Chicks hatching now

[iona]

Last two are out. One sadly has something going on with its head, I didn't want to poke and prod it too much but suspect its skull might not have formed properly. Other one is tiny and still looked a bit undercooked when it finally made an appearance, but I think it'll do ok. The bigger ones would just trample it right now and being alone in an incubator stresses them out, so I'll do what I did with another early-looking one yesterday and wrap it up in a dishcloth burrito to keep warm in the neck of my t-shirt.

Just realised I didn't post this video of one hatching from yesterday.

 

[iona]

Idk why youtube insists on uploading stuff like that when it automatically plays in landscape on my phone

 

[Saul Goodman]

Idk why youtube insists on uploading stuff like that when it automatically plays in landscape on my phone

It looks like it was filmed vertically. Is auto rotation turned on on your phone?

 

[iona]

It looks like it was filmed vertically. Is auto rotation turned on on your phone?

No but my phone is shonky and sometimes decides to autorotate anyway which means I then have to switch autorotation on to get it back to normal

 

[iona]

[Alt text: chicks looking much more alert at two days old, walking around and eating and drinking]

They're still under heat but some of the bigger ones decided it would be more efficient to take a short nap in a pile next to the feeder this morning.

Going to cut a small piece of turf today or tomorrow to bring in, so they can have their first taste of "outside"

 

[iona]

Grass was terrifying for about 60 seconds last night and then quickly became the bestest thing ever. One of them found a beetle and instinctively knew what to do, then panicked when it kept moving for a bit after being pecked in half





This is preparing them for outdoors as well as providing enrichment while they're inside. I want them to start building up immunity to all the microorganisms they'll be exposed to, and to be active foragers rather than just sitting on their fat backsides waiting for the next food delivery. The food they get now is digestible as it is but they need grit in their gizzards to be able to break down other things like the grass and clover here, so I'd already been sprinkling a little bit of gritty dirt on top of their food before giving them this.

 

[weltweit]

They are sort of nugget sized.

I always wondered which part of a chicken was a nugget! Now I know

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Have you named them yet iona?

 

[iona]

Have you named them yet iona?

There are several Fatty McNuggets now because I can't tell them apart. The rest are named Dickhead, Fucksake and Stopit.

 

[Saul Goodman]

There are several Fatty McNuggets now because I can't tell them apart. The rest are named Dickhead, Fucksake and Stopit.

It's like having tasty cats

 

[polly]

Oh my god they're so cute Are you really going to be able to kill them?

 

[iona]

Oh my god they're so cute Are you really going to be able to kill them?

They'll become less cute very quickly! They already wake up looking like sweet little bundles of floof and half an hour later they're wearing their breakfast and kicking poopy dustbath around my house

 

[iona]

Fatty McNugget is five weeks old today