Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[RoyalChick]

Like that helps?!

Oh actuality it did. Found her. Not sure I coukd find her again if I looked.
I didn’t know that is what St.John’s wort looked like. Do they eat the berries?

 

[Perris]

Oh actuality it did. Found her. Not sure I coukd find her again if I looked.
I didn’t know that is what St.John’s wort looked like. Do they eat the berries?

Yay! well done. I was tipped off by Amadeo shouting at the top of lungs nearby. He really is a girl's worst friend if she's trying to find a good nest site

No sadly they don't eat St John's wort. As a result it's spread everywhere round the garden - but easy enough to cut back when it's a nuisance.

 

[lightm]

Théo's continuous clumsy and rude flirting with Merle could begin to pay off.

This sentence is really really funny to me. I do hope so.

Shortsightedness (myopia) has been increasing quite significantly in the population (from about 25% to about 45% in 45 years).

Very interesting. When I got to the US, I noticed there are much fewer near-sighted people than in China.
And I just had the thought that is it because glasses are too expensive in the US... I know many Americans were told to get glasses when they travel in China, and many do...

Poor Théo was hot and panting running all over the place, but no place was good enough for her !

Poor poor Theo.

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.

So does bottled food done properly.
I just finished a jar of bottled pears that must be over 20 years old as my mother bottled them. They have faded in color but the taste is great.

So do you boil your bottle of pears?

I've done some canning (maybe Shad calls it jarring). It is very appealing to me to store things in room temperature (without electricity). I recently had a can of split pea ham soup that I pressure canned almost 2 years ago. It was good. Yesterday I used some canned pumpkin, from halloween 2022, for my dumpling filling.

 

[RoyalChick]

So do you boil your bottle of pears?

Well I didn't make them - my mother did and she died over 20 years ago. From memory she did them in wine in the pressure cooker.

 

[lightm]

Well I didn't make them - my mother did and she died over 20 years ago. From memory she did them in wine in the pressure cooker.

Wow. Interesting!

@ManueB
I've been really enjoying all the wonderful pictures and conversations as usual. I am pleased to see that Lea appears to be over her egg laying issue.

How is Piou-piou? When Light was injured by our rooster (Feb 2022), she was desperate for dirt bath only a few days into care (inside house). We gave in and gave her a tub of dirt. Later when she finally returned to the chicken run, she was also picking her own feathers so they never grew back until this July when she had a hard molt.

We were forced to rehome the roo shortly after Light's recovery. Light is also a more comparable size for Foggy the roo. Light's injury was also underneath her wing, which is sort of protected. This is not the case for Piou-Piou, right?

 

[ManueB]

I agree that universities should be the place for very theoretical work, whether in arts, humanities, or science.

----------- all math talk below -------------

I surely give that vibe. The truth is I actually like what I do and am happy at its prospect of application in machine learning and data analysis. It can do very good things. I actually have an ongoing project with a biologist on regenerative agriculture. However, much I do is theory and we just like to talk pretty.
Bad corporation/government is gonna do bad one way or another.



Upon looking at his publication, I think what he does is actually algebraic geometry (not the other way around, sorry Manue). It is pure but popular mathematics (in academia), the crown jewel of mathematics, meaning a big portion of publications in the most top math journals publish in this field, and only the most talented ones dare to be in this field. Be proud that your father is one of them. It is main stream mathematics (again research-wise) in a sense. For people who or bored (or not), read about one of the gods of mathematics: Grothendieck.
I am simply not good enough for algebraic geometry.

No, you did not sound like that at all. These beautiful theories should exist and thrive, but I still hold the view that maybe only in the top 100 universities in the world. This is because I have seen too many heart-breaking stories of my mathematical friends not able to find a job after many many years of temporary positions. One of them even killed himself (but he also had other problems).
It sounds weird but I do not encourage students to go into mathematics (I also don't discourage). If there are ones asking my opinion, I will tell them that it can be a hard and lonely road ahead of you, so be prepared, unless you are a genius (and I know they are not by the time of conversation...)

I think both. His work is first class.

And yes I am fortunate that I don't need to apply for funding, but in the US there is a bad trend that you need to apply and secure funding (usually from the public such as national science foundation) even as a mathematician only to show that your research is important, whether pure or applied. The fund will be small and mostly support your summer salary and conference travel.

I'll tell him about the crown jewel stuff next time I see him . I realize this. But I think for most people, like for your friend, the academic world is a difficult one to access. Like for MJ, it takes personal effort and merit to get there ; while he just had the math fairy pour some stuff over his crib. I'm proud of my parents for understanding and making me understand that personal merit and worth is not something to be judged merely by one’s social or academic position. And I'm really glad you enjoy what you do, in spite of that hard and lonely road. Grothendieck's graduate students are or were my dad's senior colleagues .

Yay! well done. I was tipped off by Amadeo shouting at the top of lungs nearby. He really is a girl's worst friend if she's trying to find a good nest site

No sadly they don't eat St John's wort. As a result it's spread everywhere round the garden - but easy enough to cut back when it's a nuisance.

Amadeo doesn't squeak anymore then, but he still makes himself heard .
Is this Hypericum perforatum ? It doesn't look at all like what I've seen here.

So do you boil your bottle of pears?

I've done some canning (maybe Shad calls it jarring). It is very appealing to me to store things in room temperature (without electricity). I recently had a can of split pea ham soup that I pressure canned almost 2 years ago. It was good. Yesterday I used some canned pumpkin, from halloween 2022, for my dumpling filling.

I don't do much canning or bottling because we don't have a real kitchen appliance to cook in summer, which is when I have things to preserve. We use the wood stove from beginning of October to end of May. We only have a small bottle gaz stove and we try not to use it for cooking things that take a lot of time. We do jam on the wood stove.

We have a neighbour who does and sometimes gives us bottled pears, just in sirup (water, sugar, and vanilla).

Wow. Interesting!

@ManueB
I've been really enjoying all the wonderful pictures and conversations as usual. I am pleased to see that Lea appears to be over her egg laying issue.

How is Piou-piou? When Light was injured by our rooster (Feb 2022), she was desperate for dirt bath only a few days into care (inside house). We gave in and gave her a tub of dirt. Later when she finally returned to the chicken run, she was also picking her own feathers so they never grew back until this July when she had a hard molt.

We were forced to rehome the roo shortly after Light's recovery. Light is also a more comparable size for Foggy the roo. Light's injury was also underneath her wing, which is sort of protected. This is not the case for Piou-Piou, right?

The wound is completely healed. But the problem now is that she’s almost completely featherless on both sides and part of her back. Her wings feathers are almost all broken, there are only two or three left, so not enough for protection . It's very interesting that Light also picked her feathers ! Has she completely stopped doing it after her hard molt ?
I've been wondering if this was really a nervous behaviour, or a nutritional lack. Looking at Piou-piou picking them, it seems more like she itches. We are also expecting that only a real molt could help. In the meantime she lives mostly outside the flock, though sometimes she or Gaston escape our watch, and join each other. When he mates her once, the skin gets bruised but doesn't break, but I think three or four times would be enough to wound her again. She has some company now, the chicks hang out a bit with her, Chipie also comes out more, and Léa and Merle as well, though she is too bossy to make friends with any of them. And I think she doesn't take well to the heat, because she seems much better now it's cooler.
********
It was indeed very cool again today, much like a late september day and obviously the chickens fare much better with that kind of temps. I worried when Léa stayed for a long time in the nest. I was cooking with eggs and I cracked the huge mistery egg from a week ago I had forgotten about. It was a double yolker, with huge yolks. That, and then her laying three eggs in 24 hours sound like problems. Anyway just when I was bringing her some calcium in the nest, she was out like a rose and had laid a normal egg.

The chicks are beginning to switch to adult voices and it's hilarious. The black unnamed pullet makes croaking sounds that surprise everyone including her. I guess they are not chicks anymore!

And Lilly has already managed to escape the chicken's netting. It's pretty impressive how she does that for such a heavy hen : she flies over it in a place where the netting is doubled about 70 cm apart to reach the compost's pallet . I knew this wouldn't last long !

Morning breakfast for the chicks and Piou-piou.

Léa digs.

Pied beau is still a bit too human friendly while petit blanc tends to attack shoes.

Laure is the wildest of the bunch.

Piou-piou caught a bug.

Blanche was doing slightly better today.

 

[Perris]

Is this Hypericum perforatum ? It doesn't look at all like what I've seen here.

yes; I'm surprised you can see it as it's barely visible through all that Peruvian raspberry (which grows like a triffid ), only really the berries and red stems stand out. What does it look like there?

 

[MaryJanet]

while he just had the math fairy pour some stuff over his crib.

I think maybe the chicken fairy got my crib on the rota that day

I love the chooks more than I love my research and teaching, although I do have some talented and very nice students.

 

[MaryJanet]

Grothendieck's graduate students are or were my dad's senior colleagues .

I did some reading on Grothendieck last night and I noticed he was your dad's grandfather so to speak.

 

[lightm]

while he just had the math fairy pour some stuff over his crib.

The wound is completely healed. But the problem now is that she’s almost completely featherless on both sides and part of her back. Her wings feathers are almost all broken, there are only two or three left, so not enough for protection . It's very interesting that Light also picked her feathers ! Has she completely stopped doing it after her hard molt ?

Yes she completely stopped doing it now and her feather looks good.

She especially liked to pick her feathers on her shoulders and often left them bloody :-(
I think it is because it's itchy too and the feather was not growing fast enough without the molting phase. I hope Piou-piou will get very needed feathers soon!

I did some reading on Grothendieck last night and I noticed he was your dad's grandfather so to speak.

Very sharp observation! You are right!!