On Thursday May 21, 2015 I took home two baby chicks. One is yellow/white color named Sunny and the other is a brown/black color named Cocoa. I have permanently adopted these chicks. This is a very exciting experience because I have never had a pet to which I have to tend to multiple times a day. I am also very happy to undergo this type of responsibility because both of my parents were responsible for a few chickens in their backyard as they were growing up. In the morning and the evening, I feed my chickens the Hatch to Hen Poultry Starter and I give them water. I have also researched many other types of foods that baby chicks enjoy eating such as lettuce and oatmeal. I have used this website as a resource to determine which foods are best for my chickens.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-treat-chart-the-best-treats-for-backyard-chickens
Also, every night I clean the chicken coop that I have built. Overtime I have realized that as the chickens grow older, they become messier and more active. After cleaning the cage I often like to let the chickens roam around in my backyard for a while. I pay close attention to my chickens when they are let loose outside so that they don't aren't harmed. I have observed that the chickens enjoy pecking at the grass. I have determined that they LOVE worms and other insects. I was very surprised to see that when the chicks find a worm, they end up swallowing it whole!
As the chickens get older, they want more space to stretch their wings and attempt to fly. In my free time, I sometimes read about ways to train chickens to be more friendly and obedient. I learned that chickens are fairly easy to train. Recently I have taught the chickens to follow me and most of the time they obey. Whenever I am outside the chickens always seem to stay close to me and don't stray away. One time when I first got my chickens, I used a bottomless box as a fence to keep the chickens in one spot on the grass. Once the wind started blowing, the box ended up falling over. Yet, the chickens remained in the same position that they were earlier for the next 10 minutes. I was very surprised to see that they did not run away.
The chicks also like to stay in a pair. If I only take one chick out of the coop, then they are both chirping very loudly until I take the other chick out. When they are pecking around in the yard, they stay together and always remain in the same area. They follow each other, even when one chicken tries to fly the other one does too! I am also trying to determine the gender of my chickens and based on this chart, I think that Sunny is a hen and Cocoa is a rooster.
So far I am loving my chick sitting eggsprience! I can't wait until my chickens grow bigger and I can play with them in the summer. I believe that even though taking care of chicks is an enormous responsibility, they are very cute and innocent animals. My whole family enjoys spending time with these chickens even though they seem to poop a lot!
This is a slideshow of my experiences so far with Sunny and Cocoa!
Embryological Facts about the Similarities of Human and Chick Embryological Development
- Mammals, birds, and reptiles all derive from a single common ancestor. Therefore, chicken and human embryos have many similarities. Only about 1% of the genes are unique to each person/animal.
-Both human and chick embryos are created by sexual reproduction.
- Both humans and chicks form a morula, blastula, and gastrula, as well as the primary germ layers, the ectoderm (which gives rise to the nervous system and skin), mesoderm (which differentiates into the muscles, skeleton and blood system), and endoderm (which forms the digestive organs, lungs and bladder).
-Chickens and humans are have a set of arching blood vessels in their necks in early development, but both develop to acquire oxygen through the lungs.
-Chicks and humans are protected by their mother when developing as an embryo. Humans are protected in the womb of the mother (lining of the uterus). Chicks develop within an egg shell protected by the mother.
-Chicks and humans both receive nutrients during development. A chick is dependent on yolk nutrients. Human embryos get nutrients from the mother through the placenta.
-Mammals have four-chambered hearts. Chickens and humans both have four-chambered hearts that fully evolve during embryonic development. During development, the two-chambered heart is modified by the formation of atrial and ventricular septa to produce the four-chambered heart.
-Heart action (the heart starts beating) and eye slits begin at approximately the same time in chicken and human gestation.
-The limbs of both chickens and humans contain epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous tissue.
-Humans and chicks experience three gestation periods before birth. Chicken gestation is on average 21 days. Human gestation is on average 253-303 days or about 40 weeks.
Human Embryonic Development videos:
- Mammals, birds, and reptiles all derive from a single common ancestor. Therefore, chicken and human embryos have many similarities. Only about 1% of the genes are unique to each person/animal.
-Both human and chick embryos are created by sexual reproduction.
- Both humans and chicks form a morula, blastula, and gastrula, as well as the primary germ layers, the ectoderm (which gives rise to the nervous system and skin), mesoderm (which differentiates into the muscles, skeleton and blood system), and endoderm (which forms the digestive organs, lungs and bladder).
-Chickens and humans are have a set of arching blood vessels in their necks in early development, but both develop to acquire oxygen through the lungs.
-Chicks and humans are protected by their mother when developing as an embryo. Humans are protected in the womb of the mother (lining of the uterus). Chicks develop within an egg shell protected by the mother.
-Chicks and humans both receive nutrients during development. A chick is dependent on yolk nutrients. Human embryos get nutrients from the mother through the placenta.
-Mammals have four-chambered hearts. Chickens and humans both have four-chambered hearts that fully evolve during embryonic development. During development, the two-chambered heart is modified by the formation of atrial and ventricular septa to produce the four-chambered heart.
-Heart action (the heart starts beating) and eye slits begin at approximately the same time in chicken and human gestation.
-The limbs of both chickens and humans contain epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous tissue.
-Humans and chicks experience three gestation periods before birth. Chicken gestation is on average 21 days. Human gestation is on average 253-303 days or about 40 weeks.
Human Embryonic Development videos:
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/human-embryonic-development
http://www.ehd.org/virtual-human-embryo/
Chicken Embryonic Development videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKvez9duEHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW3Tw5qpfZQ