Like the males of 97 percent of all bird species, a rooster does not have a penis. An incubated egg that will become a rooster starts to develop a penis, but early in the second week of embryonic development, a cell death protein called Bmp4 cloaks the incipient penis, causing it to stop developing and […]
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Conventional wisdom says you should never keep turkeys and chickens together, because turkeys are susceptible to blackhead, a disease with devastating consequences. However, lots of backyarders raise chickens and turkeys together without a problem, and with some benefits. Here are three good reasons to keep turkeys with chickens, and two reasons not to. Thumbs Up […]
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Furnishing the type of environment your laying hens seek when they are ready to lay an egg will ensure they lay in the location of your choice. With proper nest boxes, eggs will be laid where you can easily find them, and where they will remain clean and unbroken. Here are ten features hens look […]
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A chicken’s toenails constantly grow, just like a human’s. Unlike a human, though, a chicken can often keep its own toenails trimmed back by scratching the ground while looking for things to eat. Scattering a small amount of scratch grain or some mealworms on the ground encourages chickens to scratch and keep their nails properly […]
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If you’ve never seen a chicken dust bathing, the sight can give you quite a shock. Lying in the dirt while vigorously twitching its feet and flopping its wings, the chicken first looks like it’s having an uncontrollable fit. Then it lies perfectly still in the hole it just dug, looking like death itself. Go […]
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No one knows how many different chicken breeds exist in the world, because no one keeps track. Wikipedia estimates hundreds. In her book The Behavioural Biology of Chickens, Professor C.J. Nichol of the University of London has counted more than 500 “fancy breeds” worldwide, described as ranging “from the sublime to the ridiculous.” These vague […]
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Some chicken breeds make great broody hens. Others are iffy. Still others are completely unreliable. And some never go broody at all. What does broody mean and why does it matter? Broodiness, in a nutshell, is maternal instinct. After a hen has accumulated a nestful of eggs, maternal instinct tells her to keep the eggs […]
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So, you finally did it. You went out and got chicks®. Now what? Here are eight facts about baby chicks that commonly surprise first time owners. Brooding baby poultry of any type generates a lot of fine dust, so locate your brooder where dust won’t be a problem. Your living room or guest room, for […]
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Chickens are endlessly fascinating. The more time you spend with them, the more you discover how intensely complex these creatures are. Here are 20 weird and wonderful facts about chickens: If all the chickens on earth were evenly distributed among all the people on earth, each person would have at least 3 chickens. The chicken […]
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A bantam is a small chicken, about one-fourth to one-fifth as big as a standard-size chicken, generally weighing no more than 2 pounds. The popularity of bantams, affectionately known as banties, began as families moved from farms into suburban areas, and escalated from there. People who enjoy keeping bantams find that they require little backyard […]
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