Meet the Chicks

The chicks are three and four days old now.  Mama hen sure manages them differently than we did with the chicks we've purchased to start, and maintain, our flock.  We have a brooder (a big box, basically, with wire sides) and used a heat lamp to regulate temperature and didn't let them out to mingle with the flock until they had their feathers.

Mama Hen kept the chicks in the nesting box for one day.  Then they moved to the floor of the hen house.  She wasted no time, teaching them how to scratch for food.  She took them over to the feeder, where they were able to eat from all the feed that falls on the floor there.

Then she took them over to the waterer I had hung low to the ground for them.  She flicked water onto the ground and onto their beaks until they figured out to drink by themselves.  I think they had that down by the end of day two.

Wednesday, she took the chicks outside where they careened around, never venturing far, and returning to her pronto when she clucked.

The roosters patrol at a safe distance when they are outside.  She swells her breast, beats her wings, and takes menacing steps towards any chicken (or human) that comes too close.

She's a very good mom.