Janet Johnson

A Year in the Life of Attwater's Prairie Chicken Keepers
continued from main page

Janet Johnson and Julia Watson work with Attwater's Prairie Chickens at Fossil Rim. The Attwater's Prairie Chicken is a type of grouse (a football-sized? brown bird) so you would think that these ladies would have a pretty easy job. Actually they have one of the most demanding jobs on property. Let me share their year with you.

January starts the year off with pen preparation by removing old brush or cacti and adding fresh nesting material. They have to make sure the incubators are functioning. Next the equipment must be sanitized and reassembled, floors and walls cleaned. Once everything else is done then it is time for putting pairs of birds in place. They let the male choose which area it wishes to have as it's "lek" – the area it uses to dance and impress the females - and then they place his female in that area with him.

Julia Watson

February is the start of "Booming Season". The males inflate colorful sacs on the sides of their neck, spread out their tails and wings, stomp their feet like flamenco dancers, and then expel the air from their neck sacs – this sound is called "booming", which is how they attract the females.

Early in March is when the workers and the facilities are getting prepared for housing chicks. This is also when interns start getting to know the routine and Fossil Rim. Egg production starts around the end of March and lasts until the end of May. Eggs take about 26 days to incubate. Once the chicks are hatched they are allowed time to dry off before being moved to the brooder boxes inside a special building that keeps them behind glass for the first couple of weeks of their lives. During this time they are weighed daily and once they reach 50 grams in weight they go to outside cages for a gradual introduction to the elements.

The first brood boxes they go into are quite short and the chicks only stay in them for 3 to 5 days, which is about when they start to eat and drink on their own. Feather dusters have been found to provide a quite adequate mother substitute. Then they are moved to the stacked cages across the hall, still enclosed behind protective glass. Their health is monitor closely through observations and daily weight checks.

Their gradual introduction to the outside world is a "small steps" approach. They will go into the most protected outside enclosures only during the day at first, this area is also fitted with heat sources when necessary, then they are brought back in at night to weigh them and check them over. This continues for about 2 or 3 days. If they are doing well and gaining weight then they have a door open and are permitted a little more exposure to the elements once they reach 70 grams. (Average chick hatch weight is 18 grams.) The next step is to be allowed into the part of the cage that is planted with plants they are likely to encounter at the release site. While the chicks are given mealworms from day one, this is the time that crickets are introduced into their diet. They must learn to catch these on their own. Salad is part of their diet four times a day for the first 3 weeks then it is cut back some, grains are also a daily part of their feed offerings. Mealworms and crickets are offered 4 times a day.

As long as the chicks are hatching and growing they are weighed daily, (sometimes two times a day if anything is questionable) they have their enclosures cleaned daily and of course must have their food prepared each day. When we are doing feeding studies the food is weighed before being put into the individual cages and then any remaining food must be weighed when taken out of the cage. Since the chicks hatch over a period of time that means that there are varying sizes of birds continually for about four months out of the year. This means different kinds of care for each group of birds. During the hatching period someone usually pays them a 2 AM visit each night to make sure all is well.

It is not until toward the end of August each year that the continual efforts of chick rearing slow down. Janet and Julia have a little more time to breathe, at least between feeding, cleaning cages, hauling sand out of the first-stage release pens, break down and disinfecting of incubators, hatchers, brooders, and cages not to mention all the record keeping that continues throughout the year.

If you enjoy prolonged exercise and periods of interrupted sleep then I would suggest your looking into Prairie Chicken Keeper as a choice of vocations.