Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

Polka and Fez were in the border again, and when I went to open up discovered that Dyffryn slept out for 2nd night running too I hope she's not getting ideas...on the other hand, she has been a fantastic pullet - 1 year old tomorrow! - and I'd be happy to let her breed if she becomes so inclined.

I've no idea what Fez was like in 2005 but I loved it in May and yes, live chickens are still being butchered in the market. And for sale on the street: these are Beldi (local landrace) - nice looking birds I thought. Saw some Fayoumi too.
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On the coops, I don't think it would stand on blocks just under the corners; the sheet that forms the front (inc the front of the legs) is connected to the sheets that form the sides (inc the side of the legs and a bar front to back) so they'd need to be supported the whole length front to back. But it might work side on to the slope, with cinder blocks laid flat to bring the downward side up level...? That might also work better with the ramp. I really don't think you need to worry about anchors; we lose a tree or three every winter because of the wind here, and none of the coops have budged an inch. This style of plastic prefab is not at all flimsy and they are heavier than they look (remember Shad's travails getting his from the delivery drop point to the allotments). But a block on each side bottom bar, or a chunky log from your recently felled trees through the space there would anchor it anyway I'm sure.
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Re: Gaston, presumably he's not bigger than a Barbezieux, and Obelix did manage to fit, though it was a bit of a squeeze for him getting in and out; the other 4 roos here, all large fowl, fit fine, and there's always at least 2 roos in one or another coop without fights (4 roos, 3 coops). In any case, all Nestera coops are the same height and depth; the only difference between M and L is width (and weight; yes the L is hard to carry far even on the level). And while the official space requirements say the M is for 6 LF and the L for 8, the other night 14 piled into the L hmm ? party night? ) leaving just 2 in each of the Ms (and Polka in the border ). (On that, the EMI assures me that when the birds have free choice and have multiple options, as here, it does not matter how many pile in and how cosy they want to get; the regs are designed to ensure minimum standards where birds have no choices.) That apart, the point is that 14 large fowl can actually squeeze themselves into the large coop without it looking like
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Thank you so much. That was very informative, and a good laugh too .

 

[ManueB]

Changes....
I wasn't expecting that so soon...

(She chose the same nest she slept in as a chick with Chipie! But she's three times bigger and there are six chicks, so it will quickly pose a problem.)

And I had made a top impossible to roost on Piou-piou's cage, but it turned out useless. The two white lover girls and the two dark miss giggles climbed by the ladder, moved the ex-batts away, and roosted next to Gaston.
Seeing this Théo jumped from the floor to Gaston and tried to attack him on his roost (which is nearly six feet high). He got thrown off, and that was that.

I felt kind of bad that Gaston is giving up Merle and Piou-piou so easily. But my partner reminded me that is exactly why we got adult pullets- so Gaston would have less chance of hurting the bantam Merle and the runt Piou-piou by constantly mating them.

Other events of the day : Piou-piou didn't manage to lay and looked not well, a bit like last time, but not as bad. And I think we have a girls band forming, the three free chicks, Piou-piou, Cannelle and Merle. They may just decide they are better off without those stupid roos and go hang out elsewhere .

Broody Chipie

When two broodies meet. Léa doesn't care that Chipie was her broody a year ago!

A rebel.

Stormy weather but no storm. I trusted Léa who didn't shelter and she got it right !

 

[ManueB]

Freaked out and upset !!
Freaked out because I found two ticks, one on each of Léa 's ear!! I managed somehow to take them off with tweezers but now I'm worried the chicks have some too. She keeps hanging out in the tall grass. There's no way she will let me check the chicks, it was already full drama when I put her on my knees to pull them off her.

And I got really upset with both roosters and lost my temper and screamed at them. It's impossible to have them both outside together. Gaston keeps chasing the ex-batts ; Nougat and Cannelle can handle it, but Brune and Blanche are both on death's door and utterly terrified and I don't want them to have to go through this. And Théo attacked the chicks again twice today ! He does that with anyone who's not on his team, he seems to consider any chicken as intruders. But the chicks are still small and he could easily hurt one.

So I screamed at them that I would kill the both of them, which had them terrified and didn't help a bit, off course!

And I forgot to say that two days ago, just like Nougat, Théo tore the small back nail off, but I didn't see it on spot as I did for Nougat, and he tore the whole thing off. Now it's not very good looking and it seems to hurt him.

Blanche now has real difficulties seeing. It gets her in trouble as she sometimes doesn't follow the other chickens.

New unlikely best friends, Piou-piou and Cannelle.

Pretty miss Giggle. Lily is far less human shy than Kara although she is younger judging from her comb.

One year old tomorrow and I almost decided to turn him into stew

Piou-piou was really interested in learning to repair a tiller with my partner

Chicks and broody

He always look like this, angry and tired, but he's very active and agile..hope he's just a grumpy guy..

The new roosting order. Léa and her chicks are tucked in a hole in the left wall in front of Piou-piou's crate and Chipie is in the nest on the right wall next to Théo.

 

[Perris]

I strongly recommend this style of tick remover - MUCH better than tweezers for getting the thing to let go and not leave the mouth parts behind
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HouChanges-Remover-Painlessly-Humans-Green/dp/B08DXLR7RR

 

[ManueB]

I strongly recommend this style of tick remover - MUCH better than tweezers for getting the thing to let go and not leave the mouth parts behind
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HouChanges-Remover-Painlessly-Humans-Green/dp/B08DXLR7RR

I have those exact ones for my cats, but these ticks were too small and I didn't manage to pull them off with the smallest one .

 

[Perris]

good luck hunting for them; and be careful - they can carry Lyme disease.

 

[ManueB]

We're very used to them on cats but seeing them on a chicken is a first !

I think it's due to the fact that we haven't cut the grass yet because of all the rain.
The cats get them anyway as they go further out of our property, but the chickens usually never have a chance to roam on grass that high.

 

[RoyalChick]

I strongly recommend this style of tick remover - MUCH better than tweezers for getting the thing to let go and not leave the mouth parts behind
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HouChanges-Remover-Painlessly-Humans-Green/dp/B08DXLR7RR

I was just going to say the same thing. That is what I used to get the ticks off me although the last one was awkwardly placed and I ended up using tweezers.
There is a new design out that looks even better - it has a sort of spoon shape so you catch the tick when you remove it - either to feed to the chickens or send off for disease testing. I have ordered a set of those too.
The puzzle I have here is that none of the chickens ate the ticks off Lea’s ear. Also, are ticks a disease threat for chickens in the way they are for mammals? I have never seen any reference to that either way.

 

[RoyalChick]

We're very used to them on cats but seeing them on a chicken is a first !

I think it's due to the fact that we haven't cut the grass yet because of all the rain.
The cats get them anyway as they go further out of our property, but the chickens usually never have a chance to roam on grass that high.

At my place they drop out of the trees. No grass required. The last one I got I was sitting on a gravel driveway repairing the electric fence and one fell out of the sky onto my cheek. It must have been looking down at me from way high in the tree that overhangs the drive.
Nasty devils.

 

[ManueB]

I was just going to say the same thing. That is what I used to get the ticks off me although the last one was awkwardly placed and I ended up using tweezers.
There is a new design out that looks even better - it has a sort of spoon shape so you catch the tick when you remove it - either to feed to the chickens or send off for disease testing. I have ordered a set of those too.
The puzzle I have here is that none of the chickens ate the ticks off Lea’s ear. Also, are ticks a disease threat for chickens in the way they are for mammals? I have never seen any reference to that either way.

Léa attacks any chickens that come near, and her chicks are probably too young to groom her.
What I hope is that she would eventually eat ticks in her chicks .