Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[Perris]

I had to look up rendering walls (not a term I’m familiar with) and now I’m curious if the inside of the walls are rendered or not.

Render is a water-proofing cement coat for the outside, often applied as 2 coats. Inside we use plaster (as I think those of you in wooden houses do too), again two coats, or, quicker, plasterboard and a top skim coat; except in very old buildings which are supposed to breathe, and therefore need limewash as per ManueB's house and a permeable coating, if any, on the outside.

Considering how much the ground shifts, how is rendering a good idea? It seems like you’d be constantly patching cracks.

Ideally one builds on solid ground and/or puts in decent foundations so that the building doesn't move! But it doesn't always work everywhere, here for example. We're on clay, which notoriously swells and shrinks with water or drought; the plaster inside cracks along a well worn line in one corner of one room up and one down that get filled with filler when we redecorate those rooms but are otherwise ignored and bother no-one here. The render doesn't crack; either the cement is very strong or it has a good plasticizer in it.

 

[ManueB]

Today in chicken TV one of the characters gave me good laugh and an other had me real frightened. I will start with the almost-had-a-heart attack moment although it happened later in the day. It was him.

As usual, Théo and him had a fence fighting moment when Gaston was trying to call his hens back to him outside the netting... but this time Théo went through the netting to attack. After a few feet passes at each other, Gaston got in a panic and decided to flee. And he did the exact replay of Blanche : he tried to go inside the netting, by crossing through. He ended up in the same situation : trussed up and stuck half strangling himself (he didn't have his legs through) except he also had a tiny rooster pounding on him. He was beginning to change color. Of course, just like last time I was on my own, and failing to think of the clever thing to do. I grabbed gloves first and I picked Gaston up in my arms. This at least stopped him from struggling, he went completely limp. Théo took a few pecks at me and ended up letting go and going back to the run. Again I took the poles off, and again I didn't manage to unstuck Gaston, so I told him to stay quiet and ran to get the scissors. Unlike Blanche, he did not struggle when I put him on the floor and I came back to set him free as fast as I could. He was quickly acting completely normal, got his usual color back and had no issue, whereas Blanche is still obviously very sore.
I can't believe this happened twice in a row - I had no problem with that netting for three years and now these two manage to almost kill themselves with it! I will have to think of some solution. My first emergency measure is to leave a pair of scissors next to the entrance .

And now the funny thing. What do you think this is ?

It's a broody pancake ! I heard growls coming from the nest this morning : Léa wanted to lay and Merle, already inside, wasn't letting her in- and these were very clearly broody growls! After two hours I tried to entice Merle to come out with sunflower seeds, but she screamed and pecked and said no. So I delicately took her off the nest and she was so entranced she stayed in that position for almost a minute! Then she woke up and came back to her funny normal sweet ways. But..it's not over...I saw her dustbathing before roosting tonight .
Brune laid an egg today, her first in a very long time, but it was weird and very fragile. Nougat, and the three pullets also laid. And everyone went roosting peacefully to my relief !

 

[Solanacae]

He actually isn't a bad person when he is not talking about politics, environmental issues or money, but unfortunately those are his favorite subjects. He loves to work with mechanical tools - if we're using an excavator, chain saws, the track barrows he'll always gladly help! And let's not forget that it is his house that is threatened by those nearby trees .

I’m glad he had his redeeming qualities, even if the annoying ones show more often!

I'm not sure it's the right term, and I was wondering about this too. There is only one old house around that has been rendered, that of our elderly neighbor and curiously it has held up really well. I think there are different kinds of mixes and that we probably would need to apply different layers. And anyway we can't leave bare cinder blocks !
The walls inside are traditionally white washed with lime. We have tried painting the kitchen / living room and it was rather a failure .

Rendering must have been correct, because I was able to find information about it! Thanks for the information on rendering @Perris , I think part of my ignorance is in part because houses here just haven’t been around as long as ones in Europe.

My in-laws live in an ‘old’ house built in 1914, and they have lathe and plaster walls. Their foundation is sandstone which does shift a little and so they do have to patch the cracks periodically. The first house my husband and I bought was similarly old (1917) but it had been remodeled by the previous owners (they took out several walls to make it more open) so some walls were lathe and plaster while others were sheetrock. (Not sure how that will translate for you, Manue, maybe a plaster board? It’s a brand that has become synonymous here with the product, like bandaids.) The big difference between the two houses was that my in law’s house was brick on the exterior but ours was wood. Different cities too, but similar style.

Our current house was built this century, though I can’t say that the layout or quality of materials is superior, it’s a mix of some things being better and other things being inferior. I have lots more room in my yard/garden though, which I am definitely in favor of.

 

[ManueB]

It’s a brand that has become synonymous here with the product, like bandaids.)

The same thing happened here- the brand has become the product's name, "placoplâtre" .
I've lived in old buildings most of my life, and I agree old doesn't always mean better. Twice I shared a flat for a few months in recent buildings built in the late 70s- it felt very strange. I did appreciate having isolation for heat and noise. Houses here are not well built, though old. They did with what they had nearby. The houses require constant maintenance otherwise they fall down.
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Today was an uneventful chicken day. When I opened the coop in the morning two eggs were already in the nest and one was broken in pieces, probably from Blanche. I also had to get Merle out of her nest again, it's interesting that she acts normal before going in the nest, then laying and sitting on the eggs suddenly sets her in broody trance ! Like yesterday it took her a minute to come back to her usual self.

We had quite a nice sunny day (1/34 to 15/59) and both groups of chickens enjoyed staying outside most of the time. Blanche was lying down in the morning but she perked up in the afternoon. Théo was clearly looking for a challenge - the problem for Gaston is to convince his hens to follow him on the other side of the netting and further away in the garden. They are really focused on staying near the laurel tree, I hope in spring when leaves grow back on all the trees they will act differently.

Early morning

mademoiselle Piou-piou's right and left profile

Léa takes her sunny lying dragon pose

These two are good friends again. They've been roosting together for several nights now.

Blanche

 

[ManueB]

While yesterday was pretty uneventful today I got quite a shock from something I believed was impossible - a golden eagle swooped right in front of me to get at Gastounet's gang.
I screamed an ugly word at the top of my lungs and made huge gestures at it and it flew off and came back from the other side ! I grabbed a stick and tried to scare it- it left but didn't look very scared.
We had seen the couple flying above an hour before and they had come much closer than they usually do- right above where we keep our hives.
I was really distressed, much more than the chickens who went back to their normal ways after 20 mn. They probably didn't find it as strange as I did to see a huge bird sweeping on them/me. I think this isn't normal behaviour and I'm worried it will come back. We have snow forecasted for tomorrow so I think I will lock the chickens up most of the day as I won't be able to stay outside all day to keep watch.

Other than that, we had six beautiful eggs today from all the pullets, Blanche, Nougat and Cannelle. Brune tried to lay but didn't succeed. Blanche had a pretty good day, the best since she got caught in the netting. And Théo chased Gaston in the garden twice.
The chickens still get up before dawn and go to bed a good 30 MN before night, I don't know why.

Merle still needs to be taken out of the nest and stays in broody trance for a minute, it's very strange.

 

[RoyalChick]

While yesterday was pretty uneventful today I got quite a shock from something I believed was impossible - a golden eagle swooped right in front of me to get at Gastounet's gang.
I screamed an ugly word at the top of my lungs and made huge gestures at it and it flew off and came back from the other side ! I grabbed a stick and tried to scare it- it left but didn't look very scared.
We had seen the couple flying above an hour before and they had come much closer than they usually do- right above where we keep our hives.
I was really distressed, much more than the chickens who went back to their normal ways after 20 mn. They probably didn't find it as strange as I did to see a huge bird sweeping on them/me. I think this isn't normal behaviour and I'm worried it will come back. We have snow forecasted for tomorrow so I think I will lock the chickens up most of the day as I won't be able to stay outside all day to keep watch.

Other than that, we had six beautiful eggs today from all the pullets, Blanche, Nougat and Cannelle. Brune tried to lay but didn't succeed. Blanche had a pretty good day, the best since she got caught in the netting. And Théo chased Gaston in the garden twice.
The chickens still get up before dawn and go to bed a good 30 MN before night, I don't know why.

View attachment 3376219
View attachment 3376210View attachment 3376211View attachment 3376214View attachment 3376215View attachment 3376218View attachment 3376220View attachment 3376221View attachment 3376222Merle still needs to be taken out of the nest and stays in broody trance for a minute, it's very strange. View attachment 3376224View attachment 3376226View attachment 3376227

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The eagle sounds very scary. I believe there are some here but I have never seen them.

 

[ManueB]

The eagle sounds very scary. I believe there are some here but I have never seen them.

I was never scared of them when I saw them while I was running in the mountains. Once I even almost stumbled on one of the two that flew off. But they have never acted like this. All the wild animals and predators we have here, unlike in the US, are afraid of humans. What happened yesterday is very unlikely to my knowledge, hawks will come very close, but not golden eagles.

I'm glad to say I didn't see them today, but the snow and winds probably deterred them. I locked the chickens about half the day, but tried to get them out whenever it calmed down a bit. It's the tail of storm Gérard, which has everybody laughing as it's one of the most redneck bumpkin name in french. Tomorrow should be worse!

All things considered the chickens had a pretty good day. The three pullets laid early and Blanche, Cannelle and Nougat later in the morning. I had put some new hay in the coop to keep them warm and they all laid on the floor on the hay stack . Blanche didn't seem too bad.

Before the weather turned

This is a card our friend who kept our house and chicks this summer sent us for the new yard, it doesn't show on the photo but it's made with quilling.

 

[RoyalChick]

The card is gorgeous!
I mean scary for the chickens - I think the people-friendly wildlife is an urban not a National phenomenon. Certainly my wildlife doesn't seem at all calm around humans. Really so far only the bear didn't turn and run at the sight of me (and even s/he wandered off when I showed up - just slowly). The one exception was a big raccoon who challenged me in the middle of the day - I assume it was rabid and kept my distance!

 

[ManueB]

The card is gorgeous!
I mean scary for the chickens - I think the people-friendly wildlife is an urban not a National phenomenon. Certainly my wildlife doesn't seem at all calm around humans. Really so far only the bear didn't turn and run at the sight of me (and even s/he wandered off when I showed up - just slowly). The one exception was a big raccoon who challenged me in the middle of the day - I assume it was rabid and kept my distance!

Well, I was thinking the other way round- not wild life that have become too familiar, but wild life that can actually be a threat to humans. Like bears, mountain lions, or racoons indeed. We don't have those.
Our wild life has become more familiar as their territory are now mostly shared with humans. Boars in Nice, wolves slaughtering sheeps in villages...15 years ago I used to travel to Corsica with the cheap latest night fast ferry and slept in the wild outside Bastia until morning : once I was woken up by something pulling very decidedly at my sleeping bag that turned out to be a fox . The scale of the land maybe makes a difference with the states ?
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I'm happy to say storm Gérard was very disappointing: only very little snow and no wind- that was a relief! Temps should be getting colder, back to seasons normal, we had -3c/26f to 7c/45 f today and expecting -10c/ 15f this week which would actually be cold for here.

Gaston was a bit surprised by the snow and for the first ten minutes did his thing of trying to not touch it with his feet jump-flying around ...but then he understood that there was so little of it it was just ridiculous. Merle acted broody again in the nest- I don't know what to do about it, I'm scared to hurt her everytime I take her out because the hole in the wood is so small. I tried taking the eggs out or enticing her with treats but it doesn't break the trance. But since that's the only moment of the day she acts broody, I think locking her in a cage would be pretty cruel.

The ex-batts didn't lay at all today and were happy to stay inside the coop until it stopped snowing early in the afternoon, then they came out for the rest of the day. Gaston's team had a lot of fun in the snow and hung out in the old barn when there was enough snow to get soaked.

I didn't try the warm compress on Blanche because my partner wasn't around in the afternoon and when I tried to take her inside the house she wiggled so much I couldn't hold her. After being quite sleepy in the morning she was really active this afternoon, she looks much less sore from her encounter with the netting.

Snow !

Piou-piou was in a hurry but Merle was already inside

Do you think it tastes good ?

 

[Perris]

I don't know what to do about it, I'm scared to hurt her everytime I take her out because the hole in the wood is so small.

have you got a golf iron, putter or perhaps even a hockey stick? Could insert it flat over her head, and then rotate to gently nudge her or even push her from behind, all while well out of pecking range