Last night the chickens were chasing each other around, smacking into each other and generally making a racket. They were playing a bit more roughly than I liked, so I tried singing them a song, very softly, just to see what would happen. I wasn’t through the first line of “Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore” before they’d all lined up silently, beady black eyes watching me closely. No one could ask for a more attentive audience. It was almost unnerving. As I kept singing, they settled down in the corner of the box beneath me, groomed their new little feathers, and dozed contentedly.

On I went through “The Cruel Mother”, “Jack O’Diamonds”, and “Traveller’s Prayer”. They cozied up to the wall of the box and snoozed profoundly. When I was done, they blinked a moment, picked themselves up, and started wandering around dazedly.

I haven’t been able to replicate that experience, but the Delaware does reliably come over and settle down when I start singing.

The chicks are about five days old now. They’re developing quickly.  Each of them can stand on one leg without falling over, and they all run very speedily now. If you put your hand in the box, they run over to investigate; and if you reach in with a piece of paper toweling, the Delaware or Welsummer chick might play tug-of-war with it. (The Orpington chick is steady and not very curious.) Their calls are changing, too — not so much “eepeeepeeep!”, more whistling, soft tweeting, and trilling. One call sounds to me a lot like the old Macintosh “water drop” sound.

The Delaware seems to be prone to paste-up. Wouldn’t you know that’s the same chick that really hates to be picked up? Oh well, chick, too bad for you.

Chick webcam, chick photos