We at the typesofchicken.com team spend a lot of time researching the subject of our upcoming articles.
While doing that research we often stumble upon pieces of information that we don’t have room for in our articles so we just keep them – interesting facts about the process of chicken keeping and chickens in general. This is the second time we have collected a bunch of facts for our readers, some time ago we gave you 40 amazing facts about chickens and now it is time for us to give you 20 fun and useful facts about hens, eggs and chicken mating.
1. An undeveloped yolk is called ova.
A normal baby chick is born with thousands of ova and later in life those ova go into the process of becoming a healthy egg.
2. A hen has one opening for releasing both her feces and eggs.
However, two different channels release the feces and the eggs and when the egg is being released the feces releasing channel gets blocked off. This prevents the egg from being contaminated.
3. Egshells
In order to produce eggshells the hen drains calcium from her own body. If you want to have a healthy laying hen make sure that you add calcium in her diet.
4. Egg laying
Hens have different kinds of behavior when egg laying is in question, some want their privacy and some want to join their flock members in the nesting boxes.
5. Laying hens
learn from each other, good and bad habits, so if one of your hens starts to eat her own eggs the best thing to do is separate her from the flock.
6. Cracked or broken egg
It is not uncommon for a chicken keeper to find a cracked or broken egg in the nesting boxes. In many cases that is just an accident while turning the egg or just the hen pecks at it out of curiosity without the intention of eating it.
7. Hens sing their egg song around the time they lay an egg.
It is a way of showing pride and achievement. Chickens have a complex way of communicating with each other.
8. Fertile and infertile egg
Both fertile and infertile eggs are completely edible. A fertile egg if not handled properly will not grow a baby chick inside.
9. If the hen is properly fed
The color of the egg yolk should be from yellow to orange. Orange means that the chicken keeper has done a good job feeding his hens.
10. Egg Whites
Some eggs may contain red or brown spots in the egg whites. These are not harmful for the human stomach but if you are uncomfortable eating them you can remove them before cooking.
11. Eggs should be washed right before cooking.
Eggshells contain a special cover over them (bloom) which prevents bacteria from entering the egg or stacking up on the eggshells. The more you keep the bloom of the eggshells the better the quality of the egg.
12. Fart Eggs
There are fart eggs which are eggs that are not completely developed and just rush through the vent of the hen due to their small and incomplete size.
13. Strange Eggs
There are eggs with two or more yolks that contain a normal amount of egg whites and yolk-less eggs which are completely filled with the egg white.
14. Feeding your chickens eggshells
Can be very useful for their health but make sure that you crush them before serving because if they start eating eggshells in their true form they may start eating their own eggs.
15. How Do Chicken Lay Eggs
Hens can mate and develop fertile eggs any time because they don’t have an estrus cycle.
16. Hens are capable on sitting on other chickens eggs.
This is an especially known fact for breeds that are famous for their motherly instincts such as the Silkies.
17. How do chicken eggs get fertilized?
One mating can produce more than one fertile egg. Sperm can stay in the hen`s system for about three or four weeks.
18. Broody hens
Broody hens can sometimes know if something is wrong with one of their eggs and they push the egg out of the nesting box to let their keepers know.
19. Chicken Anatomy
The size, shape, and color of the egg are totally breed-dependent. Larger hens lay larger eggs and bantam hens lay smaller eggs. Eggshell colors can be light brown, white, dark brown, blue or green.
20. Egg Shell
Hens can sometimes give undeveloped eggs that are missing their eggshell. They can behold down by a membrane or just the egg white and yolk come out of the vent.
Did you enjoy our list? What facts do you know about hens, eggs and chicken mating that you think should be on this list? Feel free to share your opinion trough the comment section or via e-mail support@typesofchicken.com
