Lovely update. Glad you survived Christmas!Well he is from Belgium so maybe closer to you geographically and culturally, than to me ! I’m not sure to what degree he is known elsewhere though. The clear line had a huge impact on french comics.
We promised that next year we will either do Christmas separately each in our own family, or not do it at all.
Lilly's foot was healing nicely, the wound is making a clean scab, but the last two days it seems to be swelling slightly. At this stage, I'm not sure if it's a problem or just a normal reaction. It was quite a deep opening so we are not going to probe it or even bathe her foot for a while.
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I was right to be surprised that Nougat had laid a beautiful first egg, because today she laid two soft shells in a row- one in her nest during the night and one in the morning. She seemed a bit tired after but not really unwell. I am not sure if we can do anything about it, I think she eats sufficiently and has access to enough calcium. Because of Kara they always have a choice now between plain water and supplemented. It could be she just needs to get back into laying, or her reproductive system is worn out.
The pullets are now showing strong personalities. Lulu is extremely vocal ; those noises she started making when she began to lay, have now become her ways of expressing that she's unhappy about something, or wanting Gaston to come over ; and she is very loud, by far the loudest chickens that has lived here. She is the most familiar though and still speaks to us like a duck. Annette and Mélisse are both free rangers, especially Annette, who always wander far on her own. They are not familiar with us, but they are not afraid at all. When we have lunch outside it has become difficult to keep them off the table and out of our plate. Even Gaston seems a bit shocked at how they act with us. Laure, on the other hand, is still afraid of everything. She is the most dependent on Gaston and she stays mostly close to him. She gets bullied by Lulu and Lilly, but it's a strange relationship where she follows them and hangs around with them all the time, but gets pecked in the eye by Lilly and chased around by Lulu. She is now laying every other day and her eggs are the smallest, even though she is the biggest of the four.
Lilly has ruffled feathers and I saw today underneath she has a lot of broken feathers. I suspect it's because of the roosters mating too often with her, Pied-beau and now Gaston.
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Laure has such a strange personality. She is really afraid, but she is also curious and greedy enough to eat from my hand, though mostly she grabs and runs. Also, you can see on that picture she is beginning to have spurs. With her huge wattle and comb, I wonder if it has anything to do with having more male hormones than the others ?
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Chipie still believes she should rule the world.
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We took off definitely the wrap off Nieva's foot tonight. She is totally healed.
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My partner put on the blue overall to clean the stove's pipe and the chickens are terrified of him when he wears that.
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When Gaston is away Théo likes to pretend he is still the ex-batt rooster.
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Blanche has grown new feathers.
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Kara laid a huge brown egg today that looked like the eggs she used to lay before she had troubles laying. I hope it's a good sign.
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Gaston is in great shape. Everyone who sees him comments how healthy and shiny he looks.
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Théo and Piou-piou are still together although Piou-piou hangs out with Gaston when he goes in the garden.
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traumatic for you too. I hope you all get over it quickly and can put it behind you.
