Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson VII · Topic 1: Bird study: how a bird is made
7. Chicken ways
Goal: Your child can name several of the hen's calls (to her chicks, for food, for a hawk) and describe how a chick eats, drinks and sleeps.
You'll need
- A visit to a hen with chicks if possible (spring is best), or any flock
- Nature notebook and pencil
What's in the book
The leading thought, the method (observe the poultry yard a few questions at a time) and sixteen questions about the chick's egg tooth, down, eating and drinking, sleep, the hen's many calls, the rooster's crow and spurs, and the fowls' enemies. A labeled drawing of the parts of a bird is on the page.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Spring and early summer, when hens have chicks, is best. Farm stores often have chicks in spring too. Any flock will do for the calls.
Safety: chickens and ducks can carry germs even when they look clean and healthy. Wash hands with soap and water after touching a bird, a feather or anything in the coop, and keep hands away from faces until then. This matters even more with fluffy chicks, which children want to cuddle and kiss.
Keep the big idea in mind
Read this to yourself:
Chickens have interesting habits of life and extensive conversational powers.
Comstock says to ask these questions a few at a time, over several visits.
The chick
The little chick has wings; why can it not fly?
Why is the chick just hatched so pretty and downy, while the young robin is so bare and ugly? Why is the young chick able to see while the young robin is blind?
How does the young chick get its food?
Eating and drinking
Does the chick chew its food before swallowing? If not, why?
How does the chick drink? Why does it drink this way?
Watch for the chick to dip its beak and then tip its head back. Comstock explains a chicken cannot swallow water the way we do.
Listen to the hen
Stand still and listen.
How does the hen call her chicks when she is with them in the field?
How does she call them to food?
How does she tell them that there is a hawk in sight?
What does the hen say when she has laid an egg?
The rooster
When does the rooster crow? What other sounds does he make?
With what weapons does the rooster fight his rivals and his enemies?
Look at his spurs from a safe distance.
Put it into words
Ask your child to act out three hen calls and tell you what each one means. Then share the leading thought.
Nature notebook
Draw a hen and her chicks, or a single chick. Write down the hen's calls the way your child hears them, with what each one means.
Afterwards
Visit the flock again and answer a few more of Comstock's questions each time, such as "Where does the hen put her head when she is sleeping?"
Tip
Comstock suggests that children look at the gizzard, the bird's grinding "mill", the next time a whole chicken is cooked for dinner.