A baby chicken or commonly called chick is a newly hatched chicken until they age of 5-6 weeks. If you have an idea of raising chicken, you should at least learn the information of how to hatching eggs or how to take care of newborn chicken. They are very fragile at the first weeks and very tiny, but you will be surprised on how fast they will grow up right in front of you eyes.
A tiny little chick in the first 2 weeks won’t know to do almost anything. So you have to teach them how to eat and drip with maybe a little pipet. Or you can also teach them by gently dipping the head into the waterers or feeders. At this time the baby chicken will start to strengtened their muscles and building up their strength until they reach of 3 or 4 weeks. They will be doubled at their size and now how to eat and drink as they please, without your helps.
Type of Baby Chickens
After 6 weeks old you chicken sexual differences will begin to emerge and you can distinct which one is the female and which one is the male.
Pullets – The female chick feather usually grow on the tips but after they grows adult their feather in the wings and feathers will take on a rounded appearance. They usually start to laying egg on the age of 20 weeks.
Cockerels – The male chick will be called cockerels, they usually stand taller than the female one and even start to crow. Along with the time their comb will grow bigger than the female one and there will be spurs grow in their leg. They usually much muscular than the female one.
Beside the facts above do you know that there are some fun facts about baby chickens? this will make you consider to raise them? So let’s learn about it.
Fun Facts of Baby Chickens
1. Egg tooth
We know that inside the egg baby chick also growing up and feeding with the yolk. They get the nutrition needed from the yolk until they are ready to break free from its egg home. The egg tooth is a little bump on their beak that you may recognize when your chicken hathced. This tiny little bump usued to poke holes through the surroundings egg shell. This egg tooth will be fall of shortly after the birth. Yeah we know that chicken have no teeth.
2. Pasty Butt
There is another fun facts of baby chickens worth to know called pasty butt. Do you know that during the first week they will eat a lot and it means that they will also poops a lot. You have to very careful when your baby chickens pooping. since it can stuck to their bums, or called it seal it up. And when it happened it can kill them unless you remove it. Since they have no abilities to remove it. So if you you found your baby chickens stuck by poop in their butt you must start to wash it off. It may sounds nasty but if you want your baby chickens survived. You also have to keep your chicken coop clean to avoid potential ilnnes attacking them.
3. Grit for teeth
It means that your baby chicken will needs grit like stones, sands, shell, or parakeet shell grit for them. It will help them processing their food, since they have no teeth to help them digest their food. So they store a bit of sands or stone along with their food to help them grind it. Remember to provide them with this grit to help them with their digestion.
4. They love adventure
Like literally baby chickens like to explore everything and everywhere. They sometimes unaware of dangerous that is why the hen usually trying to protect them even from the distance. They love to traveling outdoors like backyard along with their siblings. Maybe you ever seen a bundle of baby chicknes stick together.
They also like to dig to find insect, worm, or other small animals. They want to taste bugs in the grass and so forth. Adventure will help them to develop their bodies and abilities to survive in the wild. If the hen were aware of a threat they will start a certain clucking sound and it kind of signal for baby chickens for danger. When they heard this particular cluc they will running and hide underneath the hen (mother).
5. Their colours not always be yellow
Yes you may find many baby chickens in market with the yellow colour. But baby chickens can be all different in collours, it sometimes grey, browns, gold, dusty colour, stripping, spotted or maybe combination of it. Even the baby chicken cam from the same brood their colours can be different.
Well maybe the yellow chicks colour is because most commercial broiler or layer breeds in the market are selected for the feather to be white. When the chicken is in the hatcher machine to maintaned the good and safe germ free surroundings, the farmer usually used certain chemical combination used to produce antiseptic gas. The gas will quitely give the effect to the yellow colour of baby chickens.
6. Baby chicken is smart
Do you know that baby chickens have an ability of counting or knowing the basic arthmetic? A researcher Rosa Rugani from University of Padova, Italy with his friends conducted an experiment by observing baby chickens. This experiments used 5 different object. After several days researcher took all the objects while the baby chickens watch the process and hide three of the objects behind the screen, and the other two in the 2nd screen. Most of the baby chickens will tend to approaching the first screen where the researcher hide more objects.
Another experiments conductin to understand their knowledge of add and substract by using their memories. After the objects hidden behind both of the screen, the researcher begin to move the objects between the two screen. They followed the object behind the screen and tend to approaches the screen which hides more objects. Although they have have a little experience but by this experiments, it shows us that baby chickens is clearly smart.
This also explained on how chickens can survived in the wild, and how fast they adapted into a new environment.
So after knowing about this fun facts about baby chickens, would like to raise them? they are so fluffy, adorable, tame, and lovable. But before raising them you also have to know about how to cleaning and storing egg, how to make them grow faster, and how to take care of them during wet weather.