1 Week Old Chick Gave me a Heart Attack

[Creteloc]

So I have 7, 1-week-old chicks in a sandy bottomed brooder that's about 4 ft x 3 ft. Lots of room to run and play. I was... erm.. indisposed but I was close enough I could hear them happily chirping away when all of a sudden I heard all hell break loose. I finished up as fast as I could, thinking a chick was dying. All kinds of things ran through my head, but I was fairly certain something was killing a chick.

I ran into the room with the brooder and saw one speckled sussex chick flopping around, one wing out, screeeeaming bloody murder while the other six chased it's flopping body around the brooder. They were pecking at it and flapping their wings at it violently. I threw off the lid and picked up my precious injured chick, sure that it would be a blood heap.

It had a wood chip gripped in it's beak.

That's it.

I'm not entirely sure where it even got a wood chip. There was no hurt wing... no blood... just a wood chip. All of that raucous for a wood chip. I pulled the wood chip out of it's unrelenting little grip and put it back in the brooder. As soon as the other chicks realized the wood chip was gone, the jealousy left and all was peaceful.

Good heavens. Playing possum and almost killing a chick over a wood chip!

 

[Eryniel]

Oh my soul! That is hysterical! (... now)
I love it when chicks have a ton of personality like that tho. It may cause extra grey hairs, but I think the memories are well worth the trade off!

 

[Korte38]

They crack me up when the get something "good" then run around screeching, and the others Stuart chasing them. If you didn't overreact, NO ONE WOULD KNOW!.

 

[chuckachucka]

Its especially funny when a chick gets something obviously too big for them to eat, but they run away dragging it with them anyway while the others - some of whom are five times their size - give chase.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

My adults chickens did this today. The winner ate the wood chip.

 

[Brahma27]

My hen once caught a snake and since she couldn't get some peace to eat her prize she had to
throw it up in the air, tilt her head back,and slide it down her gullet!I wish I had a pic!

 

[chickencheeper]

Lol yesterday we threw an old bagel into the run with the [fully grown] hens and they spent a while trying to pick up the entire bagel with their beak! It was hilarious and they eventually learned that it was pre cut in half down the edge and was just hanging on by a thread so a chicken each grabbed a whole half slice! And promptly ran around chasing each other for it but the same thing happens if I simply give one of them a fern or even a piece of straw from their own run!

 

[Chickem707]

That’s like my JG, Squid with egg

 

[drumstick diva]

sounds like little kids on the playground. Wish I could "un see," the imagine of that hen swallowing a snake