Help Please! What are they doing?!?!?!

love-my-wolves

Songster
11 Years
Mar 14, 2008
1,017
4
171
Front Royal, VA
Ok, my 1 week old babies have dug a huge hole in their bedding!!! All 3 are fighting to make it wider, digging and pecking at the hole! They've never done anything like this before! They keep pecking at the bottom, but I've checked and see nothing of interest (to me anyway) Is this normal? I'm so nervous that something is amiss!
 
Whew! Thank goodness!! They've never done this before, and seemed soooooo obsessed. I pictured 3 OCD chickens!
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I'm so very glad to see that it isn't just me that has noticed this. My baby's are one week three days old and have started digging holes with their feet and pecking at anything and everything. Currently there are two holes. There was a third but in the process of creating the second hole, they covered the third. I did notice they lay and sleep or chill in them. One almost flew out of their two feet deep box I have them in. I'm so proud of her!!
 
If it's a nice day, around 70F or warmer, no wind, you may take your one-week, two-week, or three-week old chicks outside to play. Let them have some dirt to scratch in and they will likely dig a hole and dirt bathe in it. Give them a runway of space and they will show you they know how to fly.

Three-week and four-week olds will last all day without chilling, but you need to keep a close eye on the younger ones. At the first sign of huddling, you'll need to return them to their heat source.
 
If it's a nice day, around 70F or warmer, no wind, you may take your one-week, two-week, or three-week old chicks outside to play. Let them have some dirt to scratch in and they will likely dig a hole and dirt bathe in it. Give them a runway of space and they will show you they know how to fly.

Three-week and four-week olds will last all day without chilling, but you need to keep a close eye on the younger ones. At the first sign of huddling, you'll need to return them to their heat source.


Thanks for the information. I live in west Texas so it's usually 71 at three in the morning. lol I know I'm not supposed to let them get wet yet and we've had rain off and on for the last week. They got to play in the run yesterday when we put the coop and run together and loved it. I felt so bad for taking them out and bringing them back in. They were flapping their wings and pecking and chasing black ants. It was adorable!!!
 

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Okay so I should have dirt piles located near the coop to refill holes. Noted. I'm so curious to see what they do as they get older.
 
Oh and starting now until they're about 6-8 months old is when you should really be attentive to them, hold them (not too much or for long periods, can actually make em sick) hand feed them. Everything you can to make them human friendly and so they know your momma and when you come out they gonna wanna see whatcha got for them today lol
 

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