Author: Justin Shelton

The chicken embryo inside the egg continues to develop physically after the egg has been laid. The embryo feeds on the yolk of the egg. The yolk of the egg provides plenty of nutrition to the developing chick. The yolk will fully sustain the chick until he is ready to hatch. Can chickens eat raw […]

Just like their duck cousins, adult chickens will float in water. However, they cannot float for long periods of time. Their ability to float is probably a survival mechanism to give them a chance to get out of a lake or pond if they fall in while getting a drink. Never leave a chicken unattended […]

Chickens are tetrachromatic It means that they have four types of cones that allow them to see red, blue, green, and ultraviolet light. As a result, they see a much more comprehensive range of hues and tones than we do. Can chickens see green? Chickens are tetrachromatic. They have 4 types of cones that let […]

Chicken Hearing Range They can hear sounds in the 10-12,000 Hz range, while the human ear generally hears sounds in the 20-20,000 Hz range, meaning that chickens can hear sounds that are inaudible to humans. And chickens have better hearing than humans below 64 Hz. How far can chickens hear? 1, the absolute thresholds of […]

Bottom line, try to go into chickens mentally prepared for losses. When they happen, mourn. Then address anything addressable, and move on the wiser. No matter how long you keep chickens, you’ll always have losses, we’re sorry to say. Do chickens get sad after death? Chickens are emotionally intelligent creatures. Much more so than many […]

Hot water bottles. If you don’t mind the thought of getting up in the night to tend your chicks,2 hot water bottles can be used as a safe heat source. You will need to insulate the bottles with a towel or other similar item so the chicks can’t directly access the water bottle. Can chickens […]

That said, they can indeed overheat if the temperature gets much above that. If you see your baby chicks panting or gasping with their beaks open like the little chick in the photo below, it is too hot in your brooder. Reduce the heat immediately, and give them a place to escape to a cooler […]

Three docile, cold hardy breeds that do well with children include Orpingtons, Australorps and Silkie Bantams. Other breeds that don’t mind chilly winter weather include Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds, Barred Rocks, Delawares, Brahmas and Salmon Favorelles. What chicken breeds are best in cold weather? Chicken breeds that are most suited to cold […]

If your nests are the highest spot in your coop, your birds will be sorely tempted to roost there no matter what. It is instinct that they will naturally seek out the highest place available to retire at night. Chickens prefer flat, wide roosts. Will chickens go back to coop at night? At nightfall, the […]

The answer to this question will come down to the individual personality of your chickens. In most cases, chickens tend to have a disinclination towards smells like citrus and herbs with strong odours, such as lavender, catnip, spearmint, marigold, or chives. What scent attracts chickens? In one experiment, eggs were rubbed with strawberry scent. When […]

It’s unlikely, but not impossible. Most commercial egg farms have strictly all-female flocks because male chickens aren’t needed for egg production and aren’t suitable for meat either (chickens raised for meat are a different breed). Can a normal egg become a chicken? During their exploration of chicken embryology, youth learn that for a chicken to […]

The Evening Grosbeak is a songbird that doesn’t sing. It sounds like a chicken. Specifically like a pullet or chick (roosters can sing, though we don’t often think of their crowing in musical terms). Male and female Evening Grosbeaks do make calls—loud and fairly high-pitched notes as well short blurry chirps. Why chicken make noise […]

Unlike humans and most mammals, a female chicken has but one rear orifice with three functions. It is where feces and eggs exit her body and sperm enter. The rooster’s cloaca has only two functions. One is to pass feces. How many holes do chickens? One. The egg, poop, and urine (which for a chicken […]

What do you get when you mate a chicken with a turkey? You can get a turkey/chicken hybrid, but for some reason they only produce male eggs. We recently got a turken mixed in with our austalorp eggs, which is not a fancy hybrid, just a breed of chicken that has a neck like a […]

Without chickens, we would face “a starving world”, says Olivier Hanotte, a molecular biologist at the University of Nottingham, UK, who has studied the spread of the chicken around the globe. Close to one-third of the world’s meat supply and nearly all of its eggs would vanish. Can we live without chicken? “It is impossible […]

In most cases, chickens will return to the coop instinctively and away from danger once it begins to go dark, but getting new chickens to know the coop can take a bit of work upfront to get them used to where they should be roosting. What time do chickens return to the coop? Chickens go […]

These germs can cause a variety of illnesses in people, ranging from minor skin infections to serious illnesses that could cause death. One of the best ways to protect yourself from getting sick is to wash your hands thoroughly right after touching poultry or anything in the area where they live and roam. Can you […]

Some dogs will simply chase them until they die; some will shake a chicken to death; some will kill with one hard bite and move on to the next… but well fed pet dogs will rarely actually eat a chicken. Can dogs get sick from eating live chicken? YES! Dogs can get Salmonella infection from […]