101 Marchant Road, Redding, CT, 06896

(203) 938-2117

Fun Facts About Chickens

What’s in a NAME?

Chick = a newly hatched chicken
Pullet = an immature female
Cockerel = an immature male
Hen = a mature female; laying eggs
Rooster or Cock = a mature male

THINGS TO LOOK FOR ON A ROOSTER OR CHICKEN

  • Fleshy combs on top of their heads (roosters’ are larger)
  • Fleshy wattles below their beaks (roosters’ are larger)
  • Combs and wattles act as a cooling agent.
  • They do not sweat, instead they are cooled by blood that flows through the comb and wattles. As the warm blood circulates through the comb and other head appendages, it is cooled and returns to the interior portion of the body
  • Both hens and roosters can have defensive spurs on the back of their legs- but the roosters’ are much larger

FROM HERE TO THERE

  • They are heavy-bodied for the size of their wings, meaning they can’t really fly- the longest recorded “flight” of a chicken is only thirteen seconds
  • They can run close to 9 mph

DIET

  • They are omnivores, they eat both vegetables and meat (seeds, grain, insects, worms are all a part of their diet)

ALL ABOUT EGGS

  • It can take 24 -26 hours for a chicken to lay an egg
  • Hens lay an egg every other day, starting around five months of age
  • Hens take 4 pounds of feed to make one dozen eggs
  • Hens can lay eggs even if there isn’t a rooster in the flock.
  • It takes 21 days for an egg to hatch
  • Their earlobes give a clue to the color or their egg: White = white eggs, Red = brown eggs (Some chickens, like the Araucana, lay bluish green eggs)
  • Our chickens are laying hens- they lay their eggs, then go about their daily lives, they do not sit and incubate their eggs
  • Setting hens will turn each egg close to 50 times in a day, this prevents the yolk from sticking to the shell

KEEPING CLEAN

Did you know that chickens make their own “bathtubs”?

They like to take dust baths, digging a hole in the ground, filling their feathers with loose dirt, and then shaking all the dirt out, along with any itchy insects (like feather lice or mites)

DID YOU KNOW?

  • It’s thought that chickens are the closest living relative of the T-Rex!
  • Roosters may crow at any time of the day or night and hens cluck loudly after laying an egg, and also when calling their chicks
  • Over 50 billion chickens are raised annually as a source of food, for both their meat and their eggs
  • There are over 450 million chickens in America– that is more chickens that people!
  • It is believed that chickens were first domesticated over 10,000 years ago in the far east
  • The average lifespan is 5 to 7 years, but can live up to 20 years!