chick behavior

Hello! I have three 4 week old chicks (1 bantma cochin, 1 mystery bantam, and a serama). I've noticed for a while now the little serama shivers like a chihuahua. I can't tell if she does it all the time, but she certainly does it when I pick her up. And it can't be the cold, because today it...

Hi All! My baby chicks arrived this morning. They are eating & drinking, settling in. I’m overjoyed & so thankful for the babies! 🐥 While gazing at my little brood, it dawned on me that I know nothing about baby chick behavior. Tell me the good, the bad and the ugly. What are the weird...

This one speckled sussex is obsessed with pecking at the tail feathers of the leghorn chick, specifically. doesn't appear to be attempting to pluck the feathers out, doesn't grab and hold on and tug- just poking. Doesn't do it to any of the other ones. the leghorn seems unphased... for now.

Hello! We are located in NE WI. We just got our first batch of dual purpose chicks. Delaware and Silver Laced Wyandotte breeds. We are brooding them indoors in a “chick tent” for now until the weather warms up more. They will move to our garage with supplemental heat once it’s in the 50’s at...

Hello! I just noticed my 9 week old chick that I’m habilitating is doing a new behavior that looks like something may be wrong. I typically have her with or near me bc she’s currently an only-chick w/special needs (severe crossbeak). Just today she started stretching her neck and then opening...

I've had 4 chicks for about a week now(don't know the species.) They're very active and pretty healthy, only 2 have minore pasty butt problems but I've kept it under control. Today visited Rural King with my dad and picked up 4 barred rock chicks, and introduced them to my already 4 chicks. They...

My 2 olive eggers who are siblings are 5 weeks old, my barred rock (likely a roo) is just under that, and 2 buff Orpingtons are 4 weeks. The olive eggers have always been the biggest due to their age, but now they are significantly bigger than the others. It seems like every time they see me...

I apologize if I am posting this in the wrong place, BYC newbie here. I have a chick who is 4 to 5 weeks old. She is a sweetheart and very friendly. She is so friendly, that she regularly flies up onto my arms, shoulders, back, etc. when I visit her. She once flew up onto my 5 year olds head...

I just found out that my sweet baby hen (about 2.5 weeks old) might actually be a rooster! He is such a sweetheart--very cuddly and tame already. I've never been able to keep roosters because they've always ended up being too rough on the hens and mean to people. Does anyone have any advice on...

I took a “family” of 1 chick and 4 guinea keets, as well as the hen momma raising them. They had been with an Amish boy who let them all run around together in a barn. Rough guess is they are all now about 4 weeks old (minus Mom of course). She takes beautiful care of them and they all seem...

No, really. Sophia has this really odd habit of digging until she reaches the liner of the brooder. Then she rolls onto her side and continues moving her legs or wriggling. She almost looks like she's trying to burrow. Does anyone else see this in any of their chicks/chickens? What in the...

Hi there, this is my first time trying to post so I hope that I'm writing this in the right forum and I apologize for the length. So, I have a flock of eight chickens, all of them almost two months old and they were all raised together. All of them are very tame, but one of them stands out...

My chicks have been out in the coop since Wednesday and everything has been running incredibly smoothly... until it’s time to go to bed. On 3 separate nights now my RIR pullet has made distressed peeps during sunset, which is the time we’ve chosen to close the coop door from the run. She paces...

I live in an area that only permits 4 hens maximum. About a week ago me and my family got our first ever chickens- a flock of four three-day-old chicks. Unfortunately, our EE was soon discovered to have a really horrible cross beak...

I have soo many questions, the first girl I've ever hatched from an egg has gone broody :celebrate:love My serama hen Kitty started laying two weeks ago, and I thought, I wonder how long it will take for her to go broody if I left the eggs there. Literally 7 days ago, I stopped picking up her...

Hi, this is my first real flock (we have some older production layers here, but they aren’t mine) and I decided to try out several different breeds. The Chickens are about 8 weeks, fully feathered, and about to go outside. I’ve been trying to handle them so they aren’t too wild once they are...

I am a BYC Rookie and I have 23 RIR chicks and they were a week old last Wednesday. I have them in a large kiddie pool (4 foot across) with 2 lamps, 2 feeders (now hanging off the floor) and 2 waterers. I just put a 3 foot wire fence (is that tall enough?) around the perimeter in preparation...

Hi all. I’ve got a 60sf coop and 8 chickens. The chickens are let out at 7am and free range until sundown when they return to the coop. They stay 99% of the time within a 1/2 acre of the coop sharing a paddock with two horses. There are currently 4 14-16 months old, 4 5-6 month old hens...

New Chicken Mom. I have 10 pullets I guess to be 5-6 weeks old. They are fully feathered with head feathers. They have been in their coop since Friday and doing well. (55F) here at night so closed up nice and cozy. Yesterday I opened the run door and put them out. They stayed out. 3-4...

i have only one chick at the moment and its really noisy. i cant tell if its panting since its chirping really loudly, even when i put it back in its incubator( new born and just moved into brooder) i dont think its cold since it isnt going under the lamp. is there any other ways to tell if its...