Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[Shadrach]

The chickens had a really good day today. (I didn't because last night I had something like a tennis elbow tendinitis waking me up and now I can barely move my right arm .) It was -5 in the morning with a great blue sky, no wind and a lot of sunshine. Mélisse seemed a lot better ! Back to her normal self in fact. So it was likely a reaction to stress. I saw where she slept and her poops were quite normal. However another chicken has worrying feces with blood, but i’ve no clue which one it is. They were all active and happy today. Even the ex-batts seem better and they joined the rest of the flock for a few hours in the afternoon.

My partner came home a bit late so we tended Lilly’s foot quite a while after she had gone to roost.I opened both feet which I hadn't done for about ten days. On the less swollen one a lot of gunk came out which I wasn't expecting. It made a nice clean crater. On the other one that is really huge, I wasn't able to take out that much, because it hasn't formed a scab. I hope she will get better at some point. I would prefer not having to take her back to the vet now I know they do a full anesthesia to debride the abscess.


First I have a small video and a question. I mentioned Lilly is enthusiastic about grooming, which isn't a common practice at all in my flock. However, she is also a pecker , as in bullying. In particular she pecks the younger pullets in the eye, Laure and Lulu especially.
So when I saw her doing this with Gaston I wasn't sure if this was just normal grooming, or more like she is trying to eat the small growing feathers he has on his face. What do you think ?

Early morning I knew Mélisse was doing better when she tried to go under the netting to dig up the leeks .
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There was a lot of dustbathing today! Maybe they know it's supposed to rain for the next two days ?
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Kara dozing in the sun
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Merle and Théo having a nap in the woodshed
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Kara also seemed better today, though she looked a bit off in the morning
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Mélisse and Annette.
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Gaston had a bath in the barrel with Laure

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Kara and Chipie had a fight.
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Kara, napping again.
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Looks like normal grooming to me if a bit heavy handed, or should I say beaked.

 

[Shadrach]

Changing the plan.
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There is already 5 cm of snow and it's steadily falling now. My partner felt it would not be safe to drive down our mountain road. Since driving is his job and I don't have my licence, I have to agree ( for once) that he is the only one qualified to have a valid opinion. On the good side, we have an appointment at 9 tomorrow morning with the clinic’s owner, whom we have never seen before and is a very renowned and experienced vet. The road will have been cleaned and gravelled at dawn. And if they just need to do x-rays and drainage she might even be able to come home at the end of the day.

Kara is now sleeping on a roost in the coop. She stayed for three hours in the nest this morning after laying, ate quite a bit, and looking much like yesterday with her vent pulsating, except today she is either clearing her crop or gasping for air. Her breathing is not laboured and I don't see the small movements on her face going up and down that alerted me to Caramel having a problem to breathe.

Most of the chickens are staying inside and Gaston is doing all he can to keep his hens occupied and happy....hard job.

What is this ?
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Nice.
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What an offense. Snow when one feather tiny indian is molting.
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My partner built them this...
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But they prefer to shelter under that.
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Meanwhile in the coop.
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Kara in the middle. She actually threw Léa off the roost before going back to slumber so she still has some energy.
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Just do something. Take the white stuff away. Or take me out of there !
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That shelter looks a lot like Perris's shelter. In my experience chickens will generally pick a shelter they can see out of on all, or most sides. The exception is for a wind shelter when one or two solid sides or thick vegitation provides a wind break.

 

[Shadrach]

The dynamics of the flock are based on chicken logic, not on human logic. Its great to hear Pioupiou gained a harem.

You think so?

 

[BDutch]

You think so?

Of course. I truly believe that is what all roosters want. I cant recall people saying that their rooster only wants one hen if there are more. They are often even stupid enough to fight till death to obtain a bigger harem.

Wondering
Did you ever see roosters who show gay behaviour?

 

[Shadrach]

Of course. I truly believe that is what all roosters want. I cant recall people saying that their rooster only wants one hen if there are more. They are often even stupid enough to fight till death to obtain a bigger harem.

Wondering
Did you ever see roosters who show gay behaviour?

I dread to think where you get these beliefs from.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever seen roosters fighting because they want more hens? I can promise you no rooster I've know has fought, let alone fought to the death over a hen. Roosters don't fight over females. I know, it's hard to come to terms with but females are not worth dying for. Men don't either. They fight over resources, pride, status and to defend themselves from other roosters. Hard though it may be to accept, for the rooster a hen is just part of a resource package. He needs a hen to pass on his genes, after that roosters will move on to the next hen that will crouch for him. Jungle fowl do exactly this and have been for centuries. Hens choose their roosters and given this there isn't much point in fighting over a hen that isn't interested in a low status, short on resources, male, which he won't be able to keep if he can't bring home the bacon so to speak.
It's why roosters don't feed non laying hens. No eggs, no offspring, no interest.
The harem business exists because there are many more hens than roosters and people have discovered that a single rooster is able to fetilize the eggs of about ten hens.

What do you mean gay?

 

[Molpet]

Wondering
Did you ever see roosters who show gay behaviour?

To dominate a cockerel.
I have had grow out pens where the cockerels would gang up on one. Semen was ejaculated by aggressors. I thought maybe a strange looking pullet, but dressed out and had 2 testicles.

Turkeys have squashed cockerels and roosters.... and waterers, plastic jugs ECT

 

[ManueB]

Stress is a far bigger factor in odd chicken behaviour than most people are aware of. Sress can send a chicken into moult, reduce or completely stop egg laying, cause partial or full paralysis and be responsible for many other behaviours that may be wrongly attributed to sicknesses.
You don't say what sort of raptor made an attempted strike on Mélisse?

I would say that in France people are rather aware that stress is a huge health factor for chickens. It's mentioned both in publications for commercial operations, and on websites for backyard chicken keepers, and there is a lot of advice and product marketing on how to keep a low level of stress for the chickens.
I totally agree with the way you say it. Quite a few times I have come to the conclusion that a hen was making herself physically sick out of stress. It's very likely that Mélisse was acting off because she had a big fright.
I didn't see the raptor(s?), my partner did. But we are not good at identifying the small to middle sized birds. We have mostly peregrine falcon (duck hawk ?), european kestrel, eurasian hobby, goshawk, european sparrowhawk's and common buzzards.
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I am going to take either a break from posting for the next few days or slowdown on updates, unless something major comes up. I am not the happiest person at Christmas .

 

[RoyalChick]

I would say that in France people are rather aware that stress is a huge health factor for chickens. It's mentioned both in publications for commercial operations, and on websites for backyard chicken keepers, and there is a lot of advice and product marketing on how to keep a low level of stress for the chickens.
I totally agree with the way you say it. Quite a few times I have come to the conclusion that a hen was making herself physically sick out of stress. It's very likely that Mélisse was acting off because she had a big fright.
I didn't see the raptor(s?), my partner did. But we are not good at identifying the small to middle sized birds. We have mostly peregrine falcon (duck hawk ?), european kestrel, eurasian hobby, goshawk, european sparrowhawk's and common buzzards.
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I am going to take either a break from posting for the next few days or slowdown on updates, unless something major comes up. I am not the happiest person at Christmas .View attachment 3709113

Don't leave us just because of Christmas - just ignore it - there are plenty of non-Christmas types around to chat to. And at least my chickens will not be observing any holiday - I expect they will be busy digging up stuff as usual!

On stress, the thing that puzzles me, is why battery hens keep laying whereas a stressed free range chicken stops laying. I am by instinct a believer that stress disrupts biological processes - but you see these poor bald, mutilated, sleep deprived creatures providing an egg every day.
The genetics behind that must be overwhelmingly strong I guess.

 

[BDutch]

I dread to think where you get these beliefs from.

Reading stuff from people who don’t know either.

What do you mean gay?

Molpet understood what I meant.

unless something major comes up.

If so, I will be waiting for extremely good news.

 

[ManueB]

So, a bit of news, though it doesn't qualify as extremely good I'm afraid. Wednesday when the vet got the photo from Lilly's foot she asked us to bring her as soon as possible, so my partner took her on Thursday to have the abscess cleaned up. The vet opened the foot from above, and took out the small ball of hard pus. Between the drive and needing to wait for an hour after she woke from the anesthesia to pick her up they were gone from nine to five, so it was a long day for both of them. We need to watch her very carefully for a week, change the dressing and disinfect everyday, she has another five days antibiotics course. Yesterday when we tended the wound it was bleeding massively, she is not out of the wood yet. She is acting normally... but like her foot hurts.

For more fun chicken news yesterday my female cat killed a blackbird after playing with it in the chicken yard and left most of it. When the chickens found it ...there was a mad race. I tried to retrieve it from them, but mostly failed so they ate almost all of it. Today they are searching all over for any scattered remains.

I have a horrible Xmas rant. So please don't read if you are in the festive mood, I can at the same time feel horrible about things, and sincerely hope that some of you will be enjoying it. I will take back to posting at the end of next week.

Spoiler: Horrible Xmas rant.

Next week we have to deal with Christmas. We are hosting my partner's family monday, which I will try to enjoy for his sake though I am totally stressed and unhappy about it, then I'm going wednesday and thursday in my family. I'm never in the mood for the Christmas bit but especially not this year. My partner's oldest Italian friend, Agostino, seems to be dying of cancer in hospital, for no precise reason other than lack of proper care due to the medical system's disorganisation. Our country just voted a law I despise on immigration which among other niceties instaures national preferences for students, older people, health care, basically targeting anyone who can't contribute to capitalist economy, while we are deliberately letting thousands die in the Mediterranean sea trying to come to Europe. My 75 years old mum, who has been demonstrating for Palestine twice a month since her brother died in 2014, says her association now has to go to court every time against the local state representant forbidding protests (they win each time, it's obvious that bunch of senior ladies is no threat to national safety, but they have to pay a lawyer).

The world now feels to me like international law precedence and the idea that all humans can share some basic ethical principles has become a thing of the past. I am not catholic, the main religion in France, or religious at all, but if I was, I couldn't bear to imagine what that kid whose birth we are all meant to be celebrating at this time of year would think about us. I guess it's a good thing I have my chickens to care about and to distract me from all that.

Lilly in the next three pictures.