Hello, I have been wondering, the Brandon parents seem much more distant than the Radission parents. It also appears to me (with my limited experience) that the chicks are growing at a slower rate. Is that right? Is there any evidence to support the idea that chicks with more involved or present parents mature faster? Do you have any concern at all for the Brandon chicks?
The simple answer is "no". Every pair is different in their parenting and Hurricane and Brooklyn are doing fine and their chicks look fine for their age. Remember, they are three weeks behind the Radisson birds, which in a chick's life is the difference between a toddler and a teenager. Compounding that is that the Brandon chicks have hit the 10 day mark and can thermoregulate on their own and the parents know it, so unless there is a need, the chicks don't need them and the so the adults are always nearby, just not in the box with them.
One of the things that makes it seem that the Brandon pair are more "distant" is that you've got two ends of a spectrum going right now - the Brandon pair and the Radisson pair almost couldn't be more different. The Brandon pair share duties alot more through incubation and brooding so there is lots more on/off going on. With the Radisson birds, it starts out Princess does more then Ivy gets to do more as time goes along in the incubating cycle, then the brooding cyle and now in the late teenager stage, you almost see Ivy more than you see Princess. And yes, the Radisson chicks do get fed more but that's not because they need more, its because Ivy's a killing machine. Mostly chicks are a little hungry at times during the day. At the Radisson, we have chicks burping and waddling away from food - that is not the norm. In previous years when we have banded the Brandon chicks they have been proper size and weight so there is no reason at this point for us to be worried about the chicks. When we band them we'll be taking a close look at them and if there is anything to worry about, we'll take care of it.
