I had no idea that chickens were so bloodthirsty…literally.
Yeah, they are. Blood is a target, and they love it. A lot of people have no idea how violent they can be when blood is involved…
Hopefully I haven’t turned anyone away from them, they’re awesome birds, you just need to make sure there’s not blood
That’s so weird! I wonder why that is. I never would have pegged chickens as being little vampires, they seem so innocent and harmless.
I knew a pigeon who liked to peck pretty viciously at human skin, but he never actually drew blood. And I don’t think he was literally out for blood, I think he was just a jerk.
I’m not entirely sure. They just have bloodlust or something. Definitely not pretty
Also, your chicks are probably past that, but i’m not sure if you’ve heard to make sure there’s no poop on their back ends. Because it can happen, and if let be they can become unable to poop, and big problems happen…
Chicks really are something sometimes.
There is a bit on some of them but I make sure it isn’t blocking anything and try to wipe it off if I can. I plan on giving them all a quick bath tomorrow just to get them used to new situations and try and loosen up the stuck stuff
This could be off, but I’ve always been told they instinctively peck at red things because they’ll kill off members of the flock who are sick, bleeding, or have open wounds/sores. It keeps the flock safe, although brutally, so they kinda go after anything they see as that sign of weakness.
Chickens are great! But more of a tiny dinosaur than people realize. My aunt in NE has a flock and they chase barn mice, kill them, and parade them around before eating them
I have personally heard it is because of their vision. They have incredible color vision and red stands out so much to them. That is why chicken feeders and water (nipples or bowls) are red most of the time
That also makes a lot of sense! Color vision like that would need to develop for a reason, so either wild game birds had a lot of red food (could be, berries are good!) or they developed such good color vision for sexual selection in pigmented feathers (or to see blood, bum bum BUM)
They turned a week yesterday! They have grown so much
And a bonus pic of Jingles feet! They are so big in proportion to her and compared to everyone else’s!
I love the soft gray colors on this one, do you know what breed?
that would be Star, a barred rock. She will look something like this as an adult
How beautiful!!
Also one of the best chickens imo. Super sweet birds.
Just wondering @baby_yoda and @indiflare, do you vaccinate your chicks? When we were looking at buying the chicks, one of the websites said that they don’t recommend vaccinating chicks in small flocks. My mom decided to listen to that despite my protesting to do more research on it. So now they are unvaccinated against Mareks and I am really worried. One thing that did make me feel a bit better was hearing that almost all feed store chicks are unvaccinated and tons of people get them without issues. But I ended up having a mental breakdown about it yesterday because I can’t bear the thought of losing them due to my negligence.
Anyway, enough with that. You also owe us some update pictures Yoda!
We have never vaccinated our chickens, and I’m pretty sure our disease-related deaths have been VERY minimal, to the point where I can’t remember if we’ve even had one. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and we’ve been perfectly fine:)
Ok thanks. That makes me feel a bit better.
I’ll get some soon, they are getting so big. It’ll probably have to be tomorrow or something because i’m exhausted right now and laying down for a bit so i probably won’t go back out today. And no, i’ve never vaccinated my chicks so i think you’ll probably be fine.
So beautiful!