Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[RoyalChick]

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 .

I would think she would.
Mine definitely eat them but this year there have been so many they can’t keep up! I always give them the ones I pull off myself.

 

[Perris]

happy birthday Gaston & co!

 

[ManueB]

happy birthday Gaston & co!

Thank you for the thought . It wasn't a completely happy hatch day though because that little girl wasn't well again.

She doesn't have any specific symptom, just lethargic and looking in pain. She didn't lay today so maybe it has to do with an egg hurting her. And the feathers shafts beginning to regrow on her old wound seem to really bother her and the skin is irritated.
She still enjoyed a small birthday dish with egg, mackerel, cherries and strawberries. Merle, Gaston and Léa had the same.

It also feels a bit strange that their team is broken up. Léa is with her chicks and attacks any of them that come near, Merle hangs out only a bit with Gaston, Gaston is now spending half the day locked out of the chicken yard either in the woodshed, in the field beyond the fence, or above, and Piou-piou and Gaston are always kept separated.

Merle has begun laying again so she's definitely off the broody thing. Chipie however is completely committed. My partner wanted to give her an egg or two, but we really don't have the room to house more chicken for the time being.

The chicks have grown so much! I have a hunch two are roos, I don't know about the other. One has feathers not coming in properly - not sure it it's late, or if it has some shredded gene.
I tried checking one for ticks- it's hopeless, it screamed and wriggled out of my hand in two seconds. I have to hope Léa does the checking.

Merle the birthday girl spent all morning in the barn trying to decide if she was going to lay. She loudly announced it to everyone when it was finally done.

Finally got a good picture of Kara, the most shy of the pullets. She has a bigger comb than Lily, but still not convinced she is six months old. She has a broken upper beak .

Chicks.
Regarding food, it's not working like it should. Basically Léa will have them eat anything except chick starter which she hates. My ex-batts and Piou-piou however love it so they eat the chick's dishes while the chicks eat the layer feed and the grain. I'm also still giving them sides of damp bread, egg when I have some spare, and crushed wasas.

Most tiny, a bit slow.

The black chick in front (with a white dot on it's head) and the yellow chick are my cockerel suspects. They are often together.

The chick behind has trouble with it's feathers.

Same chick above. Zooming in you see he has a rat's tail.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thank you for the thought . It wasn't a completely happy hatch day though because that little girl wasn't well again.
View attachment 3529966
She doesn't have any specific symptom, just lethargic and looking in pain. She didn't lay today so maybe it has to do with an egg hurting her. And the feathers shafts beginning to regrow on her old wound seem to really bother her and the skin is irritated.
She still enjoyed a small birthday dish with egg, mackerel, cherries and strawberries. Merle, Gaston and Léa had the same.

It also feels a bit strange that their team is broken up. Léa is with her chicks and attacks any of them that come near, Merle hangs out only a bit with Gaston, Gaston is now spending half the day locked out of the chicken yard either in the woodshed, in the field beyond the fence, or above, and Piou-piou and Gaston are always kept separated.

Merle has begun laying again so she's definitely off the broody thing. Chipie however is completely committed. My partner wanted to give her an egg or two, but we really don't have the room to house more chicken for the time being.

The chicks have grown so much! I have a hunch two are roos, I don't know about the other. One has feathers not coming in properly - not sure it it's late, or if it has some shredded gene.
I tried checking one for ticks- it's hopeless, it screamed and wriggled out of my hand in two seconds. I have to hope Léa does the checking.

View attachment 3530014View attachment 3530015
Merle the birthday girl spent all morning in the barn trying to decide if she was going to lay. She loudly announced it to everyone when it was finally done.
View attachment 3530022
View attachment 3530025
View attachment 3530026View attachment 3530027View attachment 3530028View attachment 3530029
Finally got a good picture of Kara, the most shy of the pullets. She has a bigger comb than Lily, but still not convinced she is six months old. She has a broken upper beak .
View attachment 3530030
Chicks.
Regarding food, it's not working like it should. Basically Léa will have them eat anything except chick starter which she hates. My ex-batts and Piou-piou however love it so they eat the chick's dishes while the chicks eat the layer feed and the grain. I'm also still giving them sides of damp bread, egg when I have some spare, and crushed wasas.
View attachment 3530013
Most tiny, a bit slow.
View attachment 3530016
The black chick in front (with a white dot on it's head) and the yellow chick are my cockerel suspects. They are often together.
View attachment 3530017
The chick behind has trouble with it's feathers.
View attachment 3530018
Same chick above. Zooming in you see he has a rat's tail.
View attachment 3530020View attachment 3530031

They all look so wonderful - I know you are worried about them, but they are definitely living a good life.
In the ratty tail - one of mine - Pooh - has a tail that looks like a mouse chewed it off. But she seems fine and I think they molt so often at this age she will just grow another one. So I wouldn’t worry about that too much.

 

[RoyalChick]

Maybe one less thing to worry about.
Ticks.
I did a bit of reading.
As you know chickens do get ticks but only around the face where it is difficult to groom.
Generally ticks do not harm chickens.
I am sure a debilitated chicken would suffer from the blood loss - but they don’t multiply and cause anemia - they drop off after a tick-full of blood.
Chickens also don’t suffer from Lyme. The only bird that has been found with Lyme is a type of thrush.
I was curious because with all the ticks around me, it never crossed my mind to worry about the chickens - so I needed to check if I was being negligent.

 

[Perris]

That's good to know; thank you RC. I have to admit it didn't even occur to me to ask if chickens could get Lyme disease - I was just thinking about ManueB and her partner!

 

[RoyalChick]

That's good to know; thank you RC. I have to admit it didn't even occur to me to ask if chickens could get Lyme disease - I was just thinking about ManueB and her partner!

Yes I realized that, and rightly so.
I live in a very, very high Lyme area (the town said our county had the highest Lyme prevalence of anywhere in the US!). So I am hyper aware for myself but when I read @ManueB was checking her chickens for ticks I suddenly felt like a really negligent chicken tender!
Fortunately I didn’t need to worry.

 

[BDutch]

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

Are you sure that the thicks on chickens are the same type of thicks as the ones that jump on humans?

Btw: I strongly believe my chickens like to eat then. About 10 years ago (before having chickens) I had more thicks than I have now. And here the thicks are very often carriers of Lyme. I had a Lyme infected thick twice (once the typical red circle /once a large red spot).

 

[ManueB]

Are you sure that the thicks on chickens are the same type of thicks as the ones that jump on humans?

Btw: I strongly believe my chickens like to eat then. About 10 years ago (before having chickens) I had more thicks than I have now. And here the thicks are very often carriers of Lyme. I had a Lyme infected thick twice (once the typical red circle /once a large red spot).

We have a very low prevalence of Lyme in our region but there have been some cases, and besides, ticks carry all other sorts of harmful bacterias.

They looked very similar to some of the smaller ones I have taken off me. It's the first time ever I saw one on a chicken.
So maybe it's not only because they don't usually hang out in four feet /1m20 high grass but also because they eat them off one another, which no one could do for Léa.

 

[BDutch]

First: a belated birthday for Merle and the other 1 year olds!

And two questions.
The first is because you seem to have ongoing problems with your roosters behaviour. I’ve been reading roosters wont fight (in general) with each other if there are no ladies to fight for. Did you ever consider to build a coop / run for the two roosters so all the girls and chicks can live in harmony? Seperated, they just can’t mingle with the ladies. At least until the chicks have grownnand Lea is healed completely. If you think it’s a good idea you also need to block off the view so they wont see the hens anymore.

The second is about the chick feed. Did you try adding water to the feed? Mine couldn’t eat the pellets and because of that I made a mash from day one. All my chickens prefer to eat the mash.