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.
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Just two brothers
Nanners & Mashers are brothers who just want to share their birds with the world. Archives
April 2016
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