Chicks Eating Big Insects

[centrarchid]

Phone about dead so must wait till charged to make video.

@Shadrach the chicks appear to aim worked out by end of day one. Their head musculature during first couple days after hatch is very delicate based on their limited capacity to dismember resistant prey. By one week the chicks can with some effort over power a larger 2" grasshopper that is not a Differential Grasshopper. Those critters are tough. As a kid I used to catch Chinese Mantids, including the big females, and toss them in a brooder holding 500 chicks. Sometimes multiple such mantids. That is were the chicks demonstrated how far along their strength was coming. Week old chicks took a couple minutes to simply over power the insect. By two weeks the dismemberment part would be underway in seconds.

When dealing with froglets, dismemberment rarely went beyond getting out entrails and sometimes skinning before victim then consumed as a single piece.

 

[centrarchid]

Uploading videos takes foreveeerrrrrrrr. A lot more difference than I expected when it comes to how the meal worms are consumed. Wow! Smaller size does a good job of representing what I think represents the bulk what the chicks consume based on size. The super meal worms are larger than what poultry raisers would likely consider realistic prey for foraging chicks on this size.

Harvest size meal worms. Note chicks run about some.

Small size (actual size to be estimated later) is consumed in a much more mannered way. The chicks essentially stand put and eat the little morsels.

Super meal worms. Chicks are running all over and ultimately pulling on both ends of the prey items. Mother helps disable some super meal worms and does not appear to consume any herself. Chicks had a degree of crop fill before getting the super meal worms so intensity of event likely reduced.

The broody hen is a problem. She knows the meal worms are kept in little containers and she kept jumping out each time I setup for the nest recording. If she could get a container open she could call chicks out of the tank in a flash making for a major fiasco.

I may try to have rooster in with chicks instead as he is calmer and more willing to wait for me to put eats in tank. He might also work better with single chicks later as he will leave prey alone as chicks eat, mostly leave it alone. I have not looked to see if he will kill prey for them like their mother.

 

[SueT]

Uploading videos takes foreveeerrrrrrrr. A lot more difference than I expected when it comes to how the meal worms are consumed. Wow! Smaller size does a good job of representing what I think represents the bulk what the chicks consume based on size. The super meal worms are larger than what poultry raisers would likely consider realistic prey for foraging chicks on this size.

Harvest size meal worms. Note chicks run about some.

Small size (actual size to be estimated later) is consumed in a much more mannered way. The chicks essentially stand put and eat the little morsels.

Super meal worms. Chicks are running all over and ultimately pulling on both ends of the prey items. Mother helps disable some super meal worms and does not appear to consume any herself. Chicks had a degree of crop fill before getting the super meal worms so intensity of event likely reduced.

The broody hen is a problem. She knows the meal worms are kept in little containers and she kept jumping out each time I setup for the nest recording. If she could get a container open she could call chicks out of the tank in a flash making for a major fiasco.

I may try to have rooster in with chicks instead as he is calmer and more willing to wait for me to put eats in tank. He might also work better with single chicks later as he will leave prey alone as chicks eat, mostly leave it alone. I have not looked to see if he will kill prey for them like their mother.

Those ARE big worms! Nicely done videos! and they had a tug-o-war there......

 

[centrarchid]

Will do better on videos.

 

[Shadrach]

Uploading videos takes foreveeerrrrrrrr. A lot more difference than I expected when it comes to how the meal worms are consumed. Wow! Smaller size does a good job of representing what I think represents the bulk what the chicks consume based on size. The super meal worms are larger than what poultry raisers would likely consider realistic prey for foraging chicks on this size.

Harvest size meal worms. Note chicks run about some.

Small size (actual size to be estimated later) is consumed in a much more mannered way. The chicks essentially stand put and eat the little morsels.

Super meal worms. Chicks are running all over and ultimately pulling on both ends of the prey items. Mother helps disable some super meal worms and does not appear to consume any herself. Chicks had a degree of crop fill before getting the super meal worms so intensity of event likely reduced.

The broody hen is a problem. She knows the meal worms are kept in little containers and she kept jumping out each time I setup for the nest recording. If she could get a container open she could call chicks out of the tank in a flash making for a major fiasco.

I may try to have rooster in with chicks instead as he is calmer and more willing to wait for me to put eats in tank. He might also work better with single chicks later as he will leave prey alone as chicks eat, mostly leave it alone. I have not looked to see if he will kill prey for them like their mother.

I have that same problem with the broody hen knowing where the food is coming from.
Interesting how the size of the food item influences behaviour.

 

[centrarchid]

I have that same problem with the broody hen knowing where the food is coming from.
Interesting how the size of the food item influences behaviour.

I think other things will impact behavior as well. I have a bunch of meal worm beetles nearly same size as the larger larvae. I can even get some adults of the super worms which will be a real challenge!

 

[ryanhodapp]

I must feed my chicks to much, free feed, they don’t aggressively go for insects. I wish they would eat a mouse.

 

[centrarchid]

That is something we are seeing with chicks we trying use for a forage selectivity test. The birds will eat them but thus far have not put much effort in it.

 

[centrarchid]

Now we are seeing some real fun! Hen is getting chicks to fly up and over in to containers that are almost 18" high. She may be giving a call that says jump up as they do it even when she is not in line of sight. I am also working on getting her to call entire brood up into my hands when I call, ........... and only when I call. A little work needed for that. Goal is to get her to take brood from pen or yard to the elevated tank in the garage so I do not have to pick everyone up. As of this point I can get them to jump into tank when it is on ground in front yard. The 48" vertical they can do when startled but the doing it just for eats, we are not there yet.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Can you tip the tank so they do not have to jump the whole 48" in one leap? Successive approximation means reward small steps in the right direction. So if you can reward them for jumping 12", then 18", and so forth, eventually they will succeed at the 48" goal.