As chicks begin to grow their adult feathers (rather than the down they hatch with - which are feathers with no shaft), they enter the hilariously awkward puberty stage of chickenhood. And it makes for great photoshoots.
Anyone who has raised chickens from chicks is familiar with this phenomenon, and almost everyone takes advantage of it by capturing the awkwardness on camera.
What makes for such absurdity is the way that feathers grow in. They grown in encased in a sheath of keratin, the protein that makes up our fingernails and hair - and also makes up their beaks! As the keratin flakes off, the feather unwinds itself from around its own shaft. But the process takes a bit, so in the meantime the chicks just look like weird lizard creatures. See for yourself!
Oh yeah, we upgraded them to a bigger box - this one's cardboard - because they outgrew the other one. Featured: wood shavings (now that they know not to eat them), a roosting bar (practice for adulthood), watermelon rind treats, and chick grit - helps them break up food in their crop.
Some sad news: One of the chicks was not quite as active and alert as the others, and about a week after arriving, she started going downhill quickly. She wouldn't eat or drink, so I fed her baby bird formula with a syringe. She gained weight but never functioned on her own. We think she was blind, which was why she wasn't acting like the others. When she stopped holding her own tiny head up, I knew it was time to find a way to put her down humanely. Doing that with chicks is hard, because they are so tiny and so helpless, so I took to the internet to find some info. While I was setting up to do the
"vinegar and baking soda method," she passed on her own in the company of her siblings. I was sad she suffered up until the end, but glad to see it end regardless. Some chicks just never thrive, and we don't get to know why if we're not vets. It's sad and hard, but it's part of farming - and definitely part of urban farming.
Sweet, sweet Lady - you will be missed.
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