Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[Shadrach]

Oh no, I messed it up ! ....it's Lilly, not Léa.
Léa looks more scary than lovely right now.
View attachment 3579498

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.
View attachment 3579503View attachment 3579504
Then the three ex-batts reunited in the chicken yard and I took about ten pics but they never all looked at me.
View attachment 3579505View attachment 3579507View attachment 3579508
Kara is in love with the water hose. She comes running as soon as I take it out.
View attachment 3579510View attachment 3579511
A bunch of random garden pics without and with chicks.
View attachment 3579512View attachment 3579513View attachment 3579514View attachment 3579515
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.
View attachment 3579516View attachment 3579517View attachment 3579518View attachment 3579519View attachment 3579520
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.
View attachment 3579521
Cannelle
View attachment 3579522View attachment 3579523
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.
View attachment 3579524
Théo tried to get Chipie to lay there but of course it would never do.
View attachment 3579525View attachment 3579526
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...

I used to love watching the pairs wandering around looking for suitable nest sites.

 

[Shadrach]

Well it turns out there is a whole other level to reading food labels than I was aware of.

First off, most of what I buy I don't read the label because I think of it as plain stuff - meaning it is just the ingredient that I am buying like butter, flour, raisins, olive oil or dried beans, lentils, rice etc.

Yesterday I looked at the label on a pack of raisins I have in the pantry and notice that it contains hydrogenated sunflower oil. It never crossed my mind there was something other than raisins in the bag! I am sure it isn't much - I mean they are just raisins when you tip them out of the bag - but they add some oil presumably to stop them sticking together.

Anything that is more complex of course I read the label - and in general I am put off by products that have lots of additives. But then it gets complicated. E334 for example is an additive. It is Tartaric Acid. That is naturally occurring acid that I am sure many of us have used to make baked goods rise.

So I guess I have got lazy!

But what I now have learned is that some things that sound OK may be less OK than they sound.

Take my bag of raisins. Although I think it is unnecessary to add sunflower oil to stop them sticking, I don't have an immediate aversion to sunflower oil. I cook with it after all. But I glossed over the hydrogenated piece - and according to the 'ultra processed' movement I should be very wary of hydrogenated oils.

So I am still learning - and it is interesting. Yesterday I only ate food that was processed by me. This morning though, I had a handful of raisins!

I'm pretty carefull when it comes to reading food labels. I have an E number chart. I try to avoid most processed food, especially pre made ready meals. Most seem to have far too much sugar in them.

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm pretty carefull when it comes to reading food labels. I have an E number chart. I try to avoid most processed food, especially pre made ready meals. Most seem to have far too much sugar in them.

I don't eat pre-made ready meals, I like to cook so they don't really appeal. But I guess my point was that it has all got very complicated.
- Some items with E-numbers are perfectly acceptable 'found in nature' kind of things
- Meanwhile, something as apparently simple as raisins can contain an industrially created hydrogenated oil
I am not sure I have the bandwidth to absorb all that and make the right decisions as I shop.

 

[Perris]

even if you don't want to read the lists because the characters are small

this is an important point in labelling. Lots of people can't read them.

Requirements to put certain info on the label are undone by allowing it to be printed so small that most people can't or don't bother trying to read it. Pre-digital, 7 point used to be the smallest point size allowed in legal contracts (whence the phrase 'the small print' originates). Digital changed printing hugely, and now the smallest size allowed in UK labelling for the stuff that must be shown on ingredients lists is the equivalent of point 6 (1 size smaller than trad small print!) in most fonts. Has our eyesight got better? Is the stuff in the small print irrelevant? I don't think so.

It's another prompt to use a proxy like the sheer length and complexity of the list of ingredients as a guide. The fewer items, the shorter the list, the better. (which also solves the bandwidth problem as you so aptly put it RC!)

 

[RoyalChick]

this is an important point in labelling. Lots of people can't read them.

Requirements to put certain info on the label are undone by allowing it to be printed so small that most people can't or don't bother trying to read it. Pre-digital, 7 point used to be the smallest point size allowed in legal contracts (whence the phrase 'the small print' originates). Digital changed printing hugely, and now the smallest size allowed in UK labelling for the stuff that must be shown on ingredients lists is the equivalent of point 6 (1 size smaller than trad small print!) in most fonts. Has our eyesight got better? Is the stuff in the small print irrelevant? I don't think so.

It's another prompt to use a proxy like the sheer length and complexity of the list of ingredients as a guide. The fewer items, the shorter the list, the better. (which also solves the bandwidth problem as you so aptly put it RC!)

Fascinating.
I definitely use list length as a shorthand: long = bad.
And to answer your question about eyesight - weirdly the answer is actually yes.
I am extremely short/near-sighted so 6 or even 4 point font is no barrier. I just peer over my glasses. Shortsightedness (myopia) has been increasing quite significantly in the population (from about 25% to about 45% in 45 years). There is lots of speculation as to why myopia is increasing (screen time is one big theory put forward). But as a species it appears that we are evolving towards being able to read the small print!
In pantry news, I am relieved to find that my favorite store bought mayonnaise contains only ingredients found in a pantry - I like it because it is made with eggs from hens raised under certified humane conditions.

 

[ManueB]

Fascinating.
I definitely use list length as a shorthand: long = bad.
And to answer your question about eyesight - weirdly the answer is actually yes.
I am extremely short/near-sighted so 6 or even 4 point font is no barrier. I just peer over my glasses. Shortsightedness (myopia) has been increasing quite significantly in the population (from about 25% to about 45% in 45 years). There is lots of speculation as to why myopia is increasing (screen time is one big theory put forward). But as a species it appears that we are evolving towards being able to read the small print!
In pantry news, I am relieved to find that my favorite store bought mayonnaise contains only ingredients found in a pantry - I like it because it is made with eggs from hens raised under certified humane conditions.

That's a relief ! I was so sad years ago to discover my favorite dark chocolate had dubious soy lecithin .

The way we buy food now is very different from when I was in the city and the main reason is that we want to go as little as possible to the hypermarket, it's an hour 45 drive and we hate going there, so we only go between once every six weeks or two months. I order through the website and pick the bags up on the parking, we don't get in. I have a memorized list of items on the site, groceries and some canned food like chickpeas and mushrooms for about seven weeks, that I just replicate every time. I only adjust quantities depending on what we have left, I never add anything else, unless we have exceptional circumstances. I don't buy anything fresh, we rely on our garden, what we freeze, what the neighbours give us, and eventually local fruit producers. So I don't have to check ingredients, as I did it when building this list.
I also have a yearly subscription to an organic online supplier that sells and sends items a bit cheaper than in organic stores, where I buy things like dry fruits, tahini, peanut butter, tea, and grains such as buckwheat in bulk. Always the same as well, so I know the ingredients and the origin, which aren't always great, but I chose the most acceptable options to me.
Finally, we do eat some highly processed food, and it's my partner who buys it when he works in Nice : Italian grissinis and tarallis, the organic tofu products I mentioned before, and we always have one or two ready made cereal patties in the pantry in case there is an emergency and we can't take ten minutes to cook pasta or the like. He gets to check the labels then, and it's quite common that he picks something we wouldn't have if he had been able to read the small characters from the list !

We are lucky in France as the E.. number something always have their real names now. I'm not sure if it's a legal obligation. But sometimes the name isn't sufficient to know what it actually is. It's why I liked the open food watch app when I was doing the shopping when we lived in Nice- it gives the Nova score and the nature of the additives.

 

[Molpet]

I have to have a magnifier and strong light to read that blasted small print.
one feed store took over a close kmart. took out the drop ceiling and hung led light way up. I can read normal print in there. I have a hat with lights in the brim that I wear in there that helps, joys of getting old

 

[Molpet]

that I just replicate every time. I only adjust quantities depending on what we have left, I never add anything else, unless we have exceptional circumstances. I don't buy anything fresh, we rely on our garden, what we freeze, what the neighbours give us, and eventually local fruit producers. So I don't have to check ingredients, as I did it when building this list.

I have found they change ingredients. I can't eat wheat or cows milk. I have had symptoms ... then read the labels .....from items I have been buying for years. THey added flour or whey.

 

[Perris]

I have to have a magnifier and strong light to read that blasted small print.

me too! that hat sounds very natty

 

[Perris]

And to answer your question about eyesight - weirdly the answer is actually yes.
I am extremely short/near-sighted so 6 or even 4 point font is no barrier. I just peer over my glasses. Shortsightedness (myopia) has been increasing quite significantly in the population (from about 25% to about 45% in 45 years).

that is interesting. Still more than half the population don't have it though, for whom point 6 is a problem. I like glasses for driving, but have to take them off for anything close, still I can't read below about point 10 now without magnification. Eyes / lenses change shape as we age apparently.