Brooding Chicks – Week 4

Wow, they are growing so quickly! It’s amazing how different they are looking, with their feathers coming in. Here’s a look at the two Fayoumis, before & after they feathered out.

Here they are, 3 weeks old:

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and here they are, 4 weeks old:

 

The chicks can all make it up on to the roosts now:

The chicks have started sleeping on the roost now, and we are turning out the lights overnight. It’s funny how they put themselves to bed. Around sundown, we will hear a bunch of squawking (mostly from Dorcas) while they all arrange themselves up on the roost. Then we’ll go in there to check on them, and they all look at us innocently…”what?”…then we turn out the light and shut the door. More squawking ensues then all of a sudden: quiet.

Fatty Mama, the Araucana, has taken on the role of rooster in this family of hens…she is the watchdog. Sometimes I get the feeling she’s calculating square roots, or something, because she just looks like a thinker.