Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[RoyalChick]

Talking of fermented feed reminds me I was charged with passing on a message of thanks from the Princesses at the Chicken Palace to @Perris.

Although I am not considering taking the step towards home made feed, I did have some wheat berries languishing in a jar in my kitchen. I fermented them on the kitchen counter for a couple of days and my Princesses went completely nuts for them. Seriously, this is on a par with sunflower seeds and dried up cat food for them!
I think I will get some more and try and always have a little pot on the go for them. Now for some peas!

 

[ManueB]

You're assuming again that I'm in charge here Fez has been chowing down on it amongst the adults since about 7 days old! S/he has already learned not to climb into the bowl on pain of a disciplinary peck from someone or other, and most of them tolerate this little figure whizzing in and out between their legs during mealtimes very well. S/he'll be 3 wks old tomorrow; this was taken a couple of days ago.
View attachment 3547756Several hens learned early to hover near them, so that every time I tried during the day to offer some chickfeed, they were quickly pushed aside by grown ups who scoffed the lot in an instant. But since Polka's still sleeping out, I do get chance to feed them separately by not letting the rest out till they've had some breakfast, so I do manage to ensure Fez gets a cropful of mealworms each morning. And some milk-soaked bread this morning. At which I noticed s/he has started the 'me first' manoeuvre whereby they insert themselves in front of the middle of the foodbowl and try to shoulder anyone else (mum in this case) away. Kids eh?

Kids are so ungrateful ! Well of course they would eat the same stuff! I'm being really dense because in fact Léa's chicks eat all the other adult food. It just happens that I give the fermented feed early morning when I open the coop : the kids always hurry first out of the coop and outside the chicken yard to get their special breakfast of damp bread mixed with starter feed, and then when they are full Léa has them sleeping again for 20 minutes, so they never get access to the fermented feed. I'll start putting some out for them tomorrow.
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Today was a mixed chicken day with some good,and some not so. I had the pleasure of Piou-piou's company taking early breakfast outside for the 2d day, and then she laid for the third day in a row with no trouble, which hadn't happened for a long time, so hopefully whatever the issue was is getting better.
I'm not one to believe and not getting any hopes up, but it looks like Brune may be trying to pull her Lazarus trick again . She got up, stayed outside awake for a few hours, drank a lot and barely nibbled at some grass. She refused all the various food we proposed to her. Then she fell back to sleep, but still later walked back to the coop on her own. Whatever happens, she had a few hours outside, and for a hen who apparently really doesn't want to die I think that's good.

Not so good was the roosters who kept bothering the hens, and I lost again my temper at Théo who keeps provoking Gaston. Not so good also the heat that brings to life at least a hundred thousand flies. And we're beginning to have hornets. After I got anaphylactic shock last summer being stung, I was pretty traumatized and spent two months trying to avoid them, but they were more or less everywhere around the fruit trees and the compost and the hives. I really hope it's not like this again this year.
And last but maybe worse disaster is that the chicks have found the strawberry patch and they manage to go under the protective netting . Goodbye, strawberry fields, you did not last forever !

Gaston tidbitting- and scratching around the manure with his power claws for Léa and the kids.

Me found a fat worm and me don't want to share !

Listen carefully kids ...

Nougat is already hot.

Brune with sundozing Nougat.

Brune again in the shade.

Piou-piou stayed with me for breakfast. It was food motivated of course .

 

[ManueB]

Funny how chickens are like people- some love the heat, and some hate it. I feel like my bigger chickens really suffer from the heat, whereas the smaller ones suffer more when it's cold. We added a shade cloth to the run because the ex-batts now often take shelter from Gaston there, and in the afternoon with the sun rays directly on the polycarbonate, it gets really hot.

I saw the first mites in the coop but I'm hesitant to treat with Chipie sitting on air. The safety instructions says to leave birds and food out for a few hours. I may wait another four days to get to 21 days and force her out by closing the coop when we treat it, if she doesn't leave the nest on her own.
All the chickens got dusted with pyrethrin again and gotcha a drop of Neem oil, except Brune and the chicks.

In the morning Brune looked again like she would die in a few hours. In the afternoon however she got up and joined her friends, albeit very slowly and staggering on her feet. Tonight she actually managed to climb on the roost. We decided to let her, and take the risk that she falls- I still think she will die very soon and would rather let her have what little pleasure she wants.

For the first time since we found out she was wounded at the beginning of April, I also put Piou-piou to sleep on the roost next to Gaston, instead of in the crate. They were both very happy. But her skin is really irritated and fragile, and now Théo tries to mate her too. We tried to put vet wrap on her today, I really hoped it would work, but it doesn't - to cover the wound the wrap comes to tight and too low on her legs, and she can't walk with it.

We have a couple of friends coming over until Sunday so not sure if I'll find the time to post in the next days.

The chick next to Léa that has stuffed it's beak in starter mash is one of the two we're not sure about. It had wattles very early on, but it's not acting like the three roosters and the wattles haven't grown yet. It used to be black and is completely changing color, wonder what it will look like!

Oh and Max the yellow chick is now white, but he's still grumpy! Léa suffers from the heat a lot. She already did last summer. She's panting like on this picture most of the day.

Théo and Brune.

Brune. My ex-batts spend a lot of time pecking my legs when I sit with them. She actually came to join in the pecking. I left them for half an hour and when to see them when I saw a hawk flying under our property; she had managed to hide herself so well in the tall grass and lilac bushes it took me a while to find her. She wasn't able to come out on her own though.

This is the only girl that we are certain of in the hatch . She has green legs !

Gaston is beginning to have some success with Kara. Her comb is getting very red and bigger. I think she will lay soon. Today she visited the second coop where the ex-batts lay now, and screamed alert. When I checked I found Hibou the cat sitting on the eggs trying to look contrite .

Lily's comb is much smaller and she's terrified of Gaston.

Girl, or boy ?

Merle aka "Le diable"

 

[RoyalChick]

I responded with a but really I was laughing a lot at the idea of the chickens outsourcing their egg sitting duties to the cats.
Clever chickens!

 

[ManueB]

When Brune came out of the coop she smelled very bad , not like the gunk that has been coming out of her the past days. Checking her vent I found thousand of maggots, fly strike. Put her in a warm water basin fives times in a row and rinsed most of them. Then I finally got to see, an infected wound above the vent with both rotten flesh hanging out and a hole above that. Given that's on top of her EYP...Decided to kill her on spot once my partner gave his leave (he's hiking today). Of course I f...d my first cervical dislocation and she took several minutes to die. I buried her in the hole that waited for her beside Vanille and Caramel. Now I have to prepare to greet my friends, and I really don't feel like it.

 

[MaryJanet]

I so so sorry. There aren't enough hugs.

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh Manue. So very, very sorry.
As MJ said, there just aren’t enough hugs.

 

[Perris]

She is at peace now. I hope your friends will help to comfort and distract you at this sad time.

 

[GregnLety]

You have my sympathy ManueB. You did the right thing by ending her suffering.

 

[ManueB]

Thank you for the kind words.
While it's hard to be certain, I don't have much doubt I did the right thing. But I did not do it right and that is not a light mistake. When I feel up to it I'll make a post to try to understand what went wrong.