9 week old chicks behind in development?

[OneChickenTwoChicken]

So I have two chickens who are about 9~ weeks old. We got them when they were about 1 to 2 weeks old and they've been outside ever since about 6-7~ weeks old

The problem is, they don't know how to 'chicken' as I would say?

Usually chickens absolutely demolish your backyard in their scratching around for worms. However these two don't do that at all. They might scratch around a little bit but they mostly just try to eat plants off the ground. (Unsuccessfully at that as well because they don't know how to tear off chunks of plants.) Anything that can't be eaten whole has to be broken into tiny pieces for them since they can't/won't do it themselves.

They also like to stand around on the porch all day sometimes which mean they aren't foraging.

The biggest problem is that they don't seem to know how to find their own water/will only drink from a specific waterer. The issue is that the waterer is from is homemade and beaten up. So I'm afraid they'll stop drinking entirely when it runs its course.

How can I best help them so they can 'chicken' properly? Thank you.

 

[Perris]

I'm not sure if that's an issue growing will fix. Maybe they're just plain stupid?

they are just having to work everything out for themselves, as they've no broody to teach them, and you are inexperienced too so are in the same boat as they are. They will get better with practice, through trial and error and watching each other.

You might find this interesting, from Nicol Behavioural biology of chickens:

p.136 “chickens often use their observation of conspecifics to guide their behaviour and avoid the cost of the trial and error of individual learning… as they get older, chicks rely more on their flockmates for social learning… as chicks become more independent, feeding influences shift towards a dual role for both social transmission and individual associative learning… groups of chicks containing a knowledgeable demonstrator developed more successful foraging behaviour than groups of chicks with a naïve demonstrator… having watched a trained demonstrator, naïve hens were better able to learn the behaviour they had just seen than naïve hens that had watched untrained demonstrators or no demonstrator.”

p.137 “the identity of the social demonstrator is highly relevant in the context of social learning… observers learned the most when viewing the dominant bird complete a task… dominant hens foraged no better than any other type of hen… [it’s not based on size or competence] the influence of the dominant hens is therefore more likely to be due to the greater attention paid to them by subordinates seeking to avoid confrontation.”

 

[NatJ]

I tried to encourage them to scratch by taking a handful of mealworms, placing it in hole in front of them and covering it with dirt. Worked out okay with them using their beak to uncover it, so I dug a deeper hole, and they just walked away :/

Do they have loose material to scratch in?

I usually see chickens (even young chicks) do lots of scratching if they have pine shavings, or dry leaves, or soft fluffy dirt. They usually do not scratch much in hard dirt. Once they are in the habit of scratching they will do it even when it is more difficult, but even then they prefer loose material that they can easily dig through to find tasty bits.

Usually chickens absolutely demolish your backyard in their scratching around for worms. However these two don't do that at all. They might scratch around a little bit but they mostly just try to eat plants off the ground. (Unsuccessfully at that as well because they don't know how to tear off chunks of plants.) Anything that can't be eaten whole has to be broken into tiny pieces for them since they can't/won't do it themselves.

They also like to stand around on the porch all day sometimes which mean they aren't foraging.

I wonder if the weather or the season of the year has had an effect? Hot dry weather can make the ground hard and the plants tough, while cooler weather with more moisture can have the plants be tender and the ground easier to scratch. Many areas have been having hot dry weather during the time your chicks would have been growing up, but I don't know whether you live in one of those areas or not.

I'm not sure if that's an issue growing will fix. Maybe they're just plain stupid?

I think experience does help over time. If they scratch and get something tasty, they will be more likely to scratch in the future. But change will probably be slow, not sudden.

They would be about 10 or 11 weeks now? That is still relatively young, so they have plenty of time to keep learning (although I have seen much younger chicks that do large amounts of scratching, even with no older chickens to teach them, so I agree that yours seem to be behind.)

I don't know if they are stupid or if they are actually smart ("that is too much work. I won't bother" when you made the hole deeper.)

they are just having to work everything out for themselves, as they've no broody to teach them, and you are inexperienced too so are in the same boat as they are. They will get better with practice, through trial and error and watching each other.

That is an interesting point. With only 2 chicks, it probably takes longer to figure things out. When I have raised chicks with no hen, and I saw them learning "chicken" skills at an early age by themselves, it was always with larger numbers of chicks (6-50). More chicks would make it more likely that someone figures out the skill, and then the others can watch and learn it too.

 

[OneChickenTwoChicken]

Hello everyone, I apologize for the lack of updates. My parents have decided to rehome the chickens because we will no longer be residing in the States. (Visa issues + family emergencies.) Mostly the latter.
Thank you for all of your advice and kindness. I appreciated it : )

 

[NatJ]

You might check to be sure they can see. Medical issues are rare but they do happen sometimes.

What kind of chickens are they?

Extra feathers are a real problem with some breeds (big floppy crests hang down over the eyes, or fluffy muffs on the sides of the face block vision downward or in front.) This is probably not the cause of your chicks problem, because of how young they were when it started (too young to have that many feathers yet.)

Some chickens grow so big and fast that they have trouble walking, so they do not forage much. But those chickens usually do fine with eating and drinking, so that probably does not explain the issue with the waterer.

And as @BigBlueHen53 suggested, they might just be chickens who are less smart than most other chickens.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@OneChickenTwoChicken if you know what breed they are, look up the description of them in the hatchery catalog. Some breeds are noted as being "good foragers" while others are not. You'd think that all chickens would be, but apparently that's not the case. Perhaps yours fall in the "not so much" category.

 

[OneChickenTwoChicken]

@BigBlueHen53, they're Rhode Island Reds as far as I'm aware and I don't think their behavior is caused by any medical issues. They walk, run and fly fine.

I have tried throwing some mealworms for them, except half of the time they don't seem to understand that food on the ground is up for grabs? They just look at it until I come over and feed it to them. Maybe they have a problem with their eyes? I checked today and they seem fine so they really might just be less than intelligent chickens.

I'll try the waterer trick after the marbles arrive. Thanks so much!

 

[OneChickenTwoChicken]

Update: I don't have the marbles so I opted for something shiny, thinking that would work. In hindsight, I definitely should've thought it out better. I ended up using an earring to try to help them drink the water, annnd one of them ATE the earring. She dipped her beak into the water though to get to it, so progress? But I think they inherited my lack of common sense...

 

[OneChickenTwoChicken]

Update! Good news! The chickens are drinking now from a non beaten up waterer! Here's what happened:

Okay first my other faux pas, I tried putting some pebbles in a waterer thinking they were big enough for them to not swallow them. But one of them ate one after much persistence. She's okay, I think.

The marbles arrived and I put them in the waterer. Rocky finally drank from the waterer! While Rabbit took one nostril full of water and ran away. We got there in the end though!

They still don't know how to find their own water, but I'll put a bunch of marbles in the water sources around and see where that gets us.

I tried to encourage them to scratch by taking a handful of mealworms, placing it in hole in front of them and covering it with dirt. Worked out okay with them using their beak to uncover it, so I dug a deeper hole, and they just walked away :/

I'm not sure if that's an issue growing will fix. Maybe they're just plain stupid? Their wattles and combs are coming in nicely, so let's see what the future brings!

 

[OneChickenTwoChicken]

Thank you! As a final update, they were given to a person who has about 8 chickens excluding ours. We've been told they're sticking to themselves like your D&D.

Again, thank you, I don't think we'll see eachother again here since we'll be moving into somewhere that forbids everything fun (pets, breathing) to take care of my grandma who is now paralyzed. Thank you!