A couple of women, Kelly and Mickey, with whom I work were having a conversation about Kelly's farm. Kelly tells Mickey, " The baby chicks that I bought should arrive in the mail today." Mickey says, " Cool. Did you buy a momma too?" Kelly says,"No." Mickey asks," Well who's gonna feed the babies?" Kelly says," I will. I've got chick starter and stuff for them." Mickey then gets a funny look on her face and says, " That's it? What about their milk?" Kelly says, " What milk?" Mickey then drops the bomb....." You know...chicken milk. All babies do better with their mothers milk." Coulda knocked me over with a feather. I just looked over at Mickey and shook my head. Really, how can any adult be that dumb?
i wouldn't hold my self back if i heard that one... and i've heard some horrible banter from some people... i have a saltwater reef tank, and you should hear the stuff people have asked me... i have never done a face palm before i got the tank... LOL...
Instead of making fun of her, you should have explained it to her so she knows better in the future... She obviously didn't know that instead of milk the chicks need mom to chew up worms and spit them into the babies mouth. She probably doesn't know the time and dedication it takes people to chew the worms properly and make sure that each and every baby baby gets it's share of the meal. How will she ever learn if you don't explain it all?
When our first set of naturally brooded chicks hatched I got out the camcorder. As soon as one of the peeps ran under momma I proclaimed to the world "Look, It's trying to nurse!" My wife looked at me and said "uh... honey?" We both know that chickens are not mammals. She then realized I was just being silly.
"All babies DO better with mother's milk." That's a true statement so this person was really not wrong in that area, but she did need a bit of education. I've had 4-H newbies think the same thing because they are taught nursing calves must get colostrum within 12 hours of birth in order to do well. So within their logical city minds they assumed the same about chickens. I explained to them about the yolk sac and so forth and agree most animals do better with mother doing her thing-even if that mother does not supply milk. It is funny and rather sad that an adult did not know better. We got to educate those city folks for sure!
