1. Hatching.—On the 20th or 21st day of incubation remove three or four eggs from the clutch under the hen, and keep them in a warm cosy place so that you may watch the process of hatching. Can you hear the chick tapping the inside of the shell? Could it have been taught to tap? Which part of the shell cracks first? When the shell has cracked, can you hear the chick chirping? Could it have been taught to chirp? Imitate the chirp and listen for a response. Keep the newly-hatched chicks in a warm, soft place. How soon do they recover from the exhaustion of hatching? Do the chicks show a liking for warm corners? Are they afraid of being touched gently?
2. Locomotion.—How soon do the chicks begin to run about? Do they stumble upon obstacles, or do they avoid or leap over them? Do they use their wings in running, or in jumping down a small step? Put a chick into a basket, and lower the basket quickly through the air, being careful not to let the chick fall out. Does it move its wings? How?
3. Feeding and drinking.—Lay a few grains of soaked wheat upon the ground before a chick which has not yet been fed. Does it peck at them instinctively? Tap a grain with the point of a pencil; does the chick now peck at it? Does it hit the grain at the first try? Does it ever strike at a grain which is out of reach? Watch a hen with her chicks; does she teach them to peck at food? How? Do the chicks know instinctively the difference between food and grains of sand, or have they to learn? Try if a chick can distinguish between a small worm and a bit of red worsted. Are young chicks afraid of large insects?
Take a chick, which has not yet drunk, to a small pool (a few drops) of water. Does it seem to know the use of the water? Induce it to peck at the water; does it now drink? How?
4. The crouching-instinct.—Clap your hands suddenly and loudly near young chicks. How do the chicks behave? Does this behaviour render them less conspicuous?
5. Non-recognition of hen.—Having made the above observations on chicks hatched apart from the hen, put the chicks among their brothers and sisters with the parent hen. Do the new-comers respond, as readily as the others, to the clucking, etc., of the hen?
6. Maternal training and protection.—How many different meanings can you recognise in the different sounds of the hen’s voice? How does she call and protect the chicks when any danger threatens them?
7. The voice of the chick.—Notice the different sounds by which a chick expresses pleasure, alarm, distress, etc.
8. Preening and scratching.—At what age do chickens begin to preen their feathers, and to scratch the ground? Try to discover if these are instinctive activities, or whether they have to be learnt from the hen.
9. Change in plumage.—At what age are the down feathers replaced by the true plumage? At what age is it possible to distinguish the young cocks from the young hens?