Théo and the chickens des Sauches

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.
I also find it always very hard to see chicken's sizes on photos !
Piou-piou hatched from a standard egg ; she is a runt and did not grow normally. But it is possible that her father was a bantam or cross bantam.
Théo is likely cross bantam and small standard. He comes from the same lineage of chickens as Chipie, and all the other males I've seen are much smaller than him.
Merle did hatch from a bantam egg. She is very fat right now because she is planning to be broody again 🙄.
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.
It's hard for me to imagine a chicken even smaller than Chipie !
I find the bantams in my flock very endearing, well, maybe apart from Théo 😊. They have strong individual personalities. If we continue to keep chickens we will go on having bantams.
Here is Tassels in jail on her 2x4.
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Is this 4 cm ?
My small chicken's roost is 5 cm diameter. I think I would need something a lot more narrow to stop Chipie from roosting on it .
I hope Tassel hears the voice of reason 😊.
Thanks for the link to the article on Pu-erh tea ManueB; very interesting. Next time I'm in the exotic food shops street I'll see if I can find some here to try :p
Think of it as Marmite, or our Maroilles cheese. It's an acquired taste, you need to have it at least five or six times before you decide if you like it or not ! I think you can probably find some but if you don't I'd be glad to send you a sample, let me know.
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We had a bit of a storm today. Weather report predicted hail, so we spent some time putting over nettings on the garden, but it did not happen.

Piou-piou is not well again. She is fine during the day but terrible morning and evenings. I hate seeing her like this and not knowing what it is.

The few pictures I took before the storm.
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Is this 4 cm ?
My small chicken's roost is 5 cm diameter. I think I would need something a lot more narrow to stop Chipie from roosting on it .
I hope Tassel hears the voice of reason 😊.
A 2x4 measures 1.5x3.0" which is 3.8x7.6cm.
It is a standard size of construction lumber here so I have lots of left over off-cuts.

The idea is that it is something that they can stand, walk, and roost on but it is NOT big enough for them to consider a nest.

Use what you have around. Even a brick would be OK! I just didn't want Tassels hurting her feet by standing directly on wire.

She gets another day release tomorrow - I am hoping she is over it by then!
 
Piou-piou laid a soft shell egg during the night and she was much better today, even though she was still limping. So I think although the limping may be an issue it's not what's causing her pain, and this seems to point toward reproductive issues.

It was a lovely day until three but now we have a huge storm. Power has gone off. Even though we turned off the differential circuit breaker it has made some cracking noises and sparks. This time the storm was not forecasted so we didn't have battery lights charged - I think I see a candle dinner in my close future 🤣.

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I was very relieved to see Piou-piou back to her usual bug digging passion.
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Two sisters, Lulu and Mélisse. As they have grown into adult hens they look much more similar than when they were younger
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Three sisters, but Laure is the odd one out !
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It has been almost a month since Kara has laid an egg. She hasn't changed her ways : she naps a lot and goes to bed early, spends time on the nest, but does not look or act ill. We are not very optimistic on her long term future, though.
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Hibou 🦉 (the cat) has been spending a lot of time close to the chickens again and more than once she almost got pecked. Yesterday she got closed in the run in the evening ; she only got out because I went to take Chipie out of her nest once it was night.
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And that is tricky as chickens will peck away any wound covering.
This gets next to zero interest here on BYC but as wound treatments go it definitely has it's place. I've treated wounds with a wash and pine tar that if seen by a vet would have been stitched. If you get to the wound quickly, clean it well and when everything is dry, slap on a good thickness of Pine Tar, not only do they not peck at it but the tar seals the wound. It has drawbacks. Once it's on, there is now practical way of getting it off, so one needs to make sure you get proper coverage first go. Next. feathers don't grow back in that area until the next moult ften it seemed.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...s-and-injuries-with-stockholm-hoof-tar.74400/
 
This time the storm was not forecasted so we didn't have battery lights charged - I think I see a candle dinner in my close future 🤣.
Love is in the air! :gig

I was very relieved to see Piou-piou back to her usual bug digging passion.
Glad see seems better now.
Did you try to give human Calcium tablets? The ‘chicken docters’ advice to give a week to soft shell layers and see if it helps. But if its because of an underlaying health issue it probably doesn’t help.

Yesterday she got closed in the run in the evening ; she only got out because I went to take Chipie out of her nest once it was night.
I had a neighbours cat locked up in the chickens run too for several hours
This black cat likes the sparrows and maybe an occasional mouse. After the hunt its time to take a nap of course. The other cat comes in the run to eat the chickens food.

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Glad see seems better now.
Did you try to give human Calcium tablets? The ‘chicken docters’ advice to give a week to soft shell layers and see if it helps. But if its because of an underlaying health issue it probably doesn’t help.
She could indeed be lacking calcium as her diet consists mostly of worms 🙄. She doesn't eat much of the egg shells and oyster shells because she is frightened of the other hens so she goes straight to bed when she comes back from ranging.
I haven't found any human tablets suitable for chickens here. Most of our calcium supplements are liquid or effervescent tablets and I couldn't find calcium citrate.

We had power back after two hours so no candle dinner, but a lot of rain. Today the chickens had a very good day, all the bugs came out with the rain, and my partner picked a basket of cherries so they ate a ton !

When I went to open the chickens only Piou-piou was already up and she was perched on the stair in the run (I leave the coop open at night now the weather is nicer). I thought it was strange as usually she is the last to get up with Théo. But I later found she had laid a tiny egg in the nest next to where Gaston roost. It was fine though too small for her. And today she seemed normal.


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All the rain has made no mow may a bit wild 😁. It's going to be fun doing the hay this year 😱.
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I tried putting Chipie in the crate this evening, thinking I would be glad not to have to wait until it was dark enough to take her off her nest, but it was a failure. After about fifteen minutes she woke up and started thrashing around and hitting the mesh, and trying to force her way out. I was too scared she would hurt herself to leave her inside.

Here she was sitting in front of the door to the chicken yard while the coop was locked.
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Happy hatch day, Gaston, Merle, Léa and Piou-piou. 2 years old today ! (Technically Merle's birthday was yesterday as she hatched a day before the others).
The first time seeing chicks with a broody, tiny Chipie, was one of the best moment in my chicken journey !
It hasn't always been a smooth road especially for Gaston and Piou-piou, but I think the four of them have a happy chicken life now. I am very glad we kept Gaston, because I think overall he has been and is a very good rooster, both with the hens, with the chicks, and with us humans . And I am also glad wild little Piou-piou survived her first months free-ranging as a runt chick who couldn't fly, her wound by Gaston, the fox attack, because even though she is not always feeling good, she is the happiest chicken princess in the world when she is digging up worms in the garden💚.

(The celebration did cause some mayhem- some thought there wasn't enough sardines ? 😁 I'm not sure Gaston ate any !)

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