Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[MaryJanet]

We're not even baking strawberries pies anymore but just eating them with the local ewe yogurt sprinkled with whole cane sugar . Best thing I've eaten in a long time.

Oh my goodness, that would be amazing.

 

[BDutch]

It's my turn to feel crappy and the evening mandatory hour of watering is the only thing I will achieve- I am spending the day in the lounge chair on Byc and watching the chickens.

No doubt the strawberries will help!

 

[ManueB]

I'm feeling much better, but still a few days to be in top shape.
Three broodies now : Chipie, Léa and Merle. I put them out of the coop together once everyone has laid, and they spend the afternoon screaming at me or sitting on woodblocks. I tried the broody jail during day for Chipie but ended up taking her out - first she sat on the mesh, then after an hour she started thrashing around and trying to force her way out. I'm still scared she will hurt herself.

I weighed her today and she lost 50 grams, so she now weighs 630 instead of 680 (1.38 lbs instead of 1.5).
I've found a way to make her eat : if I pick her up with a hand under her belly, it calms her down, like lost broodies who will sit on a hand, and she will eat a few bites while I'm carrying her like this.

Mélisse is now hanging outside with Théo and Piou-piou. At first it was just to escape to the garden, but now she is not rejecting Théo as much as she first did, and it makes Piou-piou terribly jealous . She screams for Théo to come with her and if he stays with Mélisse she comes back to attack her ! Even though she doesn't even like Théo that much!

I find some of the chickens are not in great shape. I'm really worried that they go to bed so early and spend so much time napping, mainly for Kara and Nieva, but most of them are in bed by 6.30. It's not that hot to justify staying to rest in the shade all afternoon.
I also weighed Kara yesterday and she weighs 3.050 kg compared to 2.9 a few months ago (6.7 lbs to 6.3 before). It's a small difference that could just be due to age, she wasn't a year old yet when we first weighed her at the vet.

"We find the service leaves much to be desired."

Merle has the bad habit when she is broody to step in the food bowl and throw everything out before eating. It's not so bad with dry grains, but she also does it with mash... and sometimes even in the water bowl .

the broody trio

 

[MaryJanet]

I've never seen early roosting mentioned as a warning. I hope it's a simple matter of the chickens liking the coop and feeling safe in there, along with feeling the day's work is done: full crops, digestion chugging along, bit of sun enjoyed, bit of dust bathing done, now it's time for rest. But it makes sense the roosters wake up earlier than usual. And it's nice to know it's such a cohesive flock. One goes in, they all go in!

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you for those good news ! It makes me happy that it turned out so well for Honey.
I don't remember, was she used to be in the house before she went blind ?
Also, I think it's a bit for chickens like for people. Personality can play a big role in how one reacts to sickness or disability. She had sass and a will to live so it must have helped.
I hope her molt goes fine too . It's early for molting. But I also have some of the hens who are giving signs of beginning light molts.

Most rescues I have seen who take blind hens either put them in coops with other blind or sight impaired chickens, or have them become house chickens like Honey !

Blanche, who had lost an eye in the hawk attack, didn't do so well with her restrained vision. She could manage every day stuff but I believe she was afraid that she wasn't able to spot dangers anymore, because she very rarely ventured away from her safe places.
Are your feeders large enough that she can access them even without good aiming ?
--------------------

We have very unusual weather and so the reports keep messing up. It's been alternating desert wind with grey skies, storms, and our usual summer windy climate. The soil is still damp enough underneath that the chickens can still forage nicely in their yard.

We didn't realise that there was so many cherries in the chicken's tree but in fact we have eaten more than any other year, and both us and the chickens have gotten belly aches from too much cherries ! Now all the ones we can't harvest are rotting and attracting many winged insects that sometimes fall to the ground right for the chickens to gobble them up, they especially love the rose chafers which make very crunchy snacks. Laure goes back out once everyone is asleep to hunt for them.

I want to share a little food experiment I'm going to try. Since October I had been adding two teaspoons of hemp oil in the chicken's mash, first as a carrier oil for the essential oils I was trying for worms, then because I kept using thyme and turmeric essential oils after seeing studies that showed they had positive effects on overall immunity.
Since February the hens started laying again a lot and very nice eggs, so much that we began selling quite a few. But around mid april they began laying less, and smaller eggs, with shells not so nice. I attributed this to the fact that they were now fenced and did not free range anymore, or to the problems some have with lice. But recently I got a targeted add from a french poultry website for products to help hens keep laying with the heat, and they were selling among other things very expensive hemp seeds. I realised the moment the eggs dropped in quality and number also coincided with the moment I stopped giving them the hemp oil because I didn't have any left (I also use it for me on salad and fresh cheese). So I bought more and began giving it again three weeks ago, and taddam- more eggs.
I totally think it could be a coincidence, but long story short, I am going to try giving them 10% hemp seeds in the fermented mix. The poultry site sells them very expensive, but I've found organic producers on the web that sell them in bigger quantity much cheaper. I've learned my lesson with the peas and will try a small amount first to see if they eat it. If they don't like it I'll finish them in my yogurt, I think they are good for humans too .
I'm not trying to make them lay more of course, just trying to improve their feed !

I got a lot of crappy pictures on Saturday and Sunday because of the weather so even if my phone takes horrible night photos, I thought it would be a change to post roosting chickens.
Main roost from left to right. Laure, Nieva, Alba, Nougat, Léa, Kara and Lily in the background.
View attachment 3859062
Right to Léa : Annette, Lulu, Gaston.
View attachment 3859061

Front of the coop, the small chicken's roost : Merle, Théo, Piou-piou, Melisse.View attachment 3859063
In the crate for the night, front of the coop but on the other side, Chipie
View attachment 3859064

Sunday I went for a long loop, my first serious mountain run. I like it because there is 4 km running on a ridge 2150 m high where you can see two totally different valleys. Weather forecast was south desert wind with white sky ...I got hail then thunder on the ridge . Needless to say I didn't stop to look or take pictures and hurried to be safer below.
View attachment 3859065View attachment 3859066View attachment 3859067
Then today the sun was back with nice temperatures.
View attachment 3859074View attachment 3859075
How cute are these two ? But Théo is a real pain trying to mate Piou-piou, who is indeed doing something like a summer molt. I am so happy to see her feathers growing at last and hope she is not going to pluck them all out !!
View attachment 3859076View attachment 3859077View attachment 3859078View attachment 3859079View attachment 3859080View attachment 3859149View attachment 3859150View attachment 3859151
View attachment 3859222
View attachment 3859152
Iyi geceler Karagöz
View attachment 3859223

I put hemp seeds in my feed mix.

 

[ManueB]

I've never seen early roosting mentioned as a warning. I hope it's a simple matter of the chickens liking the coop and feeling safe in there, along with feeling the day's work is done: full crops, digestion chugging along, bit of sun enjoyed, bit of dust bathing done, now it's time for rest. But it makes sense the roosters wake up earlier than usual. And it's nice to know it's such a cohesive flock. One goes in, they all go in!

I'd like to think as you do. My theory is less optimistic. I think there is an overload of both external and internal parasites in my environment and that while it doesn't actually make the chickens sick, it tires them a lot. I believe the four hens I bought are coping the worse because they were too old when they arrived here for their health system to adapt.
I also believe out of the four youngest pullets that hatched last year, three have been a bit depressed since when we stopped them from free ranging.
And finally Gaston, who used to be very soft with the hens, has gotten rougher and so they don't want to hang out with him in the evening when his hormones are acting up.

I put hemp seeds in my feed mix.

I received the hemp seeds some days ago and the chickens seem to like them. I thought they taste the same as the oil, I like their taste, but I don't like the texture, they are difficult to chew. So I will be likely getting them in bulk quantities for animals now rather than order them as human organic supplements.
***************
Nougat has something wrong definitely. She went from laying bad shaped eggs, to soft shells and shell less eggs. And her poops have turned very strange : black oily diarrhea, which I have never seen the like before. She is still acting normal, as far as I can tell. We have no clue on what's wrong with her and we both agreed we don't want to take a very stressed senior ex-batt to our vet clinic that's two hours away.

I think the hens may have an issue with lack of calcium. Most of them almost don't eat the oyster shells. It's the second brand I try and this one goes down better, but they still eat very little of it. But when I bring crush egg shells, they almost fight for those! But since we are selling about half the eggs, I don't have enough egg shells for them at all. So I'm wondering if there are other options to increase calcium on demand, as the roosters don't need it. I remember Perris mentioned that Lime used to be given as a calcium source but that it was not great. I know yoghurt, almond, chia and hemp seeds contain calcium but it's hard to give unrestricted access to those !

I found a bundle of dead round worms Tuesday morning where Kara and Lulu were roosting. (Most of the hens also still have tapeworms). Following to that I have began deworming Kara individually with Flubendazole. The whole flock was given a week of Flubendazole just three months ago, so I don't want to treat them all. Kara has a health issue and her poop always look bad, whereas Lulu is in great shape, honks louder than ever, and always wants to party after 7 when everyone else is asleep, so if the worms came from Lulu they are obviously not causing her trouble.

I should not have boasted about being over COVID because it came back with all the symptoms of a nasty cold : sore throat, blocked sinuses and ear drums, and some interesting muscular pains and cramps. Today we have a lot of rain, which is wonderful as it was getting dry and it allows me to stay in bed without feeling guilty. I probably won't update as much in the following two weeks.

Feeling like

Lulu canard

The new hen in the run

Cocorico

Still working on those left over grain sprouted seeds...

Kara

You better move out of my bath or I will show you what a tiny broody can do.

Rainy day...

The grapevine that survived the frost.

 

[Perris]

hope you feel better soon and that the sick hens do too.

 

[Molpet]

I should not have boasted about being over COVID because it came back with all the symptoms of a nasty cold

If I do too much it is comes back for a few days

 

[MaryJanet]

I hope you feel better soon. Double whammy with covid and the flock's problems.

 

[BDutch]

I'd like to think as you do. My theory is less optimistic. I think there is an overload of both external and internal parasites in my environment and that while it doesn't actually make the chickens sick, it tires them a lot. I believe the four hens I bought are coping the worse because they were too old when they arrived here for their health system to adapt.

Maybe you are right because having worms and also the medicines against worm take a toll. But dont forget we have the longest day of the year now and chickens get tired after a long day. Mine roost early too. But in the morning at sunrise they are all awake and active.

Are you sure that with a cure to deworm you don’t have to repeat it after 10 -14 days for all hens?

I also believe out of the four youngest pullets that hatched last year, three have been a bit depressed since when we stopped them from free ranging.
And finally Gaston, who used to be very soft with the hens, has gotten rougher and so they don't want to hang out with him in the evening when his hormones are acting up.

Maybe it helps if you could let the 4 young hens free range 1 hour before roost time? Supervised of course to see they dont harm your veggie garden. Worth a try?

Nougat has something wrong definitely. She went from laying bad shaped eggs, to soft shells and shell less eggs. And her poops have turned very strange : black oily diarrhea, which I have never seen the like before. She is still acting normal, as far as I can tell. We have no clue on what's wrong with her and we both agreed we don't want to take a very stressed senior ex-batt to our vet clinic that's two hours away.

I think the hens may have an issue with lack of calcium. Most of them almost don't eat the oyster shells.

Sorry for Nougat. This doesn’t sound good at all.
I know you can give human calcium tablets too. Recalling; I believe you should give a tablet (or 1/2 ) 7 days on a row to see if calcium shortage is the problem. You can give it in a piece of soft cat food, wet bread or soft rice.
With a search (eggcesive) you probably find more info, how to give it to Nougat, and maybe to your other hens too.

I should not have boasted about being over COVID because it came back with all the symptoms of a nasty cold : sore throat, blocked sinuses and ear drums, and some interesting muscular pains and cramps. Today we have a lot of rain, which is wonderful as it was getting dry and it allows me to stay in bed without feeling guilty. I probably won't update as much in the following two weeks.

Listen to your body and get well soon.