Théo and the chickens des Sauches

ManueB · Feb 1, 2023

MaryJanet said:
Sometimes Ivy and Janet have a frozen moment. I have an idea it's a sign of mutual subservience but that's only a guess.

Chipie did it a lot with the chicks once she had rejected them. I never saw any of my ex-batts doing it. I didn't think about mutual subservience, but it's true that the noises Chipie makes in those moments don't sound angry at all.
*********
Today was "manure day" : we spent the day helping rake manure out of the sheep's and goat stable before they come in for lambing, and we brought two trailers home for our garden. It's a very old school job that has to be done by hand, the stables are in vaulted caves under Gaston's house, and the tractor can get to our house so we have to finish with the wheel barrow. The best part may be riding the old Ford tractor...the worse getting rid of fleas after

. The chickens loved it of course !
Léa acted broody again when she laid and I pulled her out of the nest. Piou-piou, Cannelle and Nougat all laid and Merle looked as if she was searching for a new place to lay- I hope she hasn't found one that I haven't seen!
It was a really beautiful warm day. I didn't see the chickens much but Blanche didn't look well. And I noted that it was cloudy when we got up and the chickens got out of the coop almost 20 mn later than yesterday; however in the evening they stayed outside about 15 mn longer.
In the afternoon Gaston was at the end of the garden and he shouted loud alarm calls. I ran to him and saw two different raptors - a gallicus hawk and the smaller eagle! And there were screaming oak geays making a ruckus. Wonder what was going on!

Old school tractor

Broody

Spreading the poop!

ManueB · Feb 2, 2023

We locked up the chickens today to go buy food and see my parents. We picked Théo, Chipie and the four ex-batts from the roost in the dark at 7 and put them all in the run, and we left Gaston's gang in the coop. This means they had much less space than when we locked Gaston's team in the old barn, but after the last epic fail we wanted to go the easiest way. We came back at 3.30 so they only had less than two hours outside.
We found four eggs from Merle (who started laying again after a three day pause), Léa, Cannelle and Blanche.

Theo's team took dust and sunbaths while Gaston's team went digging in the garden. Only Chipie wanted to roost early so for once she went in the coop alone, before Gaston had gone to roost. Gaston leaves her alone now, but Blanche and Nougat bullied her badly when they went to roost and Théo pecked her again. She's really having a rough time now. Maybe the fact that she's not laying plays a role in the bullying getting worse ?

Dustbathing. Blanche shaking it up after. She may not be doing too good but I trust a chicken that dustbathes isn't on the border of death.

ManueB · Feb 3, 2023

An other crazy warm day! I don't know what's going on with the weather. We have some snow forecasted for Sunday, let's hope it happens because there has been no snow or rain for the whole month of January, just a very light dusting that lasted for an hour at the beginning of the month and that was it.

Piou-piou was up early as she had not laid yesterday but she managed to lay in the coop and didn't make any noise. The other chickens stayed in bed until 7.30 and no one rushed to lay. Léa laid later in the morning and poor Blanche spent the whole morning in a nest and ended up laying a small fragile egg

.

The day was pretty calm. The ex-batts spent a very long time napping under the laurel tree and coming out to get some sun every now and then. Gastounet's team stayed around me quite a while when I was in the garden and then having lunch, they are really sticky! And they spent the rest of the day digging and scratching. Everyone had a scare when about 15 vultures flew above but they were very high in the sky and did not linger.
Chipie acted dumb at roost time, she went on her roost before Gaston came in but this time when she saw him she started acting frightened and came down her roost to get out of the coop, and then of course Gaston chased her. But I got him back in the coop and Chipie went back with Théo's team in the run with no drama.

RoyalChick · Feb 3, 2023

ManueB said:
We locked up the chickens today to go buy food and see my parents. We picked Théo, Chipie and the four ex-batts from the roost in the dark at 7 and put them all in the run, and we left Gaston's gang in the coop. This means they had much less space than when we locked Gaston's team in the old barn, but after the last epic fail we wanted to go the easiest way. We came back at 3.30 so they only had less than two hours outside.
We found four eggs from Merle (who started laying again after a three day pause), Léa, Cannelle and Blanche.

Theo's team took dust and sunbaths while Gaston's team went digging in the garden. Only Chipie wanted to roost early so for once she went in the coop alone, before Gaston had gone to roost. Gaston leaves her alone now, but Blanche and Nougat bullied her badly when they went to roost and Théo pecked her again. She's really having a rough time now. Maybe the fact that she's not laying plays a role in the bullying getting worse ?

Dustbathing. Blanche shaking it up after. She may not be doing too good but I trust a chicken that dustbathes isn't on the border of death.
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Such wonderful light you have.

ManueB · Feb 4, 2023

RoyalChick said:
Such wonderful light you have.

My phone fails to capture how piercing blue the sky is. I'm not sure how we are going to get snow tomorrow

.
*********
Today was abnormally warm, 5/41 in the morning and 17/62 during the day with a burning sunshine. I was in a tank top most day. Scary.
The chickens came out at 7.25, no early layers. Cannelle, Léa and Nougat laid in the morning. Piou-piou and Merle laid in the afternoon and they surprised me by going inside the coop. They must have decided after their day spent locked in the coop that the nests were safer there.

It wasn't a good day in spite of the sun because the smaller eagle flew by twice, scaring the chickens. And my little crazy Blanche was really not well. She only got up to eat an egg and some corn, and just to graze for ten minutes at the end of the day.
At roost time she chose to roost next to Théo ( I think she doesn't feel up to jumping on the higher roost behind). Unfortunately this meant she gave a hard time to Chipie who was on the other side of Théo and he actually joined Blanche, pecking Chipie on her back.
I closed the big door that puts them in total dark to end it.
Tomorrow we will be gone for a few hours for the dreaded family lunch. I hope Blanche doesn't decide that her time has come when we're away.

Early morning

Cannelle pecking my leg. She could stay for an hour doing this.

Blanche before roost time

After closing the coop-full moon tomorrow.

ManueB · Feb 5, 2023

I didn't see the chickens a lot today, I went running this morning and then we went for lunch at my partner's father's house. Blanche was laying when I opened the coop and she seemed slightly better than yesterday. Léa laid later in the morning, I had to pull her again out of the nest.

It was quite a surprise but I managed to lock Gaston's team in the old barn with no difficulties, I think they weren't expecting it. So Théo's team had the coop and run to themselves.
Piou-piou laid in the old barn while we were away. We came back at 3.30 and the chickens stayed outside for an hour and a half. But the smaller eagle flew again nearby, this time coming from below, and this scared them enough to go to roost earlier.
As can be seen on the few pictures I took, the snow didn't make an appearance. Hopefully tonight ?

Solanacae · Feb 5, 2023

ManueB said:
I think you get colder temps than I do because my rosemaries have all survived the winter. One tip if plants or bushes are just at the limit in winter, is to plant them under a tree, or any form of shelter like an overlap from a roof, or even close to a wall, it really makes a difference to slow the freezing. Here we are supposed to get possible frost until the "ice saints"- this year 11 to 13 may.

I moved from a zone 5 area (historically zone 4 until the USDA adjusted zones to reflect more recent data due to climate change) to zone 6 (historically zone 5). The warmer zone, plus finding a variety that is reputed to be more cold hardy than any other type means I’m reasonably confident it will succeed. Placement certainly matters, and I’m learning the microclimates here as I go along.

MaryJanet said:
Sometimes Ivy and Janet have a frozen moment. I have an idea it's a sign of mutual subservience but that's only a guess.

I see it sometimes, usually between two mid-ranked chickens. I’ve always taken it to be a more peaceable (passive?) way of asserting dominance. Neither are high ranking enough to really assert themselves and give a peck, so it’s like a soft assertion, if that makes sense.

ManueB · Feb 6, 2023

It happened !
And even better happening again tonight!
Well, it was only 3 cm, so it's peanuts in the long term draught, but still

.

Gaston hates snow

ManueB · Feb 6, 2023

Apart from the snow that melted very quickly, and from the eagles that flew above several times, the chickens had a good day. Cannelle and Nougat laid normal beautiful eggs in the morning, Merle and Léa also laid (I did have to drag Léa out of the nest growling).

There was a rooster fight after lunch. Théo charged Gaston through the netting and Gaston fought back. I shook my purple jacket between them to try to separate them and they both attacked the jacket

. I managed to convince both to walk away, Théo was panting very hard which worried me a bit, but after 30 seconds he was crowing as loud as ever.

Chipie was again bullied badly at roost time. She tried roosting next to Merle but she pecked her and showed her hackles and Gaston intervened. She got thrown out of Theo's roost twice, once by Blanche and once by Nougat. Théo was also pecking her and taking sides with the ex-batts, but in the end he let her sleep once again on his roost.