Chickens are clucking awesome!

I have said before that chickens are the spoiled kids of the barnyard.

This is still true, but that doesn't mean I don't like them.

Chickens are pretty, funny and full of personality. 

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Here are some fun facts about our frolicking Feathered Friends. 

Chickens are descended from the redhead jungle fowl found in Asia. There are also some genetics that are similar to pheasants. 

There are dozens of different kinds of chicken breeds, such as leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpington

(which we have👆) 

There are several different categories of chickens and several different breeds in each category. 

There are meat bird breeds. 

There are egg-laying breeds.  

There are ornamental breeds such as bantams, a silkie is a type of Bantam that has five toes. 

They also have very wispy feathers and a puff on their head. 

They're pretty darn cute! 

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The fear of chickens is called Alektorophobia.  

I know some people with this fear, and I have to be honest I never completely understood it. 

Chickens aren't exactly dangerous creatures. Occasionally you will get a rooster that can be downright aggressive, but they only weigh about 5 lb! 

Catch them by the leg or neck you can pretty much control what they do.

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Chickens have more bones in their necks than giraffes,  😮 right? Who knew!

The dance roosters perform is called kibitzing. 

He does this for two reasons, one is a mating dance to get the hens attention, he also does it to get them to come over if he finds some tasty food.

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Roosters take very good care of their hens they protect them, provide them with food, they even show them good places to lay eggs by exhibiting a nesting Behavior. 

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A young chicken is called a pullet until she's old enough to lay eggs and turns into a hen. 

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A group of chickens is called A flock, chickens have a good memory and can remember up to a hundred different faces and voices of people and animals.

Chickens have a hierarchy, or pecking order if you will!

They also have friends they prefer to hang out with and can even mourn the loss of them.

😢

There are more chickens in the world than there are people. Chickens are the most numerous of all types of birds. 

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It takes 4 pounds of food for a hen to have enough energy to lay a dozen eggs, a hen will lay two or three eggs every two days.

 The type of chicken makes a difference in the color of the egg, all eggs, regardless of the color, taste the same and have the same nutritional value. 

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Chickens are omnivores, they not only eat grass and small plants, they also eat bugs, small rodents, and lizards. So when you go to the grocery store and buy a dozen eggs that says that the hens have an all-vegetarian diet, that's actually not how they are meant to eat.

Hens will lay eggs regardless of whether there's a rooster around or not, the only difference is the eggs will not be fertile. When female chicks are hatched they have every egg they will ever lay already inside them. 

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If a hen decides that the rooster she spent last night with isn't good enough to procreate with she will reject his sperm.

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Chickens do not go to the bathroom in separate forms it all comes out together, and at once. (This is true for all birds.)

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Chickens have mostly lost the ability to fly, they can fly for short distances like over fences or up into trees, or to get away from you if you're trying to do something with them. 

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Chickens are very aware of Sky Predators, if the rooster sees a hawk he will make a cooing sound and all the hens will run for shelter.   

Chickens are fairly smart for the size of their brain and can be trained quite easily.

They can be trained to come to a certain call, and also to go to bed, as into the chicken coop, at a certain time of night. 

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My hens are very humorous when they go into the coop for the night, they all get up on their perches and wash up, as in preening their feathers and get cleaned up. At night as they prune and preen and get comfortable it is very enjoyable to watch. 

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Mother hens talk to their chicks even before they hatch from their eggs. Chicks recognize their mother's voice and will respond to it above any other chickens call. 

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Chickens have a wide range of vocal sounds when a hen lays an egg she usually cackles loudly and excessively. It tends to get the roosters attention and then he joins in.

If a hen cries out in fear the rooster will come running to see if he can help her.

Roosters will fight each other to claim dominance, their fights can be pretty bloody and brutal, sometimes they can even kill each other. 

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Chickens will dust bathe, they make a little hole in the dirt where it's dry, they throw themselves on the ground and toss their wings around as if they were having a fit. They hop up and shake their feathers off in a cloud of dust leaves them. This is to ward off mites and helps keep their skin cool. They act as if they very much enjoy it and it's quite funny to watch.

When a chicken is overheated she will hold her wings away from her body and pant.

Wheher you love chickens, put up with them, or are terrified of them, you must admit chickens play a huge part in our world.

 If it wasn't for their quirky personalities and fantastic laying abilities the nation's diet would look completely different.

 The egg is exactly what the human body needs to start off their day, or continue it. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and baked goods we love eggs! 

Thank you chickens, you're clucking awesome!

🐓 🐔 🐣 🍳💗

What's that smell?

Spring Cleaning On The Farm!

Spring cleaning means pretty much the same thing that it might for your home. You clean up things that got left all Winter, you sweep, you neaten up, and you put things away.
The one difference to cleaning a barn versus your home is the Poo!

We have been building a manure pile all Winter, and Spring is the time for it to be cleaned up.

Now, I don't think that my animals smell very bad. I clean their barn very often and do everything I can to keep the animals clean. However,

when you're digging into a pile of six-month-old manure, it's going to smell, and does it ever!

The smell is on our boots,  on our jeans, on our dog, (because he rolled in it).  

We drove the tractor up and down the driveway, so there are remnants on the driveway. That means all the vehicles have it on their tires. The whole yard smells of it! 

  It's not a particularly bad smell, not a great one either. Especially when it's on your dog!

We have Farm rules.

1. Don't go into the barn in your good shoes.

2. Don't go into the barn in your good clothes!

3. Don't let the dog out without supervision if there's company coming.

4. Don't let the cowlick your hair.

Do we break these rules? Of course, we do, but we shouldn't, and here's why.

There is something about the smell of cow that permeates your entire being! 

My husband always said this was true when he was working in the dairy barn, but to this day it is true with Daisy as well.

If I walk into the barn in my good clothes to check on everyone before I head out to do errands it doesn't matter whether I touch anyone or not, the air of the barn seeps into my entire being.

 I can smell the cow on my coat, in my hair, and even on my shoes,

whether I stepped in anything or not.

 If you take a "cow smelling" coat and wash it with some other clothing items that don't smell like a cow, when you pull it out of the wash, it'll all smell like a cow, 

unless you use some good deodorizing soap. 

We're not sure why cows have this effect and it doesn't seem to be true with any other animal. Sheep have lanolin in their wool.

If you handle them you will smell like that for a while, but you have to touch them to do that.

 Pig, surprisingly, I don't find that they smell very bad. What smells the most is their poo and if you give them the opportunity to be clean, and get away from it, they don't smell much like anything.

Chicken's poop can smell pretty bad but the chickens themselves don't smell much, except chicken dander. 

Chickens can be quite dusty animals and that is their worst trait. They love to take every opportunity to make dust baths in the dry ground and they roll around and flip the dirt all over and through their feathers, this is a natural deterrent to mites and to cool their skin.  Then they get up and shake as they walk away.

Horses smell GOOD! 

I love the smell of clean horses!  I would prefer the smell of horses,

but what is it about that cow smell?

 It leeches into every pore, crevice, and follicle we have!

I don't know why, but it's true, unfortunately. 

Why do we break our rules? Well, we have to check on the babies before we head out to do our errands. 

We know we shouldn't, but we do it! What happens? 

We go downtown with the faint aroma of the cow on us. 

 I would recommend, for your own nose's safety, to steer clear of our place for the next few days. For some reason, non-farmers find the smell a lot more noxious then farmers do. 

However, the smell will fade soon, and that manure we spread on the fields will make our crops and our gardens grow gorgeous and lush. That is the other part of the cow's two-fold jobs.  (and the pigs and the chickens and ducks) is to give us wonderful nutrient-rich manure to keep our soil healthy. 

That keeps our plants and different grasses healthy, to feed us, as well as the critters.

So we thank you cows and other critters for your smelly poo!

We really really do! Without your poo, we couldn't feed the soil that feeds you and in turn, feeds us.

In Praise of poo!

Honest and true, we praise poo!