Calimero the chick which has immigrate to france

[Calimero]

I’m usually living in Leeds UK. Cold during winters… I have decided to hatch 6 chicken eggs last year around mid December; I bought the eggs on eBay. It was more of an experiment than anything else. The day I have received the eggs by post it was -5c outside. Basically no chance for it to work, but on the 5th of January this year I have one of the eggs which was really noisy, guess what 2h00 after the egg cracked and then one chick just jumped out of it. We decided to call her Calimero. By the way born on the 19th day! 2 days after I got an other one, Henni. In fact she couldn’t get out of her shell so I had to crack it. It took like 6h00 to take her out. She was miserable… All the other eggs didn’t work.

The problem I had is that I was in a flat. Too cold to let them out and no garden… No choice than let them run into the flat. The flat was only 1 bedroom, really tiny.
Guess what every evening while we were watching tv they were jumping on us for a cuddle and get warm under our cloth or under my girlfriend hairs. They could stay for hours like that till we took them to bed. Every day was the same but when they started to get bigger of course the plant pots became good for dust bath and my plants from Ikea good to eat. J
They just loved it! (Vacuum twice a day…)

After 2 and half month I had to go back to France. I decided to take the chicks with me as my mum got a garden. A bit tricky as I’m not sure I could take them to Europe from the UK. Any way I did, we took the ferry and got to France.

In France they have a large garden, with nice garden house. Every evening I’m used to close that house door. One evening when I got there Henni was gone, taken by a dog. It was a hunter’s dog able to jump over the fence… To be honest I’m so sad of it. Henni was responding by her name, she was even playing with Cali like pets…

So I decided to get an other chick to stay with Cali. Henni was white, Cali is red.
I couldn’t find any poultry farm around here and by accident; while I was driving I saw a chick like my Henni in a rabbit cage on the side of the road. So I stopped the car and bought her! She was kept aside of the others because she was attacked by other chicken and looked unhealthy.

Today we call her Madonna. She looks really good.

The only problem I’ve got is that each time I’m going to the garden Cali jumps on my shoulders, when I forget to refill with food, she jumps over the fence and come back home, it’s like 100m walk… Lately during summer she even gets into people’s places… Imagine the head of my neighbours… J
But the top story is the following one:
Our garden is like elevated. So both of them can watch the vegetable garden of my Neighbour. The problem is this 2.5m high fence, plus this road in the middle.
Well no problem Cali has jumped over the fence, walked down the road to the main road, reached my neighbours house. (100m) then got into her garage, cross the garage, got through the basement, use the door that lead to the garden, cross her garden to reach the vegetable garden.

Well to anyone that says chicken are “stupid”, I’m telling you that is wrong because to do that, she might have thought of it for a long time!!!!!!!!!!!

Well that was the story of Calimero, the English chick which has immigrate to France

 

[theoldchick]

She's quite the traveler! Keep her safe and she'll be around a long time!

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Wow, Cali was determined to get to that vegetable garden. I hope she does not run into that dog when she is out and about.

 

[Calimero]

The problem with Cali and dogs is that she likes to run after and pick their bum for some reason... (?)
She does that with my cloth too. Or she is like cleaning her beck on me. It depends on the colors, why i don't know. (Maybe she is tasting things) Some time when she is on my shoulders and does it on my head I think this is more like showing affection. They don't have legs or a tang like a dog so I strongly believe she does to show that she likes me.
She also talks a lot! When she isn't happy about the food or something she is just talking and going away like an old mademoiselle! Maybe she needs a rooster?

By the way does any of you guys know the minimum temperature a chick can cope with? Its start to get near 0°c here and they are only 2 to keep warm each other in the this little house. I thought about running a heater by minus 5°c, should I do it now?

 

[Tuhmu]

What a lucky little chicken! Living in France, how amazing that would be. It sounds like, Elle a un chez très bonne! (Sorry still learning, but couldn't resist)

 

[Calimero]

That would be more like Elle a un tres bon chez elle...

 

[Tuhmu]

I see, well that's how one learns right.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

The problem with Cali and dogs is that she likes to run after and pick their bum for some reason... (?)
She does that with my cloth too. Or she is like cleaning her beck on me. It depends on the colors, why i don't know. (Maybe she is tasting things) Some time when she is on my shoulders and does it on my head I think this is more like showing affection. They don't have legs or a tang like a dog so I strongly believe she does to show that she likes me.
She also talks a lot! When she isn't happy about the food or something she is just talking and going away like an old mademoiselle! Maybe she needs a rooster?

By the way does any of you guys know the minimum temperature a chick can cope with? Its start to get near 0°c here and they are only 2 to keep warm each other in the this little house. I thought about running a heater by minus 5°c, should I do it now?

Fully feathered chickens that are at least a few months old are fine at Zero degrees Celsius as long as they are dry and are not in the direct wind. That is a common high day time temperature in Northern U.S. and my chickens choose to be outside of the coop at that temperature. Even -5 C is not dangerous for chickens. If you have a heater that is not a fire risk you might consider using it at -10 C. You could also use an incandescent light bulb to produce some heat on very cold nights. I use a heated water bowl for my chickens in the winter to keep the water from freezing.

 

[Calimero]

Thanks for the infos

 

[Louly]

Glad you joined us ! je suis de france !