140 Weird Facts About Chickens

140 Weird Facts About Chickens

• Chickens have full-colour vision, just like we do.
• Chickens can remember over 100 different faces of people or animals.
• An egg develops at 88 degrees Fahrenheit and is laid at 105 degrees.
• Chicken’s bodies contain 15% more water than humans.
• The fear of chickens is called Alektorophobia.
• If the white of an egg is cloudy, it means the egg is fresh.
• Chickens can see and dream in full color.
• When chickens feel stressed, they start to lose their feathers.
• If chickens listen to classical music, they can lay bigger and heavier eggs.
• Chickens can run up to 9 miles per hour!
• A chicken’s heart beats from 220 to 360 times per minute.
• This is called “tonic immobility,” and it means a catatonic fear-induced state.
• As chickens grow older, they lay larger eggs, but fewer than when they’re younger.
• Chickens can taste saltiness, but not sweetness.
• Mother hens teach their chicks what to eat and what to avoid.
• A chicken egg’s nutritional value is the same, regardless of the egg color.
• Most eggs are typically laid in the morning between 7 am and 11 am.
• Hens generally choose their mates based on the size and brightness of a roosters comb on top of his head. Sometimes they will mate with multiple roosters at once.
• Originally, chickens were domesticated for the use of cockfighting.
• In Gainesville, Florida, you have to eat fried chicken with your bare hands. Eating it by any other method is illegal.
• A hen has to eat about four pounds of feed to make one dozen eggs.
• The earliest known printing of “Why did the chicken cross the road?” was in 1847 in a New York Magazine.
• On average, 97 chickens are killed every 0.05 seconds worldwide.
• By vaccinating chickens, the United Kingdom virtually eliminated salmonella.
• Research suggests that chickens are cleverer than toddlers. Hens have exhibited mathematical reasoning, self-control and even structural engineering.
• Chickens know who’s boss. Just like us, they form social structures, known as “pecking orders”, and all chickens know their place on the ladder. It’s only when they’re packed into sheds on intensive farms with tens of thousands of other birds that their social hierarchy collapses and stress leads to feather-pecking and cannibalism.
• Chickens originate from tropical rainforests, where they evolved for millions of years, and artificial farm pastures leave hens feeling vulnerable and exposed.
• Studies show that chickens survive a predator attack 90 per cent of the time while living in their natural environment.
• In South Korea, there are more fried chicken restaurants than there are McDonald’s restaurants worldwide.
• Chicken wings used to be considered undesirable and sometimes thrown out, until 1964 when a restaurant owner barbecued and served them in 1964 and called them Buffalo wings. They were named after the city they were first made in, Buffalo, New York.
• The record for most egg yolks in one egg is 9 yolks.
• The largest chicken egg ever recorded weighed 12 ounces and contained two yolks.
• Americans consume 8 billion chickens per year which is more chicken than beef; at 80 pounds of chicken per capita compared to 63 pounds of beef per capita.
• Chickens are omnivores, and a hen will eat their own raw eggs if they are not satisfied with their diet.
• In order to clean themselves, chickens take dust baths. They dig a small pit in the ground and use the dirt to help with the oil in their feathers.
• Mother hens talk to their chicks while they’re still in the eggs, and the chicks can chirp back while in the shell.
• In order to attract hens, roosters will do a dance called “tidbitting” involving moving their head up and down, waddling, and making certain sounds.
• Believe it or not, it is most likely that chickens were first domesticated for fighting each other, not for food.
• Forcing chickens to fight each other, or “cockfighting,” is illegal in all 50 states today, and is considered to be a form of animal cruelty. People can now be punished by the law for this type of crime.
• Believe it or not, despite popular belief, chickens are not completely flightless. Chickens can fly a little bit – well enough to make it over a fence or even up a tree.
• Believe it or not, there are more chickens than any other type of bird species in the world – around 25 billion, to be exact.
• Hens defend their young from predators. Next time someone calls you “chicken” as an insult, you know what to tell them!
• Chickens love to play and will run, jump and sunbathe when given the chance – yet billions of them spend their entire lives in cramped sheds with less floor space than an A4 piece of paper.
• Chickens dream just like we do. They experience REM (rapid eye movement) during sleep, indicating that their minds may be wandering far from the four walls of the factory farms where they are imprisoned.
• Chickens can distinguish among more than 100 faces of members of their species – who knew that their memories rival those of elephants?
• Wild chickens lay only approximately 10 to 15 eggs a year during breeding season. The hens who are bred by the egg industry to produce eggs every single day often suffer from painful reproductive disorders and become exhausted after just a few years.
• Chickens are the closest living relative to the T. rex, though perhaps not quite as scary!
• There are more chickens on earth than people – 25 billion. There are also more chickens than any other bird species.
• A mother hen turns her eggs about 50 times per day and can lay more than 300 eggs per year.
• The record number of eggs laid by a chicken in one day is 7. The record number of eggs laid by a chicken in one year is 371.
• Chickens were domesticated in Southern China around 8,000 years ago in 6000 B.C.
• The color of the egg depends on the chicken’s earlobes. Red ear lobed chickens lay brown eggs, while white ear lobed chickens lay white eggs.
• There’s a rare breed of chicken from Indonesia that is completely black including the feathers, beak, and organs, due to hyperpigmentation. They can be sold for $2,500.
• There is an invention called a “chicken gun” which is used to test the resistance of airplane windows and engines by blasting dead chickens at the aircraft.
• There’s a wild mushroom called a Laetiporus that tastes nearly the same as chicken. It is sometimes called the “fried chicken mushroom.”
• When a chicken gets its head cut off, it can run the length of a football field before dropping dead.
• The longest recorded flight by a chicken lasted for 13 seconds at a total distance of 301 feet.
• Chickens have prehistoric roots and are the closest living relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• It only takes about 26 hours for a hen to produce an egg, and 21 days for the egg to incubate and hatch.
• The longest recorded chicken to live was named Matilda, who lived to be 16 years old, which is over twice as long as an average chicken lifespan.
• Chickens have their own unique language with over 30 different sounds used to communicate.
• Baby chicks can develop object permanence as soon as 2 days old, while it takes human babies around 7 months.
• In 2004, the chicken was the first bird to have its genome sequenced – which is finding out the order of their DNA. Doing this helped determine that the chicken is the closest living relative to the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• If you trick a hen into thinking a day is 28 hours by using certain lighting, she will lay bigger and stronger eggs.
• The chicken is well-known for many things – clucking about on farms, laying eggs, and being covered in big, white feathers, to name a few.
• All of these things are obvious, but there are many interesting facts about this animal you may not know. 
• If you’ve ever visited a local farm, it’s very likely you’ve seen a bunch of chickens running about. Perhaps you’ve even held a baby chick at one point in your life.
• The chicken is much more fascinating than one may realize – read these chicken facts to learn more about this mostly domesticated animal.
• Keep in mind, we can’t tell you why the chicken crossed the road!
• Like we mentioned above, most chickens are domesticated – this means they have been tamed and kept as pets.
• You’ll usually find chickens on farms or in backyards, although wild chickens can be found in India and Asia.
• Domesticated chickens are usually born and raised in chicken coops or some kind of fenced-in area.
• A chicken’s diet will not be very appealing to us humans – chickens in the wild like to eat whatever they can overpower, like mice, insects, and grains.
• Domesticated chickens are often given “chicken feed” which is specifically created for chickens to give them the proper nutrition they need to grow.
• Chicken feed contains grains, vegetable/animal proteins, and other added minerals and nutrients.
• The average chicken might drink up to 500ml of water a day. It’s important for chickens to stay well hydrated – hens in particular are more sensitive to water deficiency than food deficiency.
• It can even affect how well they lay eggs.
• Despite popular belief, not all chickens look exactly the same – they can come in different sizes and colors.
• However, the general body structure of chickens is rather similar, and includes a tiny head with a very plump body.
• Most chickens also have scale-covered legs and sharp claws used for gripping objects and walking.
• Chickens aren’t just white, brown, and black – they can be gold, silver, red, blue, and green!
• There are only 7 billion people in the entire world, so that means there are more chicken than people on the planet! We are certainly outnumbered by our feathered friends, aren’t we?
• Believe it or not, chickens can be induced into a hypnotic state by drawing a straight line in front of their beaks.
• It is induced by holding a chicken on the ground and drawing a straight line using chalk in front of them – the chicken will focus on the line and become hypnotized and motionless.
• When the chicken is released, it will remain motionless for 30 seconds to 30 minutes, or until distracted/moved.
• Believe it or not, the chicken is the closest living relative to the Tyrannosaurus Rex!
• The term chicken is genderless and does not refer specifically to a male or female chicken. The term hen always refers to a female chicken. A rooster is a male chicken.
• A chick refers to the babies (of either gender). Confusing these two words is a very common mistake that many people make.
• Roosters will attempt to woo hens by performing a little dance, called “tidbitting”, involving moving their heads up and down and making a certain type of call. Female hens are also thought to be especially attracted to roosters who have a large wattle!
• Chickens display object permanence – an understanding that when an object is hidden, it still exists. Even young children don’t have this ability.
• Mother hens talk to their unborn babies, and they chirp back through their shells. Factory-farmed chicks never meet their parents because they are taken away as soon as they’re laid.
• They can navigate using the sun, which helps them find food and water and even know what time it is. Many chickens raised for meat or eggs, however, will never even see the sun from their dark, windowless sheds.
• Chickens love dust baths and become extremely frustrated in factory farms when they aren’t able to clean themselves this way. The bathing helps to ward off parasites as well as maintaining feather insulation.
• Wild chickens survive for five to 11 years in their natural environment. Chickens raised for meat are often slaughtered when they’re just 41 days old – for “free-range” birds, this period increases to just 56 days old. Male chicks born into the egg industry are routinely killed as soon as they’re born.
• And they tell each other about what they see. Chickens communicate with more than 24 vocalisations, each with a distinct meaning, including warning their friends about different types of predators or letting their mothers know whether they’re comfortable.
• Chickens have pain receptors, enabling them to feel pain and distress. Just imagine their agony, then, when they endure mutilations such as having the ends of their sensitive beaks cut off with an infra-red laser – with no painkillers.

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