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| We Are One Week Old! |
Throughout their first week in our
classroom (4/12/12 - 4/19/12),
our 9 little standard chickens began to unfold their distinctive personalities!
Introducing:
Australorp: Aussie, Lady Noir, Little John
Rhode Island Red: Naomi, Providence, Yellow Legs
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Silver-Laced Wyandotte: Why, And, Dotte
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| One Week Old Trio L-R: Wyandotte, Australorp, Rhode Island Red |
Each of the chicks experienced their first major growth spurts in weight and feather development!
Beginning 4/17/12, we started to take weight measurements (in grams) of each chick on a daily basis. We first place a bowl on the digital scale, tare the scale, and then place the chick in the bowl. This takes patience, practice, and a lot of reassurance :) By now, almost every chick has more than tripled their weight!
Beginning 4/17/12, we added a vitamin supplement to the chicks' water. And towards the end of Week 1, we added a second food dish, because we noticed that the chicks were eating almost all of their starter feed in less than one school day!
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| One Week Old Rhode Island Red: Wing Development |
Chickens grow their feathers in a series of narrow, symmetrical feather tracts known as pterylae. (The non-feather tracts are known as apteria – feathers do no actually cover a chicken's entire body surface.) There are 10 specific feather tracts: head, neck, shoulder, wings, breast, back, abdomen, rump, thigh, and legs. During Week 1, a few of our chickens began to develop their tail feathers, as well as their wing coverts and secondary flight feathers.
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| One Week Old Rhode Island Red: Primary Feathers |
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| One Week Old Rhode Island Red: Tail Feathers |
Behavior-wise, the chicks began to forage with their beak, as well as scratch at the shavings on the bottom on their brooder box. This scratching behavior is something that they will do as fully grown chickens outside (when foraging, as well as nesting).
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| Wyandotte Sandwich! |
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| One Week Old Rhode Island Red: No More Chick Tooth! |
It is comforting to hear our chicks peeping away throughout the day; the 6th and 7th grade students are taking great care in gently handling the chicks after school in order to help strengthen their bond with their caretakers!
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| One Week Old Australorp |
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| One Week Old Rhode Island Red |
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| One Week Old Wyandotte |
Our chickens will be fully grown around 6 weeks of age. Until then, we have nearly 30 hours of coop and run building to complete! Week 1 included staking out the edges of the coop and run.
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Garden Update: On 4/10/12, we planted a little over four trays of seedlings, including: broccoli, red chilis, kale, onion, brandywine tomatoes, and yellow pear tomatoes.
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| Kale Seedlings - 2 Days Old |
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| Heirloom Tomato Seedlings |
