Chickens are, without a doubt, one of the most interesting critters to own. To know them, is to fall madly in love with their beauty, their entertaining antics, and their sweet clucky chitter-chatter. These intelligent and very sociable chooks can “worm” their way into your heart within seconds. So, let’s take a peek at what makes them unique.
1. On average, chickens tend to live to be 5-8 years of age.
2. Chickens have an eclectic palate. They’re happy to devour your kitchen scraps, veggies and the “fruits of your labour” from your garden. They also love to eat bugs and worms, seeds and nuts, grass and wait for it…weeds! They will happily polish off a plate of scrambled eggs for an egg-stra dose of protein too!
3. Chickens clean themselves by preening- they gather oil, using their beak, from a tiny gland located near their tail and then peck at their feathers. They will also take a dust bath where they basically just roll and flop around in dry dirt or sand. They use their wings to spread the dirt onto their skin and throughout their feathers, then proceed to shake it all off!
4. Equipped with a third eyelid, chooks use this transparent and horizontally moving lid to moisten their eyes and protect against other chickens’ pecking.
5. Hens produce an egg approximately every 25 hours and they are able to lay eggs completely without the help of a rooster! Hens will lay an average of 100-365 eggs per year. That’s a LOT of eggs!
6. They come equipped with egg-straordinary wings, but most don’t fly well and they cannot swim.
7. Molting occurs once a year, usually during the cooler temperatures and at approximately 16-18 months of age.
8. In very hot weather, a chicken can drink up to 1 litre of water per day.
9. Chickens’ combs occur in quite a variety of styles, some of which are single, rose, pea, cushion, V, carnation, buttercup, cushion, and walnut shapes.
10. Chicken droppings help to make egg-cellent fertilizer for you gardens and free-ranged chickens lay much healthier eggs! Yay!
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