Poultry Enthusiast

Chickens are incredibly smart, as smart as mammals like cats, dogs and even primates. They navigate by the sun. A chicken is able to understand that recently hidden objects still exist, a talent that is beyond the capacity of small human children. Chickens show sophisticated social behavior; they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another, love their young, and grieve the loss of close friends or family members. A mother hen will turn her eggs as many as five times an hour and cluck to her unborn chicks, who will chirp back to her and to one another from inside their shells.

A video produced by the Association for the Study of Animal Behavior shows chickens learning which bowls contain food by watching television, learning to peck a button three times in order to obtain food, and figuring out how to navigate a complex obstacle course in order to get to a nesting box. In 2002, the PBS documentary The Natural History of the Chicken revealed that “chickens love to watch television and have vision similar to humans. They also seem to enjoy all forms of music, especially classical.” Another source mentioned that some chickens prefer classic rock music. Different pickin’s for different chickens.

The language of chickens, known among us fanciers as Chickenese, is quite remarkable. Chickens have more than 30 distinct cries to communicate with one another, including separate alarm calls depending on whether a predator is traveling by land or sea. I realize that this fact may be a gunshot to the foot of my whole theory that my chickens were responding to the geese because of an ancient relationship. It’s possible, of course, that they may have been giving a cry of alarm instead of singing a song of recognition, but frankly, I was there, and I don’t think so.

Among the Chickenese phrases I have come to recognize are hello and good morning; thank you; I laid that one and I’m so proud; water, please; open this darn gate; and here she comes! As I’ve told a number of people, in middle age I care a great deal less about whether or not people like me, but my heart just sings every single time I step out the door and look up to see fifteen chickens barreling toward me from all over the yard as fast as their little legs will carry them. It is my steadfast belief that they think of me as family; I can do no less than think the same of them.

Nothing could be simpler than an egg. Right? Wrong! The production of each and every chicken’s egg is Nature’s way of showing off her wonders. Eggs develop according to a strict sequence of biochemical and physical actions.

ORIGINS

A female chick carries, from birth, thousands of yolks. At maturity each yolk is released into a tube called an oviduct and begins its journey to becoming an egg. The start of these eggs is triggered by light falling on photosensitive cells near the bird’s eye, firing a starting pistol on a journey of 25 hours from ovum to fully formed egg. This 25 hour transit time means that a laying hen will lay a fresh egg daily, one hour later each day – certain laying breeds such as leghorns are better at keeping up this kind of pace than others. For some, egg production in their prime would be 3 or 4 eggs a week.

TRANSIT

During transit the yolk increases in size and is surrounded by albumen. It is then wrapped in a membrane and finally encased in the familiar shell. Shortly before the egg drops from the vent to the ground, pigment is deposited on the surface of the shell which determines the colour of the egg to be laid. A particular breed will lay a particular coloured egg, the most common being brown and white, for example Leghorns lay white eggs and Orpingtons lay brown – essentially the difference is only shell deep, despite the common misconception brown eggs are not any healthier than white.

At a certain point in the process the membrane around the egg is surrounded with a fluid comprising water, salt and calcium. From this mixture the shell forms in the shape of the uterus.

CLOACA

Hens have a single common orifice – called the cloaca – for the elimination of waste and for egg laying. Into the cloaca feed two channels. The oviduct and the large intestine. When an egg approaches the last section of the oviduct, the intestinal opening is blocked to allow transit of the egg. In this way the egg passes hygienically through the cloaca without coming into contact with waste matter.

Each chicken’s body contains ova at different stages of development. Some, the newest, will be tiny yolks. When mated with a rooster all the eggs in process at that point in time will be fertilized (assuming all other mating conditions are good). Those eggs which have progressed nearer the end of the oviduct will be larger and closer to being ready to lay.

Once the egg passes the cloaca, it is carefully expelled through a series of muscular contractions which convulse expelling the egg through the vent, an action often accompanied by a ‘cluck’.

BROODING

Those involved with hens know well, that biologically, chickens have evolved to produce a clutch of eggs. Having a clutch can trigger a maternal instinct driving chickens to sit on their eggs but there are plenty of hens that will go broody in an empty nestbox as well so it is not always the case. However, from the point of view of minimizing the chance of her going broody and/or lessening the likelihood of an accidental (or intentional) breakage which could lead to a flock of egg eaters it is usually best to collect the eggs at least once a day. Presumably you would like the eggs anyway 🙂 If you want chicks to be hatched then exchanging false eggs for the real ones could allow your hen to build up a clutch which might encourage your hen to go broody (if that is what you want her to do) without you actually losing any eggs until it is certain that she wants to do the job. Broodiness can’t really be forced but it can be encouraged and that is one way to encourage it. Some hens are more prone to going broody than others (Silkies anyone?). Once a hen has gone broody she will stop laying until several weeks after the chicks have been raised.

REPLENISHMENT

Egg production uses up vital minerals which must be replaced. The process requires large amounts of calcium. As calcium drains away, comb, wattles and legs fade. To ensure health, calcium must be replaced. In commercial layers feed calcium (and the other nutrients needed) are already in the feed, but for older hens it may help them to have a calcium supplement available to them (they only take it if they feel they need it) such as oyster shell.

Millions of years of evolution have created the wondrous process by which eggs are created. It integrates biological, chemical and physical processes within a living creature in a unique way. Small wonder that there are so many people around the world, dedicated to the raising of hens for their eggs.