New chicks need a ramp for
their first month, but soon after that they can jump.
Of course some chicks develop
faster than others, which is why we like to keep a ramp going up to our
outdoor brooder a little past a month to encourage the more timid chicks in the flock to get out and hunt
for bugs.
We picked up this Intermidiate Bulk
Container for 25 dollars
from a neighbor.
The plan is to take advantage
of all the roof runoff and fill it with rainwater once we finish installing
gutters on the coop.
It should be more than enough
water for chickens and ducks and the nearby fruit trees that sometimes
need irrigation.
By the time they’re a few
weeks old, chicks are already establishing their pecking order.
Little skirmishes seem quite dramatic to the observer, with chicks
sometimes leaping into the air to menace others with their claws…and
yet no one ever seems to get hurt.
Sometimes, the biologist
in me wishes I was raising chicks that are easy to sex by feather color,
just so I could learn more about who exactly is fighting whom as they
establish their dominance hierarchy. Are all of the leapers
males? (I’m guessing so because adult roosters tend to leap and
menace each other with their feet, but hens don’t.) Is the
hierarchy established only within each sex, or do males and females duke
it out too?
In the end, though, I choose to just watch the chicks frolic rather than trying to answer any scientific questions. It’s just more fun to watch chick TV.