What mental images are you conjuring up?
Certainly not humans. And grape vines don't produce orphans.
It refers to our last hatching of chickens. (see Blog 23.12.12)
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| When the chicks were ONE day old. The mother is a White Sussex breed of chook. |
The mother died. We found her dead about 10 days ago. The hen and chickens had been let out of their safe cage for a few days before this, and were always back in the cage for the night.
The photo below shows the complete family, when the chicks were about a week old.
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| One of their early days of "free-ranging". The mother is trying to shield her three chicks from me. |
At sunset, on this particular day, the chickens came back to their cage, but there was no sign of mum. We searched, and found her dead, lying in the grass.
What killed her? All we can think of is that she ate something which was toxic, or was bitten by a snake. We eliminated the idea of a predator, such as a fox, because she wasn't mutilated in any way at all.
So what to do with the chicks?
We found an old soft jumper, and rubbed it over the dead chook's feathers, then put the jumper into the nesting box, inside the "safe cage". The pheromones must have worked because the three chicks climbed into the box, and snuggled down among the folds of the jumper.
At that time our nights were still cool to cold, with minima hovering about 10 degrees. How to keep them warm? The chicks were still quite small, and we doubted their feathers would be enough. My husband rigged up a lightbulb which gave radiant heat to the nesting box.
It worked because now the chicks are about 4 weeks old, and thriving.
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| The three orphan chicks! Note the light bulb for radiant heat. |
They are let out of their cage every morning.
They go straight out onto the grass, where they scratch, and fossick, and disturb lots of insects, which have, presumably, been there for the night. The insects are grabbed in their beaks, and then eaten.
They're also learning to fly.
They can flap their little wings and get up onto a nearby bench seat to snaffle any left-over bird seed, which has been put out for small birds such as finches.
Their mother was a White Sussex hen, but the chicks are showing quite a smattering of black on their feathers, so we are thinking that maybe the Black Australorpe rooster was the father??? As the "orphans" mature we should have a better idea of their genetic background.
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| Although it looks as if 2 of the chicks are camera-shy, you can still the black feathers appearing. |
