Surprising facts about chooks
20 interesting things I didn't know when starting out in poultry.
Chickens can fly and are quite comfortable sleeping in a tree.
Chickens don’t need a rooster around to lay eggs.
Chickens generally stop laying eggs during winter.
They lose their feathers once a year (called “moulting”) and replace them with new ones.
Sometimes, these new feathers are different colours to the old ones.
Some hens crow, often if there isn’t a rooster in the flock.
They eat meat. They’re particularly fond of chasing mice and grasshoppers.
Roosters (and some hens) have spurs on their legs, which keep growing their entire lives.
Rooster spurs can get so long they can cause injuries.
Hens lay eggs in all sorts of colours, from pure white to almost-black, and including pink, blue and green.
The down colour chicks hatch with may not look anything like their adult feathers.
The chook laying cycle is a little over 24 hours, and they don’t lay every day.
Breeds can range in size from pocket-sized (Serama) to taller than a toddler (Malay Game).
They’re drawn to eat things of a red colour, and this can include eachother if they have wounds. Or meat, apples, and cricket balls ...
They won’t drink water that’s too warm for them.
Chooks love sun- and dust-bathing, and it’s an essential form of cleaning for them.
Green leafy veggies make bright orange yolks; prawn heads turn yolks pink, while marigold petals turn them red.
Chooks can overeat and get fat on sunflower seeds, just as humans do on sweets.
Chooks just learning to lay can produce tiny “pullet”, or “fart” eggs, often no larger than a 10c piece.
Chooks often dislike other chooks of a different colour to themselves.
Got any other strange facts about chooks? Let me know!