Théo and the chickens des Sauches

ManueB · Mar 7, 2023

MaryJanet said:
Chipie is the sweet little girl who somehow makes bad friends and ends up with bad attitude to other people. Her family was too small and too busy to be sufficiently attentive for getting her off to a good start in life. Her intellectual capacities were never cultivated. I've got it all worked out

Chipie's psychology is really a mystery to me

. I think the only time she was really feeling good was when she raised the chicks, and she was very good at it, because they looked up to her naturally, but then she didn't wait long to cut them off.
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I could hear Merle's broody screams before I opened the coop and she ran to her nest in the barn as soon as I opened. She laid an egg, and although she really looked broody, she got up on her own three hours later. Piou-piou, Léa, Blanche and Cannelle also laid in the morning.
We began moving the wood around in the shed to empty the place where the coop will be : Gaston was rather worried and he inspected things carefully most of the afternoon. And we moved a baby olive sapling inside the chicken yard and planted a big pecan tree, which fascinated both teams.

And did we have a third day of peace between the roosters?
This photo speaks for itself...

Gaston was a bit overconfident and decided to take his pullets inside the run to eat from the ex-batts feeders ! This was too much to bear for Théo, who attacked him inside the run- not a good place at all with very little space to do roo kung-fu around and a good chance of getting hurt in the mesh or the wooden thing. So my partner got them out and we waited a bit, hoping they would calm down, but they didn't and it just go more violent. Théo was beginning to bleed from the comb and legs, and turn purple and pant, so we separated them. They left each other alone for the rest of the day.

The weather turned grey and windy this afternoon. We have heavy winds forecasted all week and normally a lot of rain tomorrow, let's hope it doesn't disappoint us once again !

Perris · Mar 7, 2023

it's been brewing for a while; the roos will need to sort out who's boss, ideally without inflicting serious damage on each other. Still horrible to watch though.

BDutch · Mar 7, 2023

I don’t envy you ManueB with those 2 fighting roosters. Hope they work it out and settle for a definite agreement soon.

Finally my 2 younger chickens , Janice in the back and Katrientje on the right, started to lay again. Both at the same day.

Real weird to start to lay so earl in January, stop laying for several weeks in february on the same day and start to lay again on the same day too.

I know that wanting to breed can be contagious but never new that laying eggs is contagious too.

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ManueB · Mar 8, 2023

Perris said:
it's been brewing for a while; the roos will need to sort out who's boss, ideally without inflicting serious damage on each other. Still horrible to watch though.

I know the roosters can probably cause more damage, but I think I may find it less disturbing than watching the bullying between the hens. They can be real psychos.

BDutch said:
I don’t envy you ManueB with those 2 fighting roosters. Hope they work it out and settle for a definite agreement soon.

View attachment 3424869Finally my 2 younger chickens , Janice in the back and Katrientje on the right, started to lay again. Both at the same day.

Real weird to start to lay so earl in January, stop laying for several weeks in february on the same day and start to lay again on the same day too.

I know that wanting to breed can be contagious but never new that laying eggs is contagious too. .

Love that photo, they look ready for mischief!
I joke about the laying and brooding conspiracy but I'm sure there is a rational scientific explanation for the way hormones may be influenced in a group of females/ a flock of hens.
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Today afternoon we had what I think is the worse type of weather we can have here : grey, extremely strong winds, but no rain !! The forecast keeps letting us down !

Poor Merle was acting broody on her nest this morning, but when I found she still hadn't laid at noon, I took the egg that I leave in the morning off her nest. I saw she left the nest, then I didn't find her anymore - she was inside the coop, on the ex-batt's eggs! I picked her up and told her she was a naughty broody, only to discover when I collected the ex-batts eggs that she had also laid an egg. I was the evil one to move her off when she was still intent on laying !

The roosters had a squabble when I opened the coop, and then they avoided each other all day. Gaston didn't jump inside the netting so I think Théo has regained some status.

We're reaching the stage I feared with the wood shed when my partner is getting overwhelmed with all that still must be done. He's the handy one but he always underestimates the time and complexity of his projects! Tomorrow we'll collect some gravel to try to level the ground inside.

Broody Merle

My biggest egg from Nougat next to the smallest one from Merle

Blanche getting all worked up waiting for her scrambled egg. She is an addict.

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I'm a week late... but good-bye M. Shorter. My last high school year would have been a lot more boring without Weather Report.

BDutch · Mar 8, 2023

Found some interesting info on bees for you in my local news (NRC) ManueB:

Honey bees use landscape features to get back to their hive, according to a study published this week in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. Bees have all kinds of mechanisms to find their way, such as using the position of the sun and their natural compass that works with the Earth's magnetic field.

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

ManueB · Mar 9, 2023

BDutch said:
Found some interesting info on bees for you in my local news (NRC) ManueB:

Honey bees use landscape features to get back to their hive, according to a study published this week in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. Bees have all kinds of mechanisms to find their way, such as using the position of the sun and their natural compass that works with the Earth's magnetic field.

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

Thanks for the article ! The statistics models are far beyond what I can understand, but I understand the object of the research.
On a side note, geographical disorientation of the bees was pointed out as the main problem with the use of neocotinoids even at a very weak dosage.

I'm very upset with the chickens today so I will just post the photos and skip writing about them. They dug out almost all of the four range of early potatoes and the eight range of onions we planted yesterday

. I just don't know how we will manage planting our 75 kilos of potatoes without fencing and my partner doesn't want to hear about it.

Whoops... that's not a chicken, I know. It's the neighbour's cows that escaped their electric netting and that I found on the path coming back from my run this morning. She gave me a bunch of fresh cheese to thank me for warning her

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Shadrach · Mar 9, 2023

ManueB said:
Thanks for the article ! The statistics models are far beyond what I can understand, but I understand the object of the research.
On a side note, geographical disorientation of the bees was pointed out as the main problem with the use of neocotinoids even at a very weak dosage.

I'm very upset with the chickens today so I will just post the photos and skip writing about them. They dug out almost all of the four range of early potatoes and the eight range of onions we planted yesterday . I just don't know how we will manage planting our 75 kilos of potatoes without fencing and my partner doesn't want to hear about it.
View attachment 3426722 View attachment 3426723 View attachment 3426733 View attachment 3426734 View attachment 3426736 View attachment 3426737 View attachment 3426738 View attachment 3426739 View attachment 3426740

Whoops... that's not a chicken, I know. It's the neighbour's cows that escaped their electric netting and that I found on the path coming back from my run this morning. She gave me a bunch of fresh cheese to thank me for warning her .
View attachment 3426741
View attachment 3426748

Fencing around the root veg plantings doesn't have to be a permenant affair.
I used to use hoops with a chicken wire cover over the more delicate crops.

Perris · Mar 9, 2023

or brushy sticks, holly cuttings, any sort of plant material that they will skirt round rather than try to push aside will work too, just laid across the target ground while the plantings get going.

ManueB · Mar 10, 2023

Shadrach said:
Fencing around the root veg plantings doesn't have to be a permenant affair.
I used to use hoops with a chicken wire cover over the more delicate crops.

Perris said:
or brushy sticks, holly cuttings, any sort of plant material that they will skirt round rather than try to push aside will work too, just laid across the target ground while the plantings get going.

They are digging through the potatoes and onions we planted two days ago because the ground is freshly moved. This isn't a problem of delicate crop, we will likely face it for a few days with everything we plant !

This is a surface of 4x10 meters (13ftx33ft) ; when we plant the rest of the potato we will have 5x25 (16ftX82) +5X10(16X33ft). I just don't see how we can find enough material for temporary blockage.

Some happy news at least : it's raining this morning

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ManueB · Mar 10, 2023

The weather turned out to be really strange. We had a little rain in the morning (but a little is always better than none!) , then wind that chased the clouds in the afternoon and grew stronger and stronger into a storm toward four.
Théo and the ex-batts stayed mostly in the coop and run while it was raining. Blanche took almost two hours to lay, but she seemed fine afterwards. I don't mention it every day but she still has ups and downs, and her eye obviously still hurts.

Gaston's team had an empty levelled wood shed to themselves (we haven't started bringing the wood in yet) but they didn't stay there for long and went to dig up under the rain. Léa is beginning to make broody noises... while Merle is at the end of it, just like last time. Léa and Piou-piou both laid early in the morning.

In the afternoon once again Gaston's team got in the run while I was taking Théo and the ex-batts to the field underneath. Gaston took the opportunity to go inside the coop. Unfortunately, Chipie who had stayed behind got scared hearing Gaston and ...she ran right to the coop. Gaston jumped on her to "rape" / mate her : she obviously wasn't agreeing and struggled underneath. I took her out of the coop without thinking but I was really afraid for her ; she's so small resisting wasn't going to end well. Meanwhile Théo, hearing Chipie's distress calls, had come running back up : Gaston did not stay to pick a fight, though he did hesitate to go back once he was out.

When the storm began he took his pullets to the coop very early. But the wind was so strong anyway, that I quickly got Théo's team also inside. They weren't keen to roost, but they didn't want to stay outside with branches flying all over the place.

Curiously we still have power and internet - I will be surprised if there is no outage ! I hope my partner comes home safe as he's driving the bus from Nice to the last village in the mountain this evening

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Rainy morning