Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[RoyalChick]

Love the greenery. It's dry, dusty and brown here with no relief coming.

We had lots of rain. The artemisia is now over 6’ tall. Babs keeps her area in check by nibbling the young shoots but I have not been as effective. Machete time I fear.

Here is my area in front of the Chicken Palace, and Babs in the clearing she made which is totally sheltered and shaded and is hidden somewhere in the middle of the shot with the blue chair.

 

[GregnLety]

My Dad was as near sighted as me and at 4 years old the school put him in boxing classes. That is how they figured he couldn’t see because he had no idea where the person hitting him was standing.
I wasn’t quite as bad but someone spotted that I did fine in classes that had workbooks, but not in classes using the chalk board. Basically I winged it until I was about 7 and then got glasses.
My Dad stopped needing glasses in his late 80s because when they operated on his cataracts they put in lenses with normal vision. Sort of a miracle. He kept seeing things in his surroundings that had passed un-noticed for 50 years!

A and a . Good for your dad!

 

[BDutch]

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.

Nice. Don’t worry too much. It can be of something they eat free ranging or maybe from the fermented food in this heat?
I find watery poop every now and then too. But as long as the chickens aren’t slow or don’t look sick, I trust they get over it.

Nice news about the fires ! Glad it seems to be under control.

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.

I had one hen who laid soft eggs now and then. One day she got sick and had a swollen abdomen. I gathered it was an infection from a reproductive disorder. I was too late to treat her.
She died within 36 hours after I noticed something was really wrong.

After it happened I had been reading that it’s worth a try to give extra calk (crush human tablets) to a hen that lays soft shell eggs. It might have saved her.

 

[Shadrach]

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.

We, the Russian and I, are working on a rolling planting scheme to help offset the harvest glut. I'm sick of courgettes already.
Planting what grows with minimum care is one of the arts of allotments, the other is to plant to maintain a year long supply of certan basics. In Catalonia planting the right type of beans that matured late and kept over the winter was a local art.
Part of the problem is of course we are so used to having a wide variety of fruit and veg throughout the year that eating what is seasonal is viewed as boring and dull be some. Can't really have it both ways. An adjustment in diet is what's needed but try telling those who like to cook (foodies I believe they are called) this.
On the plus side heavy fruit cakes and jerked meat can last for months, sometimes the longer the better they taste. I like both so I'm happy. Dreid chickpeas rather than flour I also like in the right recipies.
Some say freezing is a partial solution but that requires a freezer and of course the electricity to run it.
It's an interesting problem but it can obviously be done with some major changes in eating habits.
Organic this and that is great for those that can afford the premium prices but have a lookat where much ofit comes from. The costs associated with the transport usually far outweigh the environmental benefits of eating organic produce unless it's locally produced.

 

[BDutch]

I wonder if he will keep the few golden feathers.

This is probably rust. I have two black chickens as well. One is more pure black than the other. Black is blacker , Pearl has more rusty spots in her neck and on her shoulders. Their mother was Lavender. The father Pile.

Both got mor rusty spots when they grew older. After each moult it was a surprise how they would look this year.

 

[ManueB]

Nice. Don’t worry too much. It can be of something they eat free ranging or maybe from the fermented food in this heat?
I find watery poop every now and then too.

It's been going on for weeks so it can't be just something they ate. And it's not common diarrhea, but yellow liquid foamy poops, and some bloody poops.
Last year at this time my free ranging chicks had wonderful green solid poops compared to the ex-batts staying in the chicken yard . There's definitely something going on.

We, the Russian and I, are working on a rolling planting scheme to help offset the harvest glut. I'm sick of courgettes already.
Planting what grows with minimum care is one of the arts of allotments, the other is to plant to maintain a year long supply of certan basics. In Catalonia planting the right type of beans that matured late and kept over the winter was a local art.
Part of the problem is of course we are so used to having a wide variety of fruit and veg throughout the year that eating what is seasonal is viewed as boring and dull be some. Can't really have it both ways. An adjustment in diet is what's needed but try telling those who like to cook (foodies I believe they are called) this.
On the plus side heavy fruit cakes and jerked meat can last for months, sometimes the longer the better they taste. I like both so I'm happy. Dreid chickpeas rather than flour I also like in the right recipies.
Some say freezing is a partial solution but that requires a freezer and of course the electricity to run it.
It's an interesting problem but it can obviously be done with some major changes in eating habits.
Organic this and that is great for those that can afford the premium prices but have a lookat where much ofit comes from. The costs associated with the transport usually far outweigh the environmental benefits of eating organic produce unless it's locally produced.

We eat lots of beans. We grow four different kinds and we keep them through winter and spring.

Here's what we store and how. Any tips would be appreciated!

Freezer : Tomato, courgettes, eventually eggplants and peppers the years we have them, cooked in a pan with olive oil and crammed into ice cream boxes. Greens, kale, chards chopped either blanched, or raw.
Potatoes, onions and garlics are stored in the old stable in the buried ceiling of the old house. We made special boxes with beehive mesh to keep the mice away (think brooder). We keep them until May, and the last we eat are well past their prime.
Squashes, pumpkins, butternuts and the likes are stored on shelves in our rooms that stay above 13/55 in winter. We usually eat the last around mid April. Some years they keep very well, some years they all start moulding at the same time.
Beans all go for two weeks in the freezer to kill weevils, then stored in jars in our colder rooms, or in our entrance. By the end of april, we are sick of eating them so we keep the rest for seeding.
Carrots are buried in sand buckets with the green cut off, and last until spring. The last months we only eat them in stew because they taste like..old carrots.
Leeks are cut off on both sides and buried in earth again, where they usually keep until we have more than five days under -5/23. I sometimes freeze some too.

We don't store the other things we produce because we don't grow enough or don't know how to ( corn, beets, turnips, black radishes, parsnips, Jérusalem artichokes..and melon and water melon).

By the end of May we usually have nothing left, but in June our garden only produces salads, favas and snap peas, so we don't really make the year round.

Last year my younger cousin came over for a week and she made us tons of "ship jars". Her partner grew up on a ship all over the seas and this was how they brought veggies along. You put cut raw vegetables in a plain jar (like a jam jar or a bigger honey jar), it needs to have tomatoes or lemon slices as acidity helps the conservation, and some seasoning like thyme, garlic, onion...then you put the jars in boiling water for 45 mn. And that's it, they keep for at least three months. The ones she made us in September were still good in march but I suppose there is a risk of botulism waiting too long.

This is probably rust. I have two black chickens as well. One is more pure black than the other. Black is blacker , Pearl has more rusty spots in her neck and on her shoulders. Their mother was Lavender. The father Pile.

Both got mor rusty spots when they grew older. After each moult it was a surprise how they would look this year.

View attachment 3597610
View attachment 3597611

Beautiful . But I think rust is red ? Merle has a very small touch of red too. Pied Beau's feathers are yellow.

Not much to say after all this talk about vegetables. The chickens hated today's weather and so did I. The wind is finally calming down, so they are coming out now. We planted some of the starters for winters yesterday evening and didn't protect them right away. This morning after breakfast the chicks had eaten four of the broccolis. My partner was pretty upset , I gloated because I had told him so .
Cannelle laid her second egg this week, seems she is starting again to lay regularly, her eggs are still totally flattened on one side like last year. I finally found two of Chipie's eggs! And after having laid her third egg post broodiness, Merle is starting making broody screams again .

A touch of yellow and purple highlight.He will be quite the disco guy.

Found Chipie's eggs! I wouldn't have if someone hadn't thrown one out. I put them back in- don't want more drama.

Léa and Merle had words

I was too far but Kara was preening Gaston in this photo.

Merle has "rust" but she's not as classy as Black and Pearl!

The leghorns have very slim figures except for the evening food bob.

Cannelle broke her beak pretty badly. I hope it doesn't crack more. It happens regularly to my ex-batts and it usually grows back imperfectly.

 

[Perris]

Thanks for the very informative post on veg storing and preservation. Do you dry, ferment or pickle any as well? I would guess sun dried tomatoes is an option with the sun and wind you get, but maybe that's a non-starter in reality.

We've had nearly 3 times the average rainfall for July, and what's normally a seasonal stream near the edge of the property was a raging torrent yesterday; the hill is saturated and the rain just pours off now.

 

[RoyalChick]

We, the Russian and I, are working on a rolling planting scheme to help offset the harvest glut. I'm sick of courgettes already.
Planting what grows with minimum care is one of the arts of allotments, the other is to plant to maintain a year long supply of certan basics. In Catalonia planting the right type of beans that matured late and kept over the winter was a local art.
Part of the problem is of course we are so used to having a wide variety of fruit and veg throughout the year that eating what is seasonal is viewed as boring and dull be some. Can't really have it both ways. An adjustment in diet is what's needed but try telling those who like to cook (foodies I believe they are called) this.
On the plus side heavy fruit cakes and jerked meat can last for months, sometimes the longer the better they taste. I like both so I'm happy. Dreid chickpeas rather than flour I also like in the right recipies.
Some say freezing is a partial solution but that requires a freezer and of course the electricity to run it.
It's an interesting problem but it can obviously be done with some major changes in eating habits.
Organic this and that is great for those that can afford the premium prices but have a lookat where much ofit comes from. The costs associated with the transport usually far outweigh the environmental benefits of eating organic produce unless it's locally produced.

I freeze stuff because I am lazy and am able to. But there is always bottling. People do canning at home too but I don’t know how to do that. Bottling is easy and fun and I really should start doing it again.
A few years ago I bottled lots of peaches. I am still using them.

 

[Molpet]

I freeze stuff because I am lazy and am able to. But there is always bottling. People do canning at home too but I don’t know how to do that. Bottling is easy and fun and I really should start doing it again.
A few years ago I bottled lots of peaches. I am still using them.

What is the difference between bottling and canning?

 

[RoyalChick]

What is the difference between bottling and canning?

I don’t know! Bottling is preserving stuff in sealed glass jars like mason jars.
I have no idea what canning is - I just hear the term but have never explored what it was.
Maybe it is the same thing. I thought canning must involve cans!