Today was the first time I saw the little prairie chicks in the brood boxes. We have been feeding them for almost half a week and went out this morning to weigh and count all of them. We first caught the hen- weighed and kept her in a wooden box. We then stuck our head in the brood box and rounded up all of the little chicks. They were very fast and excellent hiders. We counted and measured the baby chicks to see how they were doing on our insect diet. After weighing them we moved and cleaned their brood boxes, and fed them more collected insects and crickets. The baby chicks peeped quietly throughout this entire process. They were unbelievably cute and adorable. I could've stayed and watched them eat insects all day.
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| weighing momma hen |
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| baby chicks! in a pillowcase |
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| eggs |
the chicks are so cute! do they feed on insects only? is there water for them around? it looks so dry there.
ReplyDeleteI know! They're adorable. Yes, chicks primarily eat insects. They don't convert to a vegetation diet until they become adults. They get most of their water from the grasshoppers and other insects they eat. However, it has been MONTHS since it last rained here on the prairie. Everything is extremely dry and hot which could be why insects numbers are really low, some hens are choosing not to lay eggs or nest and prairie chick mortality is kinda high. :(
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