This Turkey Tuesday is about poults and how their appearance changes over the first few weeks of life. Poults develop rapidly, and their survival increases as they replace down that covers their bodies at hatching, with feathers that offer protection and flight. At 1 week old, poults are 5-6 inches tall, primary wing feathers become visible, and tail feathers start emerging. A week later (2nd pic) they’re 6-7 inches tall, secondary wing feathers are emerging – and with this emergence, short flights become possible. The ability to make short flights at 2 weeks of age is why poult survival increases markedly at that stage. At 3-4 weeks old (3rd pic) poults are 10 inches tall and the down that covered their bodies at hatching now only dominates the head and neck. Contour feathers on the body become obvious, and poults are changing their diets – shifting from only eating insects to also using plants, fruits, and seeds. And once poults reach 5-6 weeks of age (4th pic), they’re 12 inches tall and already molting feathers that they first grew only a few weeks earlier. At this age, poults also start getting blue coloration on their head and, at least to me, are beginning to look like their mothers. If you’re seeing poults in your local area, knowing how their appearance changes through time allows you to estimate when they hatched – this is why some state agencies ask us to place poults we observe into age groups when reporting observations. Being able to obtain data on hatching dates at broad spatial scales can assist agencies with understanding the chronology of the nesting season and population trends. The take home is rapid development by poults the first few weeks of life is a prime example of how quickly things in our world can change.
Pics by Rc Gilliland
