening all round.

the discovery that at least five chickens (from the ones I managed to catch and check) have bumblefoot.

Good luck treating that. I think Shad knows quite a bit about it (I don't) and can advise.

I found a present for my partner's 50 birthday

What a great present! Perhaps he could give the eagles and other aerial predators round your way a taste of their own medicine while he's up there?

Funny photo to cheer you: Amadeo trying to escape the clutches of the peruvian raspberry (with yet more St John's wort at the back)

 

[ManueB]

My kids do like climbing (both boulder / rope). My son even has a permit to teach.
It’s my own doing. I took him up on a climbing event in the trees when he was a teenager and he loved it.

That is terrific! Did he ever actually teach?
You should be really happy you introduced them to something he loved doing so much. It's a wonderful gift when your parents allow you to discover a passion.
I think @GregnLety 's daughter teaches climbing for a living.
I did a bit of bouldering but I preferred cliffs and most of all multi pitch routes in the mountains.
It didn't always go smoothly for me but when it did climbing is the one sport and probably the one thing in my life that brought me the most joy. It's an incredible activity.

Spoiler

Funny photo to cheer you: Amadeo trying to escape the clutches of the peruvian raspberry (with yet more St John's wort at the back)
View attachment 3605191

It's a great photo! Amadeo’s comb is the same colour as the berries! It needs to be submitted in one of the contest. Chickens and plants maybe ?

I once saw a photo of a chicken soaking in a plastic box with its lid on and someone had cut a hole in the lid for the chicken to get her head out. Might be a handy way of doing it?
T
This sort of box

View attachment 3605388

I remember that, @no fly zone who posted it on Shadrach's thread when he was treating Skye I think. So, the chickens yesterday didn't move at all in the bath. But today, it could have been helpful. I’ll think about it depending on how things go from here. I have several of these boxes, I put my starters in those so they acted as a small greenhouse.

*******
The chickens have worms, maybe also coccidies, mites are coming back in the coop with the heat, and now we have bumblefoot. Seems like it's really not going well for the flock. Let's hope they pull through, and we can do things to help get this under control. The combination of mites and bumblefoot is really a problem, because one of the things I would have wanted to do is to pad the roosts and the ramp with gym mats, but i’m afraid the mites will just love it.

Yesterday evening I witnessed and stopped a hen fight. This has been a rare occurrence in my flock ; only Chipie and Piou-piou are the kind to pick fights. Anyway Piou-piou was going to roost when she encountered Kara. Both started taking broody attitudes ( so I thought). Hackles and feathers raised and broody screams. I was taking pictures thinking it was pretty funny when they threw themselves at each other. It looked like it was going to be a fight to draw blood...but I didn't let them, I carried Piou-piou away. When I told my partner, he said I should have let them sort it out ; but Piou-piou is half naked with bare skin and i’m maybe too afraid she’ll get opened up again.
There was a lot of screaming and pecking at roost time ; it had been going smoothly for a while, but now the two leghorns and the two cross Marans are really being picked on by the senior hens.

This morning Petit Blanc attempted to mate Piou-piou against her will and was successful, as far as I could tell. Then there was a raptor scare and the young ones threw themselves from above in the netting to go inside, but some are too big now and got stuck. Then they all stayed hidden together inside the chicken yard, even Piou-piou. Now she wants to stay with the rest of the flock, and to get herself back in the pecking order.
I’ve began deworming just her today, on a five days Flubendazole course. She’s pooping a huge number of live tapeworm segments now and while she is not acting sick, she’s a small hen and hasn't much weight to lose. I have to think about whether I treat the rest of the flock as well. I’m certain one, maybe two other chickens have tapeworm segments in their poops, but I still don't know which.
I’m thinking maybe I could use Flubendazole a routine dewormer for the flock every six months or less if there are no signs of infestation and treat with Praziquantel individual chickens when I see tapeworm segments in their poop, but i’m not sure that is a good strategy.

And this morning after finishing garden chores I treated Alba for bumblefeet, the most docile of the leghorns. It was worse than I expected . It only took a few minutes to catch her. I had set everything outside because I don't want to stay in the house for too long when i’m alone in case of a raptor attack. She struggled like crazy when I put her in the basin. I wrapped her in a towel and she managed to escape and the towel sank in the water. Caught her back a second time and wrapped her again and tied her legs slightly together with vet wraps. She stood for a few minutes and when I handed her the sunflower seed pot she escaped again, tumbling the sunflowers in the basin and the drenched towel on me. She had easily untied the vet wrap around her legs. So the last time I wrapped her more tightly, tied her legs and held her tight for the whole 15 minutes. Bandaging her after that actually went better- I put her on me crop on my knees and holding her legs back, and she didn't move, but I was so stressed by then I forgot to put the sugardine before applying the corn dressing on the first foot.
After that I let her go next to me and tried to give her treats for a few minutes but she was too panicked. She didn't even follow me into the chicken yard , which she normally does, but threw herself in the netting and then somehow extracted herself out and flew over.
Strange enough when I came inside the chicken yard and gave chard and kale to the rest of the flock, she came around quite near. I’m wondering if it would be best to do this in the chicken yard, though it would be difficult as it's so steep.

I don't know how i’ll manage to do Nieva, who’s even more scared.

Finally I forgot to say I saw something very impressive yesterday morning. Just above the garden two bald eagles attacked each other. There was a collision, then they separated, and two crows chased one of them away!
I wonder what it was.
I miss my friend Pascal who was a naturalist and studied birds. I used to ask him all the time when we saw things we didn't understand. When he came here he made the scops owl come in our cherry tree imitating his call. He died in a shipwreck between Principe and Sao Tome three years ago.

Angry ladies, Piou-piou and Kara.

Panicked burrito

Thirsty..where is the water?