Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[Perris]

And now for something completely different

 

[ManueB]

So, I posted an answer this morning, edited for some typos, and somehow managed to delete part of my post and then the whole thing. Old lady or internet issue ? I'm reposting the same.

here we are, fresh as the day they were made
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Beautiful! But whoever the culprit/artist was, he or she probably walked on the concrete once it was a bit set. Merle was intent on jumping in a very wet mix, which would have resulted I suppose in some stuck bird disaster. My other worry was she and Piou-piou really seemed to want to taste it .

I was discussing with the eldests husband whether super heroes had become the latest get out clause for our species. For some it's a god but in modern Western society the allure of god will sort it and ever lasting life and in some kind of heaven isn't hacking it any more.

Three things this species needs to addresse imo.
The belief that we are some how special and above other species needs to go.
That would free up some think space about what we are in fact like.
The belief that at some point in time in our lives and deaths there is some kind of salvation for how we are. We seem to have a terrible problem in that we hope some super being is going to show up and sort us all out.

Get over that lot and we may be in with a shout.
It would mean an inconvienent amount of responsibility though.

I think it's not so much shying away from responsibility, than guilt that make people either hide their head in the sand or believe they have to try to save the world.
I'm more the "hide in a mountain" type

I thought I would get wiser getting older but it's the same as with computer and phone issues- things about human behaviours and politics I could understand and feel sure enough of myself to take a stand on, seem out of my reach now.

A neighbour with chickens stopped by yesterday and reported that he's down to 3 (from 12) mostly because of predation by the goshawk that has been hanging around here for a while now, and has surely swooped through my garden more often than the couple of times that I witnessed it. Horrible for him, worrying for me; and in hindsight, it is the obvious explanation for the unusually tight flocking behaviour I've been witnessing, since that's continued long after the dog attack, and they usually get over traumas quite quickly.

Sad to say but his losses may have protected your flock up to now if the hawk felt it was safer/easier attacking his chickens than yours.

With all the different raptors we have here, the only two landings where the birds actually got to the chickens were hawks able to crawl under our laurel tree so probably sparrowhawks or goshawk. I don't think there are any effective deterrent. Crows are supposed to help, but we have a few especially a couple that live here and I have only seen them twice chase the hawks away. I thought the golden eagle's presence would deter the hawks, but we still see them at least every two days, although maybe they don't linger as long. For us it's been a matter of putting out shelter's and rubble's around to gain the chickens a few minutes in case of an attack so that we have the time to intervene and chase the hawks away.
Their constant presence in autumn and winter had made the chicken's lives much less fun, and ours as well. Because we can't lock up Gaston's team easily we try to have one of us stay here as much as possible. This means I've drastically reduced my running and hiking activities and we never run together now.

And now for something completely different

Well we could call both baroque in french... but I'm not sure it works in english .
Although neither are part of my regular play list I enjoy both. My culture of music before the 20th century is mostly limited to what my parents listened to when I lived with them, but I will listen anything with countertenor voices .

 

[Perris]

things about human behaviours and politics I could understand and feel sure enough of myself to take a stand on, seem out of my reach now

same here; I think it's because we know it all when we're young, and know we don't when we're older

Sad to say but his losses may have protected your flock up to now if the hawk felt it was safer/easier attacking his chickens than yours.

I fear the same. His are production breeds so probably an easier option.

Their constant presence in autumn and winter had made the chicken's lives much less fun, and ours as well. Because we can't lock up Gaston's team easily we try to have one of us stay here as much as possible. This means I've drastically reduced my running and hiking activities and we never run together now.

Sad. My neighbour pointed out when telling of his woes that there's a reason raptors used to be shot/poisoned/killed.

I will listen anything with countertenor voices

We in Wales are a bit partial to singing in any shape or form

 

[ManueB]

We in Wales are a bit partial to singing in any shape or form

I think british education is much better at teaching people to sing and to have a musical ear, than ours. We have one hour of music per week from year 7 to 10, and this is meant to teach to read notes, rythm, learn to play the flute and learn to sing. So, the average french person who doesn't have a special interest, sings as well as they speak english.
*****
My partner and I did dry January's this year for the fourth time. The weather is playing overtime and doing dry February as well. We're having to water the garlic again like last year, this is the stuff of my nightmares beginning to come true. The chickens however, though they do find that lack of water causes lack of creepy crawlies, are very happy with the heat wave. They spent a good part of the day alternating sunbathe and resting in the shade. Léa began the day inside Théo's zone, but joined Gaston's team later on. I saw her looking at several nests so I think she should start laying again soon. Today Piou-piou, Merle and Nougat laid.

Gaston's team had a great time in the garden but the smaller eagle flew by and then the pullets kept running to shelter in the laurel tree. This made Gaston very upset and ended in a fight with Théo when he jumped over the netting to get the girls back. I was sort of dozing in the lounge chair and jumped to run at them without any proper rooster equipment like a stick or gloves so in the middle of the fight I asked politely if they could please stop. Gaston is really a nice guy because he listened even though he didn't like it and followed me grumbling pom-pom-poooom in his low voice.

I then took Théo's team in the field below to distract them. Blanche and Chipie didn't dare come but the other hens and Théo are getting more adventurous. Our dirty water ends up in a hole in there, and it has a billion worms, but I'm not sure if human poop is safe to scratch and search for chickens.
We finished bringing the manure in the morning so my partner was able to drive to get the missing furnitures for the woodshed and the coop this afternoon. Just in time, the ewes are coming back from the Crau plain tomorrow in the stable we cleaned!

Blanche was not doing good this morning, she was better during the day.

Early morning, a rare sight : six hens on the perch - Léa at the far end after Chipie.

Going down to the field under the chicken's yard...

Piou-piou's back to laying in her first nest in the old barn

I took this picture to show how damaged Piou-piou's feathers are by Gaston's mating. He must be six or seven times bigger, it's a good thing he is not too insistent and they don't resist him because he could really hurt them.

Chipie and Blanche didn't dare follow Théo out in the unknown.

 

[MaryJanet]

Turns out the Tallis Scholars are a wonderful accompaniment to Mountain Chicken updates. Built the drama nicely:

Will the stable be ready for the ewes from Crau plain??

Will Gaston and Théo ever resolve their differences??

Will Blanche recuperate??

No running together??

All those uneaten worms in the human waste??

Such drama. Thank you for elevating my breakfast, Team Tallis!

 

[ManueB]

Turns out the Tallis Scholars are a wonderful accompaniment to Mountain Chicken updates. Built the drama nicely:

Will the stable be ready for the ewes from Crau plain??

Will Gaston and Théo ever resolve their differences??

Will Blanche recuperate??

No running together??

All those uneaten worms in the human waste??

Such drama. Thank you for elevating my breakfast, Team Tallis!

Who knows, maybe Allegri had chickens? Hope you had one of those lovely tea pot and cups to keep up with the spiritual level of your breakfast !
*******
I caught some kind of bug at my partner's mother's (hopefully for her not COVID, I'll do an autotest tonight) so I spent the day between my bed and dragging myself around the chickens while my partner took off all the old steel sheets from the wood shed and put new or less used ones instead .
From what I saw the chickens had a good day, except that Théo and Gaston had a fight while I was in bed, and they all had a big scare when they heard the angle grinder for the first time. Only Cannelle and Piou-piou laid, and there was much dust and sunbathing, and digging around.

Three pictures of crazy molting Blanche. I don't think I could ever decide to euthanize a chicken with such a strong living spirit. Today I was thinking I was too tired to make her daily scrambled egg but she screamed such drama that I didn't have a choice .

 

[MaryJanet]

Who knows, maybe Allegri had chickens?

What a great thought!

 

[Perris]

Who knows, maybe Allegri had chickens? Hope you had one of those lovely tea pot and cups to keep up with the spiritual level of your breakfast !
*******
I caught some kind of bug at my partner's mother's (hopefully for her not COVID, I'll do an autotest tonight) so I spent the day between my bed and dragging myself around the chickens while my partner took off all the old steel sheets from the wood shed and put new or less used ones instead .
From what I saw the chickens had a good day, except that Théo and Gaston had a fight while I was in bed, and they all had a big scare when they heard the angle grinder for the first time. Only Cannelle and Piou-piou laid, and there was much dust and sunbathing, and digging around.

Three pictures of crazy molting Blanche. I don't think I could ever decide to euthanize a chicken with such a strong living spirit. Today I was thinking I was too tired to make her daily scrambled egg but she screamed such drama that I didn't have a choice .
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Hope you feel better soon ManueB

 

[Ribh]

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).
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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.
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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.
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Gastounet (real name Gaston) the huge funny goofy cockerel.
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I will try & catch up. Life is a little out of control just now but I am very happy to see you have started your own thread. You have a very interesting flock.

 

[ManueB]

I will try & catch up. Life is a little out of control just now but I am very happy to see you have started your own thread. You have a very interesting flock.

Hello Ribh! I think you have your hands full for now ! I'm also happy I decided to write a thread, I may reduce the length and frequency of the posts in time but it's nice to have all the chicken events in one place.
*******
The day began in total fog but then it cleared and it was very warm again.
I will in fact do a short post today because if the chicken had a great time, I did not! It's not COVID and probably just a common virus but I didn't have any since we moved here and it's coming back with a vengeance. All three ex-batts laid, so did Merle and Piou-piou, and Léa spent again most of the day inside the chicken netting. Théo actually tried to chase and mate her for once, but she did not agree at all and that got her to join Gastounet.

Foggy morning