With their wide field of vision, mother hens can see most anything that might threaten their chicks. The chicks are very aware they have someone looking out for them. As long as their mother is nearby, they are relaxed and run about freely. If they can’t see or hear her, they panic and chirp frantically until she shows up.
Category: Raising Chicks
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Attentive Mother
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Off to Bed
The hen above has four chicks. Two of them are completely hidden underneath her warm feathers. You can just make out the gray and white tail feathers of a third chick to the left of the one chick who isn’t quite ready to snuggle underneath her mother.
The seven chicks below are too big to snuggle under their mother anymore. She’s on the roost behind them, making sure they are safe on their roost. From late afternoon onward, the entire flock comes home to roost. The oldest ones are the first to bed. The mothers and chicks are next. The last to come in for the night are the young juveniles. Not much different than many people.
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Busy Mothers
Summer is a busy season for mother hens. Every week, there are new hens sitting on eggs. Those with chicks are taking their chicks out into the brush to find good hunting grounds. Each week they take them further and further.
The chicks below are a five weeks old. They are already sleeping on the roost at night next to their mother. A few more weeks and they will probably be on their own. Until then, they spend twenty-four hours a day by her side, learning new things every day.
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Tiger Mom
For baby chicks, their mother is their teacher. They watch her every move and mimic what she does. In the first photo, look how intensely the chicks study her every move. If she pecks at something, so will they. If she flees from something, so will they. If they see her drinking, so will they.
As she teaches them life’s lessons, she watches out for them like a hawk. Some hens are more protective than others. You see the same thing with human parents. This hen, 紫雲姫 – Princess Purple Cloud, is a tiger mom. She keeps all the other chickens a safe distance away, and makes sure her chicks are always nearby. When she was incubating her eggs, if I got my hand or arm too close, she gladly drew blood. She is not a hen you want to mess with.
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Mom on the Move
Every mother hen is different. This one is a mover and a shaker. Some mothers don’t take their chicks out of the nursery until they are a week old. This one has them running around outdoors the day after they hatched.
When I see day old chicks exploring the great outdoors, running through grass, scratching the dirt, I chuckle at the environment enrichment efforts of large scale poultry farms. These efforts include adding string bunches for chickens to play with and sand boxes to use.
These day old chicks experience more enrichment in their first day of life than do most chickens do during their whole life, and they get a mother to boot.
