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I am almost sure her issue is in the reproductive system. Her laying issues have been going on for five months now and slowly getting worse. Today she finally passed an egg, a huge elongated thing, and she almost instantly got colour back on her comb and skin.I'd do that. You know, she may get better. She may just be fighting off a bug or (non-reproductive tract) disease that is challenging her so hard that all her resources are dealing with it, leaving insufficient calories for reproduction. I speak from experience; ill birds here sometimes take refuge or comfort in a nest box, they didn't go in to lay.
I am trying a higher level of calcium supplement for a week. She actually laid the day after I first supplemented her so maybe it did help - maybe it was just a coincidence.
I love spelt bread, both the kind we have here and the darker damper one they have in germany and northern Europe.I used to buy bread made with spelt in Catalonia. It makes the best Marmite on toast one can imagine.
I eat it with my neighbour's fresh goat cheese and our bee's honey. It's more local than marmite .
The boar is back and he has eaten in two nights two thirds of the 75 kilos of potatoes we planted! Tonight my partner is waiting for him with a rifle in the woodshed. I kind of hope he doesn't get him because I'm not sure how we will deal discreetly with a dead boar over 100 kg that we are not allowed to kill at this time of year.
Some of the hens are still showing signs of thinking about turning broody : Chipie, but she is still not really sitting, Lilly, Laure, whom I least expected to, and...Merle. After ten days laying she has obviously decided to try again. I feel bad that we don't let her when she is so stubborn, but we really don't want more chickens.
On the other hand I really wish Lilly would turn broody for good because we have a problem with her. She has lost and broken so much feathers on her back that she is beginning to have a small scratch from Gaston's mating. But I know from Piou-piou that a small scratch can turn very quickly into a real wound. And the other issue is that her foot abscess, which we though was healed, seems to be swelling again a bit. It's a bit complicated to isolate her because we are already isolating Blanche, and Lilly has been bullying her badly, so we can't put them together just outside the chicken yard. If she decided to sit, she would rest her foot and stay away from Gaston for a while.
Lilly- you can sort of see the broken feathers on her back under which is a big bald patch.
Alba and Kara.
Laure was so enthralled in her dustbath that she forgot to bark at Théo.
A Blanche serie- she has had several chances to doze in the sun these last days and that seems to make them good days.
What ? Are you bringing food ?
Let me see if I can eat this.
Oh no, it's an unknown chicken face on a screen- must peck !
Lilly and Kara wondering how Lulu and Mélisse managed to cross the mesh that protects the baby lavenders.
I saw a dustbath scene I found strange yesterday between Théo and Merle. The video doesn't really manage to show why. Merle was stuck underneath Théo ; she was panting, and very pale, and slowly grooming his mane like she was in a complete trance. I know grooming is a thing, but apart from the four pullets I bought (Lilly, Alba, Kara, Nieva) and Caramel before she died I never saw any of my chickens doing it during daytime.