Just try to enjoy your chickens and the beautiful landscapes like your followers do. Maybe useless to say but worrying doesn’t help at all.
I do (enjoy the landscapes and the place) and I don't that much (worry for nothing).
It's easy to get over implicated when I'm with the chickens all day, as they become my only focus. But running more is good for my mood, to get out of the place a bit, take a step back and remember how lucky we are to be here.
Since about 5 years wolves have established in the Netherlands too.
People have been taking nightly pictures of wolves in shopping streets and parks were children play.
Our country is very densely populated for such large predators.
They came back by themselves in France from Italy. I'm deeply in favour of wildlife protection, but it's clear that the problems coexistence would create have been largely underestimated, until recently.
Finally somebody is being understanding
. Thank you.
I certainly know what it's like to have conflicting views on chickens with my partner! I can barely imagine how difficult it must be for couples who have children
.
Light is acting normal. Our area is expecting another snow storm (it really should be the last of this winter) so the vet office already cancelled our appointment on Thursday due to this forecasting. Everything shuts down here when there is snow. (for reference, there is usually no snow in this region.)
We did not reschedule since Light is acting fine, vet is 2.5 hours away, and vet office has some weird protocol on bird flu.
I think you will probably have some time to schedule again before it becomes a serious issue, should she lay again. I'm going to make a post about Laure to ask other people's experience with the transition between two implants.
Random rant: I feel like my work has been stressful
, and I'm doing things outside of my duty because my boss does not do his job
Work can definitely be stressful and good bosses are rare as diamonds. Try to do things that help unwind and give you some energy outside work ?
And maybe ask yourself what would really happen if you left part of the job undone - sometimes it can be a way to shake things up ?
Short story is Stupidity on a walk
I was walking my st Bernard one gloomy good Friday in the woods. He was squeaking something and it turned out to be a puppy with the umbilical cord attached still. There was a bunch of them under a gooseberry Bush.
I thought they were stray dog puppies... because I thought no coyote would have pups there. I thought they would be in a den. Not thinking that it had just rained a lot and she probably moved them. Also coyotes were rarely seen or heard around here in the 80s.
So I had the brilliant idea to take them home and when old enough to find homes.
I put them in my backpack in the gloomy. It started raining before I got home and when I took them out in the light I realized they all had a cross over the shoulder and down the back. I knew then what they were. I wondered if I could find that gooseberry Bush again
. I thought about stepping on their little heads briefly.... would have been a lot less heartbreak in the long run if I had.
Anyway when they started walking most got sick loosing motor control. Worried it was something contagious I took one to the vet. He ran some tests and said it wasn't contagious. He said if I hadn't said it was stray dog puppies I found, he had seen something similar in very inbred pure bred canines. I think he was doubtful about the stray dog story
.
Anyway only one male didn't get sick so I think the vet might have been right about genetics, although the inbred bit I never heard of before or since.
I didn't take any pictures until they started walking. I'm not much on thinking about that. Especially before smart phones.
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Amazing story ! Thanks for sharing. And for the pictures too !
I always thought coyotes could not be tamed, but I suppose babies from any species would develop a strong bond to those who raise them.
Did the male who survived behave in ways similar to a young dog, or not at all ?
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Crappy weather today, not above 3, grey and gloomy, but no rain. I think Chipie had a seizure again this morning. She didn't eat her special bowl, which alerted me as it had been the case the last morning she had a fit. I had finished cleaning the coop and was just outside in the run when I heard Gaston making a weird sound in the coop. When I checked back in, he was with Chipie who was almost lying on one side, with her head looking back up. My guess is that the seizure was just over. I picked her up and held her trembling and breathing loud, until she vocalised I could put her down. I have received the B complex but have not given it to her since she didn't have any seizure since, I will feed her some for a few days. She looks perfectly fine now, but she was definitely shaken up for an hour or two.
This brings me to talk about what we've been thinking for the chickens and us, and ask if you have opinions/ perspectives.
How we keep the chickens isn't going well in some ways : too many health issues, too many parasites in the environment, a very time consuming experience as our constant presence is key to keeping predators away.
I would like to have the chickens free range and my partner is totally opposed to it, and we are quarrelling about it too often. Keeping them in the chicken yard with only a few chickens free ranging means they can be outside all day, but it also means they are in a way more exposed to predators than if they were really free ranging, as their options for hiding are fewer.
I do wonder sometimes if it would be better not to have chickens at all ; but it would certainly feel very empty and sad for me without chickens.
We have tried to think how in the future a few things could maybe help a bit that we haven't yet tried : downsize the overall number of chickens under eight, forget production breeds, only get backyard mutts, either hatching our own chicks here or from our neighbour eggs, include more bantams and smaller chickens who seem to do better, and keep only one rooster.
With less chickens, their 500 m2 yard would be less crowded, and bantams can be left to roam more often in the garden as they do a lot less damage. Less chickens also mean we can take better care of them if they do have health issues, and the pressure on our soil is lessened.
One rooster only and less hens would allow us to lock them up in the run for an hour or two once or twice a week without impacting their well-being too much, so my partner and I could run again together. It would mean that we could potentially leave the flock for two or three days once or twice a year, with a friend who would act as a chicken keeper. And most of all, it means that there wouldn't be one rooster left out and stressing himself purple trying to get some hens to join him.
I realise it's not a magical solution. The worms will still be in the environment, the chickens will still get them, their health won't suddenly improve, and it's true that overall their social relationships had gotten less tense when their number increased two years ago.
Anyway, that would be in a not so near future, because we are not rehoming any of the chickens who currently live here unless we have no other choice. They are thirteen. If Alba and Kara are still here next year I'll be surprised, and it's hard to say with Chipie. Potentially Lilly and Alba will not live very long ; all the other chickens for now seem healthy enough to have a longer life.
The family discussion about the house have reached a statu quo, the only change is that my partner's aunt is pulling out of the indivision, so my partner's father becomes sole owner. So we stay, but our status remains unofficial.
But with all this said...here is the catch : we are also hesitant about getting eggs this year for Merle. The reason is that Chipie and Théo's lineage, which used to be all over the village, is now very reduced and may possibly disappear. I wrote lengthily about it on FBA, the only people who still have those bantams are old and very sick. And now it looks as if Chipie could possibly die sooner than I would have thought ; she doesn't lay, and her eggs are not fertilized.
So we are wondering to get eggs from those people who still have those bantams.
Pro's : keep that lineage alive, get other small hens like Chipie (who maybe has seizures now but has lived a rather long healthy life), allow Merle to hatch who wants it so much, knowing that she is top hens so her chicks will have it easy.
Con's : the biggest negative point is that it goes against our goal to downsize. Timing issue : my race is on the 25 June so I won't be able to watch over chicks that would hatch the month before. Brooding issue : Merle has a tendency to poop on her eggs. Safety issue : while there has been no attacks, no sign, and the run and coops are safe, we haven't killed the marten and it's potentially still around. Gender issue : if we only hatch a few eggs we could get only cockerels. I'm sure Gaston (the farmer) would be happy to take one or two, but not more.
I'd be interested by your opinions, especially as some of you might see things differently.
A few pictures from today and yesterday.
Morning preening - ten hens on and under what used to be Piou-piou's roost
Saucisse mélisse would do anything for food.
Little Chipie better in the morning.
And to bed at 4.30
! I hope she does ok until the vet's appointment.
.
