Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

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Sara
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Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by Sara »

Sooo, where to start {rofwl}

I will start at the begining i think, A few years ago now.... I will put my memory into gear and hopefully bore you all over the coming months with my odd ramblings.

I started out on my Birthday 4 years ago with 4 Red hens bought from my local market, 2 babies and 2 laying hens.... Betty and Wilma and Titch and Pippy. They moved into a small but functional little run and shed at the bottom of the garden of the bungalow.
They were soon joined by Ted and Poppy a couple of Silver spangled Hamburg bantams hatched by my nieghbour Bernard.

We moved to the house where we live now, And thanks to Al and his diy master skills, Chateau Al was built in a week and ready to accomadate the gang. Sadly I lost Wilma followed by Betty and then Titch, I also lost my lovely lovely boy Ted earlier in the year...

2012
I acquired 4 new bantam hens in late summer, They still dont have names as they do all look the same... A fitting name for each of them will come along at some point. These little bantams belonged to my nieghbour Bernard... They were quite good at escaping from his garden onto the road, and so one morning i went out to let out my girls to find 4 extra chooks in the shed.... Bernard had bought them round and put them to bed the night before so that they could live safely without escaping onto the road.

3 weeks ago i was offered my choice of Cockeral and a hen from an english man a few villages away.... I came home very happy indeed with Didi a huge orpington cockeral of 3 years old and Tetra a beautiful Rhode island red hen who is 7months old. Didi gave me the best christmas pressie this year by singing for the first time since arriving here on Christmas morning, the one thing i really love about having my chooks is hearing them, especially the boys. Didi is named after my lovely nieghbour who sadly died this year, He would phone every day to complain if he had not heard my Cockeral, ted singing.... So in memory of Didi the Beautiful Cockeral found his name {hug}
The gang seem happy in thier little world, Im so very lucky that from every window of the house i can see them, I love that if they hear the kitchen door open they all come running at it led always by Pippy the last remaining of my original girls.

Its been an adventure having these little loves, from discovering the balck and white bantams sleeping on thier backs in the shed a few days after getting them ( i still dont know why) and rescuing Teds brother from another nieghbours swimming pool ( he was actually swimming in the pool like a duck, not much need for rescue other than the nieghbours wanting to use thier pool!) And not to mention being jumped on from all sides for treats... {rofwl}


I will try to remember to post some pics for you to have a look at..... )t'
[center]Happy to have shown Titchy Clucker a little corner of France[/center]


Sara XxX

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aishakali
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by aishakali »

Lovely run through, sounds idylic :-D
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by MissEllie »

How lovely to have had a neighbour who would complain when he didn't hear the cockerel, he sounds like a special man {hug}
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by jackian »

MissEllie wrote:How lovely to have had a neighbour who would complain when he didn't hear the cockerel, he sounds like a special man {hug}

Oh how i agree with Elli ..I would love one they are so stunnigly beautiful ,but living in a errace block ands a pocket handkerchief garden I think that is a no .
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by Annie »

I am actually wondering Sara what the differences are in keeping hens in the UK ,to keeping them in France ? It seems the French public have a better tolerance than the residents over here. Are you in a very rural location or village/small town ?
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by sandy »

Sara that sounds idyllic, interested to know the answers to Annies question
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by julieann »

I love the sound of a cockeral to it must be lovely hearing him. i had to rehome a silkie that turned out to be a boy because i live in a built up area {cry}
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by s33xpt »

Love the image of Ted's brother nipping to the neighbours for a quick dip in the pool {rofwl}
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by Sara »

Sorry, i didnt see your messages! :oops:

Keeping chickens here is quite a normal thing, even in towns. When I first moved here we lived in a town house in town, and our next door nieghbour kept chooks and a cockeral in his courtyard.... As far as i know there were never any complaints, not from us anyway.
We now live in a small village just outside of town (not that you could really call it a town by english standards, but there is a small supermarket) My nighbour directly behind me has hens, and the one behind him keeps geese ( i hear the geese a lot but never the hens) and there are other cockerals in the village but i dont hear them that much, i geuss because its just one of the normal everyday sounds it doesnt seem anything but normal.
Ive never had any complaints about my cockerals, Ted used to sing all day and evening, he would even be singing before going to bed.... And Didi has quite a loud voice but no one has ever said anything, to be honest people are a lot more laid back about things like animal noise here.
In a french village there is usually a couple of kennels with several hunting dogs, that live outside all year round (i hate this) and geese, chickens, and usually farmers with big machines that make lots of noise, its just accepted here as the norm. Just like coming across several men out for a stroll on any day of the week between september and february with a load of dogs and a shotgun slung over thier arm.... They are off hunting.... Ive even seen them in town with thier shotguns, its just a part of normal rural life here and no one really seems to bat an eyelid... Its the countryside as it should be. :-D


It is quite different here in that chooks really are classed as a farm animal. Its rare to see someone at the vets with a chicken and they dont cater so much for everyday treatments like red mites, wormer etc, I usually buy all of that over the internet.
But i can buy all sorts of chicken food in the supermarket next to the dog food. Keeping chickens for a lot of people is a means of putting food on the table... For me its just because i love chickens.

In a lot of ways, living here in the middle of inbred cousin territory is very much like living in england 20 years ago with the technology of today.

I will try to upload some pics of my lot today... )t'
[center]Happy to have shown Titchy Clucker a little corner of France[/center]


Sara XxX
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by sarabee »

sounds like my childhood, very idyllic
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Re: Residents of Chateau Al ~ Sara's Chooks

Post by aceface »

sara it sounds absolutley wonderful where you live ,how tolerant the french are of animals when i visited le touquet they even allowed dogs in the 5 star hotel we stayed in just not in the resturant but alot of the tourist restaurants did and there was a seperate seating area for people with dogs to eat ,england has lots to catch up on where pets are concerned regarding integration into the environment ,i dont have dogs or a cat now {cry} we even saw a lady with a cat in a handbag /house thing that was travelling with her ,she said it was better for the cat to be with her as she had ahad a bad experience with a boarding kennel and she stayed in the same hotel every year for 9 years as she could take the cat )t'
[center]HELPING THE LITTLE BROWN GIRLS OF THIS WORLD FIND FOREVER HOMES
Humble chicken maid to a happy little flock
Frankii Whippers leading the way with Dorey,Prila(aka Mrs Brown),Ann-a-Lou Greta, Delphine my adorable silkie,my twin girls Lana and Boudica (aka The Jedward Twins ) ,Augustine Eizabeth(aka Pippy), Rheima, Marnie and Fleur aka little miss chatterbox[/center]


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Isabella my darling top hen ,you stole my heart xx

Porscha my sweet little girl ,you left so suddenly xx

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