Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[Molpet]

we nursed them issue after issue we grew very attached to them and they to us.

This is so true

 

[ManueB]

It's just like you said ~ sweet little Piou-Piou was tiny even for a bantam plus her shorter legs made her even smaller. We found in the past that our most loved hens were because they had health issues & because we nursed them issue after issue we grew very attached to them and they to us.

Since keeping chickens I often think of the mushy peas children's book, "the little prince". Not sure how known it is outside France, here it was unavoidable for every child of my generation and that of my parents (yours).
The ending is spot on :
“And he went back to meet the fox.
“Goodbye,” he said.
“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“It is the time I have wasted for my rose–” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…”
“I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
(Saint-Exupéry).

I hope so too! I certainly coped better with losing Bernadette-the- brave than I expected and than I did with some of the others.
Partly I think though it was because she had what I will weirdly describe as 'a good death'. Far too young of course, but in her sleep and after a fine dinner.
Who could ask for more!
I also feel in her case I really could not have done anything different. So I miss her companionship and she was an unusual and remarkable hen in many ways which I enjoyed. But I am at peace with the memories.

Bernadette would be proud of you. I'm sure she would not have approved of any tears. She would probably have pecked your hand off to let you know .
Yes, some deaths do not feel completely wrong.
I know it's weird, but when a chicken has already been through some miraculous recovery (as was twice the case for Bernie, with her leg and then being an only survivor) for me it's in a way like death is just catching up the time that has been freely gifted.
************
The gorgeous weather is over and we're back to grey, damp and cold for a few days. I'll be short but I wanted to post two things.
Chipie had a seizure this morning. It's the first since I began supplementing her every morning a year ago. It did not manifest like wry neck as it used to : she was perched on a roost and she started flapping her wings on and on, and she couldn't stop. I took her in my arms and she was still flapping - I admit I though this was maybe death thrash. Then she stopped and breathed loudly and painfully for about a minute. She was able to move after a few minutes, and after about an hour, she was almost back to herself, just looking tired.
She's an old lady with a bad temper - my partner calls her the queen .
The second thing is more positive -Alba has really taken a shift toward getting better. I think she will likely recover. Hopefully she is well enough on wednesday to go see the vet with Laure.

Two roosters .

I love that the new window door allows us to watch the chickens from the entrance!

Chipie doing better this morning.

Fence fighting, again. Now it's Annette who's the cause of the fights .

 

[RoyalChick]

Since keeping chickens I often think of the mushy peas children's book, "the little prince". Not sure how known it is outside France, here it was unavoidable for every child of my generation and that of my parents (yours).
The ending is spot on :
“And he went back to meet the fox.
“Goodbye,” he said.
“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“It is the time I have wasted for my rose–” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…”
“I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
(Saint-Exupéry).

Bernadette would be proud of you. I'm sure she would not have approved of any tears. She would probably have pecked your hand off to let you know .
Yes, some deaths do not feel completely wrong.
I know it's weird, but when a chicken has already been through some miraculous recovery (as was twice the case for Bernie, with her leg and then being an only survivor) for me it's in a way like death is just catching up the time that has been freely gifted.
************
The gorgeous weather is over and we're back to grey, damp and cold for a few days. I'll be short but I wanted to post two things.
Chipie had a seizure this morning. It's the first since I began supplementing her every morning a year ago. It did not manifest like wry neck as it used to : she was perched on a roost and she started flapping her wings on and on, and she couldn't stop. I took her in my arms and she was still flapping - I admit I though this was maybe death thrash. Then she stopped and breathed loudly and painfully for about a minute. She was able to move after a few minutes, and after about an hour, she was almost back to herself, just looking tired.
She's an old lady with a bad temper - my partner calls her the queen .
The second thing is more positive -Alba has really taken a shift toward getting better. I think she will likely recover. Hopefully she is well enough on wednesday to go see the vet with Laure.

Two roosters .
View attachment 4045218
I love that the new window door allows us to watch the chickens from the entrance!
View attachment 4045219View attachment 4045232
Chipie doing better this morning.
View attachment 4045264
Fence fighting, again. Now it's Annette who's the cause of the fights .
View attachment 4045267

Thank you for the kind words on Bernie and the reminder of The Little Prince.
So wise.
I still have my childhood copy. Maybe I will pull it out and read it again.

 

[Sylvester017]

The gorgeous weather is over and we're back to grey, damp and cold for a few days. I'll be short but I wanted to post two things.
Chipie had a seizure this morning. It's the first since I began supplementing her every morning a year ago. It did not manifest like wry neck as it used to : she was perched on a roost and she started flapping her wings on and on, and she couldn't stop. I took her in my arms and she was still flapping - I admit I though this was maybe death thrash. Then she stopped and breathed loudly and painfully for about a minute. She was able to move after a few minutes, and after about an hour, she was almost back to herself, just looking tired.
She's an old lady with a bad temper - my partner calls her the queen .
The second thing is more positive -Alba has really taken a shift toward getting better. I think she will likely recover. Hopefully she is well enough on wednesday to go see the vet with Laure.

I love that the new window door allows us to watch the chickens from the entrance!
View attachment 4045219
Chipie doing better this morning.
View attachment 4045264

I didn't know Chipie had a past health issue. These birdies love to worry us!

Window sliding doors are best for entertainment ~ better than TV! One of our favorite home improvements....

 

[BDutch]

Our view from the diner table. Like to throw some old bread or put an almost empty yoghurt package out there to watch the chickens from the inside when its could out there.

A stranger cat always seems to know and takes over after the chickens have their pecks of yoghurt.

Glad Chipie is back to nornal. It must have been a scary experience for the both of you.

I do know about the existence of Le Petit Prince. Even a school in the next village was named after the book. Thought I should loan and read it, when my children where young, and then forgot to loan it when I was at the library. I thought it was a childrens book. It’s the first time I hear about it’s beauty. Maybe next time.

Edited: One stange cat is enough.

 

[lightm]

Little Prince got insanely popular in China when I was in middle school or high school. You'd be uncool if you haven't read it then.. It remains to be popular.

I'm so glad that Alba is on the mend. Tough chicken!

Mr Bug in his full glory, compared to snow.

 

[ManueB]

Little Prince got insanely popular in China when I was in middle school or high school. You'd be uncool if you haven't read it then.. It remains to be popular.

Whow, that's incredible! I never imagined chinese pre- teens would read that !
I didn't like it so much as a child. It was at my grandma Granny's place, and she loved it and we read it together a few times, but I wasn't really touched by the points the book made. I think it adresses adults concerns, and I would even say older adults !

Mr Bug in his full glory, compared to snow.
View attachment 4045798View attachment 4045799

I love him ! With or without snow !

Big windows are nice, yes. This old house only has very small ones, as was the use here at the beginning of the 20th century. It helped to keep warmth in and to keep the house cool in summer, but it means the house is very dark inside. One of our dream project, if we can stay here and find the right people to help us, is to build a light wood terrace / balcony above the chicken's run and open a big door window from the kitchen into it.

I didn't know Chipie had a past health issue. These birdies love to worry us!

Chipie has always been a healthy hen, albeit a very nervous one. Last year more or less at this time, she had a few of those seizures that were extremely impressive although they lasted only a minute. After doing some reading, there were many possible causes but the easiest to treat was a nutritional deficiency. Because at the time she was badly bullied in the flock, it seemed possible. I ordered a B vitamin complex. As the shipping delay was very long, I began supplementing her every morning with a tiny bowl of food rich in B, E and selenium : whole rice, almonds, walnuts, scrambled egg, wheat germ and nutritional yeast. In a few days the seizures stopped and she never had any again, until now.
She is still getting her morning extras but it's obviously not doing the job anymore. She had a seizure again yesterday morning, this morning and this evening just before roosting. Two were stargazing and running in circles with a paralysed wing ; two were flapping wings endlessly.
I don't have the B complex anymore and I'm wondering if it's worth ordering some. I'm totally puzzled : I was so sure her initial problem was nutritional deficiency when she had reacted so well to getting some supplements, but now she eats normally a bit of everything and the problem starts again.
Many of the other possibilities point to serious viral issues like Marek's or Newcastle. It doesn't seem likely to me that symptoms would have just disappeared for a whole year.
Exposure to toxins or ingesting metal is also a cause ; but it also seems unlikely that only Chipie would twice be concerned, unless she has a specific sensitivity and would be affected by something that the other chickens bigger bodies can absorb with no issue.


In better news, Laure laid a perfect egg yesterday! I'm going to postpone the appointment to the vet. That way I'll have more time to find out if her system is just slow to get back on track or if she really does need the implant. The vet is away next week so it will be the week after.

Little Chipie yesterday once she recovered from her fit.

Coming back from running this morning I saw Blanchon (Petit Blanc). The picture doesn't do him justice, he's grown into a really beautiful rooster.

Chipie is still one of Gaston's favourite hen. Hard to imagine she was his broody mama and he was terrified of her for his first months .

Kara

 

[ManueB]

It's been drizzling the last three days with temperatures staying between 3 and 5 (37 to 41). That's more like spring weather for us, and not very pleasant, although it's good that the soil gets damp.
The chickens have been having shorter days, going to bed early. Today they were all in bed at four and it started raining ten minutes after, so I supposed their inner integrated weather station told them to go roost while they were still dry.

Here is a recap of their health.
- Gaston : foot keeps looking worse but still no limp. Neck and butt blood feathers are totally pecked off by Lilly and Kara. I bought a gel that's supposed to be both calming and repellent, haven't applied it yet, I'm not very hopeful.
- Léa : laid her first (ridiculously tiny) egg in three weeks yesterday. Doing good !
- Merle : Doing good.
- Chipie : no seizures for the last three days , although I may just not have seen them.
- Théo : doing good except his legs still look rough where feathers are ingrown. Still moulting.
- Lilly : laid a soft egg yesterday and looking often tired.
- Kara : doing quite good, but tired at times.
- Alba : seems to be doing better. Still tired and underweight. No signs of laying. Keeps itching herself even though she has no lice anymore.
- Nieva : doing good but feathers look awful, she hasn't moulted.
-Melisse and Annette are both doing good. Since back to laying they are laying less than last year, two to three eggs a week.
- Lulu is doing good but looks awful from not having moulted. She is continuously laying flat eggs now (eggs that are in contact with the next in the oviduct).
- Laure hasn't laid an egg since the last perfect one, so we're still waiting a bit anxiously to see how she does. I got an appointment to the vet for the 26.

Grey pictures looking bleak in between rain.

 

[ManueB]

We are all happy that the sun is making it's come back, even if it means temperatures below freezing in the morning. Although there was a continuous drizzle we only had 15 ml water in all, so just grey damp useless weather, in my view !

Still no egg from Laure ...so still waiting to see how it will turn out for her.
After getting a lot better, Alba seems to be a bit more tired, and she is loosing a ton of feathers, like she was moulting, but that does not seem possible since she just finished in january. I'm not so optimistic about her as a few days ago.
I put the gel I bought on Gaston's neck yesterday night. It didn't seem to bother him, but the hens are pecking at him again today, so obviously it may sooth him but it's not going to deter them.
Lilly laid a strange egg yesterday, whole but with a brittle long oval shell. Better that I suppose, than some soft shell egg that doesn't all come out . There's one month of egg withdrawal after the end of the antibiotics so I put it in a sealed bag in the garbage. Don't want any wild animal or my cat eating it by throwing it out on the ground, but I'm not sure there is any proper way to discard an egg that's potentially contaminated with antibiotics.

I found round worms in the coop this morning, possibly from either Alba, Léa, or Nieva. Léa has always been the hen most prone to get them these last two years, so my bet is on her. Of those three only Alba has a serious health issue at this time so she's the one for whom it would potentially be an urgent problem. I'll go peek again in the coop when the night has fallen, those three hens move around so much on the roost that I'm not sure who slept where.
Some chickens have fixed places : Laure and Kara now sleep on Piou-piou's roost; Théo and Merle in the back left of the coop, Gaston at the far right, Chipie in her nest. The other hens fight every night to make themselves a bed !

I took way too many pictures yesterday and today, but the phone's signal is weak so I'll just upload what I can.

Lulu is always the first one up and never wants to go to roost. She is hyperactive, and a total bully with Mélisse and Chipie.

Lilly saw a raptor !

Two big black ladies - Kara and Lilly.

Mélisse always wants to jump on the table in case I've left some crumbs .

I haven't seen more seizures from Chipie. She is looking tired and frail but that has been the case every winter. She does not deal well with the cold. Gaston thinks she's the nicest valentine of them all !

Kara.

 

[lightm]

Light had her implant on June 25th of 2024.

Her comb started to get bigger a week ago.

Today she tried very hard to lay. No egg though.

My husband got all stressed out already, although she is acting normal. Vet appointment in a week.