Chick Development

 The chicks are teaching themselves - or probably it is hardwired - chicken behaviors. A few have tried to start dust bathing in the middle of the feed trays (we are using pie plates with cardboard inserts so they don't slip.) The pie plates are surprisingly popular and at any point there will be 10 or 12 chicks piled into the pie pan.  Maybe they like the squished together feeling like they would get huddling under a mother hen. In the photo above the freebie chick, the white one, is trying to dust bathe.

Another early chic behavior is the back leg stretch. This chick is almost but not quite at full extension.  Another early behavior, that I haven't gotten a picture of, is the point of curiousity. When something brand new but not scary happens, the chicks stretch out their necks and point their beaks at whatever it is. They pose like that for a couple of seconds and you can almost see the neurons firing and making connections.  On the other hand, if something new is scary, they scatter and end up against the walls of the wading pool, in tiny huddles.  A few chicks have started flapping wildly while taking a run, getting off the ground by half an inch for half a second. Tom will make chick furniture soon so they can practice perching and jumping and pushing each other off the top of the furniture.