Baby chicks have a built-in alarm system for anything that tries to grab them from above. Sometimes, I forget this. When I do, I get the reminder loud and clear.
The new Rhode Island babies are a week and a day old now. They have many more new bigger girl feathers. You can tell they are colored to camouflage them for being in dried grasses, as their wings are all stripped with tan colors.
They are beginning to realize I am not the total threat they thought at first. I can sit down and put my hands in their box while they munch their lunch, as if nothing is out of the ordinary. They are willing to step up on my hands, so I can pull them out of the box and let them wander in my lap. I put a towel over my lap to catch their droppings- they are not potty trained. Apparently that’s possible???? I haven’t managed to teach that to any of my flock.
Yesterday, I was trying to put Rose and Ruby back in their box. They were sitting on my hands and I was using the side of my arm to lift the top, (which is the door to an old dog crate with wide-ish bars) when Rose decided to leap onto the top. She took some crazy steps and fell through to bars and into the straw. She looked up at me in amazement. By the time they figure out the top is a way of escape as well as entry, they will be too big to fit through the bars.
So remember, baby chicks are approachable from the underside- this includes petting. Soon, they will trust me, but until they have itchy head feathers and want a head scratch, I’ll be keeping my hands low.