Confounded by Sicilian buttercup chicks shunning their heat cave

[Wyorp Rock]

Forgetting to close the gate resulted in a hostile takeover and the chicks being forced to flee the mob.

Love your writing Carol. Isn't that the truth though! Leave a door open and all the Bigs want to go in an devour all the chick feed and drink their little water station dry.

 

[azygous]

Time for an update.

The chicks are four weeks old, and still refusing to go under their heating pad on their own. We have developed a night time ritual, though, where I sit down in their pen and they then hop into my lap. They get cuddled and stroked and this makes them calm and sleepy. Or so we hope.

Then I stuff them under the heating pad. If they aren't sufficiently stroked and cuddled, they pop back out of the heating pad cave, and loudly call my attention to the fact. So we repeat the ritual, and by then it's dark enough and all the adult chickens have gone to roost, they remain in their cave.

Nanny Millie is still spending her days with the chicks and they are almost always glued to her. Today, Millie needed a break and wanted out of the chick pen to sun bathe in the big south window. If she thought she'd get a break from the chicks Velcroing themselves to her, she was disappointed.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

No rest for the weary!

 

[azygous]

Major mile stone! The Buttercups have moved into the coop. And....music please.... they are roosting!

I installed Nanny Millie, and the two chicks in the coop an hour before sunset so the chicks could get the lay of the land before everything goes dark. That went quite well. There was a moment when the two chicks jumped in my lap and burrowed under my arms, as if to cling one last time to something familiar and comforting.

Then they roosted. There was no "whack-a-mole" as there usually is when I place chicks on the perch for the first time. These guys stayed.

It was Nanny Millie that had the problems. She has gout, and the stress of not being in her regular coop on her regular perch was too much, and she kept falling off. I tried to steady her, but she just couldn't get comfortable.

Having visions of her falling off and the chicks ending up sleeping under her, I thought she and the chicks would all be better off if Millie returned to her own coop. And it turned out not to be a BFD. The chicks stayed, content to be big girls. Brave little tykes.

The coop is shared with two roosters and another hen with a partition down the middle, so they won't interfere with the chicks.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Major mile stone! The Buttercups have moved into the coop. And....music please.... they are roosting!

I installed Nanny Millie, and the two chicks in the coop an hour before sunset so the chicks could get the lay of the land before everything goes dark. That went quite well. There was a moment when the two chicks jumped in my lap and burrowed under my arms, as if to cling one last time to something familiar and comforting.

Then they roosted. There was no "whack-a-mole" as there usually is when I place chicks on the perch for the first time. These guys stayed.

It was Nanny Millie that had the problems. She has gout, and the stress of not being in her regular coop on her regular perch was too much, and she kept falling off. I tried to steady her, but she just couldn't get comfortable.

Having visions of her falling off and the chicks ending up sleeping under her, I thought she and the chicks would all be better off if Millie returned to her own coop. And it turned out not to be a BFD. The chicks stayed, content to be big girls. Brave little tykes.

The coop is shared with two roosters and another hen with a partition down the middle, so they won't interfere with the chicks.View attachment 2869565View attachment 2869566

Congratulations on your success! We moved our littles (will be 9 weeks old tomorrow) into the big coop last week. About half of them are cuddled in one corner on the floor and the other half are grouped elsewhere, also on the floor. Not worried about it. Later this week I'll be taking some of the elders off to be processed, then there will be room on the roosts for the littles.

 

[kurby22]

I think it’s so cute that you have a Welsummer that adopted your silly babies! I have a Welsummer pullet that I got when she was about 4 days old and at the same time as 4 bantam Cochins that were 2 days old. She became their de facto Momma and they follow her everywhere and she gets very upset when she can’t account for all of them. They’re all now 4 months old and they still all roost with her and follow her everywhere. It’s so cute! I hope Nanny Millie feels better soon, poor sweet girl!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I think it’s so cute that you have a Welsummer that adopted your silly babies! I have a Welsummer pullet that I got when she was about 4 days old and at the same time as 4 bantam Cochins that were 2 days old. She became their de facto Momma and they follow her everywhere and she gets very upset when she can’t account for all of them. They’re all now 4 months old and they still all roost with her and follow her everywhere. It’s so cute! I hope Nanny Millie feels better soon, poor sweet girl!

Cute! The Force is strong in this one!

 

[azygous]

I think it’s so cute that you have a Welsummer that adopted your silly babies! I have a Welsummer pullet that I got when she was about 4 days old and at the same time as 4 bantam Cochins that were 2 days old. She became their de facto Momma and they follow her everywhere and she gets very upset when she can’t account for all of them. They’re all now 4 months old and they still all roost with her and follow her everywhere. It’s so cute! I hope Nanny Millie feels better soon, poor sweet girl!

Welsummers are awesome! Those bantams are adorable and so lucky they have a standard size flock member willing to watch out for them.

 

[azygous]

Second night in the coop for the Buttercups went so smoothly, I was out of there in under five minutes and the chicks didn't even need to be closed up in the coop.

Earlier, I gave them a quick course in clicker training where I coaxed them into the coop using meal worms, and I sat with them for around ten minutes while they poked around and explored.

Then as it got dark and the rest of the flock had gone into the main coop. I called them back in using the clicker. I had turned the lights on inside the coop so it was lighter in there than out in the run. They came in after the hen (not Millie) who has been roosting alone in that section of the coop for the past few months had settled on her perch. They looked up at the perch and flexed their little knees as if they were all ready to fly up. Rather than have them attempt it and miss and get discouraged, I lifted them both up. They stayed.

For two chicks that never, ever once went into their heating pad cave on their own, this immediate taking to living in the coop and roosting on the first night, and again on the second, has me in a state of wonder. They're a little over five weeks old. Maybe they're much smarter than I thought.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Second night in the coop for the Buttercups went so smoothly, I was out of there in under five minutes and the chicks didn't even need to be closed up in the coop.

Earlier, I gave them a quick course in clicker training where I coaxed them into the coop using meal worms, and I sat with them for around ten minutes while they poked around and explored.

Then as it got dark and the rest of the flock had gone into the main coop. I called them back in using the clicker. I had turned the lights on inside the coop so it was lighter in there than out in the run. They came in after the hen (not Millie) who has been roosting alone in that section of the coop for the past few months had settled on her perch. They looked up at the perch and flexed their little knees as if they were all ready to fly up. Rather than have them attempt it and miss and get discouraged, I lifted them both up. They stayed.

For two chicks that never, ever once went into their heating pad cave on their own, this immediate taking to living in the coop and roosting on the first night, and again on the second, has me in a state of wonder. They're a little over five weeks old. Maybe they're much smarter than I thought.