Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[RoyalChick]

So sorry to hear about Brune.

 

[Perris]

for Brune, and for you

 

[MaryJanet]

So sorry about Brune.

 

[BDutch]

When I opened the coop I saw Brune had fallen off her roost. She did not get up at all and was unconscious most of the day. It's cool in the coop and she's protected from the other chickens, I just had to take her out when Gaston's team came to roost, as he would have undoubtedly jumped on her.

The other chickens had a good day but Gaston has unfortunately taken again the habit of going into the garden and calling his hens to join him. I had to chase him out about ten times. He jumps over the netting and the leghorns force their way through. Merle and Piou-piou do the same and now Léa and her chicks . We are going to have to double the netting if we hope to eat some salads, beets, chards and strawberries.
View attachment 3544330View attachment 3544347
Dustbathe in wet earth. Gaston was really interested
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So sorry Brune isn’t well anymore.

What kind of netting do you use?
I don’t like the thin netting they sell here for gardening, because songbirds get stuck in it.

To keep the chickens in and the predators out, I prefer to use Trixie cat netting with a metal core. Its sturdy, 3cm the mesh size and of course more expensive but it lasts about 9 years now and is still good. I used it for the strawberries too.

 

[ManueB]

The first time I really thought Brune would pass was around the 10 of April. She had a wonderful two months respite. It was really a miracle because she looked then as she does now to be dying. I'm happy she had that time, and I just hope she will pass without too much pain.

What kind of netting do you use?
I don’t like the thin netting they sell here for gardening, because songbirds get stuck in it.

Chicken netting to separate the garden from the chicken's place, uh and olive netting to protect specific things from the garden, which we have for free.

I've already looked up the Trixie netting and the scaffolding netting mentioned by Perris. For the amount we need (about 200 m) I couldn't find it cheap enough.
But chicken netting's price have gone way up, about 30%. If I just need to double I will ask around for used sheep netting that my neighbors could lend me for the gardening months.
Although I wish my close neighbour would use hers more often, her goats keep breaking in and eating our saplings .

 

[ManueB]

These are hard to watch pictures of Brune yesterday, and this is how she looked in April. No need to look if you don't want to see a very unwell chicken. I'm just posting them to show and remind me later how impressive it was that she actually lived another two months to get her fill of cherries and strawberries. You can see in the first picture she is curling her toes even sitting.

Spoiler

 

[ManueB]

24c / 75f today, I'm thankful the heat is coming in gradually. It's always hard for me to adjust.
I'm feeling chicken exhausted - sometimes it feels like I spend my whole day trying to stop the roosters from fighting and Piou-piou from joining Gaston . I wake up at 4.45 to get them out as soon as they are awake to take Gaston out and avoid a fight, and crash in bed at 9.30.
Brune is still alive, still unconscious.

Pictures from the day.

Léa is now taking her chick further (though not as far as Chipie did) and tonight she began showing them how to access the big roost, but only two made it.

The unusual rainy weather we've had means our garden is growing quite differently than usual. We had proper radishes for the first time in nine years . The potatoes are huge and beginning to bloom. I love the potatoe's flowers. The bees like them too.

 

[GregnLety]

Following along

 

[Perris]

I would be interested for a follow-up in a week or two to know how it goes for Killay !

It'll be 2 weeks tomorrow, so it's time for that follow up.

It's been a bit of a challenge for Chirk. Over the 1st 3 days he moved progressively more and more out of sight, and the other 2 sub roos started chasing him too (payback time is painful). Then on the 11th June he didn't come for tea and disappeared for 3 days, and I thought he'd been lost to a predator. Then he turned up again near dusk when it was all quiet and the flock was the other side of the house, looking like he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, very thin and moth eaten plus lice. He came in for some food then I took him to a coop where he had a peaceful night alone. Since then he's adopted the Sven model of coming to a door around dusk (the lounge not the back), coming in to eat, and being carried to a coop so he doesn't get attacked en route to or in it. I let him out again after the rest have departed the area, and he spends the day in hiding. But this morning before I opened his coop I heard flapping and thumping coming from inside, and opened it to find him convulsing on the floor. I scooped him up, put him down outside and he stumbled and tumbled into the nearest border, so I brought him in and popped him in a washing up bowl on the floor. Half hour later he was standing up in it, so I offered mealworms, which he ate with gusto, then some banana, then a peanut butter sandwich, some ff liquor soaked breadcrusts, and a little cat food till he wanted no more. And retreated for lice. An hour later he was still OK so I took him to his favorite hiding area and popped him down; he ran off into it. No idea what caused the convulsions but hopefully it's a passing thing.

Killay settled down quite quickly (took about 4 days) and is now relaxed in his role. Amadeo is his second, and Fforest is 3rd; both move on quickly if he approaches, but there's little chasing of anyone by anyone, and no fighting. The girls have accepted Killay as the new dom, and going to roost they're more or less evenly divided between coops, some with K, some with A and some with F though sometimes, like last night, A and F share a coop while another one is all girls, so they haven't split into subgroups. Fforest is getting intermittent dark tips on his comb and I'm hoping it's just the stress of all this, and not whatever killed Phoenix, Pip and Llyn last year. He's Sven's grandson and the only SFH roo I have. Killay is Penedesenca x Araucana - so carrying interesting genes, either blue egg or dark brown egg in every mating he makes.

 

[ManueB]

It'll be 2 weeks tomorrow, so it's time for that follow up.

It's been a bit of a challenge for Chirk. Over the 1st 3 days he moved progressively more and more out of sight, and the other 2 sub roos started chasing him too (payback time is painful). Then on the 11th June he didn't come for tea and disappeared for 3 days, and I thought he'd been lost to a predator. Then he turned up again near dusk when it was all quiet and the flock was the other side of the house, looking like he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, very thin and moth eaten plus lice. He came in for some food then I took him to a coop where he had a peaceful night alone. Since then he's adopted the Sven model of coming to a door around dusk (the lounge not the back), coming in to eat, and being carried to a coop so he doesn't get attacked en route to or in it. I let him out again after the rest have departed the area, and he spends the day in hiding. But this morning before I opened his coop I heard flapping and thumping coming from inside, and opened it to find him convulsing on the floor. I scooped him up, put him down outside and he stumbled and tumbled into the nearest border, so I brought him in and popped him in a washing up bowl on the floor. Half hour later he was standing up in it, so I offered mealworms, which he ate with gusto, then some banana, then a peanut butter sandwich, some ff liquor soaked breadcrusts, and a little cat food till he wanted no more. And retreated for lice. An hour later he was still OK so I took him to his favorite hiding area and popped him down; he ran off into it. No idea what caused the convulsions but hopefully it's a passing thing.

Killay settled down quite quickly (took about 4 days) and is now relaxed in his role. Amadeo is his second, and Fforest is 3rd; both move on quickly if he approaches, but there's little chasing of anyone by anyone, and no fighting. The girls have accepted Killay as the new dom, and going to roost they're more or less evenly divided between coops, some with K, some with A and some with F though sometimes, like last night, A and F share a coop while another one is all girls, so they haven't split into subgroups. Fforest is getting intermittent dark tips on his comb and I'm hoping it's just the stress of all this, and not whatever killed Phoenix, Pip and Llyn last year. He's Sven's grandson and the only SFH roo I have. Killay is Penedesenca x Araucana - so carrying interesting genes, either blue egg or dark brown egg in every mating he makes.

Thank you very much for the follow-up. It's really interesting, and also sad. It sounds really hard on Chirk. I guess that is the less pleasant aspect of having all of them interact as a single flock. Do you think he will go on to live as an outcast ?
I think I wouldn't have the heart or the gut to let things go like this, even if it's the natural way, with Théo if he got thrown out.

Why do you use washing bowl to keep unwell birds ? Are these the type of bowls ?

Théo is also getting dark on his comb again, like last summer. Could be the heat, could be hormones, or it could be due to stress. Maybe it's a combination of a physical problem, and stress acting as a trigger.I hope it's not some generic illness for Fforest ! It would be too bad loosing your last SFH rooster- but if it's a genetic issue unfortunately I suppose you have to stop the line.