Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

how large are their eggs? I've never had bantams. Or is it just the rescue (lf) hens laying?

For now only the ex-batts are laying, Chipie is taking a break and the younger hens haven't begun laying. I would say a third of a big egg, much like an oval ping-pong ball. Here is a picture of the last times I found a bunch of Chipie's eggs, I have rather small hands for reference.

I would never have thought on my own of getting bantams but I love Chipie and Merle. They are agile, excellent flyers, and I think good at escaping predators. But I suppose it depends on the breeds and the way they are raised.

 

[ManueB]

A day of quarrelling for the chicken des Sauches. Théo keeps chasing Gaston whenever he tries to access the feeders. Then, because food is the most important thing in Gaston's life, when he does get access to one of the feeders, he bullies his hatch siblings so that he can have the wheat grains and cracked corn and leave the fine layer feed. He gobbles up on food so fast that he sometimes chokes. At one point, I just locked Théo up in the run because he was harassing the four younger ones, and of course he wasn't happy about it.

Gaston crowed several times today, so maybe this has to do with Theo's change of attitude ? Can he feel that Gaston will soon reach hormonal stage ?
We had another really nice day, still abnormally warm temperatures, beautiful automne light and some rain in the evening, and three eggs again.

Fall colors slowly coming

Théo inspects the wood from the old lumber we got out of the old houses.

Even bad boys rest..I think he also gets tired from molting

Léa will do what it takes to catch the very last grapes

Gaston crowed on the roof of the water shed and was very surprised himself.

 

[MaryJanet]

A day of quarrelling for the chicken des Sauches. Théo keeps chasing Gaston whenever he tries to access the feeders. Then, because food is the most important thing in Gaston's life, when he does get access to one of the feeders, he bullies his hatch siblings so that he can have the wheat grains and cracked corn and leave the fine layer feed. He gobbles up on food so fast that he sometimes chokes. At one point, I just locked Théo up in the run because he was harassing the four younger ones, and of course he wasn't happy about it.

Gaston crowed several times today, so maybe this has to do with Theo's change of attitude ? Can he feel that Gaston will soon reach hormonal stage ?
We had another really nice day, still abnormally warm temperatures, beautiful automne light and some rain in the evening, and three eggs again.

Fall colors slowly coming
View attachment 3287831View attachment 3287832Théo inspects the wood from the old lumber we got out of the old houses.View attachment 3287834View attachment 3287836Even bad boys rest..I think he also gets tired from molting
View attachment 3287849 Léa will do what it takes to catch the very last grapes
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Gaston crowed on the roof of the water shed and was very surprised himself.
View attachment 3287842
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View attachment 3287840
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How is Canelle doing? Does she seem OK?

 

[ManueB]

How is Canelle doing? Does she seem OK?

She is a very secretive hen, so it's difficult to say. I think she was slightly more active and foraging. My partner felt her abdomen again, and he thought again that he could feel an egg. I really can't say if she's taking a normal seasonal laying break during her molt, or if she has an issue.

 

[ManueB]

Laying mishaps and chicken drama

This morning Blanche laid first and then Cannelle went to the same nest box. I had checked Blanche's egg in between to make sure it wasn't soft shelled. Cannelle spent quite a long time in the nest with Théo guarding the coop for her, and I was getting worried again. When I saw her outside, I went to check the nest and...
she had eaten Blanche's egg !!! There were just a few pieces of shells left and some of the liquid white had dampened the straw.
I'm pretty sure she broke the egg on purpose. Sometimes it happens that they make a small dent in an egg, but they don't eat it, they leave it with a small hole.
Then I changed the straw, and Brune started making a drama because it didn't smell and look like her laying place anymore. She screamed for nearly an hour and went up and down the ladder five times before she accepted to lay.

Sometime before that, I witnessed an interesting sequence of fights. I heard screams while cleaning the coop, and rushed to see Théo giving Chipie a thrashing. He wasn't acting, he was really beating her up. Then she ran from him and right after that went to peck Gaston in the face. Poor Gaston had the wrong idea of standing back. Chipie literally attacked him ! She flew at his head ( she is three to four times smaller) and threw herself on him several times. He quickly submitted and ran away whimpering !

Chipie wants to be head of a new tribe, and to still be Théo's lover. We say in french she wants butter, butter's money, and the dairy woman's bottom .

Gastounet's bath sent half the tub flying over.

Piou-piou has grown so much in the last ten days .

Beware Hungry ex-batts

Trouble, trouble.

 

[Perris]

she had eaten Blanche's egg !!! There were just a few pieces of shells left and some of the liquid white had dampened the straw.
I'm pretty sure she broke the egg on purpose.

If true, this is bad news; you want to break this habit asap or she will continue and the others will copy her. But it may not be the correct interpretation of the evidence you found; read on.

Sometimes it happens that they make a small dent in an egg, but they don't eat it, they leave it with a small hole.

A small hole in the end is a classic sign of a mild strain of mycoplasma infection. It's very common and they can build immunity to it; I'm sure Venka had it when she was 2, as many of her eggs had a neat little hole at the apex that I at first thought was the result of someone pecking at it. In fact it's just thinning and/or staining of the shell at the end caused by the bacterial infection. Such eggs are perfectly safe to eat by the way. Of course such weakened shells are more liable than usual to get accidentally broken either by the hen that laid it exiting or another entering. So don't assume a deliberate egg eater unless you catch them in the act.

 

[ManueB]

If true, this is bad news; you want to break this habit asap or she will continue and the others will copy her. But it may not be the correct interpretation of the evidence you found; read on.

A small hole in the end is a classic sign of a mild strain of mycoplasma infection. It's very common and they can build immunity to it; I'm sure Venka had it when she was 2, as many of her eggs had a neat little hole at the apex that I at first thought was the result of someone pecking at it. In fact it's just thinning and/or staining of the shell at the end caused by the bacterial infection. Such eggs are perfectly safe to eat by the way. Of course such weakened shells are more liable than usual to get accidentally broken either by the hen that laid it exiting or another entering. So don't assume a deliberate egg eater unless you catch them in the act.

It is possible, but yesterday I had checked the egg before Cannelle went in the nest and it had seemed solid enough. Today only Nougat laid in her outdoor nest and no other hens visited the nest hole in the coop, so it wasn't conclusive.

Today was lousy for the chickens and for me both. Théo's pursuing of Gaston intensified to a new level. I ended up locking Gaston in the run to feed him and Théo threw himself on the weldmesh to scare or attack him. It worked so well Gaston ran screaming inside the coop, spilling both waterer and feeder on the way. So I let him out and then he was terrified of Théo for the rest of the day. Unfortunately he doesn't have the sense to avoid him because he thinks there is food somewhere he runs straight to it honking loudly like a baby donkey .
I guess it doesn't look likely that we will be able to keep them both together .
Then we had the sparrowhawk and the gallicus hawk circling over for a few hours, scaring everyone under the laurel tree and the Jerusalem artichokes.

In better news Chipie is growing new tail feathers and back to her active self. And we ate a load of really good chestnut tonight with the new wine .

That creature by whom chaos arrives.

I'm really lucky the four younger chickens only understood on the day I'm pulling the outdoor tomatoes away, that they are a chicken edible food

Théo is angry

He did many times go out to bring her back, sometimes tidbitting, sometimes acting rough, and there she is

They were so afraid of the hawk they took shelter next to Grochatila napping.

Piou-piou grooms Gastounet

Cannelle

 

[ManueB]

It is still 10/50 in the morning, this is crazy as it should be freezing or just above by now. I left the chickens for an hour, but didn't lock up the younger bunch with the adults, I'm too afraid Théo will terrorize Gaston. When I came back the three younger hens and Chipie were well hidden under the laurel tree, they must have seen a hawk. I couldn't find Gaston and started worrying- in fact he was below the chicken's place, hiding under the trees. Chipie used to take them all the time there when they were chicks, because it's rather sheltered and close to the coop, but they very rarely hang out there now.

I'm glad to say no egg was eaten or broken, even though Blanche's was very fragile and tiny. So it was probably a coincidence two days ago when Cannelle ate the egg, and not intentional.

This afternoon we had again the two different hawks circle above. There seems to be a truce when there is real danger, they all shelter quietly under the laurel tree. However as soon as the hawks have been out of sight for a sufficient amount of time, bullying starts again.
It's kind of sad to see Théo tidbitting for Chipie- she comes around and try to catch the food but without letting him reach her to do his dancing stuff, so he gets angry and chases her off.

Today all the chicken that had been under the weather looked as if they felt better, I hope it lasts. I did notice again that Théo had his leg bleeding and so did Léa, who has really feathered legs, maybe it's just that they tear off the new quilts.

Huge yellow legs.

Merle's comb is turning definitely pink. For a long time I couldn't tell if it was pink or black .

 

[ManueB]

Three years "arbitrary hatch day".

When we got our six ex-batts Vanille, Blanche, Cannelle, Nougat, Caramel and Brune in January 2020, we weren't told how old they were. They started to lay on the 15 of march (all in the same week). Based on the assumption that they must have been around 5 months then, I decided randomly that the 15th of October would be considered their hatch day.

Three years old is a symbolic if slightly delusional milestone for me. When we got the ex-batts I knew nothing about chickens, high production breeds, the way ex-batts had been bred to lay an egg a day and the reproductive disorders this meant. We learnt this only a few weeks after Vanille started laying and began having serious troubles. I understood then that we wouldn't keep them for long and it became my goal to get them to three years old.
Vanille and Caramel are not here today, but I think I understand better now that if you take in ex-batts, you have to accept that it's best not to focus on the length of the walk, but on the here and now (some life lessons ). So I will give them some scrambled eggs and tuna and the last melons from the greenhouse, and be happy that four of them are with me now .

 

[Perris]

I think I understand better now that if you take in ex-batts, you have to accept that it's best not to focus on the length of the walk, but on the here and now (some life lessons ).

I think that's a great lesson for all of us.

Congratulations on your milestone: it's not delusional. You've given these hens a wonderful life whatever the future holds for them.