Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

Well, three of the chicks have popped wattles today. Two are the ones I was sure were cockerels including the yellow chick, the third is the one with the ratty tail.
Guess I should know soon enough for the others. I'm expecting at least another boy, maybe two .

Wattles

Chicks stack

She has troubles getting them to bed at 5pm. They think it's too early! Gaston and his team go to bed at 5.30 and the ex-batts at 6 since we have that rainy weather. They were roosting at 7 at the beginning of April before it started. Night only falls at 9.30pm ! On the other hand, they are up before dawn at 5.20.

 

[ManueB]

A huge thank you to who gave me a PFM . It's a kind gift !

 

[Perris]

you'll be an expert on dealing with cockerels by the time they grow up

 

[ManueB]

you'll be an expert on dealing with cockerels by the time they grow up

One will be re-homed at my partner's father. I'm hoping to re-home one or two other, but there's no certainty- most people here already have roosters and don't want two. They may end up as coq au vin (not in my plate).

 

[BDutch]

A huge thank you to who gave me a PFM . It's a kind gift !

I feel ashamed it wasn’t me. I missed the announcement. But you do earn it! Maybe even twice!

Sorry to hear most chicks are male. I haven’t seen any wattles yet, but I am certain at leat two are male with large combs. And I am quite certain two are girls. The other 5 are still a mystery.

About 1 meter high and wobly.

 

[Shadrach]

It has rained so much the last month that our coop's back wall, that is buried two levels underground, is leaking and completely soaked . Unfortunately the roosts are very close to that wall so the chickens sleep in a damp place. Solving the problem would require quite a bit of work, but I think as a palliative measure we are finally going to change the roosts next week and bring them closer to the door and the ventilation.

The chicks are growing bigger every day and poor Léa really has trouble holding them together. On the other hand, she is just awful with the other chickens, especially Piou-piou. Twice today I was holding Piou-piou in my arms and she attacked me.

Piou-piou was not well again, and didn't lay. Still wondering if it's related.

There was some drama at roost time again. Gaston had Alba on his left and Merle on his right. Nueva didn't want to go too close to Merle, so she stood right in the middle of the roost, on top of the ladder. Normally the ex-batts are on the right of the ladder, but the two black giggles, Kara and Lily, took their place. Three of the ex-batts let it go, and accepted to roost below, but Nougat was crazy. This is her place. She kept pecking at the one next to her (Lily I think) and pulling off feathers and trying to throw her off the roost. The two black chickens were stuck against the wall to the far right and trying to hide in the nest hole that is there, but they are too big to manage it. They just crouched backward and endured the beating. It was still going on when I closed the coop .

I posted on the fluffy butt acre thread here detailed photos of all the chicks asking for eventual ID, not reposting those here.

This morning after breakfast I found the chicks, Léa, Merle and Cannelle tearing bloody bits of a mouse apart and a very unhappy Grochatila watching them despondently . My guess is they stole it from him.
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Gaston managed to touch three chicks for the first time this evening before Léa attacked him.
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They would do anything to get a share of our lunch.
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For the first time today Léa convinced all her chicks to join her dustbathing in the barrel. They are very different from Chipie's clutch who were dustbathing from day 2.
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The devil in the compost.
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Free ranging chicks before the rain.
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Scared of Léa
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That looks like Gaston imprinting the chicks.

 

[ManueB]

Sorry to hear most chicks are male. I haven’t seen any wattles yet, but I am certain at leat two are male with large combs. And I am quite certain two are girls. The other 5 are still a mystery.


View attachment 3535488
About 1 meter high and wobly.

It really depends on the chicks, I think. On this hatch, the yellow chick I could say from day two or three was a male. It had big feet, a comb, male stance, a very specific attitude like it was doing it's own thing and ignoring the other chickens. Last year it took me a very long time to be sure Piou-piou was a girl- she was developing so slowly and strangely. And she kept fighting with Gaston .
I suppose it depends on the breed when you have pure breed chickens.

That looks like Gaston imprinting the chicks.

Yes, I think that's what he's trying to do. He's also often trying to share their food when they eat, and trying to herd Léa. But she's not having any of it !
************

Not great news today. First, another chick grew wattles out of nowhere during the day, and it's one of the two I was most sure were pullets. So I'm thinking we likely have five males. I am going to stop spending so much time watching their behaviour and taking pictures, because I don't want to get attached to them.

And second, this evening I found live tapeworm segments in the ex-batts's poops. I know I have them in my environment as it had happened in september, I had treated the flock with Flubendazole and didn't see any tapeworms again up to now. However, I see every now and then a roundworm in their poop, and I just finished deworming them two weeks ago . I dewormed Léa before, when we let her set, and dewormed all the flock when the four pullets arrived. For Léa I had seen two or three roundworms in ten days, so I didn't want to risk her getting weak while being broody. And the woman whom we got the pullets from said they needed to be dewormed, so I treated the whole flock. But now they have tapeworms, which I believe are much more damageable for the chickens, and I don't think I can deworm them again so soon with Flubendazole. I don't have access to any other dewormer (and anyway I don't think there are many effective against tapeworms). So I guess once again it will just be cross my fingers and hope for the best .

In better news, I gave Léa and her chicks some mackerel and she ate a bit. I had underestimated how much they would eat though, the chicks almost finished a can on their own. I'll give more the next days.
And, the roosters didn't fight when I let them stay out together for a while.

Chipie the broody is obsessed with dustbathing.

Nieva

Piou-piou going to lay. She had a great day today.

They are beginning to eat very cautiously from my hands when I'm holding chards or lamb's quarters . The leghorns don't understand : Gaston tidbits to them, but they don't get that it's for the plant. He has to cut it up for them .

Chicks antics

It doesn't really show on the picture but he has wattles now.

Hiding- three gallicus hawks (short toed snake eagle) circling above.

 

[ManueB]

I skipped posting two days- we have been having huge afternoon thunderstorms with a lot of rain, so it's a muddy mess everywhere. We've been staying more inside than usual, and so have the chickens.
The biggest new is that we changed the roost yesterday. We took off the two higher roosts that were 1.m 50 and 1m80 high, and the huge old ladder that they had such difficulty climbing. Instead we put just one big roost that goes across the whole coop at 1.m20 with a ramp.

Of course, roosting was a bit hard yesterday. The younger chickens got it quickly but for Théo's gang it was a huge shock. Nougat especially kept going to the place where she used to jump on the ladder and stare in the air, as if she just couldn't grasp by what magic her ladder and roost had disappeared. Although we have added two smaller portable roosts, they have always known the two high roosts that they slept on.
They were pretty unhappy about it, but it's definitely better. If they fall, it's from a more reasonable height, and the ladder was beginning to be really hazardous for them to climb. And they are not stuck against the back wall. It's also easier to take them off the roost if we need to.
I'll take some pictures tonight if the rain calms down a bit.

I haven't found tapeworm segments again. Doing a bit of reading on the web I found various conflicting information but decided to stick with this : https://www.msdvetmanual.com/poultry/helminthiasis/helminthiasis-in-poultry which insist that there are very different types of tapeworms of various pathogenicity, and that most of them are not very effectively treated by the molecules that are poultry approved.

Piou-piou seems to be doing good now, but Blanche and Brune are not so well again, Brune especially. And all the chickens are coughing a little ! Must be the humidity inside the coop and all the rain.
Pictures from yesterday in random order.

 

[Perris]

love the chicks on the bunk bed! One for a competition methinx...

I think that was a good move with the roosts.

 

[ManueB]

Roost now :

Compared to before :

Random rambling:

I baked one of my favorite local and zero waste cake today. Bitter orange wine is a traditional appetizer drink from the county of Nice, that we all make here. It needs to macerate in demijohns for four months, so we bottled five liters yesterday. Then I use the orange quarters that are left over from macerating in the wine and alcohol to make a cake, cutting them up in tiny pieces. It's really tasty ( if you like bitter orange wine that is) .