5 day old chick CROWING!! Video Update!

[MadHatcher]

Okay - so an interesting turn of events this morning.

Our little "natural born crower" Baba Yaga was crowing up a storm this morning like usual when we heard the most pathetic strangled sound emitting from the brooder... Upon closer inspection it seemed that another of our chicks (Pirate - our most mischievous and independent chick) was trying to crow - man he sounds pathetic compared to the other crows I've been hearing... But he has the same body stance and movement as the other chick.

Anyway on top of the crowing this morning apparently when my husband came home from running errands this afternoon Baba Yaga (the little yellow/white chick that has been the star of all the videos I've posted) had one of his beautiful feather tufts yanked out and was running around with a long black feather in his beak - not eating the feather but playing "keep away" with the other chicks with it.

Interestingly, Pirate is an all black bird and one of the most feathered out at this point...

I think those two might be fighting so I had my husband separate Baba Yaga with another of our calmer birds and the other four (including the mischievous Pirate) are still in the original brooder...

They're being quiet for now but I'm a little stressed about it - Is feather plucking/picking common in five week olds? Or is this another sign of early maturation?

 

[Chicky Tocks]

You most definately do have an early crowing boy and probably two. They do play keep away with a stray feather and boys do fight at an early age. I've seen all of this. It's actually quite funny to watch them playing keep away. Most likely it was just a feather that was dropped but then again it might have been plucked... However, I myself would keep them together if you plan to keep both of the boys. There will be an order established and you've gotta let that happen. Last spring I had a brooder full of serama and way too many boys...I literally cried for all the fighting they did, but finally after about 3 days, everything settled down and the order had been established.

 

[ReiMiraa]

i got some acona chicks and one looked deformed. it had large lumps on its wings and had a huge comb (these were day old chicks)
it grew faster than the rest. didnt crow. and the lumps at the wing joints remained till it filled out more a few weeks later. by 4 weeks it was crowing and growing into its comb. it was the weirdest thing. cos non of the others (hens) were deformed looking. but he turned out to be a handsome roo. was killed by a skunk though. i want another acona roo. to see if that was maybe its a breed thing for the males to have large red combs and funky jointed wings.

 

[Carpe DiHen]

Oh my gosh, that is so a crow!

The little guy even does the big roo stance!

You are lucky to have a "heads up" so young. So many of us are trying to quess for months!

I had 6 chicks and did not know it, but 2 were roos. The two (uspuspected) roos were really active and engaged each other a lot.
When I put them out in the run as 8 weeks olds, the two "roos to be" raised hackles at each other. Sometime, over the course of a few weeks, and by the time they were 10 weeks old, one of them became dominant and the other roo became "best buddies" with the dominant roo. They always slept together and the non-dominant roo followed the alpha around like a little chick. The dominant was a Speckled Sussex and the other was an EE. I had to give them both up and I was sorry to break up their relationship.

Keep up posted please!