The Chick Project
Week 2 (May 25-31)
Sadly, the smallest, weakest chick died Sunday night. It had been listless and stopped eating for several days. The other chicks are thriving, however. They have more than doubled in size since the week before, and their plummage is coming in nicely. The light brown chicks are darkening and even some of the paler chicks show signs of reddish brown feathers growing in. The darkest chick has really beautiful black and brown feathers.
We let them into the yard on Monday, sort of a Memorial Day outing. The entire cage was placed on the lawn, near the house. I opened up the top and let them think about coming out. Three of them managed the exodus with only minimal help. After about half an hour, I got fed up with waiting and 'encouraged' the others to come out. They spent the next few hours scrounging around in some shrubbery and picking at the grass. One of the cats who wandered too close got a light peck (more of a 'gee that looks tasty' peck than anything else) on the face at which point the cat ran to the other side of the house.
The chicks stayed together for the most part. At one point, I carried one of the larger pale chicks about eight feet away and put it in a patch of sunlight. It relaxed its wings and hunkered down for a moment, but then it realized it was alone and ran back to the rest of the flock. The lightest brown one has a habit of cheeping loudly and steadily when it is upset. We haven't been able to figure out what upsets it; seeing an unfamiliar person or cat perhaps, or suddenly finding itself alone are my assumptions.
Getting them to come within reach for capture was simple. I sprinkled some feed around in the cage and they all came running.
Pictures of the chicks outside are pending the film getting developed. As I was supervising them, I couldn't run inside for my webcam.
Monday, May 28 - day 4. More pictures in the bathroom.
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Click here to download a wav file of their chirping. (4.73 sec, 815k)
Click here for the same file as an mp3. (75k)
Click here for the long mp3. (40 sec, 626K).
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