Théo and the chickens des Sauches

I can't compare with pellets because they are rather uncommon here and i've never bought any. It's possible pellets keep longer - I've stored horse pellets for a year with no issue. But between whole grains and milled feed, there is no doubt that milled will spoil quicker and also have moths sooner. I can't even buy milled feed in summer as it always already has a few worms ! (Same applies in your pantry between flour and whole grains).
One of the possible reason for a short peremption date on a mixed grain bag could be if it included seeds - sunflower or hemp seeds will go rancid quicker than grain.

Also, I'm not sure how your feed is bagged ? Here every type of chicken feed, whether milled or grains, comes in thick paper bags ( Kraft type), but I think in the US it's wrapped in aluminium or plastic ? The paper bags we have here are not at all protective from meal moths or worms, or even humidity.

We don't have peremption dates on grain bags, just the date when the grain was put in the bag.
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The news from yesterday is that Laure has laid an egg ! She was implanted on the 17th of August, so the implant lasted five months and ten days. She took a loonnng time in the nest, after hours of touring nests with Gaston in the morning, and even getting stuck... I was a bit anxious, but the egg was fine. I will be watching her closely to see if her issues are over. As weird as it sounds I think her laying problem came in part from being over stressed, because she would systematically refrain from laying if anything disturbed her. She had to be alone for hours and in her preferred nest, and with Gaston close by at least for a while. She is a very emotional and easily frightened hen. When I come close to her, I can see her face gradually turn red !

Today it rained lightly most day. Annette and Melisse spent the whole day in the garden much to Théo's delight ! The poor little guy is obsessed with getting Annette to come with him, and some days she does and others she doesn't... He actually remembered how to fly into the chicken yard and yesterday he did that twice trying to herd her. I heard something was going on because Gaston was loudly crying / protesting in a very unusual way.

Alba is slowly getting worse. Today I noticed her crop is beginning to be blocked ; she gorges on water and grass. As usual we are hesitant to intervene or let her be - she is normally impossible to catch, but now she is often roosted or on a nest, so I can sometimes pick her up.
My partner told me that he had spoken to the vet about her, asking about giving her the antibiotic we have on hand (a combination of Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, like bactrim for humans). The vet said no, for two reasons. The first one is the expected speech that antibiotics need imperatively to be prescribed for a specific medical diagnosis, not given by anyone who suspects a bacterial issue, and that is for a number of reasons among which bio resistance (I agree to that, at least 95% of the time). The second thing she said was that some of the health problems coherent with Alba's symptoms, such as cancer, would actually be made worse by giving a wide spectrum antibiotics which would weaken even more the chicken.
So, I suppose we are going to juggle between trying to help her stay as comfortable as possible and leaving her alone as she really does not appreciate human contact. It's the first time that I'm not devastated by one of my chickens having such a serious issue ; but I do feel very sorry for her, and all the more because she is handling it with a lot of discretion and dignity.


Gaston is pretty good at letting me know a hen is about to lay.
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Today change of weather.
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After everyone had gone to roost I let Gaston spend 20 mn in the garden with Laure. He was thrilled !
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Grochatila is turning into some Garfield weirdo.
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Just a few minutes after that picture, his sister Hibou came in drenched, with a mouse in her mouth, and we didn't have the time to put her out of the house, she swallowed it whole 😱.
 
I can't compare with pellets because they are rather uncommon here and i've never bought any. It's possible pellets keep longer - I've stored horse pellets for a year with no issue. But between whole grains and milled feed, there is no doubt that milled will spoil quicker and also have moths sooner. I can't even buy milled feed in summer as it always already has a few worms ! (Same applies in your pantry between flour and whole grains).
One of the possible reason for a short peremption date on a mixed grain bag could be if it included seeds - sunflower or hemp seeds will go rancid quicker than grain.

Also, I'm not sure how your feed is bagged ? Here every type of chicken feed, whether milled or grains, comes in thick paper bags ( Kraft type), but I think in the US it's wrapped in aluminium or plastic ? The paper bags we have here are not at all protective from meal moths or worms, or even humidity.

We don't have peremption dates on grain bags, just the date when the grain was put in the bag.
--------
The news from yesterday is that Laure has laid an egg ! She was implanted on the 17th of August, so the implant lasted five months and ten days. She took a loonnng time in the nest, after hours of touring nests with Gaston in the morning, and even getting stuck... I was a bit anxious, but the egg was fine. I will be watching her closely to see if her issues are over. As weird as it sounds I think her laying problem came in part from being over stressed, because she would systematically refrain from laying if anything disturbed her. She had to be alone for hours and in her preferred nest, and with Gaston close by at least for a while. She is a very emotional and easily frightened hen. When I come close to her, I can see her face gradually turn red !

Today it rained lightly most day. Annette and Melisse spent the whole day in the garden much to Théo's delight ! The poor little guy is obsessed with getting Annette to come with him, and some days she does and others she doesn't... He actually remembered how to fly into the chicken yard and yesterday he did that twice trying to herd her. I heard something was going on because Gaston was loudly crying / protesting in a very unusual way.

Alba is slowly getting worse. Today I noticed her crop is beginning to be blocked ; she gorges on water and grass. As usual we are hesitant to intervene or let her be - she is normally impossible to catch, but now she is often roosted or on a nest, so I can sometimes pick her up.
My partner told me that he had spoken to the vet about her, asking about giving her the antibiotic we have on hand (a combination of Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, like bactrim for humans). The vet said no, for two reasons. The first one is the expected speech that antibiotics need imperatively to be prescribed for a specific medical diagnosis, not given by anyone who suspects a bacterial issue, and that is for a number of reasons among which bio resistance (I agree to that, at least 95% of the time). The second thing she said was that some of the health problems coherent with Alba's symptoms, such as cancer, would actually be made worse by giving a wide spectrum antibiotics which would weaken even more the chicken.
So, I suppose we are going to juggle between trying to help her stay as comfortable as possible and leaving her alone as she really does not appreciate human contact. It's the first time that I'm not devastated by one of my chickens having such a serious issue ; but I do feel very sorry for her, and all the more because she is handling it with a lot of discretion and dignity.


Gaston is pretty good at letting me know a hen is about to lay.
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Today change of weather.
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After everyone had gone to roost I let Gaston spend 20 mn in the garden with Laure. He was thrilled !
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Grochatila is turning into some Garfield weirdo.
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Just a few minutes after that picture, his sister Hibou came in drenched, with a mouse in her mouth, and we didn't have the time to put her out of the house, she swallowed it whole 😱.
Sorry about Alba.
:hugs
 
One of the possible reason for a short peremption date on a mixed grain bag could be if it included seeds - sunflower or hemp seeds will go rancid quicker than grain.
Yes, in the grain are sunflower and maybe other seeds too.
Also, I'm not sure how your feed is bagged ? Here every type of chicken feed, whether milled or grains, comes in thick paper bags ( Kraft type), but I think in the US it's wrapped in aluminium or plastic ? The paper bags we have here are not at all protective from meal moths or worms, or even humidity.
In the Netherlands feed comes in thick double paper too.
At home I put it in airtight (paint) buckets the same day. Bc we often have mice in the bike shed where I keep the feed stored.
My partner told me that he had spoken to the vet about her, asking about giving her the antibiotic we have on hand (a combination of Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, like bactrim for humans). The vet said no,
:hugs 🤞
Hopefully Annet will recover on her own. I like the explanation of your vet a lot.
 
Sorry about Alba :( Remind me of our Tina who slowly declined.

It is interesting to hear about Laure's implant. Light had her implant in late June and no sign of laying. I hope that she has gone through her henapause during this time and she just won't lay anymore!
I understood implants are a temporary solution. Never read that an implant stops a hen completely to lay.
If she had eggs awaiting in her systems they probably start coming after the implant isn’t active anymore.
 
I was away for two days to see my parents, and my aunt and uncle who came to visit them for a few days.
While my parents are in good health and don't consider themselves as old people, I can't help but notice how so many of their relations are dropping dead these last months... or preparing to. My mum was born the 25 december 1947, a birthdate that's difficult to forget ; she still scuba dives and hikes in the mountains, but this Christmas, when we went for a rather long hike, both my brother and I noticed for the first time that she is beginning to have real balance issues.
Anyway I'm going to try to go see them more often, and since it takes me more than two hours to get there, I will likely sleep over and stay for two or three days. My partner had to take over caring for the chickens for two days. While he always joked that I'm getting stressed for nothing, I think he found it rather stressful 😊. Since he rarely does it he doesn't know about all the small details that can help make things go more smoothly and that I don't even think about because I'm so used to doing things that way.. if I had tried to tell him all about it before he would probably not have seen the point, but now he will.

I wasn't sure if Alba would still be alive when I came back. She is still there and it's hard to say if she will die in the next days or if it will take longer. She is obviously getting worse, but still mobile, still able to follow a bit the other chickens, and even to run away from me whenever I try to come close. She has the same strange leg movement walking that Nougat did, raising one leg very high. I suppose it's either a mass causing that or a stuck nerve.

Another not very good new is that while I wasn't there Laure tried to lay an egg and didn't succeed, and tonight she laid a soft shell egg. She looks perfectly fine so we are of course going to wait to see how things go.

A better new is that while I was away Merle had decided to join Théo outside the chicken yard again. My partner told me that the first day she did this, Théo completely snubbed her and stayed with Annette despite Merle's outraged calls 😊. But now he hangs out with both and is a happy chap, except when they go back in.

It's been raining on and on which we really need. But it's gotten very muddy because there isn't enough grass left in the chicken yard. The rain should stop on Sunday so it should dry again. I'm not sure what to do about their yard. I guess I should reseed at least one half and leave unaccessible for four or five weeks ; but it's too steep to use any of our tillers and it's sufficiently big that to dig it all manually would take a lot of time. And I would like to keep some of the vegetation that has withstood the chicken's digging, some of it is good for them and the soil ( although there are some invasive weeds that need to go)

I'm sorry that I don't have good pics from today. It's hard to get nice pictures when it's so rainy and muddy.

This was on Tuesday before I left. Alba in front was looking better than now.
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Today.
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Alba now. It doesn't show but part of her comb is turning purple.
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Dustbathing is now in the run or in the coop.
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It is a blessing that your parents are basically still in good shape!

I am sorry about Alba :-(. Laure is worrisome too.

After a long winter break from laying, Meimei laid two very fragile eggs. First one broke upon touching, 2nd one got a tiny bit better. I was able to carry it back to house.
 

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