This is a 6 day old chick.
I received a nice message today from the new owner of a little 6 week old flock we re-homed on Christmas Eve. They have a brand new coop and are settling in well.
She did mention clipping their wings as they are eyeing off the fence posts. It is important to only ever clip ONE wing. The idea is to put them off balance by having unequal thrust. Clipping two wings just means they’ll flap harder and still be able to fly.
Next time we’re clipping a wing I’ll take some photos to share – but today I promised Simon.
Here he is, looking fabulous.
This is one of his feathers. Silver spangled chooks have all white feathers with a black tip. Yesterday the grass was cut from knee high to short so they are all a bit unsure of themselves today.
After spending a few minutes doing his high pitched call and getting no response from his harem, Simon spent about an hour ferrying pieces of leftover spaghetti meat to each of the hens.
He always looks after Henny-Penny first. She is one of my originals. She is 8 years old and lays almost every day.
He always looks after Henny-Penny first. She is one of my originals. She is 8 years old and lays almost every day.
Today we took the mother hen and 9 chicks on a mini summer holiday to Lakes Entrance. Not ideal or practical but we did, so there you are.
The chicks benefited from being handled by new people.
In a new environment they also learnt to freeze perfectly still if there was a noise or movement they were unfamiliar with such as a larger bird flying overhead.
They take the lead from their mother she makes her body hard and still; and they somehow know to follow by doing the same.
I’m not sure how this is done – there is not a noise she makes to alert them to danger.
Tomorrow I'll try to capture it on camera... and I'll be introducing the matriarch, Henny-Penny.
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