Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[MaryJanet]

At this stage, I think it would be better not to try to use it ever again .

I am much less worried ever since Théo stopped fighting back, because he's so much smaller and he was really aggressive, so I kept worrying he would get hurt.
Now I just check that they don't run too much in the heat. I still have to be there at roost time, because most of the evenings Théo doesn't dare come in again if he's been thrown out a few times.

Yesterday Léa was broody and she didn't want to go roost in the coop. When she finally agreed to, Théo got off his roost and chased her away ! Then he got chased by Gaston who also jumped down from the main roost, some of the hens came down as well, and they had to start all over .

Cannelle is as she was yesterday. She was very active this morning but it's getting very hot again and now she's lying down mostly. Yesterday she went to roost by herself, with a crop that felt not very full but not bloated or squishy, and her poop are much less worrying. So I'm pretty sure she will make it for this time .

Updating on the poop I was worried about : there has been some improvement in the sense that most of the older chickens now have normal or mostly normal poop. But the chicks, one of the white pullets, and one of the black pullets (hard to tell which as they sleep cuddled one on another) still have both blood and yellow liquid poops. So it could be a light coccidiosis strain that the adults are overcoming by themselves, or some other bacteria or disease that for the same reason the younger chickens have trouble getting over. Since they are not showing other worrying symptoms I will try to reschedule the vet appointment as Wednesday will be the hottest day ( we have again four days heat warning). In the valley they have four or five Celsius degree above us ; if we reach 34/93, our max, they have between 38 to 40/100 to 104. They are predicting storms after Wednesday which would make the temps go down a bit.

Cannelle had an adventure following the chicks early morning.
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I went on a run to see the lone old horse. My feet still hurt so I can't run more than once a week. I've got an appointment with the local foot doctor in ten days that I had to wait two months for ! It's still green in the mountains but now all the fields have been mowed for hay it will turn yellow quickly.
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@MaryJanet Pied beau is making me think about how temperament can vary between siblings. He's a lap /shoulder chick even if we have done nothing to encourage him, and none of the other chicks are !
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Finally managed to catch Kara's and Lea's beautiful color on picture. Usually they just show black.
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Chipie acting master of the universe.
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My partner spent a lot of time trying to teach the chickens to drink from these, with no success. He ended up giving up and now two weeks later they are all drinking . Wonder who was the first to try!
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It's fascinating how siblings in very similar contexts can be so different.

I wonder if Pied Beau's confidence will show the others it's ok to sit on you?

Kara and Lea are lovely and it's nice to see the old horse again.

So funny about the new drinkers

 

[ManueB]

Kara and Lea are lovely

Oh no, I messed it up ! ....it's Lilly, not Léa.
Léa looks more scary than lovely right now.

I forgot to mention a funny anecdote yesterday. In the early morning I saw the four newer pullets running like crazy after what looked like a big mouse, and just thought for once they had hunted an adult mouse. Then ten minutes later I see the chicks fighting for...?.what ? A snake... or a lizard ? I needed to investigate and it turned out to be what looked like a very huge rat tail . So, I thought maybe the cats killed it, took it apart, and didn't eat the body ? Later I found what the hens were chasing one another for, and it was just a big piece of frizzled fur ! So not sure if it was really a rat, I thought they had short flat hair, or some other type of rodent. It's very rare now we have the cats to see any thing other than baby mice but this was obviously quite big.

This morning I put Cannelle back in with the bigger chickens, inside the netting. She's not worse or better, but she kept trying to get back in the chicken yard after I took her out. Gaston mates her once or twice for a few seconds and that's it. Théo is the one who would hurt her, as he grabs the hens by the head or the wing and holds on like crazy while they try to move away. Which reminds me we need to trim his nails again . Anyway, I'd rather have her be happy for now, than try to extend her life at all cost knowing it would likely be only for a month or two at best.

Now it's very hot with crazy winds, and it's been laying drama for four hours now.

I had kind of forgotten that Chipie will not ever lay again in the same nest if her own egg is not there : just any old egg won't do. So now she's been screaming and dragging Théo all around the place. Poor guy actually followed her out of the chicken yard in front of our house (he never ever comes there now). This began at 10, it's two, and she still hasn't laid. Théo looks like he's going to keel over from exhaustion.

Cannelle had another adventure following Merle early morning.

Then the three ex-batts reunited in the chicken yard and I took about ten pics but they never all looked at me.

Kara is in love with the water hose. She comes running as soon as I take it out.

A bunch of random garden pics without and with chicks.

I know I said I liked picking greens, but I should have mentioned that if I am not regular and don't do it every two days, it can become tedious as it takes more than 45 mn staying on my knees.

This is our oregano patch in the field under the chicken. It took us years to discover it because my partner used to mow much earlier and we never saw it grow. Now we know we need to water it when it doesn't rain once a week to get the flowers to bloom.

Cannelle

The white cockerel is changing color. He has dirty yellow/ light tan feather growing around his head and a few black ones. Wonder how he'll turn out.

Théo tried to get Chipie to lay there but of course it would never do.

I'm trying to take closer photos of the three undetermined chicks to ask about sexing. Now they are eight weeks old, maybe some of BYC expert sexers can see what I don't . But they don't want their portraits taken. Kids...

 

[ManueB]

Then there are those who groom and dress to demonstrate respect for others. I like this way of thinking about it.

I think that's the case for some of my friends, and my brother, who teach in junior high or high school. They look like bums in everyday life but dress correctly to teach as a form of respect for the kids.

 

[ManueB]

35/95 today and 40/104 in our village but in the valley. Everyone is hot and the chickens look not very well. We're spraying the water hose every half hour so they can soak their feet, they are dustbathing a lot more than usual and trying to find cool places, but with those crazy hot winds it's difficult. Yesterday most went to roost even earlier than usual, probably because it stays much cooler in the coop. But the temperature doesn't start going down before 7pm so the only ones still up to become more active then are the chicks.

I made another rookie mistake today ! And one I had been forewarned about ! I left an egg to attract the hens in the nest box for too long and it got rotten and broke when Nougat was trying to lay! Luckily I heard the ruckus and got it out, because she was beginning to eat it .
And I finally got to cleaning her bum today, she really needs it and to have her back feathers trimmed a bit, but she utterly hates it, which turns a slightly unpleasant task into a nightmare .

Flower Cannelle

Such a hard day.

Come on Alba why don't you lay on the floor instead of that nest in the wall above the highest roost ?

Three black chicks..I'm convinced black make it easier for them to hide from aerial predators, they are very hard to spot compared to the other.

Took the basket out to pick vegetables and found Hibou

I'm the boss, the yoga boss.

Cute red corn flower.

Blanche is now also allowed on the other side. Soon we'll have more chickens in the human terrace than in the chicken yard.

Merle is tired and thinking..of getting broody..it's contagious!

Wind.

 

[ManueB]

Same temperatures as yesterday although it was supposed to be a bit cooler, and still that crazy horrible wind. It looks like it won't go down until friday. I realize this isn't very hot compared to many places, but it's warmer than what we are used to think is too hot !

Yesterday afternoon the chickens looked really exhausted, especially the older ex-batts and Piou-piou. I think they may be doing slightly better today. They are going deeper into the laurel tree, which is likely the coolest place around. We let Piou-piou join them exceptionally as she looks so horribly unconfortable with the heat. The chicks are hanging out in the woodshed, which also stays pretty cool until four and is sheltered from the wind. And we're taking turns with my partner going inside, as the house stays pretty cool.

Yesterday I took the chicks away from their nest once it was dark and put them on the roost. They were scared, but the nest is so small, with the heat it feels like they were sleeping in their own fermented poop . I'm curious to see if they will go again in the nest tonight. If they do I will block it tomorrow. They look happy when we put them on the roost before they fall asleep, but they don't stay.

It's been rough again for Théo. He's so agressive with the hens in the evening and at roost time that even Chipie doesn't want to sleep next to him anymore. And yesterday he either got thrown out or got scared and flew out of the coop at least five times. When I'm not mad at him I feel sorry, but he's really not helping things out.

On a lighter note we ate the first garden cucumber today .
Also, I was glad to hear my partner's father has been keeping all his older ex-batts inside his house since the beginning of the week. He lives lower down in the valley and they had a heat record of 42/107, and the hens are in a coop with not a lot of shade. He may be not so bad about chickens as I have made him sound.

Case in picture : so much easier to spot the white chick in the phacelie!

Pied beau is turning huge, just like Gaston. And he keeps making us laugh. I heard him tidbit today for the first time.

Cannelle was really not well yesterday, she's holding up better up to now, but it's still early afternoon (3pm).

Anne and Max (we also call him Blanchon or Petit blanc) have a "thing".

 

[Perris]

your plants look like they are loving the weather! It's hard to do physical work in those temperatures though.

 

[ManueB]

your plants look like they are loving the weather! It's hard to do physical work in those temperatures though.

It's only because we had that month of rain before. It was really a blessing because with the scorching sun and wind we have now, it would be desert like .

@Perris I keep forgetting to post a picture I took thinking of you of my preferred local low- tech kitchen appliance. It's not old, maybe you've already seen it before- the manual ancestor of the electrical hand mixer. Great for egg whites and whipped cream even if you don't have strong wrists. Don't understand why it has disappeared from today's kitchens !

 

[Perris]

snap!

I agree; it's so easy! I wouldn't call it my fave utensil though as I don't use it a lot; I'm not a fan of whipped cream and I don't make much that needs whisked egg white either. The pastry cutter - another old low tech wonder - gets much more use here in crumble land

 

[RoyalChick]

It's only because we had that month of rain before. It was really a blessing because with the scorching sun and wind we have now, it would be desert like .

@Perris I keep forgetting to post a picture I took thinking of you of my preferred local low- tech kitchen appliance. It's not old, maybe you've already seen it before- the manual ancestor of the electrical hand mixer. Great for egg whites and whipped cream even if you don't have strong wrists. Don't understand why it has disappeared from today's kitchens !
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I have one but I don’t use it much.
I have an even lower tech way of beating an egg. I crack it in a jar, screw up the lid and shake.
Wont do for egg whites for meringue, but is pretty effective for just ‘eggs beaten’ recipes.

 

[MaryJanet]

It's only because we had that month of rain before. It was really a blessing because with the scorching sun and wind we have now, it would be desert like .

@Perris I keep forgetting to post a picture I took thinking of you of my preferred local low- tech kitchen appliance. It's not old, maybe you've already seen it before- the manual ancestor of the electrical hand mixer. Great for egg whites and whipped cream even if you don't have strong wrists. Don't understand why it has disappeared from today's kitchens !
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I've got one of those too. They're very handy, but I prefer the shake in a jar method.

I guess they've disappeared from shops because they can't be made at an affordable price. Or something like that.