Fledgling Little Cluckers

Although I've yet to receive the two lavender orpington chicks that I will be raising and then keeping for my own, I've enjoyed getting to watch my foster cluckers grow and develop into little fledgling flockers. Last year, I missed out on about 4 weeks of development with my adult ladies but this go around I'm getting the full experience with these little ones. I'm wowed by the fact that I've had these little ones for three weeks already and we're halfway to the final move to Feather Father's home in the country.

This past week was a big week for the foster flock-- they experienced their first move. I noticed that the little flockers were wanting to move further from the red heat light in their crib and how tight living quarters were getting for them. It was definitely time for a change. The fledgling flockers would be moving from the clucker crib, which they had called home since they were just a few hours old, to a more appropriate teenage Clucker Crate.  The experience I had last year with my current adult lady cluckers helped make this smooth transition to a new and larger home for the ever growing, ever moving, ever feathering crew. 

Last year for my chicks I used a medium sized wire dog crate, that I was no longer using for my furred crew (I'm not all about the cluckers, mostly), and cut pegboard (left over from another household project) to fit around the bottom 6 inches of the enclosure. I remember thinking how clever I thought I was to put that barrier up to keep the bedding in place. I figured there would be no mess at all!

Now, I know those of you who have raised chicks indoors to adulthood or currently have chicks that have entered 3 weeks of age and older are laughing at what my thought used to be. It amazes me how much the cluckers enjoy scratching in the bedding and watching it fly! They start to learn what a "dust bath" is; sideling their little fluffy bodies into the bedding, flapping their little wings like crazy and making an absolute cloud of dust containing dander, pine shaving bedding and goodness knows what else! This is why I had/have air filters running constantly. What the cluck!

After being a good chick-raising Clucker Mama last year, and my ladies had moved outdoors to their Taj MaCoop, I had folded up the crate and put it in the basement; dismantling the pegboard barrier pieces gently-- somehow wisely knowing that I might just use it, though pretty sure that I was just collecting more junk in an already full cellar. Looks like my naïve former self really knew that I was a true Clucker Mother. 

I retrieved the Clucker Crate from my basement and reassembled the pegboard base barriers, using zip ties to hold them in place. Next was pine bedding poured onto the pan of the crate, then the red heat lamp turned on which was hanging inside so that it would start to warm up the bedding before the chicks were moved. These steps accomplished, my next step was to gently remove the little ones from the only home that they had known since they hatched just three weeks ago.

Boy! Did I really get called a Mother Clucker in chick language as I caught and picked up the cluckers a couple at a time and moved them from their cramped quarters to their new digs! They were definitely not happy about the change! They must take after their foster Mama Clucker, I'm uncomfortable with change too!

Once in their new Clucker Crate, the little flockers huddled in a back corner the same way they did when they arrived three weeks ago; cheeping loudly and making a complete mess of the water in their purple waterer as they stirred up pine shavings in their new home. I stood nearby and watched the commotion rise and then slowly dwindle as the little ones discovered that they had more space to stretch their wings and actually move about their new home. They began scratching at their food, dipping their little beaks in the waterer for a drink and then started exploring again. They seemed to be very happy to have more room to flap their wings, run around like crazy cluckers and even challenge each other in bouts of who had the biggest wing flap or cheep!

Not only did their new home have more room, it had an added benefit-- they were going to be able to see sunshine for the first time as well. The Clucker Crate was located in front of a window facing west and as I opened the mini blinds, on what was a sunny Saturday afternoon, the little flockers stopped cheeping for a moment and paused -- poking heads up into the bright light, trying to figure out what this wonderful stuff was and then wanting as much of it as they could get. Ah, this warmed the cockles of this foster Flock Mama's heart.

The cluckers move into their new digs had caused me to notice something else; before they had access to natural light via a window, the little birds seemed to somehow know when it was nighttime and time for sleep or daytime and time to move about. Now, with the natural light, they would learn to set their awake and sleep clocks by the sunlight that they'll enjoy throughout their little clucking lives. These little foster cluckers are growing up and I'm a proud foster Mother Clucker to get to introduce them to all of these new things in their little worlds.

Our next step is the big outside world once it warms up enough outside. I can't wait to see what happens then!