Growing Chicks at the Learning Farm

Our Chicks are Growing Quickly!

by Sharon Gaughan, 

PCLF Education Program Director

Our chicks are two weeks old today (we received them on Monday, June 24th, but they hatched and were shipped to us on Sunday, June 23rd) – and they are growing amazingly quickly.  They have more than doubled in size already, and their wing and tail feathers are beginning to grow in.  They’re still very cute, but it won’t be long before they reach those “gawky teen-age weeks”!

The photos I’ve included in this blog post were taken on Saturday, just a day shy of their 2-week birthday.

There have been many milestones during these past two weeks...

In addition to their organic chick feed and organic chicken scratch (which we grind more finely in a blender to make organic “chick scratch”), the chicks have been fed a number of treats and protein-extras:

• Starting on their very first day at the Learning Farm, they have been fed a few mashed hard-boiled eggs each day.  While it may seem a bit odd, they go absolutely crazy over mashed hard-boiled eggs!
• Starting on their third day with us, the chicks have been fed a variety of greens on a daily basis, which they also love – but for which they show definite preferences.  They prefer red lettuce over green lettuce, and they prefer Swiss chard over either red or green kale.  They don’t much like collard greens, but they love nasturtium leaves!
• On their fourth day with us, the chicks were fed meal worms from the meal worm colony we started last winter.  They seemed to like those almost as much as the mashed hard-boiled eggs.  Unfortunately, our meal worm colony is a small one and can only produce so many worms at a time.  We plan to feed the chicks a second serving of mealworms this week.
• Twice so far, we’ve taken the leftover powder from the chick feeders and made “chick gruel” (just like we started doing with the adult feed for our adult birds).  The chicks quite like the gruel at first, but seem to get bored with it fairly quickly.  We give any leftovers to the adult hens, who gobble it up. 

The brooder area has been expanded twice, the second time with a 24-inch high brooder guard or “chick corral” (the initial brooder guard was 16 inches high, and on the very same day that we expanded it, one of the chicks flew up and perched right on top of it!  An obvious clue that it was already time to install a taller one!).

Several chicks have managed to get up on top of the hover (the wooden box under which the heat lamps are affixed), despite the fact that the hover itself has been raised several times (to give the chicks more room to move below it, and to decrease the intensity of the heat lamps as the chicks get older and need less heat).  So far, each chick that has gotten themselves up there has managed to get themselves back down and into the brooder area again (vs. outside the brooder guard). So far...

The chicks now recognize us as a source of both food and entertainment.  The chick in the photo below is comfortably perched on my bare foot, while I sit inside the brooder and take photographs.

Taking care of this flock of chicks has taken up a lot more time than I anticipated – but thankfully, I'm not doing this alone.  Many, many thanks to Anya (our Hen House Helper Coordinator/Hen House Assistant and summer intern) and Sara (also a Learning Farm summer intern) for their daily assistance – and a special thanks to my three nieces (Hannah, Allison, and Amanda – who helped us a bunch during the first few days after the chicks arrived)!

And this Monday, our summer “Chicken Chore Crew” farm camp begins!  Some of the “chicken chores” this summer, will actually be “chick chores.”  I don’t think any of the crew will complain about that!