craziest chicken myths...

[v.cyr]

mods, if you feel this belongs somewhere else, feel free to move it...

just wondering, what are some crazy chicken myths that persist in your area... old wives tales and such that are still widely accepted as true, even though they are not... one of my favorites, first told to me by a coworker(dead serious when she told me, too), is that chicken eggs are fertilized after they are laid... she explained that is why the big end of the shell is porous(never mind that the rest of the shell is too), so the sperm can get through... I almost discounted this as just one person's personal insanity, until I ended up hearing it from several other people, mostly old time farmer types... not really certain were the idea that chickens are fish, as far as reproduction goes, came from, but apparently there are quite a few people who wholeheartedly believe it around here... another one I like is the "free range, 100% vegetarian fed" chicken( it seems that whenever I get a new egg customer, they ask if the eggs are from "free range, 100% vegetarian fed" chickens)... I am a little unclear on how people can expect to get both... either it is free range, in which case it eats all the bugs, worms, rodents, or other misc. critters it can get a hold of, as well as plant matter and provided feed, or you have it in an environment in which you can control what it is eating, which is not free range... I funny looks from these people when I try to explain this... apparently they thought chicken were herbivores...

 

[Oakrosemama]

when i said i got chickens the only thing people ever asked was: "don't you need a rooster for them to lay eggs?"
i just thought about commercial egg laying operations and imagined roosters in cages dangling above for hens to see...yep there's a rooster, let's lay!
That and for some reason people think our chickens will lay eggs with chickens inside (with no roosters) think people! sigh!

 

[MrsChickendad]

In view of the recent Easter holiday, my bunny breeder friend says that many people believe bunnies hatch from eggs. . . . Prolly that Cadbury bunny commercial is responsible!

 

[peepacheep]

Someone at my vet's office told me that because our eggs were fertilized I had to collect the eggs every couple of hours otherwise chicks especially their eyes, would start developing in the eggs without a hen even sitting on them.

 

[HudokFarm]

Several of the folks who buy eggs from me do so because they "know" that brown eggs are more healthy than white eggs are. I wonder what they will think of the EE eggs I will be adding to our cartons when our pullets start laying. I am also tempted to buy a few white egg layers to see how they react.

I admit that when I first got chickens, I had to do a lot of research about egg laying and how it works. It makes sense to me now, I guess I just never thought about it before I had to!

 

[dixiegal62]

"'If you want to be immune from chicken poxs just go into a chicken coop and let a chicken fly over you." One of my brother in laws swears this is why he never got the poxs when all his brothers came down with them.

This one is about chicken eggs, take an egg and write your babies name and birthday on it and put it inside one of the babies socks. Hang on wall over the crib and your baby wont get teething pain.

 

[Desirai]

my biggest one is that "chickens don't lay eggs without a rooster" even though not a single rooster is kept in the egg laying industry.

Also, that hens only lay eggs for a year then they don't lay anymore.

Or that roosters are aggressive and will kill you.

 

[Allygirl]

One of my favorites was "How does the hen nurse the peeps when they are in the eggs?"
As far as the colored eggs go I crack two eggs one brown one white and ask them to tell the difference.......works every time! I also enjoy showing people my roo Sparky who comes like a dog when called......they usually run away, poor Sparky gets confused.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

"No, the green or blue egg in your carton is NOT:"

Rotten.
Dyed.
or Genetically Modified.

"The fertile egg in your carton does not really:"

Taste of the rooster.
Develop into a chick if it hasn't been kept sufficiently warm.
Have more (or less) cholesterol.

Feeding corn (or any other grain) will NOT make your chickens hot!

 

[ChickenPeep]

Someone at my school said that chickens are so dumb that they drown because they look up while it's raining.