Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

What do you see wrong with Gaston's comb? It looks great in your pictures of him.

It doesn't show on the photos even if I try to take them very close. He has black dots on his comb, and bigger scabs on his wattles. If you zoom in as much as possible you can barely see one of the scabs.
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Before I get to the main even of the day, I noted that Brune was again unsuccessful trying to lay this morning .
It was quite cold this morning (-2 and didn't go higher than 5) and we were tired. So we both decided to nap after lunch (usually only my partner does).

Just before going to bed we heard a strange chicken noise. I looked out the window and saw a huge raptor just in front of it slowly landing, Merle stuck in some wire near the coop, and Piou-piou struggling to go through the chicken nettings. I screamed and clapped my hands at it while my partner ran outside in underwear and sleepers. The thing flew slowly to a tree in our vegetable garden. As soon as I saw my partner out, I also ran outside in underwear (but did put sneakers on) and caught Merle out of the wire. We checked all the chickens were there and safe- they were, all hiding under the laurel tree, except Gaston hiding under the wood shed.

The chickens stayed hidden under the laurel tree all afternoon but after an hour or more, Gastounet was really upset not seeing Piou-piou and the gang, he was running all around the nettings. It took Piou-piou and Merle another half an hour to come a bit outside with him.

Then it started drizzling cold rain- melted snow and all the chickens just wanted to go in the coop. They were roosting half an hour before their usual time.
I don't know what type of bird it was, but we've been seeing all sort of raptors flying around the last two weeks so I guess one saw that no humans were around and gave it a try.

 

[Perris]

glad they all made it through the encounter with the raptor! That laurel looks like a very sound choice by them, too dense and tangled for anything larger to bother to try to get through (unless they were very hungry, of course).

It's astonishing to me how your temperatures have gone from really very pleasant to really cold in a week. We've finally got down to around normal temps after an unusually mild autumn, and there may be a hint of frost in the next week or so. Given the price of electricity, I think we're all glad of delayed cool temps this year!

 

[MaryJanet]

So glad they're all ok! Hopefully Merle and Piou piou will learn from this and avoid the wire and nettings next time a raptor comes down.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

on the raptor visit. Our temps have been similar (but colder and for a week, ugh), and we've also seen a higher incidence of raptors and people in our underwear yelling at the sky.

Hope Piou-piou's healing nicely. I'm always irrationally bummed when a chicken loses a chunk of comb. Fortunately the chicken doesn't usually share my disappointment. Sometimes they look annoyed, but other times, proud.

Ours get lots of black comb spots from pecks or encounters with thorny plants. Here's Merle's face a couple weeks after his epic break with Andre last winter. Note the dent on the right where he lost a piece of wattle, sigh.

Leg-wise, are you sure it's not just gnarly rooster legs? Our roosters all ended up with rougher looking legs than the girls. I can't say for sure they don't have SLM, but their legs haven't changed much since they matured. Stilty was treated with Ivermectin back in the day when we had a [horrifying] northern fowl mite outbreak. It didn't change the look of his legs at all, which made me suspect roosters might just have less bonny legs...but I'm no expert.

 

[Perris]

on the raptor visit. Our temps have been similar (but colder and for a week, ugh), and we've also seen a higher incidence of raptors and people in our underwear yelling at the sky.

Hope Piou-piou's healing nicely. I'm always irrationally bummed when a chicken loses a chunk of comb. Fortunately the chicken doesn't usually share my disappointment. Sometimes they look annoyed, but other times, proud.

Ours get lots of black comb spots from pecks or encounters with thorny plants. Here's Merle's face a couple weeks after his epic break with Andre last winter. Note the dent on the right where he lost a piece of wattle, sigh.

View attachment 3329098
Leg-wise, are you sure it's not just gnarly rooster legs? Our roosters all ended up with rougher looking legs than the girls. I can't say for sure they don't have SLM, but their legs haven't changed much since they matured. Stilty was treated with Ivermectin back in the day when we had a [horrifying] northern fowl mite outbreak. It didn't change the look of his legs at all, which made me suspect roosters might just have less bonny legs...but I'm no expert.

just for info, my boys' legs aren't gnarly, they're just like the girls'. Thankfully we've not had to endure SLM or northern fowl mites.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

just for info, my boys' legs aren't gnarly, they're just like the girls'. Thankfully we've not had to endure SLM or northern fowl mites.

Maybe "gnarly" is a strong word. Or not, where the feather-legs are concerned. It's wild how the feather shafts stick out of their scales, and that effect is magnified on the roosters. Andre's legs are as big as a small dog's.

However, @Perris - your chickens are supermodels, so it's not surprising to hear they have lovely legs. Amadeo! Be still my beating heart.

 

[ManueB]

glad they all made it through the encounter with the raptor! That laurel looks like a very sound choice by them, too dense and tangled for anything larger to bother to try to get through (unless they were very hungry, of course).

We as humans don't really like that huge laurel tree, but it's a blessing for the chickens. The only attack when a raptor actually got to a hen was due to a small sparrowhawk that followed Brune into the laurel tree. It probably saved her life by gaining her the one minute that was necessary for us to get there and scare the hawk away.

Given the price of electricity, I think we're all glad of delayed cool temps this year!

Almost everyone we dont heat with electricity and we would have needed earlier frost and snow. But I agree that it is going to be a hard winter for all those who can't afford those rises and they are many.
The french government is very relieved too, as our national electrical company has not yet succeeded in reactivating all the nuclear sites necessary to go through winter .

So glad they're all ok! Hopefully Merle and Piou piou will learn from this and avoid the wire and nettings next time a raptor comes down.

I'm not afraid for Merle. She made a mistake this time but she's a very good flyer and very quick. Piou-piou however is still not very mobile. I think her legs are a bit small to support her body and she doesn't have strong wings.

on the raptor visit. Our temps have been similar (but colder and for a week, ugh), and we've also seen a higher incidence of raptors and people in our underwear yelling at the sky.

I wonder what the raptors think of those humans running around screaming half-naked.

Ours get lots of black comb spots from pecks or encounters with thorny plants. Here's Merle's face a couple weeks after his epic break with Andre last winter. Note the dent on the right where he lost a piece of wattle, sigh.

View attachment 3329098

I think it's a part of their body that bleeds a lot but is not the most painful - like the skull for us. He's beautiful on the photo even with all the pecks ! Yes, Gastounet looks like he has been pecked on the face or like he scratched himself, but I don't see where or how this could have happened. I'll just wait to see if it heals.

Maybe "gnarly" is a strong word. Or not, where the feather-legs are concerned. It's wild how the feather shafts stick out of their scales, and that effect is magnified on the roosters. Andre's legs are as big as a small dog's.

In Théo's case it really has to do with the few leg feathers he has. It looks like they raise the scales, but also that they make bumps where the feathers don't actually come out, and most of his feathers break. He hasn't got fully feathered legs like Lea.

Gaston in the other hand has really clean legs, like I've said many times they are huge and yellow (with red streaks now), but they don't seem gnarly or bumpy at all !

 

[ManueB]

One year ago Chipie and Théo arrived here. It's been a journey with many interesting challenges. I certainly don't regret anything, well, most of the time .
Chipie fence fighting the day she arrived.

Théo looking like a miserable pre-teen.

 

[ManueB]

Today I opened the coop and there was already two eggs. Brune had laid on the roost (relieved as she had tried unsuccessfully yesterday). Piou-piou had flown down from hers which means she must have made a stop next to Théo, hopped on the platform where Blanche lays, laid an egg, and was waiting for me by the door - all that in the dark !

Needless to say the chickens were not very keen on going out after yesterday's fright. The ex-batts stayed in the coop, and Léa and Chipie around. Piou-piou and Merle were under the laurel tree and didn't heed Gaston's desperate calls. He ended up jumping over the netting to reach them, but got chased by Théo. I think he can't bear not being able to watch over them. In the afternoon they joined him and they had some good times together. Then cold strong winds started blowing and everyone took shelter and went to bed early, but with some drama again between the hens. I've found a trick that seems to work to allow Gaston to reach the coop without being chased by Théo : I get the ex-batts, Chipie and Théo in the run, and put a reed fence between the run and the coop entrance, so that the roosters can't see each other.

Nougat's feathers are growing incredibly fast, she seemed again very unconfortable and frightened.

I noticed for the first time that Cannelle has changed colour with her molt, her feathers especially are much darker now.

Gastounet looking anxiously for Piou-piou on the other side of the chicken frontier.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

One year ago Chipie and Théo arrived here. It's been a journey with many interesting challenges. I certainly don't regret anything, well, most of the time .
Chipie fence fighting the day she arrived.

Théo looking like a miserable pre-teen.
View attachment 3330381

Théo's baby pictures

Saw the photo of his legs on Shad's thread, and they do look angry. A couple of our feather-legged boys have had redness similar to that, but maybe not as severe.

I've used that Veterycin spray for what I considered to be overly irritated legs, thanks to advice dug up on BYC advice ages ago. Not sure about its availability outside the US, or if it really works or simply distracts them from the pain, but they always seemed to appreciate it. I think I did a couple spritzes, 1-2x daily for 3-7 days, obviously only when temps weren't freezing.

https://smile.amazon.com/Vetericyn-Relieves-Abrasions-Irritations-Non-Toxic/dp/B002YHL82G/?th=1