Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[Perris]

It's why I liked the open food watch app when I was doing the shopping when we lived in Nice- it gives the Nova score and the nature of the additives.

that sounds like a really useful app. Assuming you have a smart phone of course.

 

[RoyalChick]

that is interesting. Still more than half the population don't have it though, for whom point 6 is a problem. I like glasses for driving, but have to take them off for anything close, still I can't read below about point 10 now without magnification. Eyes / lenses change shape as we age apparently.

Yes they do. But in the wrong direction to read small print.
I wasn’t trying to undermine your point about small print which I agree with but I am a hopeless collector of random trivia and thought that one was interesting.

 

[Molpet]

that is interesting. Still more than half the population don't have it though, for whom point 6 is a problem. I like glasses for driving, but have to take them off for anything close, still I can't read below about point 10 now without magnification. Eyes / lenses change shape as we age apparently.

from age 11 through my 40s i needed glasses for distance. in my 30s the eye dr told me i wouldn't need them for distance after 50, but for reading. Due to changing eye shape. she was right

 

[BDutch]

this is an important point in labelling. Lots of people can't read them.

Requirements to put certain info on the label are undone by allowing it to be printed so small that most people can't or don't bother trying to read it. Pre-digital, 7 point used to be the smallest point size allowed in legal contracts (whence the phrase 'the small print' originates). Digital changed printing hugely, and now the smallest size allowed in UK labelling for the stuff that must be shown on ingredients lists is the equivalent of point 6 (1 size smaller than trad small print!) in most fonts. Has our eyesight got better? Is the stuff in the small print irrelevant? I don't think so.

It's another prompt to use a proxy like the sheer length and complexity of the list of ingredients as a guide. The fewer items, the shorter the list, the better. (which also solves the bandwidth problem as you so aptly put it RC!)

Sometimes I make a photo which I can enlarge on my mobile.

But I agree it would be much better if every label (obligations) has readable characters, 7 pt or more in a standard font without decorations like Arial or Verdana.

 

[ManueB]

We got the lab results back and they did not find any oocysts in the samples. I'm not completely reassured because we still have three chicks and two adult chickens doing very strange poops, but I will withhold treating for now as they don't show any other worrying signs.

Chipie did again the laying drama queen today. It lasted for five hours and I'm not even sure she laid in the end. Poor Théo was hot and panting running all over the place, but no place was good enough for her !

The wind was much less strong today so hopefully they can finally fix the last of the wild fires. It was a relief not to have it howling but the heat feels worse. The sun is scorching. I just couldn't imagine keeping chickens locked in a coop and run in these conditions.

The chickens seem to shun the fermented grain a bit when it's so hot. Maybe it turns acid very quickly with the heat ? They are more keen on the starter feed now. The two black ladies however have become experts at diving in the fermented bowl to scoop out the peas first. It's crazy to think that for a month after they arrived here, they wouldn't eat anything but layer feed. Now both of them fly directly in my arms into the feed bowls when I take them in the yard - not even looking what's in .

Evening scene

Mornin' chillin'

I explained before that we have left about a third of our garden uncultivated this year because after two years of drought we thought we needed to restrict water consumption. This is what one of the untouched space looks like. It hasn't been tilled, everything is left in place. The soil has become hard as rock and it's completely dry. No life in the soil.

Every year I forget, that they sting when you pick them, and that even if they start slow at some point I'll be overwhelmed.

Blanche is more tired and spends a lot of time resting, but still there.

Pot chick. She's the only wild one of the lot.

96 degrees in the shade...

Some like it hot

The chicks have found the coolest place of the garden under the pole beans.

 

[Perris]

at some point I'll be overwhelmed

is it time to make courgette chutney?

When I grew more veg than I do now, I often felt the harvests were either all or nothing, and all at once or never (depending on how well or badly they'd grown). It's wait, wait, wait, wait, wait wait, then pick like crazy, then hunt for recipes for making something with a glut of X, then preserving methods for X, then simple rejection of any more X in any form whatsoever.

 

[RoyalChick]

We got the lab results back and they did not find any oocysts in the samples. I'm not completely reassured because we still have three chicks and two adult chickens doing very strange poops, but I will withhold treating for now as they don't show any other worrying signs.

Chipie did again the laying drama queen today. It lasted for five hours and I'm not even sure she laid in the end. Poor Théo was hot and panting running all over the place, but no place was good enough for her !

The wind was much less strong today so hopefully they can finally fix the last of the wild fires. It was a relief not to have it howling but the heat feels worse. The sun is scorching. I just couldn't imagine keeping chickens locked in a coop and run in these conditions.

The chickens seem to shun the fermented grain a bit when it's so hot. Maybe it turns acid very quickly with the heat ? They are more keen on the starter feed now. The two black ladies however have become experts at diving in the fermented bowl to scoop out the peas first. It's crazy to think that for a month after they arrived here, they wouldn't eat anything but layer feed. Now both of them fly directly in my arms into the feed bowls when I take them in the yard - not even looking what's in .

Evening scene
View attachment 3594881View attachment 3594882
Mornin' chillin'
View attachment 3594883View attachment 3594885
I explained before that we have left about a third of our garden uncultivated this year because after two years of drought we thought we needed to restrict water consumption. This is what one of the untouched space looks like. It hasn't been tilled, everything is left in place. The soil has become hard as rock and it's completely dry. No life in the soil.
View attachment 3594886
Every year I forget, that they sting when you pick them, and that even if they start slow at some point I'll be overwhelmed.
View attachment 3594887
Blanche is more tired and spends a lot of time resting, but still there.
View attachment 3594888
Pot chick. She's the only wild one of the lot.
View attachment 3594892View attachment 3594893View attachment 3594894
96 degrees in the shade...
View attachment 3594895
Some like it hot
View attachment 3594896View attachment 3594897View attachment 3594898View attachment 3594899View attachment 3594900View attachment 3594902View attachment 3594904
The chicks have found the coolest place of the garden under the pole beans.
View attachment 3594906View attachment 3594909

Pot chick

 

[ManueB]

is it time to make courgette chutney?

When I grew more veg than I do now, I often felt the harvests were either all or nothing, and all at once or never (depending on how well or badly they'd grown). It's wait, wait, wait, wait, wait wait, then pick like crazy, then hunt for recipes for making something with a glut of X, then preserving methods for X, then simple rejection of any more X in any form whatsoever.

Yes, there's definitely some truth in that... I hope I didn't sound like I was complaining. I’m happy when there’s plenty to eat ! I don't get tired of courgettes, I love them. I freeze a lot, we eat them in pasta, quiche, sweet and sour zucchini bread, raw salads, casserole, pudding...but not chutney ! I know that when we'll pick 20 a day I just won't be able to follow .
********

Sadly Nougat was really unwell yesterday evening exactly like the last time, to the point she couldn't get on the roost, but laid down to sleep hidden in a corner of the coop. And it was again due to a huge fragile egg that she laid this morning. So it wasn't a glitch, but either she’s lacking calcium, or she is being caught by reproductive disorder like has been the case for all my deceased ex-batts. On the good side, she perked up again after laying.

The day began cloudy but then we had horrible wind that blew away the clouds, and heat again. I can't believe how quick everything has.dried up. Looking back on pictures it was still really green at the beginning of July. Now it's just dust and yellow dry grass everywhere. The chickens who don't get out of the yard don't have any thing to forage other than butterflies, small crickets and insects that survive in the heat and drought. Without the rain we had in May and June we would have a very sad garden by now !

Merle laid again today after hours turning around and screaming for a rooster. Théo tried to escort her but was chased away by Gaston several times. He did mate her (without consent I think) once. In the end Merle ended up laying in the coop, in a nest a few other hens lay in- that's a relief as she can be quite creative in finding strange place to lay. ( Chipie likely laid yesterday in an outdoor nest I didn't find).

Yesterday evening Nougat beginning to be not well, with Blanche who’s been on death's door for months now.

My favorite courgette. They almost taste like avocado raw.

Blanche.

Nougat's egg is on the left. Merle’s on the far right.

I rarely post pics of the two unnamed chicks, because they are really hard to take good photos of, being plain black, and black with just a few white feathers. We are going to have to find them names ! Hopefully when they get more glossy feathers, they won't detract the light as much and I can take better photos.

Laure.

Pied Beau.

Petit Blanc.

I wonder if he will keep the few golden feathers.

Merle

 

[MaryJanet]

Blanche is amazing. She looks quite healthy in her photos.

 

[ManueB]

Blanche is amazing. She looks quite healthy in her photos.

I’ve done with her something I try not to do- showing only the "pretty" pictures. She looks like this maybe a quarter of her day. The rest of the time she looks like this : her bad eye closed, and not moving.

She’s pure grit, that is sure. She has always been the slightly crazy chicken that wasn't as smart as the other. But it’s incredible what she has pulled through. I would have sworn she would be the second to pass after Vanille but she’s still there picking on all the new girls, and chatting to us for as long as we listen to her. My partner puts her on his knees and say "come on Blanche we’ll have a little chat the two of us" and off she goes with her little buk buk buk...it works every time.

Too hot and too windy again. The chickens got worried at some of the strongest gusts of wind, I also really don't like it. It's a good thing they are now all going to roost much later, from 7.45 to 8.30, because the weather becomes bearable again toward 7.

I realised I have talked a lot about Théo and Gaston's behaviour together, but not about how our relationship with Théo has evolved. I said that it had drastically improved when we had him crated for a week because of his leg. I could even catch him and give him food in my hand very easily. It hasn't stayed that way, mostly because I don't hand feed him regularly enough. I can catch him sometimes, but most often not. While he is more aloof, even weary, he has never shown any form of aggression or even angry looks toward me or my partner anymore. He actually likes my partner better than me now, because I bring him back inside every time he goes out of the chicken netting (we don't want him to hurt Piou-piou), I also tell him off when he grabs and pulls to mate unwilling hens, and he totally hates that. But to a certain point, I think he has a relative trust in me now. If he's hiding somewhere and I can't see him, I call him softly, and he always comes if Gaston isn't close by, or he answers also very softly so I know where he is. He knows that if he gets chased out of the coop too many times I'll come with him, so he can jump on his roost without being attacked. And I think he understands that we protect him from Gaston. So it's a sort of truce, partly due to the fact that he understood while crated that our hands are not ennemies, and partly to his new weak position which make us allies, even if he doesn't love it.

As for myself, i’m feeling much lighter for the first time in months. I was really stressed thinking about how to keep them both, make them live together without Théo getting wounded, quarrelling with my partner and wondering if I should have re-homed Gaston. Now I feel like the situation, while not ideal, is safe. If at worse, Théo gets really thrown out of the coop he can roost in the second coop.

I tried to take pictures of the two black unnamed chicks.

All black, yellow legs :

Black and white, blue grey legs :

Lily has become an escape artist. We don't want big chickens in the garden. She escapes about twenty times a day and I bring her back twenty times a day.

Another pot chick .

Another laying drama day. And still I found no egg. Not sure if she’s pretending, or hiding them somewhere. Poor Théo!

Ann. Love her big dark eyes.