Life on the Farm
What, exactly, causes a chicken to go broody is a subject that baffles even the best poultry scientists. One thing we know is that whether or not a hen decides to brood depends on three interconnecting factors: genetics, hormones, and...
Umwelt is a concept developed in 1905 by German biologist Jakob von Uexküll. In German Um means around and Welt means the world. Your umwelt is everything you are able to perceive in the world around you. What we humans...
Chickens don’t have a nose to wriggle up, like a human who smells something odd or interesting. Neither to they noticeably sniff at things, like a dog does. Nevertheless, chickens have a keen sense of smell. And it’s likely every...
Controlling incubation humidity for a successful hatch ensures that moisture evaporates from poultry eggs at just the right rate. Humidity is a measure of the amount of moisture in the air. At a given temperature, the drier the air, the...
Eggs laid on the coop floor, appropriately called “floor eggs,” easily get dirty or cracked. They are unsanitary to eat and unsuitable for hatching. Plus a cracked egg is likely to get broken, making a mess. Hens will sample the...
Taste buds determine what chickens can and can’t taste, which in turn determines what a chicken prefers to eat. Taste buds therefore have an important impact on a chicken’s health and productivity. Until 1904, researchers believed birds didn’t have any...
The cecum is a blind pouch that branches off the juncture of the small and large intestine. Humans have only one, but chickens have two. A chicken’s cecal droppings differ from regular intestinal droppings. The word cecum comes from the...
A rule of thumb is a general guideline that offers a starting place, but does not strictly apply in every specific circumstance. Adjustments may be necessary when a rule of thumb doesn’t exactly fit your situation. Chicken keeping rules of...
Treading, or the rapid movements of a rooster’s feet while mating, can result in feather loss and deep wounds on a hen’s back and shoulders. To prevent such injuries, and to protect deplumed areas while feathers grow back, hens may...
That chicken soup is magic medicine was known as far back as the 12th century, when it was extolled for its ability to relieve respiratory symptoms caused by the common cold. More recently Stephen Rennard, MD, proved that chicken soup...
