Never in 43 years!!! Amazed!!!

[McChooky]

Day 27.

 

[Shadrach]

I had a friend in Catalonia whose Fayoumies would nest, sit and hatch in tree nests. I don't think they were as high as 40 feet though.
Despite being an extremely attentive keeper he told me had only seen the mum and chicks leave such a nest site on one occasion and the chicks survived the fall.
The natural instinct of the hen is to leave the nest with whatever chicks are ready as quickly as possible; 48 hours is usual.
He said it wasn't the fall that was the problem. The problem was that once down, there was no way of getting back to the nest. This means that come dusk at least for a few days the mother hen and her chicks spend their nights on the ground. There are many more predators that will locate them on the ground as opposed to up a tree.

A bit of physics knowledge helps to understand how the chicks survive the fall.
Any mass in free fall subject to gravity will initially accelerate and then reach what is called it's terminal velocity. What this means essentially is the mass accelerates in the direction of the gravitational force gets to a certain speed and maintains that speed for the rest of the fall.
I don't know if 40 feet for the mass of a chick is far enough to reach terminal velocity.

Easier to borrow from the Wiki for this bit...
"An object with a large projected area relative to its mass, such as a parachute, has a lower terminal velocity than one with a small projected area relative to its mass, such as a dart. In general, for the same shape and material, the terminal velocity of an object increases with size. This is because the downward force (weight) is proportional to the cube of the linear dimension, but the air resistance is approximately proportional to the cross-section area which increases only as the square of the linear dimension. For very small objects such as dust and mist, the terminal velocity is easily overcome by convection currents which prevent them from reaching the ground and hence they stay suspended in the air for indefinite periods. Air pollution and fog are examples of convection currents."

The chick because it's not much more than a ball of fluff encasing a unformed skeleton is not only light but has a high drag coefficient; not quite a parachute but...so the chick doesn't fall very fast.

The next observation that also predicits a good outcome is watching chicks following mum as she forages for food for them. The Mums don't hang about when digging and the chicks need to keep up. The first day of following a mum foraging for food for her chicks is much like looking at a fluffy rear end throwing balls of fluff out behind her. The chicks being behind the hen and very close get clobberd by the mums foot and sent hurtling into the air. I've seen chicks get tossed a foot off the ground and a couple of feet backward
The chicks learn to keep out of the way of mums feet and try to get in front of her when she digs after a few days.
What this shows is chicks are extremely robust in these circumstances.
What chicks are not well protected for is pressure which is why picking them up and gripping them in a hand is dangerous to the chick.

That's the theory. I do hope it all works out for the best.
If it works out badly and the chicks die then the hen will hopefully learn that it wasn't a good nestiing strategy.
I think I would not interfere, watch preferably with a movie capable recorder and try to document what happens.

 

[BDutch]

@Chickmagnent78
Is your acrobat chicken still going up and down the tree?

 

[addctd2plnts]

Watching. If you capture the chicks once down, I think they may be ok. Did you ever pile leaves/hay up around where they will land?

 

[McChooky]

Don't you just hate when someone makes a post like this that captures your attention but you never hear the ending?!

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

I have a hen setting about 40 foot up a tree. She somehow decided she liked an abandoned squirrel nest. Has anyone else seen this before? I have a video of her going back on the nest but I'm not sure how to share it. I figured it out. Here is the link.

That's crazy!!!! What breed is she?

 

[tffarm]

Following this, hoping for a good outcome

 

[tripletfeb]

Well, the eggs should have hatched by now. Troll? Or just doesn't care to provide an ending?

 

[townchicks]

Maybe there is no outcome. Perhaps she abandoned the nest, or they didn't hatch.

 

[Tookie]

@Chickmagnent78 hasn't been active since last Sunday.