Théo and the chickens des Sauches

Shadrach · Jun 6, 2023

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

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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.
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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 .
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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.
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Most tiny, a bit slow.
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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.
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The chick behind has trouble with it's feathers.
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Same chick above. Zooming in you see he has a rat's tail.
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Try tipping the chick feed on the ground in front of Lea rather than using a feeder or bowl. Some mums are very fussy about who feeds their chicks and how. It's understandable given mum has to find the chicks food for the first couple of weeks while she teaches them what's good and how to find it. In general chickens don't find food in large quantities in one place when foraging so spreading the feed out on the ground is more natural for them. I had to do this often to get them to eat chick feed.

RoyalChick · Jun 6, 2023

Shadrach said:
Try tipping the chick feed on the ground in front of Lea rather than using a feeder or bowl. Some mums are very fussy about who feeds their chicks and how. It's understandable given mum has to find the chicks food for the first couple of weeks while she teaches them what's good and how to find it. In general chickens don't find food in large quantities in one place when foraging so spreading the feed out on the ground is more natural for them. I had to do this often to get them to eat chick feed.

That is very interesting Shad. It makes sense.
I noticed that Eli shovels the chick food out of the container onto the floor for her adopted chicks.

Perris · Jun 6, 2023

Polka has been doing a grand job, outdoors 24/7. Fez is 1 week old today and coming on nicely

ManueB · Jun 6, 2023

BDutch said:
First: a belated birthday for Merle and the other 1 year olds! View attachment 3530748

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.

I would never do that to my roosters.
Being with their hens is the most important thing for them.
I think it works out only when people do that with cockerels as soon as they find out they are males.
One of the possible outcomes for my roosters if they really don't agree to live together, could happen when some of my ex-batts will likely dies soon. When Théo will only have Chipie and Nougat (Cannelle will likely switch to Gaston) hopefully he will agree to change territory.
I believe it's the hens that are really intent on staying around the coop and not going elsewhere.
Right now I'm giving a try at having Gaston and the white pullets stay in the terraces beyond the chicken yard. When he's alone, Gaston hates it, but maybe with the pullets he will get used to it. If this worked out, he could move there.

I would actually let them fight it out if it weren't for the two really unwell ex-batts. I want them to have relatively peaceful last days.

BDutch said:
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.

Shadrach said:
Try tipping the chick feed on the ground in front of Lea rather than using a feeder or bowl. Some mums are very fussy about who feeds their chicks and how. It's understandable given mum has to find the chicks food for the first couple of weeks while she teaches them what's good and how to find it. In general chickens don't find food in large quantities in one place when foraging so spreading the feed out on the ground is more natural for them. I had to do this often to get them to eat chick feed.

I do both, mashes and spread on the ground. She hates it, period. However the chicks are now big enough not to always do as she says ! Fun thing: I actually made mash mixed with bread especially the first week, to try to get them to eat it : they ate the bread and left the starter

.
I'm really not worried at all about it because they spend the day foraging and with all the rain we have been getting they get tons of worms and live protein.

ManueB · Jun 6, 2023

Perris said:
Polka has been doing a grand job, outdoors 24/7. Fez is 1 week old today and coming on nicely
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She's a lovely small thing ! I'm sure it must be easier watching over one than over six

. I hope Polka stays a long time with Fez, because on the other hand being alone when she will be rejected to grow up on her own must not be so easy, even if your chickens seem wonderfully well behaved compared to my french rioters.
*******

I'm very happy that Piou-piou seems back to her normal self after laying an egg this morning. Hopefully she just needs more calcium- we have had less eggs, so they had only oyster shells and no egg shells for a while, and they don't seem to eat them.

She is now in terror of Léa who attacks her viciously on sight. I wonder if it means Léa will not submit to her again once she's over being a broody. Also, it's interesting that Merle on the other hand really scares Léa, whereas Merle still submits to Piou-piou! And Cannelle has become friend with Piou-piou who submits to her, but today Merle tried to stand her ground and Cannelle quickly retaliated and mounted her

. They are forming new relationships.

There was some drama again at roost time because it turns out Alba the leghorn is extremely possessive with Gaston. She threw Nieva, the other leghorn, out of the roost and scared the black giggles away ! They went on Théo's roost

and he didn't even peck them off, but they decided it wouldn't do. Then they tried to fly back via Piou-piou's crate, I was surprised it didn't fall off.

We're almost done with the cherries from the tree in the chicken yard. We're very lucky Merle is our only chicken who doesn't like cherries.

Gaston is still very keen to see the chicks. He tried to tidbit them with a cherry and was chased by broody murderous screams.

Brune is still there.

And Blanche has troubles seeing the cherries but not eating them.

Alba and Nieva are friends, to a point.

Black miss Giggles. My partner said "Mais elles gloussent" which means just that in french!

Cannelle was born to be wild

Hibou and Merle

Chicks and broody. Looking at the photos I think they are a bit smaller than Chipie's hatch was at 18 days. However Chipie waited until they were three weeks and a half to take them in the coop !

Forgot to mention that we made our first strawberry pie yesterday, about ten days later than usual - we've had cool temperatures with all that rain, slowing down the garden's growth.

Perris · Jun 6, 2023

Good to see them all enjoying the sun and the forage

RoyalChick · Jun 6, 2023

ManueB said:
She's a lovely small thing ! I'm sure it must be easier watching over one than over six . I hope Polka stays a long time with Fez, because on the other hand being alone when she will be rejected to grow up on her own must not be so easy, even if your chickens seem wonderfully well behaved compared to my french rioters.
*******

I'm very happy that Piou-piou seems back to her normal self after laying an egg this morning. Hopefully she just needs more calcium- we have had less eggs, so they had only oyster shells and no egg shells for a while, and they don't seem to eat them.

She is now in terror of Léa who attacks her viciously on sight. I wonder if it means Léa will not submit to her again once she's over being a broody. Also, it's interesting that Merle on the other hand really scares Léa, whereas Merle still submits to Piou-piou! And Cannelle has become friend with Piou-piou who submits to her, but today Merle tried to stand her ground and Cannelle quickly retaliated and mounted her . They are forming new relationships.

There was some drama again at roost time because it turns out Alba the leghorn is extremely possessive with Gaston. She threw Nieva, the other leghorn, out of the roost and scared the black giggles away ! They went on Théo's roost and he didn't even peck them off, but they decided it wouldn't do. Then they tried to fly back via Piou-piou's crate, I was surprised it didn't fall off.

We're almost done with the cherries from the tree in the chicken yard. We're very lucky Merle is our only chicken who doesn't like cherries.
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Gaston is still very keen to see the chicks. He tried to tidbit them with a cherry and was chased by broody murderous screams.
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Brune is still there.
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And Blanche has troubles seeing the cherries but not eating them.
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Alba and Nieva are friends, to a point.
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Black miss Giggles. My partner said "Mais elles gloussent" which means just that in french!
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Cannelle was born to be wild
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Hibou and Merle
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Chicks and broody. Looking at the photos I think they are a bit smaller than Chipie's hatch was at 18 days. However Chipie waited until they were three weeks and a half to take them in the coop !
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Forgot to mention that we made our first strawberry pie yesterday, about ten days later than usual - we've had cool temperatures with all that rain, slowing down the garden's growth.
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I love picture #17 (I think I counted correctly) - the 4th from the end. Clearly a lesson is being given to the attentive chicks!

MaryJanet · Jun 6, 2023

ManueB said:
She's a lovely small thing ! I'm sure it must be easier watching over one than over six . I hope Polka stays a long time with Fez, because on the other hand being alone when she will be rejected to grow up on her own must not be so easy, even if your chickens seem wonderfully well behaved compared to my french rioters.
*******

I'm very happy that Piou-piou seems back to her normal self after laying an egg this morning. Hopefully she just needs more calcium- we have had less eggs, so they had only oyster shells and no egg shells for a while, and they don't seem to eat them.

She is now in terror of Léa who attacks her viciously on sight. I wonder if it means Léa will not submit to her again once she's over being a broody. Also, it's interesting that Merle on the other hand really scares Léa, whereas Merle still submits to Piou-piou! And Cannelle has become friend with Piou-piou who submits to her, but today Merle tried to stand her ground and Cannelle quickly retaliated and mounted her . They are forming new relationships.

There was some drama again at roost time because it turns out Alba the leghorn is extremely possessive with Gaston. She threw Nieva, the other leghorn, out of the roost and scared the black giggles away ! They went on Théo's roost and he didn't even peck them off, but they decided it wouldn't do. Then they tried to fly back via Piou-piou's crate, I was surprised it didn't fall off.

We're almost done with the cherries from the tree in the chicken yard. We're very lucky Merle is our only chicken who doesn't like cherries.
View attachment 3531287
Gaston is still very keen to see the chicks. He tried to tidbit them with a cherry and was chased by broody murderous screams.
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Brune is still there.
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And Blanche has troubles seeing the cherries but not eating them.
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Alba and Nieva are friends, to a point.
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Black miss Giggles. My partner said "Mais elles gloussent" which means just that in french!
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Cannelle was born to be wild
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Hibou and Merle
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Chicks and broody. Looking at the photos I think they are a bit smaller than Chipie's hatch was at 18 days. However Chipie waited until they were three weeks and a half to take them in the coop !
View attachment 3531297 View attachment 3531300 View attachment 3531305 View attachment 3531313 View attachment 3531316 View attachment 3531321
Forgot to mention that we made our first strawberry pie yesterday, about ten days later than usual - we've had cool temperatures with all that rain, slowing down the garden's growth.
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The pie looks scrumptious!

ManueB · Jun 7, 2023

RoyalChick said:
I love picture #17 (I think I counted correctly) - the 4th from the end. Clearly a lesson is being given to the attentive chicks!

It was indeed the case. They hadn't paid attention to a warning call and didn't hide quick enough. They are already very undisciplined. I'm beginning to think we have five roos and a pullet

.

MaryJanet said:
The pie looks scrumptious!

It was better than we expected. Usually I do the traditional recipe with crème pâtissière, a kind of custard, but I didn't have the ingredients so I put almond cream instead (egg mixed with almond powder and sugar) and it tasted great.

ManueB · Jun 7, 2023

It has rained so much the last month that our coop's back wall, that is buried two levels underground, is leaking and completely soaked

. Unfortunately the roosts are very close to that wall so the chickens sleep in a damp place. Solving the problem would require quite a bit of work, but I think as a palliative measure we are finally going to change the roosts next week and bring them closer to the door and the ventilation.

The chicks are growing bigger every day and poor Léa really has trouble holding them together. On the other hand, she is just awful with the other chickens, especially Piou-piou. Twice today I was holding Piou-piou in my arms and she attacked me.

Piou-piou was not well again, and didn't lay. Still wondering if it's related.

There was some drama at roost time again. Gaston had Alba on his left and Merle on his right. Nueva didn't want to go too close to Merle, so she stood right in the middle of the roost, on top of the ladder. Normally the ex-batts are on the right of the ladder, but the two black giggles, Kara and Lily, took their place. Three of the ex-batts let it go, and accepted to roost below, but Nougat was crazy. This is her place. She kept pecking at the one next to her (Lily I think) and pulling off feathers and trying to throw her off the roost. The two black chickens were stuck against the wall to the far right and trying to hide in the nest hole that is there, but they are too big to manage it. They just crouched backward and endured the beating. It was still going on when I closed the coop

.

I posted on the fluffy butt acre thread here detailed photos of all the chicks asking for eventual ID, not reposting those here.

This morning after breakfast I found the chicks, Léa, Merle and Cannelle tearing bloody bits of a mouse apart and a very unhappy Grochatila watching them despondently

. My guess is they stole it from him.

Gaston managed to touch three chicks for the first time this evening before Léa attacked him.

They would do anything to get a share of our lunch.

For the first time today Léa convinced all her chicks to join her dustbathing in the barrel. They are very different from Chipie's clutch who were dustbathing from day 2.