every chick deservers a mother
The chickens born this spring are now young adults. Some are even laying eggs. Each year, the flock takes on a new look. Do the single color ones envy the ones with splendid patterns? Or do the chickens of many colors wish they were all one color? And what will Miasa’s chickens look like as they grow? In a few months I’ll know.
Mi-asa’s 美朝 chicks hatched over the weekend. And among the six chicks which hatched is one very special chick.
The chick is Hazel’s, a turken chicken. Turkens have no neck feathers and cut quite the figure when they pose. As little chicks, they are among the cutest chicks there are. The question is, who is the father? If it is Sven, the Swedish flower chicken, the chick may grow up to be a turken with brilliant feathers.
On Japanese news today, the weather reporter pointed out that in the fall, mountains are said to get all dressed up, referring to the forests on the mountains turning brilliant with fall colors. In the winter they are said to go to sleep, when they are covered with snow.
On the fourth day of her chicks hatching, Peach leads them out into the wild blue yonder, at least it must feel like that to the tiny chicks. They’ve traveled 125 feet from their nest. For a chick of just a few inches, it’s a long, long way. In human terms, that is like a half mile, quite a feat for a four day old chick.
The magic number is eight. Peach brought her chicks out into the chicken yard today. She has eight, fluffy, healthy, perky, excited chicks. The chicks started hatching on the 27th. Of the ten eggs she was sitting on, nine hatched. One of the eggs was infertile and did not develop. One chick did not make it.
Even though it is a cool time of the year, she will keep them nice and warm.
She senses danger and fluffs up like a turkey. Hens can make themselves appear twice as large by spreading their feathers.
Peach and her new chicks are doing fine. How many does she have? At least seven, maybe more. They started hatching yesterday, and she’s keeping them in the nest today. Another day, and they will be itching to explore.
Ruby’s daughter won’t leave her mother. She’s more than two months old now, and her mother is back to laying eggs. Her daughter follows her everywhere, even waiting patiently when Ruby is sitting on a nest to lay an egg.
New life! Chicks are hatching today. No matter how many times I see new chicks peaking out from under their mother’s feathers for the first time, it is pure joy.
And in about two weeks, if all goes well, a clutch of tiny chicks will be peaking out from under this hen.
Chickens spend much of their day hunting. I was turning and adding leaves to a compost pile. Lucky spotted me working and came running, her chicks in tow. She knows that when I’m turning a compost pile, the hunting will be easy.
In the short clip below, you can see Lucky plucking earthworms out of the ground and dropping them for her chicks to devour. You can also hear the staccato clucking sound mother hens make when they’ve found something good to eat. The louder the sound, the more delicious the food. Watch how excited Lucky gets when she finds a big worm. Chicks seem to know from birth what this sound means.
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How is the meaning of a sound transferred via instinct? If we could figure this out, maybe we could change our DNA so that we could encode hundreds of languages so that children would be born knowing English, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Swahili, any language you could imagine. Entire encyclopedias inscribed in our genetic code so that as our brains develop all this knowledge would be at the tip of our tongues.
Lucky spotted me scooping duckweed out of the pond for the chickens. She’s come running to give her chicks a treat. All the chickens go nuts for fresh duckweed. Not only do they like the fresh green duckweed, they scratch through it to pick out all the bugs that live in the duckweed.
I never tire watching the interaction between the chicks and their mother. All day long, the chicks are watching every move she makes. All day long, they are at her feet or scurrying close to her. When she finds something good to eat, their beaks are immediately next to hers. When she rests, they rest. Her chicks are now two weeks old.
Sadly, on Saturday she lost one of her five chicks. I was in the kitchen looking out and saw her chase a Coopers hawk. I ran out to check on her. She was safe and so were four of her chicks. One was missing.
Giving chicks as much freedom and space as I do has its consequences. It’s possible to protect them from land predators with adequate fencing, but it’s a challenge to keep them safe from hawks and eagles. The dogs do a pretty good job, chasing the bigger raptors away. It’s the smaller raptors that manage to sneak in and snatch the chicks. Maybe a fleet of heat seeking drones could detect hawks and eagles and automatically chase them away, or at least alert us ground animals to their presence.
On a rainy day, the best place to be is indoors, looking outside from underneath a mother’s warm feathers.
Below, it’s time for a short, afternoon nap. You’d never guess Lucky has her five chicks tucked underneath her.
Out they come, one at a time.
Nap time is over, and it’s back to exploring the world, having fun, and growing up.
Only a mother can provide the warmth and security a little chick craves. I was aware that hens have a variety of calls to instruct their chicks. There is the sound they make when they have found food. Another for danger. And yet another call which means, “get your butt over here now!”
Today we learned they have another sound which means, “hide, stay quiet, and don’t move until I come.” While she was with her chicks on the open grass, a raven came flying in. Lucky sent the chicks scurrying under a bush, while she went running in another direction to distract the raven. A raven will easily eat a small chick. She waited until the Raven was gone before she went back to fetch her chicks.
A favorite spot for chicks is right in front of their mother, half covered by her feathers. Sitting snugly, they can peer out and watch the whole world go by.
