Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[ManueB]

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

Not with Flubendazole. It's one week in a row, at least all the products I've seen in France that contain it have the same dosage and protocol. But that is the case with some of the other dewormers.

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?

Mélisse has found out how to get out so she is in the garden most of the time. Lulu and Annette are the ones who really don't like staying inside. Yes, it would be possible to try that, because they are the last to roost. The chickens can't go anywhere now except in the vegetable garden, because the grass is too high and dense everywhere. In a week or two we will be doing the hay, so all the other fields will be accessible for them again and hopefully they are interested going elsewhere than in the garden.

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.

She is already getting chicken calcium supplements. The french human supplements are not adapted for chickens, we don't have the recommended calcium citrate here.

Listen to your body and get well soon.

Thanks.
I think I am healed ! It took a whole week. We have the saying "A cold lasts 7 days if you try to heal it, and a week if you don't", not sure if that exists in other countries.

The chickens seem to find the weather as strange as I do. One day it's raining and around 15, the next we have sun, wind and 25.

Having three broodies create a lot of unrest. Merle and Léa block two of the most frequented nest. I've began putting them together in the crate while the other hens lay, but Merle terrorises Léa, so it's not a great option. If I leave Léa in her nest, either she doesn't let the other hens lay, or they struggle and eggs are broken. Then during the day when I lock them out of the coop, Merle attack all the other hens and she is rather vicious. The three of them make a lot of cluck cluck and stay in front of the coop. At night, when I take Léa out of the nest, if Gaston roosts next to her he is very frightened and cries softly like something terrible has happened.

I didn't mention that I had an issue with Lilly last week. Her second scan was beginning to slightly come off. One evening she sort of quarrelled with Nougat and fell down the roost. I was there and had the reflex to pick her up, but she struggled and fell again and the scab came off. It made a bigger hole than the first time it came out and it wasn't as neat. Now there is another tiny scab forming. Hope this one is the last. Her feathers had grown back on her belly, but she is acting semi broody again, probably from seeing all those crazy broodies, and is plucking them off.

This sweet little thing...

Got into an awful fight with Alba again ! This time Gaston stepped right in. Here he is telling her to calm down. "let me go! I'm gonna kill that b*"+-# !"

Storm yesterday.

Warm sun today.

Nougat.

Two tiny broodies in the shade.

For once we planted the type of garlic that grows scapes.

Nougat again. She is not looking that bad but picking her up I can tell she has lost weight.

 

[Perris]

I think I am healed !

Hooray!

We have the saying "A cold lasts 7 days if you try to heal it, and a week if you don't"

I love it. I haven't heard it before.

Here he is telling her to calm down.

Fantastic photo! And voice over

the type of garlic that grows scapes

do you have particular recipe(s) in mind for them?

 

[RoyalChick]

Beautiful pictures as always, and I am so glad you are better.
I love the Gaston 'calm down' picture.

 

[MaryJanet]

Not with Flubendazole. It's one week in a row, at least all the products I've seen in France that contain it have the same dosage and protocol. But that is the case with some of the other dewormers.

Mélisse has found out how to get out so she is in the garden most of the time. Lulu and Annette are the ones who really don't like staying inside. Yes, it would be possible to try that, because they are the last to roost. The chickens can't go anywhere now except in the vegetable garden, because the grass is too high and dense everywhere. In a week or two we will be doing the hay, so all the other fields will be accessible for them again and hopefully they are interested going elsewhere than in the garden.

She is already getting chicken calcium supplements. The french human supplements are not adapted for chickens, we don't have the recommended calcium citrate here.

Thanks.
I think I am healed ! It took a whole week. We have the saying "A cold lasts 7 days if you try to heal it, and a week if you don't", not sure if that exists in other countries.

The chickens seem to find the weather as strange as I do. One day it's raining and around 15, the next we have sun, wind and 25.

Having three broodies create a lot of unrest. Merle and Léa block two of the most frequented nest. I've began putting them together in the crate while the other hens lay, but Merle terrorises Léa, so it's not a great option. If I leave Léa in her nest, either she doesn't let the other hens lay, or they struggle and eggs are broken. Then during the day when I lock them out of the coop, Merle attack all the other hens and she is rather vicious. The three of them make a lot of cluck cluck and stay in front of the coop. At night, when I take Léa out of the nest, if Gaston roosts next to her he is very frightened and cries softly like something terrible has happened.

I didn't mention that I had an issue with Lilly last week. Her second scan was beginning to slightly come off. One evening she sort of quarrelled with Nougat and fell down the roost. I was there and had the reflex to pick her up, but she struggled and fell again and the scab came off. It made a bigger hole than the first time it came out and it wasn't as neat. Now there is another tiny scab forming. Hope this one is the last. Her feathers had grown back on her belly, but she is acting semi broody again, probably from seeing all those crazy broodies, and is plucking them off.

This sweet little thing...
View attachment 3869379
Got into an awful fight with Alba again ! This time Gaston stepped right in. Here he is telling her to calm down. "let me go! I'm gonna kill that b*"+-# !"
View attachment 3869380
Storm yesterday.
View attachment 3869382View attachment 3869383View attachment 3869385
Warm sun today.
View attachment 3869386
Nougat.
View attachment 3869387View attachment 3869388
Two tiny broodies in the shade.
View attachment 3869389
For once we planted the type of garlic that grows scapes.
View attachment 3869401View attachment 3869402
Nougat again. She is not looking that bad but picking her up I can tell she has lost weight.
View attachment 3869403View attachment 3869404View attachment 3869405

What a great update! Glad you're better

 

[BDutch]

I think I am healed ! It took a whole week. We have the saying "A cold lasts 7 days if you try to heal it, and a week if you don't", not sure if that exists in other countries.

Glad you healed! Never heard this saying before. I find it a bit strange, because people often don't know if they have a cold, or a flu (or covid these days).

It’s true cold often passes within a week without side effects like muscle pain and high fever. If you neglect a flu you can easily get pneumonia. My brother did so once going to work with pain killers. With Covid there are more chances on complications too.

I thought you had Covid, which is definitely caused by another virus than a cold or flu. It made me more sick and tired for many weeks afterwards. Hope you do have your energy back and are fit to coop with the work that has to be done.

 

[ManueB]

Glad you healed! Never heard this saying before. I find it a bit strange, because people often don't know if they have a cold, or a flu (or covid these days).

It’s true cold often passes within a week without side effects like muscle pain and high fever. If you neglect a flu you can easily get pneumonia. My brother did so once going to work with pain killers. With Covid there are more chances on complications too.

I thought you had Covid, which is definitely caused by another virus than a cold or flu. It made me more sick and tired for many weeks afterwards. Hope you do have your energy back and are fit to coop with the work that has to be done.

I believe the saying is very old, long before COVID, and it's more of a joke than anything else !
I agree with it in the sense that for a common "cold", medicine won't do much.
I had the flu only once and it was definitely not a common cold because of the very high fever. A fever above 39/102 for more than a few hours is my warning sign that something is serious as it almost never happens to me.

In this case, I would have thought we had a cold with the symptoms, but we both tested positive for COVID. The tests were outdated so possibly they were false positive, but there is an outbreak again in our region, so it's quite possible.

do you have particular recipe(s) in mind for them?

Since we finished last year's garlic a month ago I think we are just going to use them in place of garlic until we harvest it. I do have two very simple recipes I like, one is pasta with olive oil, lemon and garlic scapes cut thinly, heating the scapes in the lemon mixed with oil for three or four minutes at a low temperature and then letting the pasta cook a minute with it at the end. I think you can find variations easily on the internet. And the other is even more simple, to use it in an omelette like I would use chive very thinly minced.

Today was a horrible chicken day. Early morning I saw both Piou-piou and Nougat were very sick. I hoped and turned out to be right that Piou-piou had just eaten something toxic. She was better after a few hours with some starchy rice and yogurt and clay in water.
Nougat is dying. She must have kept inside part of the egg material the other day and have severe peritonitis. She stayed in the run all day. Unfortunately at the end of the afternoon, even though she was sheltered under their roost shelf, Gaston tread on her. This got her to vomit a huge amount of liquid, she had been gorging water all day. I picked her up and she vomited again and aspirated. For half an hour I thought she would not make it, she was choking and gurgling. Then it seemed she managed to breathe normally again. I put her to bed on Kara's nest in the coop as it's on the floor. I don't believe she will survive another day but at least my partner can say goodbye as he was working today. We did not expect this very quick turn for the worse as she had been in great shape just a month ago.

 

[RoyalChick]

I believe the saying is very old, long before COVID, and it's more of a joke than anything else !
I agree with it in the sense that for a common "cold", medicine won't do much.
I had the flu only once and it was definitely not a common cold because of the very high fever. A fever above 39/102 for more than a few hours is my warning sign that something is serious as it almost never happens to me.

In this case, I would have thought we had a cold with the symptoms, but we both tested positive for COVID. The tests were outdated so possibly they were false positive, but there is an outbreak again in our region, so it's quite possible.

Since we finished last year's garlic a month ago I think we are just going to use them in place of garlic until we harvest it. I do have two very simple recipes I like, one is pasta with olive oil, lemon and garlic scapes cut thinly, heating the scapes in the lemon mixed with oil for three or four minutes at a low temperature and then letting the pasta cook a minute with it at the end. I think you can find variations easily on the internet. And the other is even more simple, to use it in an omelette like I would use chive very thinly minced.

Today was a horrible chicken day. Early morning I saw both Piou-piou and Nougat were very sick. I hoped and turned out to be right that Piou-piou had just eaten something toxic. She was better after a few hours with some starchy rice and yogurt and clay in water.
Nougat is dying. She must have kept inside part of the egg material the other day and have severe peritonitis. She stayed in the run all day. Unfortunately at the end of the afternoon, even though she was sheltered under their roost shelf, Gaston tread on her. This got her to vomit a huge amount of liquid, she had been gorging water all day. I picked her up and she vomited again and aspirated. For half an hour I thought she would not make it, she was choking and gurgling. Then it seemed she managed to breathe normally again. I put her to bed on Kara's nest in the coop as it's on the floor. I don't believe she will survive another day but at least my partner can say goodbye as he was working today. We did not expect this very quick turn for the worse as she had been in great shape just a month ago.
View attachment 3870518

 

[Perris]

I hope her passing is gentle and swift, and not too hard on you both

 

[lightm]

I don't believe she will survive another day but at least my partner can say goodbye as he was working today. We did not expect this very quick turn for the worse as she had been in great shape just a month ago.

This is very sad to hear. I am sorry Manue.

Light hasn't been doing great, but not horrible. We are pretty sure she was internally laying. She is on antibiotics now. She would scratch but does not have a good appetite. We have a vet appointment this coming Wednesday. We may ask the vet to do a hormone implant.

 

[BDutch]

Sorry to hear such sad news ManueB and Lightm.