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Simple Chicken Facts
Simple facts about chickens
Hens will lay eggs without a rooster.
A rooster is needed to have fertilized eggs.
Hens usually begin to lay eggs between 5 to 7 months of age, depending on the breed.
It takes a hen roughly 24 hours to form an egg.
It takes 21 days to hatch a chick from an egg.
Only one nest box for every 3 to 4 hens is needed.
Chickens do cry when upset or pouting.
Most chicken breeds will eat ¾ cup of feed a day during warm months; more during cold weather.
Egg that has been fertilized does not have a baby until after the incubation process has begun.
A fertilized egg can begin to develop a chick at 88 degrees.
Chickens have full color vision.
The dark color of a chicken's ear lobe or light color will tell you whether they will lay dark or light colored eggs.
They have dreams when they sleep.
Chickens can have stress and they feel pain.
Chickens will mourn for each other.
Chickens communicate with each other using sounds that has a specific
meaning.
Most standard chicken breeds have the capacity to live between 8 to 15 years. Some have been known to live up to 20 years.
Mother hens communicate with their chicks that are still inside the egg shell.
Capable of empathy; A British study showed that mother hens felt anxiety when their baby chicks were in distress, which, according to researchers, means mother hens are capable of feeling empathy.
Chickens are creatures of habit, once they survive a night safe in a spot, they’ll return every night, once they find food/water in a place, they return to that place, once they find a nest in a place, they return to that place.
Chickens prefer clean coops, water and food contrary to popular belief.
Chickens respond to body language and a smile.
Chickens enjoy playing.
Chickens enjoy a warm bath in the summer.
Chickens can watch and learn from each other.
Chickens respond to love and attention.
Chickens will bully and brutalize a new addition (stranger) to the flock if they don’t know them.
Some chicken breed hens prefer to be a mother and goes broody several
times a year.
Chickens possess self-control when it comes to holding out for a better food.
Over 452 million hens are used for eggs every year.
There are more chickens in the world than any other breed; over 19 billion.
The rooster uses his wattle in a dance to attract hens to him.
Chickens have more bones in their neck than does a giraffe.
Silkies chicken breeds have 5 toes.
Damage to a chicken’s beak is intensely painful. At the end of their beak is a specialized cluster of highly sensitive mechanoreceptors, called the bill tip organ, which allows chickens to make fine tactile discriminations (Gentle and Breward 1986).
A chicken’s heart beat over 300 beats a minute.
Chickens only have 350 taste buds and can’t taste sweetness, but they can taste saltiness. (humans have 10,000)
The rooster’s dance is called tidbitting.
A chicken can fly a maximum of 13 seconds.
Hens will lay fewer, but larger, eggs as they age.
Stress will cause a chicken to lose its feathers.
Chickens naturally loses feathers to a molt once a year, usually in the fall of the year.
Chickens prefer a wide roost to a skinny one where they can rest on top their feet.
Chicks are naked until they get their feathers at around 2 months of age.
Chickens have distinct personalities, and are emotionally, and behaviorally complex individuals.
Broody hens constantly turn their eggs for 3 weeks until they hatch.
Broody hens need access to food and water during the time they are hatching chicks.
Chickens make great pets.
Chickens are sensitive to touch, and their skin contains numerous kinds of receptors for temperature, pressure, and pain.
Chickens are representative of the galliformes, a bird group that also
includes turkeys, partridges and pheasants.
Most roosters are friendly.
Chickens feel hunger, pain, and fear.
Accessories are sold for pet chickens, chicken bracelets,
Certain breeds of hens can lay over 300 eggs per year.
There are large, medium, and bantam size chickens. Bantams are usually pets used in shows.
There are poultry shows all over the world.
The American Poultry Association has a specific Standard of Perfection for each breed of chicken to measure to be called by their breed.
Space Needed:
Large fowl breeds need at least 4 square feet of space per bird provided they are let out to forage during the day. So, a 4’ by 8’ coop would be adequate for about 8 birds.
Two pieces of furnishings are needed when confining chickens; a roost and
nest.
A coop needs 3 square feet of floor space per bantam chicken and 1 square foot of ventilation per 10 square feet of floor space
Perch space needed per large chicken is 12 inches and 9 inches for a bantam.
The standard size for nest boxes are 12”x 12”, but your chickens won’t mind slightly smaller or larger boxes provided they fit comfortably.
A chicken run should be around 10 Sq. ft. of ground space per LF chicken, and 7.5 Sq. ft. of ground space per bantam chicken.
Chicken Vernacular
Bantam: a smaller breed of chicken, usually 1/4-1/2 the size of standard
chickens.
Bloom: a protective coating found on freshly laid eggs which help to prevent bacterial growth.
Broody: when a hen remains sitting on eggs to hatch chicks.
Candle: a bright light to shine through an egg to determine chick development during incubation.
Clutch: a batch of eggs found together in the nest.
Cockerel: a male chicken under one year of age.
Comb: the red, fleshy crown on top of a chicken's head.
Coop: a structure built for housing chickens.
Crossbreed: a chicken hatched from a rooster and a hen of different breeds.
Down: fluffy coat of baby chicks.
Dust Bath: Is the place where chickens roll in dirt to bath in to keep off lice and mites from their plumage.
Flock: a group of chickens residing in a single coop.
Free Range: chickens given access to range freely in a pasture or yard.
Fryer: a chicken raised for its meat.
Frizzle: curled feathers found on adult chickens of some breeds.
Layer: a hen kept for the purpose of egg production.
Molt: natural loss of feathers allowing a new coat to grow.
Nesting Box: a safe place for hens to lay eggs.
Roost: a bar or branch where chickens perch to sleep.
Pecking Order: a social ranking of a flock, usually with similar ranking of a king or queen, nobles, peers, and lower class.
Pinfeathers: the blood-filled tips of new developing feathers.
Plumage: the feathered coat of a chicken.
Pullet: a young female chicken under one year of age.
Run: fenced in area attached to a coop for a safe outdoor place for chickens.
Scratch: whole grains or corn feed supplement feed for chickens.
Starter: high protein crumbled feed given made specifically for day old to 10 weeks old chicks.
Sexed: newborn chicks determined to be either male or female.
Wattle: Fleshy skin (usually red) under the chin of a chicken.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5306232/
http://earthsky.org/earth/chicken-intelligence
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170110-despite-what-you-might-think-chickens-are-not-stupid
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