Animal Class >> Birds


The chicken is one of the most common domestic animal. These are kept by human as a source of food, with their eggs and meat. Adult male chickens are known as roosters and female over a year are known as hens and younger chickens are known as pullets. Both of them have wattles and combs which help to cool the bird by redirecting blood flow to the skin. Comb is a fleshy crest on their heads and wattles is a hanging flap of skin either side under their beaks. Chickens are gregarious birds and live together as a group of birds. They may live upto 5 to 11 years depending on their breed.

Facts About Chicken

  1. Domestic chickens are not capable to fly for long distance.
  2. Domestic chickens feed on seeds and insects but wild chicken can eat even lizards and young mice.
  3. Special breed hens lay about 300 eggs in a year. They incubate their eggs and raise young ones. A mother hen turns her egg approximately 50 times in a day. This is so the yolk does not stick to the shell. Hen takes 24-26 hours to lay an egg. Chicken lays different colours of eggs, depending on the hen, typically ranging from bright white to shades of brown and even blue, green, and recently reported purple.
  4. Hen takes 4 pounds of feed to make 1 dozen eggs.
  5. Chicken take 21 days to hatch.
  6. The chicken can travel up to 9 miles per hour.
  7.  Roosters may crow at any time of the day or night but hens cluck loudly after laying an egg, and also to call their chicks.
  8. Their egg laying ability starts decreasing after a year and they are killed for human consumption.
  9.  Roosters are differentiated from hens by their striking plumage, marked by long flowing tails and shiny, pointed feathers on their necks and backs. Rooster’s necks and backs are even differently coloured from hens.

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