Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

I've noticed it with the older hens; I think they're tired at the end of a long day. Like me

I'm an old hen too, then.
All my chickens go to bed too early, even the younger ones. When I had only the ex-batts they went to bed much later. Maybe they want to avoid the roosters attention in the evening ? Or maybe it's a health issue ? Or just because the weather has been crappy so many evenings...

I thought Gaston and Théo would fight again but apparently it hasn't happened yet. However their relationship is clearly worse than it has been in a long time. Gaston doesn't really let Théo in the chicken yard anymore. He has to sneak in at roost time and to leave as soon as he gets out of the coop. And I don't think he is ready to challenge Gaston again. Piou-piou doesn't follow him outside anymore, but Merle spends most of the day with him so he isn't too lonely. Merle has been looking for her dream nest everywhere, all day, for the last three days. Poor Théo is busy trying to help. And in the end I found her egg tonight on the floor under a small table in the run - she probably just "dropped" it as she came to shelter when it started to rain heavily .

Both Léa and Chipie are still broody. It doesn't help it when it rains because I can't lock them out of the coop where their nests are, as the other chickens use it for shelter. Lilly's scab is healing nicely, it leaked just a little bit of blood and water two days ago but it looks good.
Piou-piou has been doing better for a few days, though not quite back to normal. She has stopped laying. This has never happened before, she never stopped laying for more than two days, so I'm still not sure what's going on.

We're been very late with planting and seeding due to the weather ...but we couldn't hold it off any longer so we seeded and planted everything that was left this weekend, all the various squashes, pumpkins and beans. Most of what we have already planted is late as the temperatures are well below what they should be, but I think the garden will work out well with all the rain we have, as soon as the heat starts coming in. The potatoes are all out by now so we know what the boar has left us- it's not as bad as we feared, he ate about half. We will replant our left-overs from this year tomorrow, to replace the missing ones. We haven't received yet all the stuff we ordered for electrical protection, so we are still doing with the old nettings and tinkered electrical post Gaston lent us. The boar hasn't been back, so it seems to be doing the job for now !

Broody Chipie clucks are stressed like she is late on a vital mission. It's hard being broody when you are the tiniest chicken in the flock.

Gaston keeps trying to be nice to her and wing dance, and she backs him off so angrily. She is definitely the most crazy of my three broodies.

 

[BDutch]

Loved to see video with poor tiny Chipie (did not love the chasing)

No news this week?

Did you see I bought hatchery eggs again? My thread

 

[ManueB]

Loved to see video with poor tiny Chipie (did not love the chasing)

No news this week?

If I don't post on the thread during the day, once I've had dinner I just feel so tired that I go straight to sleep- as soon as it's dark enough to take any broodies out of the nests and on the roost !
It's that time of year when days feel too long.
But I don't have much news, actually. The chickens are doing their chicken stuff. Léa is definitely off the nest, which is good news.

Yesterday I was afraid Laure was turning broody. She is the most frightened and aggressive of our chickens, so that would be quite a story ! But it turned out I was wrong, she was just trying to lay, and I took her off the nest and disturbed her for nothing . She makes broody clucks, but like Lilly she is just doing a bit of it, not really sitting.

It's cherry time for the chickens ! 3/4 of the cherries have been so damaged by the frost and hail that they are not good for us humans, but the chickens seem to think they are delicious! They are not really ripe yet but red enough to eat and all the chickens love them. Even the most skittish ones, Laure, Nieva and Alba will come eat them in our hands.

And Piou-piou laid an egg this morning which reassured me that she isn't having some kind of reproductive issue. She is much better, but now she limps a bit like it happened last year.

Lilly

Melisse's feathers are beginning to suffer from Gaston's excessive mating.

When I took Laure out of the nest...she is not a tame chicken at all !

I may have had a heart attack when I saw her like this

 

[ManueB]

Laure is definitely not broody but tiny Chipie is beginning to be quite a thing . Whenever she sees me, she follows me everywhere making broody growls. If I ignore her, she pecks at my shoes, then jumps on my shoulder ! I'm afraid that my usual method to lock the coop after lunch and force the broody to be outside in the afternoon until the first chickens want to roost, then take her out of the nest at night, is not going to work with her.
Last year we let her sit for the 21 days but she went on and on. At day 30 we began trying to stop her. I remember it was hard, but not to that point.
I don't even think I can put her in the crate with no straw because her feet and legs are so small I'm afraid she would slip a leg between the bars and hurt herself.

I took the opportunity to weigh her. She weighs 680 g, I think that is 1 pound 5, (she has lost a bit of weight, as she doesn't eat.) I also weighed the other small chickens for comparison. Théo is 1kg (2.2 lbs) Piou-piou, 1.180 kg , and Merle 1.365.

There was some drama in the afternoon. Apparently some aerial predator must have flown very close by, because Gaston screamed and all the hens went under cover. Théo was outside the chicken yard, but both Piou-piou and Merle had managed to go back in. Théo really wanted to go inside but Gaston would not let him, and chased him back outside. Then, Théo pretended to attack ME ! It wasn't a real attack and I could see he was just passing out his frustration on the first living thing he encountered. Still, I was a bit surprised, that hasn't happened in months, and we had been getting almost friendly in the last two weeks ! Le petit coq..is so silly !

Nieva is scratching all the feathers around her head and neck off. If you zoom you can see it. I'm sure she doesn't have lice anymore so I don't know what it is. No red mites in the coop up to now, I guess nights are too cold. Her skin is very dry and irritated. May be she has some residual dermatitis from the lice and treatment?
I read many times that depluming mites are very rare so hopefully that's not it, because I wouldn't know how to treat that.

Even when she eats cherries she is angry !

Garden pictures. I woke up in the middle of the night and realised I have forgotten to seed any cucumbers not did I grow any starters ! So we'll eat them late.
Last year I had mixed them up with the melon seeds and we ended up having 25 cucumbers plants .

 

[RoyalChick]

Laure is definitely not broody but tiny Chipie is beginning to be quite a thing . Whenever she sees me, she follows me everywhere making broody growls. If I ignore her, she pecks at my shoes, then jumps on my shoulder ! I'm afraid that my usual method to lock the coop after lunch and force the broody to be outside in the afternoon until the first chickens want to roost, then take her out of the nest at night, is not going to work with her.
Last year we let her sit for the 21 days but she went on and on. At day 30 we began trying to stop her. I remember it was hard, but not to that point.
I don't even think I can put her in the crate with no straw because her feet and legs are so small I'm afraid she would slip a leg between the bars and hurt herself.

I took the opportunity to weigh her. She weighs 680 g, I think that is 1 pound 5, (she has lost a bit of weight, as she doesn't eat.) I also weighed the other small chickens for comparison. Théo is 1kg (2.2 lbs) Piou-piou, 1.180 kg , and Merle 1.365.

There was some drama in the afternoon. Apparently some aerial predator must have flown very close by, because Gaston screamed and all the hens went under cover. Théo was outside the chicken yard, but both Piou-piou and Merle had managed to go back in. Théo really wanted to go inside but Gaston would not let him, and chased him back outside. Then, Théo pretended to attack ME ! It wasn't a real attack and I could see he was just passing out his frustration on the first living thing he encountered. Still, I was a bit surprised, that hasn't happened in months, and we had been getting almost friendly in the last two weeks ! Le petit coq..is so silly !

View attachment 3850290View attachment 3850291View attachment 3850292View attachment 3850300View attachment 3850301View attachment 3850302View attachment 3850303View attachment 3850304
Nieva is scratching all the feathers around her head and neck off. If you zoom you can see it. I'm sure she doesn't have lice anymore so I don't know what it is. No red mites in the coop up to now, I guess nights are too cold. Her skin is very dry and irritated. May be she has some residual dermatitis from the lice and treatment?
I read many times that depluming mites are very rare so hopefully that's not it, because I wouldn't know how to treat that.
View attachment 3850305View attachment 3850306View attachment 3850308View attachment 3850309
Even when she eats cherries she is angry !

Garden pictures. I woke up in the middle of the night and realised I have forgotten to seed any cucumbers not did I grow any starters ! So we'll eat them late.
Last year I had mixed them up with the melon seeds and we ended up having 25 cucumbers plants .
View attachment 3850288View attachment 3850289

One suggestion on the crate is to put a length of 2x4 wood in there for her to stand on.
It is not wide enough to nest on, but it means their feet are not on the wire.
That is what I did for Tassels - I copied it from someone on BYC - and she marches up and down on it yelling curse words at me.

 

[BDutch]

I took the opportunity to weigh her. She weighs 680 g, I think that is 1 pound 5, (she has lost a bit of weight, as she doesn't eat.) I also weighed the other small chickens for comparison. Théo is 1kg (2.2 lbs) Piou-piou, 1.180 kg , and Merle 1.365.

I never realised all these years that you have several bantams. I believe the definition of bantams is under 1.4 or 1.5 kg.

Standard Dutch should be 450 g. My Dutch are too large with 550 - 600 g. Katrientje is about 850 g. Most bantams are about 1 kg.

 

[RoyalChick]

Here is Tassels in jail on her 2x4.

 

[MaryJanet]

Here is Tassels in jail on her 2x4.
View attachment 3850680

Oh dear Tassels. Have you been making bad decisions?

 

[lightm]

Laure is definitely not broody but tiny Chipie is beginning to be quite a thing . Whenever she sees me, she follows me everywhere making broody growls. If I ignore her, she pecks at my shoes, then jumps on my shoulder ! I'm afraid that my usual method to lock the coop after lunch and force the broody to be outside in the afternoon until the first chickens want to roost, then take her out of the nest at night, is not going to work with her.
Last year we let her sit for the 21 days but she went on and on. At day 30 we began trying to stop her. I remember it was hard, but not to that point.
I don't even think I can put her in the crate with no straw because her feet and legs are so small I'm afraid she would slip a leg between the bars and hurt herself.

I took the opportunity to weigh her. She weighs 680 g, I think that is 1 pound 5, (she has lost a bit of weight, as she doesn't eat.) I also weighed the other small chickens for comparison. Théo is 1kg (2.2 lbs) Piou-piou, 1.180 kg , and Merle 1.365.

There was some drama in the afternoon. Apparently some aerial predator must have flown very close by, because Gaston screamed and all the hens went under cover. Théo was outside the chicken yard, but both Piou-piou and Merle had managed to go back in. Théo really wanted to go inside but Gaston would not let him, and chased him back outside. Then, Théo pretended to attack ME ! It wasn't a real attack and I could see he was just passing out his frustration on the first living thing he encountered. Still, I was a bit surprised, that hasn't happened in months, and we had been getting almost friendly in the last two weeks ! Le petit coq..is so silly !

View attachment 3850290View attachment 3850291View attachment 3850292View attachment 3850300View attachment 3850301View attachment 3850302View attachment 3850303View attachment 3850304
Nieva is scratching all the feathers around her head and neck off. If you zoom you can see it. I'm sure she doesn't have lice anymore so I don't know what it is. No red mites in the coop up to now, I guess nights are too cold. Her skin is very dry and irritated. May be she has some residual dermatitis from the lice and treatment?
I read many times that depluming mites are very rare so hopefully that's not it, because I wouldn't know how to treat that.
View attachment 3850305View attachment 3850306View attachment 3850308View attachment 3850309
Even when she eats cherries she is angry !

Garden pictures. I woke up in the middle of the night and realised I have forgotten to seed any cucumbers not did I grow any starters ! So we'll eat them late.
Last year I had mixed them up with the melon seeds and we ended up having 25 cucumbers plants .
View attachment 3850288View attachment 3850289

Oh Chipie! Her video, especially towards the end, reminds me of a Charlie choplin movie

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh dear Tassels. Have you been making bad decisions?

Definitely she has been making some bad decisions.
Today she spent 7 hours outside foraging in the deep undergrowth. Then suddenly she remembered she was broody and shot back to the nest.
This is after sitting for 23 days on nothing!