Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[MaryJanet]

endless wheel of the persecuted becoming the persecutors

Indeed. It's a very sad situation.

 

[MaryJanet]

We just bought the cheapest gate we could find on Craig's list not too far .
We weren't expecting it to come out so..flourished. Now we have to build the mansion to go with the gate !

It's possible ; maybe they don't have a cat door to let it back in. And even then,
the problem with cat's pop doors is that unless they are connected to the cat's ID microchip, any cat can use them to come in..so letting cats out when no one is home would mean not being able to check on other cats coming in !

It's good that you are finding ways to let the chickens breathe a bit without putting them too much at risk.

It is one of those evening where I can't wait to go to sleep, not get a headache thinking about how the world is going and the seemingly endless wheel of the persecuted becoming the persecutors. So I’ll just post some chickens pictures and call it a day .
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How are the bumblefeet going Manue?

 

[lightm]

Now we have to build the mansion to go with the gate !

 

[Kiki]

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[RoyalChick]

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Done

 

[BDutch]

Now we have to build the mansion to go with the gate !

Or a castle.

I had the cat bring a baby rabbit in, woke up and it was running around on me in the bed. It was then in the bookcase headboard and turned on the strobe mode of the flashlight. It was like a demon bunny. I caught and put outside.

Hilarious

 

[ManueB]

or varmint
I had the cat bring a baby rabbit in, woke up and it was running around on me in the bed. It was then in the bookcase headboard and turned on the strobe mode of the flashlight. It was like a demon bunny. I caught and put outside.

one evening I was on the computer and heard nails on the floor behind me, A racoon was helping herself to the cat food. that was the end of the cat door... I was wondering about the dumped garbage that morning

Hilarious afterwards, but it must have felt pretty creepy !
We neutered our male cat very late as my partner wasn't keen on it and he was very slow to mature. The first sign of trouble was when we started having feral tomcats coming inside to eat the cats food, and he would fight real bad. It usually woke us up in the middle of the night and it was rather scary, horror movie sounds. We had three tomcats trapped, neutered and released like this in two months time. Once Grochatila was neutered no feral cat ever came back.

How are the bumblefeet going Manue?

At last some good news for Alba, she seems to be completely healed. We stopped tending to her feet two days ago. I checked tonight and her feet look fine. Nieva however is not making any progress on her left foot, while the right one is slowly getting a bit better. The scab on the left foot looks small and clean, but the whole foot is still very swollen. It seems what we’re doing is just keeping it from getting worse, but not actually helping to heal . Thanks for asking !
********

As expected there are two broodies now, Léa and Lilly, which I am stopping from setting. Lilly is very sweet even when broody, she purrs on the nest when I take her off, and she is not too committed. It's impressive to see her puff up because she already has a lot of fluff! Léa, on the other hand, is turning into a scary broody. She screams and pecks me when I take her off the nest. I don't want either sitting throughout the whole day, both because Léa is molting and also because I’m worried of a potential lice issue. I haven't seen any lice for days now, but I am still not sure I’m not missing a few tiny ones not looking in the right places.

The pullets are spending now a hour every morning looking at the nests and at the laying hens. I saw Gaston mate Mélisse and Annette several times. They should be laying any time soon, but I keep saying that and seeing nothing ? Their crests have also gotten more red, except for Laure who already had a huge red crest.

Funny now Mélisse is getting more white, and I can really see some similarities between the four. Lulu and Mélisse look really like twins, but Mélisse has more white ; she is beginning to look like Annette from the front but she doesn't have the elaborate feather patterns, while Annette and Laure have the same heart drawings on the front of the neck, but different colours.

Kara passed a soft shell egg this afternoon but it was the best she has laid ever since she has been having trouble- just a small egg with a fragile shell. I don't know what to think because she doesn't have at all the overall attitude i’m used to see in hens with reproductive disorder but since the 6 she has not laid a normal egg.

Mélisse

Piou-piou and Merle found the boar's playground.

Laure

Lulu

Kara

Three old ladies

Broody Léa

Broody Lilly- cute goth look

Blanche.

Broody Lilly

Laure was scared of the watermelon but she overcame her fear.

 

[MaryJanet]

At last some good news for Alba, she seems to be completely healed. We stopped tending to her feet two days ago. I checked tonight and her feet look fine. Nieva however is not making any progress on her left foot, while the right one is slowly getting a bit better. The scab on the left foot looks small and clean, but the whole foot is still very swollen. It seems what we’re doing is just keeping it from getting worse, but not actually helping to heal .

Great newson the whole, but hmmm I wonder about Nieva's left foot.

Mary has one swollen ankle. She's always had it. It doesn't seem to cause pain and the vet thinks it's from an old injury. Thought I'd share in case her story seems similar to Nieva's.

 

[ManueB]

Great newson the whole, but hmmm I wonder about Nieva's left foot.

Mary has one swollen ankle. She's always had it. It doesn't seem to cause pain and the vet thinks it's from an old injury. Thought I'd share in case her story seems similar to Nieva's.

Yes, we believe that was the case with Cannelle. Her finger stayed a bit swollen but it seems like an old thing, and the bumblefoot disappeared from underneath. So we stopped tending her quite some time ago. But with Nieva it doesn't feel like it's old, it really feels inflamed. The tissues are very tense and hot. Tonight it was slightly better. We are hoping that maybe the drop in temperature and the days getting shorter so she has less time jumping around all over the place could help.

It is beginning to get a bit cooler, 10c this morning which is still warm for the season, and some grey sky for the first time in October. I made a big mash for the ex-batt's fourth birthday, and divided it into seven different bowls so all the chickens had a chance to grab some. It was nothing fancy, rice, buckwheat, sardines, lentils , eggs, sunflower and squash seeds, and chopped kale and chard. It was gone in about the time it took to set all the bowls apart on the ground. Then Cannelle looked a bit off. It often happens to the ex-batt's when I give them something special to eat now, I think it may be because they eat too fast trying to stay in line with the other chickens. It's why I don't give them human food in big quantities as often as I used to. Ideally I would need to take the three ex-batt's apart to give them special food, but it's not really simple.

Blanche didn't eat a lot, but still she had her crop slightly less empty than usually by roost time.
She really looks like a very tired old lady. Sometimes a pullet or one of the younger hen is lucky and sits or roosts next to her on her blind side, and she doesn't realize it. Then at some point she finally sees her and then either she pecks hard, or she grabs and pulls, and her victim shrieks not expecting it. Still, she isn't scaring anyone now, she is too weak.
Pied beau mated her again today and while she screamed like she was in total pain, she seemed okay after, so he likely didn't hurt her. But I don't understand why Gaston lets him. I wonder if he could be afraid of him ? He is totally different with Théo.

I’ve seen some suggestions to regularly give senior chicken ground flax seed, I could give it a try when the flax from the garden has bolted which should be soon.

I left Léa in her nest until I was sure she would not lay, in the beginning of the afternoon. She spent the rest of the day screaming at me to let her in the coop. She has totally understood that it's me locking her out so she stays in front of the coop waiting, and she runs to me bawking whenever I come by. She went back in the nest at roost time and I took her out when it was dark. I don't like it because it's a small hole in the wall, and she needs to crouch so that I can take her out without hurting her.

Laure staring at the sky early morning

Pied beau and Lilly in the garden

Mélisse preparing for landing

Cannelle

Lilly

Théo resting next to Lilly and Pied Beau, very unusual as he almost always chases them away. He is molting like crazy so it must be tiring.

Blanche looking good.

Cannelle

Nougat.

Cannelle

Alba, Nieva and Blanche

Lulu

Kara, no egg today.

 

[Perris]

But I don't understand why Gaston lets him. I wonder if he could be afraid of him ? He is totally different with Théo.

Chirk turned a blind eye to Killay mating hens for about 6 months before he got ill and we had a regime change, but he wouldn't tolerate it by Fforest. I think it is the exercise of discretion when the rival is not challenging for the top spot and is not obviously going to run away if threatened (or in the mating case, interrupted) either.