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| Thirsty chick in the shade |
We've had a run of hot weather - temperatures in the high 20s, even reaching 31 for a a couple of days - very unusual for mid-November, making the garden need daily watering, and drying out the bush rapidly, but fantastic for little chicks!
We now have 26 chicks, at wildly different sizes and stages of growth, enjoying dust baths and hunting for insects in the sunshine. Our first little mother, Bellen, gave up parenting a bit too early, and we lost our first little all-white chick, and possibly a couple of the other weaker ones.
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| Our surviving white chick - not the brightest and definitely not the strongest - but beautiful! |
The second mother at one point was trying to care for 19 babies - there are now 16 who have reached the "teenager" stage - a bit unkempt, occasionally aggressive towards the smaller chicks, and huddling together for warmth and company.
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| The Huddle - there are 11 small chicks plus one or two older ones in this heap! |
The third mother, Bib, hatched 11, and is doing very well indeed. The
one remaining white chick - a definite runt, less than half the size of
its teenage siblings, has joined Bib's family, and is thriving (still
only just bigger than the other chicks, despite being more than a week
older).
There was a horrible accident yesterday (an extremely hot
day) where a chick climbed into the glass seed jar, which had been left
on the ground, and couldn't get out. It taught us a lesson about
leaving things lying around, and I hope it was quick. We feel terrible - but we do have a lot of others!
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| These two are more than a week apart in age! |
The size range is extraordinary - chicks from the same hatching can be wildly different - we think it might relate to when the eggs were hatched. Although they usually hatch within an hour or so of each other, minutes seem to make a big difference.
The older chicks have very different personalities too - some are incredibly aggressive towards the smaller birds, some are very solitary, some are timid, others follow us around hopefully waiting for food.
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| Teenage friends hanging out... |
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| It's so hot...I need a good lie down |
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| Older teenager showing youngster how it's done... |
On other news - Plum is now a father for the second time! If this keeps
up we will be overrun with tiny King quails (not a bad thing, perhaps).
We're not sure how many this time - or where the nest was - or when they
hatched - but there are 4 or 5 and maybe more...the older four, now
pretty much full-grown, seem to have taken over Plum's grass castle, and
the new family have moved under the artichokes. Plum is a fully active
father, as last time, and seems to have responsibility for at least two,
keeping them under him and guarding them as they hunt for food. Photos
as soon as we can!
