How Ducks See Affects Their Behavior
Without moving its head, a duck can see horizontally all the way around, and vertically from above its bill and over the top of its head to more than 180 degrees behind its head. Ducks thus can see most of...
Category: Coop
Built-In Wooden Brooder Boxes
In an underused part of our barn, some years ago we constructed built-in wooden brooder boxes. They turned out to be ideal for brooding baby poultry without eternally scrounging for cardboard boxes. Not only that, but we have used them...
Roasted Whole Chicken — Awesome Alternative to Turkey
Instead of serving turkey during holidays, at our house we serve roasted whole chicken. The size better suits our small family, and we still have plenty of leftovers for next-day sandwiches. What type of chicken? I have roasted both American...
Do Chickens Have Good Hearing?
Chickens hear better than humans. But how do they hear without “ears”? And what do they hear? In short, how and why do chickens have such good hearing? How Chickens Hear A chicken has ears on both sides of its...
A Chicken’s Defense Strategies
As vulnerable prey animals, chickens have developed numerous defense strategies for evading predators. Depending on the proximity of a predator, the chicken’s defense strategies may be categorized as either primary or secondary. Primary Defense Strategies Primary defenses are always ready...
Chickens Have Two Kinds of Bone
Chickens, like many other birds, have two kinds of bone. One contains pockets to enhance air circulation. The other stores calcium for egg production. Here’s a closer look at the two kinds of bone making up a chicken’s skeletal system...
A Chicken’s Food Call
A chicken’s food call is readily recognizable. The chicken usually makes this high-pitched, rapidly repeated sound while pecking at the ground. For instance, a mother hen makes the sound when she finds some tasty tidbit for her chicks. What does...
The Clucking Hen
Hens cluck a lot. The sound is neither the low-pitch sound of contentment, nor the high-pitch sound of alarm. Rather, the sound made by a clucking hen is smack dab in the middle of the chickens’ pitch range, emphasizing neither...
African and French Guinea Fowl
Last year I had the opportunity to raise French guinea fowl for the first time. I’ve had African guineas for decades, so I was curious to find out how different they might be from one another. My observations are by...
Bielefelders and Other Autosex Chickens
Bielefelder chicks, like those of other autosex breeds, may be sexed at the time of hatch based on the color and markings of the chicks’ down. As is true for sex link chickens, the autosexing phenomenon takes advantage of genes...