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FEATURE


they will attack if you persevere with opening the lid. DON’T INTERFERE! Very soon – I guess 24-48 hours after hatching – a chick can be heard “peeping” for food. It happens seldom and for a short time, so it is easy to miss. This call only seems to last 7 – 10 days and, even though there is more than one chick in the box I have never heard more than one at a time – no competing for food as with most nestlings. From around 3 weeks if disturbed the chicks will take their cue from the hen and join in a chorus of growling to prove that the nest is really occupied by something furry with sharp teeth!


Hens show a considerable variation in the time spent in the box with the chicks after the first three weeks. The norm is to emerge occasionally and return when approached but I have had a hen which was never seen out until I finally evicted her and her


chicks, while another stayed out after three weeks and only returned to feed her offspring – I initially thought she had abandoned them.


Madagascar hens really resent disturbance – checking the nest just provokes them. Once they have settled in the nest box you will seldom see them until the chicks are at least half grown. I understand the cock feeds the hen in the box and she in turn feeds the young chicks. If you wish to confirm the hen is alive draw a fingernail along the side of the box – she will respond by stage one of the warning process. The chicks emerge at around six weeks and I leave them with the parents for a further six, after which chicks and box are removed. During this time the hen will attempt a second round – which stands little chance with fledged chicks using the box as a bolt hole. I have only once had a hen hatch this second round successfully but the chicks did not survive.


BIRD SCENE 15


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