Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

Petit Blanc to the rescue! He's a hero

Beautiful story about Amelia & Petit Blanc.. he has a beautiful character and is an amazing rooster.

I don't know if he actually did much to convince the hen... apart from being a good rooster with the hens in general !
I'm glad the rehoming worked so well. I made a mistake with him, he was a bit human weary as a cockerel but he trusted me enough to come close. I was worried when Léa the broody had ticks on her face and I caught him and held him even though he was struggling to check him, and after that he was terrified of me and never came near again. Happily, it was only me and not humankind in general, because although he is still aloof my neighbour says she has been able to tend him very calmly when it was needed.

The weather was better today than expected, no rain and warm enough though there was no sun. The chickens had a nice day, even Blanche.

My partner cleaned the hives that had wax moths. The chickens love that as treats, and Blanche was even allowed to help cleaning up.

Nieva is with Kara, the chicken worrying me now. She is still scratching and picking off her feathers even though she has no lice left. I don't know if she has some left over irritation or something else.

Chipie is still thinking about going broody !

Laure has been doing something interesting for about ten days. First time I noticed was when I applied pyrethrin powder on her at night. She made a horrific scream, like something out of a horror movie. Now she is making that same scream whenever Théo comes near. And it works : it seems to scare Theo away ! I need to try to record this.

Blanche spent most of the day outside. By four she was zonked out and went straight to sleep when I put her in the crate.

These are both rooster's torn spurs.
Gaston's on the left is 5 cm /2 inches long ; Théo's is 7 cm /2.7 inches.
Because Gaston is such a bigger rooster, it looked to me like his spurs are small, quite small indeed compared to Théo's. But now I wonder since he broke one if we should trim or cut the other ?
We ended up shortening Théo's other spur by 2 cm ; I'm not sure about Gaston, who doesn't seem uncomfortable or bothered at all.

 

[ManueB]

I've noted two things about how the chickens eat recently, which I believe may be linked to them regulating their food intake to their health needs.

First, my chickens preferences in general seem to have changed about a month ago. For months now they have had access to the following, from favourite to least liked : starter mash, fermented grains with legumes, the same grain mix not fermented, and milled layer feed . Of course they had a few individual differences (the roosters never liked wet food, the ex-batts preferred layer feed...) . But this has changed and now, they all definitely prefer the dry food. They eat the dry grains and layer feed more willingly than the starter mash, and they are being very picky with the fermented grains, so much that I have reduced by a third the amount I give them. I haven't changed brands for any of the products and while I could have one bag of starter feed go wrong, I don't think it could explain why they suddenly prefer the dry grain mix to it's fermented version.

The second point is something I've noticed about Blanche. I've mentioned several times before that with a very sick chicken I try many different food just to get them to eat something. I noticed they could have very strange cravings, like Cannelle surviving on banana for a week. But with Blanche I have realised for the first time that the food they will accept to eat can evolve. For weeks she has refused scrambled eggs, which is the first thing I try to give a sick chicken, and the last four days, she is eating it again ; same with rice and bread. Some days she eats layer feed, some days, she will only have whole grains. This may have had something to do with her sour crop that is now functioning more normally, but I think it's not only due to that.
Up to now, if I had tried two or three times to give a certain food to a chicken and it was rejected, I did not try again : Blanche made me realise this was probably not the right approach.

Forgot to post this yesterday: Merle getting a quick protein fix.

Cluck cluck...

Napping in the cold.

Just realised she looks not only like a guinea, but also a bit like a zebra.

Lily grumpy that she just got chased off her dust bath by Nougat.

 

[Perris]

my chickens preferences in general seem to have changed about a month ago

Up to now, if I had tried two or three times to give a certain food to a chicken and it was rejected, I did not try again : Blanche made me realise this was probably not the right approach

These are important points you've made. I think chickens like periodic changes to their diet, and now I'm wondering if the change of season may correlate with it. To ring the changes is why I switch grain mixes and legume mixes every now and then (but I always ferment them and only have one sack of each at a time).

The chance of what we offer coinciding with what they want, when they want it, is why it pays to persist with offering something that they first reject. It only needs to be a small amount until someone acquires the taste for it or feels the need for it, so persisting with an experiment needn't involve a lost of waste.

 

[BDutch]

My chickens just don’t like fermented food. Not late autumn and not late spring.
The second time I used a mother from organic apple cider vinager. It worked fabulous and smelled real good. But even then they wouldn’t eat much of it.

What a great picture! You should post it the POW contributions thread Manue.

 

[ManueB]

The chance of what we offer coinciding with what they want, when they want it, is why it pays to persist with offering something that they first reject. It only needs to be a small amount until someone acquires the taste for it or feels the need for it, so persisting with an experiment needn't involve a lost of waste.

This reminds me that I've had a Shadrach type of experience - I bought a kilo of organic spelt for humans to let the chickens try it out. They absolutely refused to touch it, so I tasted spelt for the first time and discovered I really like it . Much more tasty than wheat, but it takes a longer time to cook.

My chickens just don’t like fermented food. Not late autumn and not late spring.
The second time I used a mother from organic apple cider vinager. It worked fabulous and smelled real good. But even then they wouldn’t eat much of it.

Did you ferment grains or layer feed ? I never tried fermenting the milled layer feed but I think the result would be very different.

What a great picture! You should post it the POW contributions thread Manue.
View attachment 3817117

Thank you ! It lacks a bit of sunshine and blue sky for my taste .
We are having a long rainy week which I think will help the trees and plants recover from the freeze if they can.

I managed to record Laure's scream when she sees Théo that I mentioned the other day ! The video isn't great but if you turn the volume up, it gives a good idea of how loud she is. Imagine when I first heard that in the coop at night with only my headlamp's red light on !

I have a dilemma with Kara. She hasn't laid for six days now though she spends three or four hours on the nest every day. She has only laid ten eggs in April and they were all fragile and strange shelled ; whereas the first three months she was laying, her eggs were huge and perfect like Lilly's and she laid six days a week. During the day, she acts like she has for the last months, mostly normally, but napping more often than the other hens and going to bed early.

I think she likely has a reproductive issue, maybe salpingitis. The dilemma is that I'm hesitant to take her to the vet. Last time the vet didn't see anything and asked to put her on layer feed only and add calcium, but this didn't do anything for her.
If she does have salpingitis they would give her antibiotics and we could try putting her on the suprelorin implant, which might gain her a few months at worse or a few years at best.
Or, we could let nature take it's course and I suppose since she is showing issues so young, she would live for another 18 months at best.

 

[Perris]

Or, we could let nature take it's course

I'd do that. You know, she may get better. She may just be fighting off a bug or (non-reproductive tract) disease that is challenging her so hard that all her resources are dealing with it, leaving insufficient calories for reproduction. I speak from experience; ill birds here sometimes take refuge or comfort in a nest box, they didn't go in to lay.

I tasted spelt for the first time and discovered I really like it

I discovered pigeon peas through experimenting with home made feed They're really good!

 

[tranquiliti]

Yep, I meant bad for human livers ! I'm not sure we have a liquid form here. If we do, it's not common.

Check the section for (human) infants/children: that’s the only liquid form that I’ve seen available without a prescription in the US.

 

[Shadrach]

First, my chickens preferences in general seem to have changed

You could try drying the fermented grains. It's what I ended up doing. Easy for me on top of a radiator, probably in the oven during the summer months.
All the watery droppings have stopped no matter what they've eaten while foraging.

 

[Shadrach]

This reminds me that I've had a Shadrach type of experience - I bought a kilo of organic spelt for humans to let the chickens try it out. They absolutely refused to touch it, so I tasted spelt for the first time and discovered I really like it . Much more tasty than wheat, but it takes a longer time to cook.

Did you ferment grains or layer feed ? I never tried fermenting the milled layer feed but I think the result would be very different.

Thank you ! It lacks a bit of sunshine and blue sky for my taste .
We are having a long rainy week which I think will help the trees and plants recover from the freeze if they can.

I managed to record Laure's scream when she sees Théo that I mentioned the other day ! The video isn't great but if you turn the volume up, it gives a good idea of how loud she is. Imagine when I first heard that in the coop at night with only my headlamp's red light on !

I have a dilemma with Kara. She hasn't laid for six days now though she spends three or four hours on the nest every day. She has only laid ten eggs in April and they were all fragile and strange shelled ; whereas the first three months she was laying, her eggs were huge and perfect like Lilly's and she laid six days a week. During the day, she acts like she has for the last months, mostly normally, but napping more often than the other hens and going to bed early.

I think she likely has a reproductive issue, maybe salpingitis. The dilemma is that I'm hesitant to take her to the vet. Last time the vet didn't see anything and asked to put her on layer feed only and add calcium, but this didn't do anything for her.
If she does have salpingitis they would give her antibiotics and we could try putting her on the suprelorin implant, which might gain her a few months at worse or a few years at best.
Or, we could let nature take it's course and I suppose since she is showing issues so young, she would live for another 18 months at best.
View attachment 3818820

I used to buy bread made with spelt in Catalonia. It makes the best Marmite on toast one can imagine.

 

[BDutch]

Did you ferment grains or layer feed ? I never tried fermenting the milled layer feed but I think the result would be very different.

I fermented mainly grains and added about 25% chick feed (mash).