One week old and the new baby Polish chickens have grown…and they are flourishing! We go check on them, my daughter and I, about 5 times a day to make sure the temperature is right (95 degrees the first week, 90 degrees the second week, and so on), that they have fresh water and food and that everyone is healthy. Unfortunately, the fight or flight reflex, flight reflex, actually, is very much a part of their core existence. It doesn’t matter that it has been the same faces peering at them repeatedly, or that we hold them often, they still leap to their little feet, peeping madly and scurry all over their little pen to get away from us.
And, Boy, are they adorable… with little yellow “fros” on their heads…a clear indication that they are indeed Polish babies!
I decided pretty quickly after the chick’s arrival that I would not attempt to introduce them to “Anna”. She wasn’t broody…meaning she wasn’t sitting on the ceramic eggs I put in her nest box. In fact, she tried to roll them out on several occasions. And at night, we found her roosting instead of keeping her “eggs” warm. So, I thought it better to raise the babies in the shed under a heat lamp.
I think it was a good decision. I will introduce the new “girls” to “Anna”, their new mother hen, when they are older and she is less likely to peck them to death.
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