My interesting inter-species flock

[FloorCandy]

I’ve been super busy, so sorry, but I’ve got some pics now. There are 3 chicks, 2 are fine, one is blind. It hatched with cloudy eyes and I figured it wouldn’t make it and I didn’t intervene, except to spread baby crumbles all over the large bin they’re using as a group nest box, with blind chicks I’ve raised inside, I found that if the floor was covered in food, they stay alive long enough to work out a strategy.

Anyway, by the third day, the 2 healthy chicks were out foraging, they catch flies already, it’s incredible. I throw crumbles all around for them to find, and I crumble up meal worms a bit smaller for them and toss some around. There must be a benefit to having 8 doting moms because the blind chick is still alive, by the 4th day he was wobbling around foraging with the rest, he cheeps constantly haha. The only intervention I do now is I take him into the nest box for water one time in the middle of the day, since I’m not sure he can find his way, and he certainly can’t use the nipples yet. He’s far smaller than the rest, and I expect him to be dead every morning, perhaps I should call him Wesley, but I’m pretty sure he’s a girl.

We call the normies Ketchup and Mustard, mustard is solid yellow, Ketchup has a red tinge. Despite the fact that I told them not name the blind one because it’ll probably die, my daughter named him Relish.

 

[FloorCandy]

Little Relish is far smaller than the others, but is growing feathers and seems to be doing ok. They all show a lot of chicken behaviors, or what I call chicken behaviors. My turkeys never perch, they prefer to sit, lay, sleep on top of their shed. I have some repurposed junk for them to perch on, pool ladder, kids bike frame, branches, but they don’t use them ever. The chickens lost their home in a major flood, and I had to confine them to a quail pen while I rebuilt, and they were pretty young, and I guess it was formative perching time because they only perch low to the ground, the edge of cinderblocks, the rim of their nest bins etc.

Ketchup and Mustard are perch crazy! I think it’s part of their desire to be up high, but they constantly perch on anything they can reach and they’re so proud of their perching abilities. Ketchup and Mustard don’t dig and scrape much the chickens encourage it, but they prefer to poke stuff, I think they scratched more in their first days, but now they prefer precision beak attacks.

Relish, however, is certainly 100% blind, I can’t even see pupils his eyes are so cloudy, and his head is sorta shaped funny. But somehow he perfectly mimics chicken forage behavior. He scratches and drags back, digs as hard as he can, acts just like a chicken. I’m not sure how they taught him this, but he seems to feel the crumbles with his feet and then manages to pick them up after several tries. I feel like he would certainly die without these chicken skills and the patient chicken moms who have been teaching him.

 

[PoppasGrill]

Little Relish is far smaller than the others, but is growing feathers and seems to be doing ok. They all show a lot of chicken behaviors, or what I call chicken behaviors. My turkeys never perch, they prefer to sit, lay, sleep on top of their shed. I have some repurposed junk for them to perch on, pool ladder, kids bike frame, branches, but they don’t use them ever. The chickens lost their home in a major flood, and I had to confine them to a quail pen while I rebuilt, and they were pretty young, and I guess it was formative perching time because they only perch low to the ground, the edge of cinderblocks, the rim of their nest bins etc.

Ketchup and Mustard are perch crazy! I think it’s part of their desire to be up high, but they constantly perch on anything they can reach and they’re so proud of their perching abilities. Ketchup and Mustard don’t dig and scrape much the chickens encourage it, but they prefer to poke stuff, I think they scratched more in their first days, but now they prefer precision beak attacks.

Relish, however, is certainly 100% blind, I can’t even see pupils his eyes are so cloudy, and his head is sorta shaped funny. But somehow he perfectly mimics chicken forage behavior. He scratches and drags back, digs as hard as he can, acts just like a chicken. I’m not sure how they taught him this, but he seems to feel the crumbles with his feet and then manages to pick them up after several tries. I feel like he would certainly die without these chicken skills and the patient chicken moms who have been teaching him.

Here’s hoping Relish makes the best of it, sounds like she’s adapting well so far.
Those are some good looking birds.
Not all of our chickens like to roost, though our turkeys roost in the coops with the ladies every night. If Turks refuse to go into coops at dusk we will find them roosting in the barn when we go out to check on them.

 

[FloorCandy]

Here’s hoping Relish makes the best of it, sounds like she’s adapting well so far.
Those are some good looking birds.
Not all of our chickens like to roost, though our turkeys roost in the coops with the ladies every night. If Turks refuse to go into coops at dusk we will find them roosting in the barn when we go out to check on them.

The Turks sleep on the shed in all but extreme weather, but there’s a tree above them, and there’s creeper growing over the aviary wire above, so they don’t feel the elements as much. If it’s snowing like crazy they sleep inside but come out the second it eases up, most rain they just ignore. With the babies tho, they’re sleeping in the big nest box.

 

[Rock17]

How is relish?