You need to know how to take care of chickens before you buy them. Just like any other animal, they can get sick and they have their own needs.
When chickens get sick, they need medication. Just like us, different illnesses require different medications. Sometimes, chickens get worms. Worms are a kind of parasite. A parasite is a living thing that lives by taking away from another living thing's body. Worms usually live in the digestive system. To get rid of worms, you need de-wormer. This paralyzes the worms so the chickens can poop them out. Outside of the chicken's body, the parasites die very quickly because the environment does not suit their needs. Another two kinds of parasite they can get are lice and mites. Humans get lice, too. But mites prefer birds. To get rid of these, chickens take what is called a 'dirt bath' or a 'dust bath'. They roll around in sand, dirt, or diatomaceous earth. Diatomaceous earth is a dust that's made from the shells of teeny tiny crustaceans. This stuff damages the mites' and lice's exoskeletons. They end up dying. Chickens, just like us, can get colds. They sneeze and wheeze because of bacteria in their respiratory system. To get rid of the cold, you need to separate the sick bird from the flock and feed it nutrient-rich food and give it medicine. You can mix most medicines in their water or get special feed with medicine in it. Whenever you get a new chicken, you can't just put it in your flock. You have to separate them for about a month to make sure they don't bring in new illnesses. Molting is when birds lose their feathers. This usually happens during the late Fall or early Winter. It does not mean that they're sick or dying. It just means that they're getting rid of old feathers and letting new ones grow in. During this time, they need extra protein. As we said before, soldier flies are great sources of protein. So are chicken eggs, which you can cook and feed back to them. Chickens have special needs because they live outside. During the Winter, they can get frostbite on any part of their body without feathers. The colder the weather, the worse it can get. Chickens that live in places with really cold winters need to stay warm. Chickens with a lot of feathers (and feathered feet) tend to do better in colder places. If it rains, chickens need a shelter. They can get cold if they stay out in the rain. It's a myth that chickens and turkeys will drown if they look up during the rain. However, they can still get very cold. Hens need a place to lay their eggs. They want some sort of bedding in it because it won't damage the eggs. They want a safe place to lay their eggs. It might be in a crazy place like on a tractor seat or under a chair, or maybe in a box. But, they will only lay in a place they feel is safe. These are some of the things you will need to know to take care of your cluckers. There will be more pictures of babies and chickens soon, we promise!
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Our mom says that chickens are "opportunistic, omnivorous scavengers." This means that they'll eat just about anything they come across: bugs, leaves, mice, grass, other birds, snakes, fruits, vegetables, etc.
Let's name some things that they love to eat! Ours love bananas, cooked rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, chicken (yes, they eat their own kind!), broccoli, carrots, celery, and chili! Now, let's name some things they don't like. Onions (they're poisonous to chickens), bell pepper, oranges, lemons, and limes. We likes to feed our chickens scraps from dinner (if there are any, because Nanners is a bit of a pig). One of their favorite treats are soldier flies! They are pretty much pure protein! They are wild insects that lay their eggs in grains. Grains make up most of what's in chicken feed. When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat just about anything, except bones. At stores, there are treats sold called 'meal worms'. These are dried larvae that birds love! When we feed our chickens, the chickens go crazy! They will grab pieces of food and run, like big babies. They think that if they don't run, they will lose their food to another chicken. Babies do this, sometimes, when they want to play. They tell others they have food, but sometimes just have some bedding or something else. Then, everybody chases that chick. They instinctively know what is poisonous when they hatch. When the chickens roam the yard, they avoid everything that is poisonous to them and eat everything else. Although they won't eat anything poisonous, they will, sometimes, eat things that still harm them, such as broken glass. When a chicken eats something, it first goes into their crop. Here, it is held until it gets digested. From the crop, food moves to the gizzard. This is their version of a stomach. The gizzard is an organ inside a bird that grinds up food using small stones. They think that glass is a rock that is just shiny (and they like shiny things!). So, they eat the glass to get some new "rocks" in their gizzard. Glass is a human thing, so most animals don't understand it, nor realize how dangerous it can be. So, always be sure to have an adult clean up any broken glass to prevent animals from getting hurt. Quail and chickens are not related. They have different personalities, colors, sizes, and sounds. The quail we have are Coturnix quail. This is a Golden Coturnix hen. Hens and roosters look very much alike. As you can see, Coturnix quail are small. This may look like a baby, but it's actually full grown. This is a Golden Coturnix rooster. Roosters have darker heads and beaks. You can usually tell what gender a baby is after a day or so because of the coloration of the beak. This is the head of a Brown Coturnix rooster. Unlike the chickens, they do not have combs or waddles. They don't have earlobes like chickens, but they can still hear. They are small, but they can run very fast. This is a White Coturnix quail. Sometimes they are called Texas A&M quail because they were created there. The other quail have all dark meat, but the White Coturnix was created to be all white meat. In the white ones, you can't tell the gender by looking at them. This is the back of a white coturnix quail. It's not as white as usual because it had a dirt bath. A dirt bath is when birds fluff and roll around in dirt. This helps with pests like lice and mites. On quail, the roosters don't have long tail feathers like chicken roosters. This means you can't tell the gender by their tails. **This quail was not hurt by being held like this. It only hurts them if you hold them like this too long or if you are rough with them. It helps to calm them down when you hold them like this, which let us get pictures. As soon as it was put down, it went back to quail activities.** This is the belly and bottom of the wings of a white coturnix quail. Quail have flight feathers (the long ones on the bottom of their wings) like chickens. They're not very good at flying, but they can use these feathers to get away from predators. What happens when you mix a brown coturnix with a white coturnix? You get a Tuxedo Coturnix! It's difficult to tell the difference between the hens and rooster of tuxedo coturnix. Tuxedo quail usually have white meat on their breast, like the white quail, and dark meat everywhere else, like the brown quail. This is not the end of quail talk. We'll cover them again soon!
On the tip of this baby's beak, you see a little white spot. This is called the 'egg tooth'. The egg tooth is what the babies use to get out of the egg. They press it against the shell from the inside to crack it and to rip through the membrane. They usually lose it after just a few days. It doesn't cause the baby any pain or discomfort when it falls off. I'm sure you already know what the beak is. Did you know they have nostrils like us? Well, not exactly like us. Their nostrils are on their beaks! The nostrils looks like bumps on the top of the beak. The open part of the nostril is slit open. This is Spock's face. Here, we can see his nostril, eye, and a couple other parts. When chicks are young, their eyes are different colors. But, when they grow up, most have eyes like Spock. Chicken's eyes are on the sides of their heads, so they can't really see directly in front of them. This is why they turn their heads to look at things. Their eyes are able to focus on two different things at once. They use one eye to look at things up close; the other eye is used to look further away. The purpose of this is to see if there is any danger and to search for food at the same time. Do you see the poof of feathers behind-under the eye? This is their ear. They don't have ears like us. Instead, they have holes in their heads without external parts. They have feathers over their ear holes to protect their ears from dirt and wind. Under the ear is a loose piece of skin called an 'earlobe'. In hens, the color of the earlobes usually helps farmers tell what color their eggs will be. Red earlobes means brown eggs. Yellowish or white earlobes means white eggs. On some chickens, you can't see their earlobes because of head feathers. This is a fluffy baby butt! It hasn't grown tail feathers yet. This just means that it's still a little baby and is covered in down feathers. This baby is starting to grow tail feathers. It is still covered in down feathers, but you can see buds of tail feathers growing in. This baby is still growing its tail feathers. Its body is still covered in down, but outer feathers are beginning to grow. Eventually, feathers will grow in all over its body in the same sort of way as the tail. We didn't need more chickens, but mommy and daddy decided to bring home some more baby cluckers. This is a Buff Orpington chick. They have a really sweet temperament. They grow up to be pretty, big, and sweet. These are usually very quiet and make good pets. They like being held and being around people. Buff Brahmas are like buff orpingtons. They have similar personalities. Brahmas only come in three colors--light, dark, and buff. Bet you didn't notice the fluffy feet! All Brahmas have feathers on their legs and feet. These feathered feet keep them warmer during the winter. Because these chickens are so fluffy, they do best in cold and dry climates. Some people think that the way the chick's legs are indicates what gender they are. Buff Orpingtons grow up to be kind of big but their personality doesn't change much. They are pretty much always sweet. This baby thought Nanner's hand made a good bed! Brahmas get as big or bigger than orpingtons when they're full grown. This one was trying not to fall asleep in Masher's hand. Orpingtons may look angry from the front, but they're really not. Their eyes work independently, one focusing farther away than the other. This is common in prey animals since they have to watch for predators. Brahmas have slightly different shaped brows that are more walnut-shaped. This baby has what's called a 'scissor beak'. See how the beak is not aligned? All animals have jaw muscles, but the scissor beak is what happens when one side of muscles doesn't grow as much as the other so it pulls the jaw off to one side. This usually doesn't effect the way they eat, unless it's really far to the side. Then, it can be kind of 'fixed' by trimming part of the beak off. Here are the two side-by-side. These two different breeds now think that they're siblings. They don't remember a time when they didn't have one another. And, they will always be together here at The Den of Cluck.
Goodnight babies! |
Just two brothers
Nanners & Mashers are brothers who just want to share their birds with the world. Archives
April 2016
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