Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[Perris]

Then flew to London and was pretty sick once I landed at Heathrow.

I hope you got some help from somebody. London can be hard on the fit and healthy never mind the fragile.

 

[BDutch]

They were saying here that if you hadn't gotten a booster recently, your immunity from vaccine or covid probably was waning. They recommended get a booster now because the new booster was coming out in fall. They recommended at least 4 months between boosters.

Here they start in september. And stop before Xmas. Our nat. health care gives the boosters once a year now. And young healthy people are no longer vaccinated at all.

The boosters get less effective thats true, but even after a long time there are still some B cells/T cells (?… ) in your body that know how to attack the virus.

I wonder what to do this autumn, because the Pfizer vaccins makes me very sick for at least a week.

 

[Molpet]

I had not heard that. Even with the same vaccine?
I have had all the vaccines available but the last one was October. I never had Covid before this time when I picked it up on my Africa visit. I wasn’t ’Hospital Sick’ but I was pretty miserable for over a week.

https://www.aamc.org/news/had-covid...t-how-long-immunity-lasts-long-covid-and-more

 

[ManueB]

We have our first heat wave yellow warning. It's been rather mellow but I still don't feel good with the heat, although it's been actually a very mild summer up to now. Either my thermometer is broken or we are lucky because we are always two or three degrees under the forecast. Today was meant to go up to 36 and we only reached 33. But the heat starts sooner in the morning, from nine, and lasts until seven so it's harder for the chickens. Some of them are beginning to look like they suffer a bit : Nougat, who was really not well today, Piou-piou who doesn't bear hot or cold well, Lily who is constantly panting with her wings wide spread.

Léa as always is following Merle and is now also broody. I didn't dare lock them outside the coop in the warmest hours because they just run around screaming in front of the closed coop's door where there is no shade, exhausting themselves and not drinking properly. Tomorrow I'll set up the crate in the coop and I can leave them there during the afternoon, as the coop stays cool.

Things are not getting better with Théo and he's now hissing at me and jumping at my legs like he was at the worse point in our relationship. I would just let him fight it out with Gaston but my partner is really opposed to it and says I better not ask him to drive him to the vet if he gets injured. I tend to loose my patience with Théo and scream at him, which just makes things worse. It's strange because now Merle is broody, he doesn't want her near him and will peck her if I put her next to him on the roost, but he is still trying to get her to come out of the chicken yard away from Gaston.

Fence fighting reminds me of ballet or synchronized swimming!

Fence_fight.mp4

• ManueB
• Jul 27, 2024

Théo and Gaston fence fighting 2024_07_27

Nougat and Alba. Nougat has a hard time with the heat and Gaston still mates her at least twice a day which terrifies her.

Piou-piou stayed awhile in the chicken yard on her own which she hadn't done in a long time as she always gets in fights with hens bigger than she is.

Kara

Broody Léa

Pictures from our back garden.

 

[ManueB]

The heat has gone up a bit. All the south of France has a heat wave warning. The nights are also warmer and both the house and coop are finally getting to the point where they are not keeping really cool anymore.

As I expected Nougat is not doing good at all in real heat. Yesterday I had to wash her bum. She never keeps it clean but now she has a bad diarrhea and I'm afraid of flystrike after that happened to Brune. It's a big deal with Nougat, because her shifting point from being a calm, human trusting young hen to a constantly stressed, afraid of humans adult, was the first bath we gave her, when we thought she was egg bound and she was just molting but it did not show. So I really try to avoid it now by trimming her feathers and getting some of the dry poop off but this time there was no other way.
Théo also gave me a scare today because he got so worked up crowing and making a show of being aggressive to Gaston that he got really too hot. He started panting and making gurgles and his comb turned black . When I try to catch him he acted normally which means he pretended to attack me, then ran. It took him quite a while to calm down.
It's only 34/94 but the sun is really scorching. I am always very surprised that so many people say their chickens seem fine up to 38/100.

And of course we had the very best activity throughout a heat wave. Sensible people nap, go to the river, or take cold showers. What do we do ? Take a guess

Spoiler

Break up the entrance with a destruction hammer. And carry about 40 buckets of rubbles out to lever the floor 20 cm below.
We meant to do this in May. It's actually the first week with no rain that my partner is available four days, which is what we think we need to break and redo the slab, same for the wall, and put bow windows instead of the broken door and plastic pieces that have closed since 1980 what used to be an open space.

Sisters - Lulu and Annette. Both have recently found out how to escape from the yard. Annette has a very good orientation and knows to come back on her own at roost time but Lulu just wanders off and forgets everything.

Nougat. Her comb is flopping over and her eyes are dull. But she is still doing chicken stuff.

Gaston calling to show some goodies to Annette.

Two broodies crated in the morning while the other hens lay. As they are now almost on top of hierarchy they won't let anyone in their nest.

Can you spot Théo and Piou-piou far away ?

Merle

Kara thinks it's not too warm for a little sunbathing.

My partner took this picture of the back garden seen from above.

 

[BDutch]

What a job to carry stones in 34 C. Hope you are all well.

Your garden looks beautiful .

 

[Shadrach]

With the egg tracking file sheet, I can clearly see her cycle. She does indeed almost spends more time being broody than not, though not by far. She lays eggs during a period that last from 15 to 21 days ; then she stops for a period that lasts from 15 to 25 days. She usually begins acting broody and sitting two or three days before stopping to lay, and in the same way she stops sitting and goes back to normal two or three days before laying again.
Léa follows her closely although her laying periods are usually a few days longer and so she sits a few days less.
Apart from Chipie none of my other hens have been sitting. Only Lily and Piou-piou have shown signs of thinking about going broody, but without actually doing it.

Yesterday was a bit nerve wrecking. The night before Laure had been acting eggbound. I expected her to pass a softshell egg on the roost like she has before, but in the morning it was still stuck. She went to hide in the laurel tree and she is such a wild thing that I couldn't even get close to see how she was doing without making her scream and trying to get away. She ended up going in the nest in the afternoon and when she came out she had a soft shell hanging from her vent which Alba quickly pulled out and ate. I only found a bit of yolk, but she acted much better afterwards so I hope she passed all of it.
I've ordered some human calcium citrate from a foreign site for her as the liquid calcium I've been adding to the water doesn't seem to make things any better. It's just ridiculous the number of medications I've been having internationally shipped for the chickens. I'm not sure how to get it into her, I think I may make an addition to a spoon to have a very long handle so I can give her in a piece of yogurt or cheese from far away.
Then in the evening we were having a bunch of people from the village over. I am at a point in my life where that's enough for me to be stressed . They arrived a bit earlier than we told them, before seven, at a time when the chickens are usually well asleep. But yesterday the two roosters were still fighting for something like the fifth time and I just realised that Annette and Lulu had somehow gotten out of the chicken yard and were far, very far away below in the big bare field underneath, having obviously completely forgotten any idea of going to bed. Then Laure went to hide in the nest next to where Nougat roosts and Nougat threw her out, and chaos ensued. All the chickens came down the roost loudly shouting alarm.
Of course everything turned out all right in the end and they all went to bed. My partner made fun of me for getting worried for nothing and we had far too much wine.

Today's is going better regarding the chickens but I have a headache.

Alba and Nieva dustbathing. They both have been getting in fights with the other hens especially Léa, who is turning broody which always makes her more aggressive and dominant than usual.
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Poor Lily looks terrible with her broken and torn feathers. She is acting fine but like she's always borderline broody.
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Nougat had some bad days but today she is doing great, chasing butterflies like she was young again.
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Laure today. She doesn't look bad but I have a feeling she looks slimmer, she may have lost weight. I'm also working with her on trying to get her to become more trusting with treats
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Kara. She looks good and still runs about but she is beginning to have difficulty jumping up and down. She sleeps early and naps a lot but that has been the case since we took her to the vet last winter. I think she has gained more weight.
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Free rangers/rangers are never going to look like show chickens.
Feathers caught in bushes, a few cuts on the feet, peck marks from the last scrap, the mites they pick up, the stings they get, the stuff they ate which they shouldn't have; the list goes on.

 

[Shadrach]

Me too
Covid is going around here again.
My brother came out for a show and I didn't even want to see his germy self. I did see him for an hour.

Hoping chickens are all better and getting along

It's been doing the rounds here. It's usually relatively mild but it's incredibly hard to fully shake off.

 

[Shadrach]

Here they start in september. And stop before Xmas. Our nat. health care gives the boosters once a year now. And young healthy people are no longer vaccinated at all.

The boosters get less effective thats true, but even after a long time there are still some B cells/T cells (?… ) in your body that know how to attack the virus.

I wonder what to do this autumn, because the Pfizer vaccins makes me very sick for at least a week.

I won't be taking any of the booster shots. I've had Covid three times definitely now and one likely which I didn't even test for. They say...that once you've caught Covid and of course lived, then the immune response your body produces learn and are better equiped to deal with another round. Catch it a few times as I have and the ability of my immune system to deal with it are apparently, better than any vaccine.
Currently my thinking is the vaccine would be helpfull for the really vunerable but for the rest of us catching Covid and recovering, or not, is the way as a species we should be heading.
Still, as a species we should at least be thankfull our governments don't wipe out a village if one person is found to have contracted Covid.
Can't say the same for the poor chicken and bird flue.

 

[lightm]

We have our first heat wave yellow warning. It's been rather mellow but I still don't feel good with the heat, although it's been actually a very mild summer up to now. Either my thermometer is broken or we are lucky because we are always two or three degrees under the forecast. Today was meant to go up to 36 and we only reached 33. But the heat starts sooner in the morning, from nine, and lasts until seven so it's harder for the chickens. Some of them are beginning to look like they suffer a bit : Nougat, who was really not well today, Piou-piou who doesn't bear hot or cold well, Lily who is constantly panting with her wings wide spread.

Léa as always is following Merle and is now also broody. I didn't dare lock them outside the coop in the warmest hours because they just run around screaming in front of the closed coop's door where there is no shade, exhausting themselves and not drinking properly. Tomorrow I'll set up the crate in the coop and I can leave them there during the afternoon, as the coop stays cool.

Things are not getting better with Théo and he's now hissing at me and jumping at my legs like he was at the worse point in our relationship. I would just let him fight it out with Gaston but my partner is really opposed to it and says I better not ask him to drive him to the vet if he gets injured. I tend to loose my patience with Théo and scream at him, which just makes things worse. It's strange because now Merle is broody, he doesn't want her near him and will peck her if I put her next to him on the roost, but he is still trying to get her to come out of the chicken yard away from Gaston.

Fence fighting reminds me of ballet or synchronized swimming!

Fence_fight.mp4

• ManueB
• Jul 27, 2024

Théo and Gaston fence fighting 2024_07_27

View attachment 3902768View attachment 3902769View attachment 3902770
Nougat and Alba. Nougat has a hard time with the heat and Gaston still mates her at least twice a day which terrifies her.
View attachment 3902771View attachment 3902772
Piou-piou stayed awhile in the chicken yard on her own which she hadn't done in a long time as she always gets in fights with hens bigger than she is.
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Kara
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Broody Léa
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Pictures from our back garden.
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So you uploaded an mp4 file and we can just play it in the post, huh? No more need to upload it to a hose website like YouTube or DailyMotion?