Baby Chickies like Stump Dirt

These are the remnants of an old oak tree that fell over several years ago, before that a tall stump stood, decomposing upright for many years, and hosting all sorts of other plants, bugs, ant and bee colonies, small critters and birds. The oak was large and probably a few hundred years old, before it started its decay.

The stump holds a very rich soil made up from all of what once was living in the center of that old oak tree, and some things that still live there. Since the climate is too cold and wet to start our chicks outdoors, we bring moss from the forest floor, and dirt from the stump, indoors for our chicks. We want to provide the chicks with some of what they miss out on, while they are living inside the house.

We use the stump dirt and assorted mosses and mossy logs to make a little mock forest floor for them to peck and scratch around in, they explore and learn to tell bugs from dirt, while their little brains are still developing. The density of the soil is a good heavy scratch for the developing little birds leg muscles to work against.

The baby chicks find many things to eat in the dirt and learn to recognize things they will encounter when they are released into the woods to free range when they are older.