A bunch of random chicken questions! :)

[theacw]

-Why does the my SLW face turn so pale when she is cuddling up with me? Its so crazy how fast it turns to such a light pink color and its only when she is relaxed in my arms. And the second she hears a odd sound it will be back to red-red almost instantly. Is it because she is so relaxed so the blood isnt flowing as much?

-I believe my 2 chickens were from hatcheries, does this mean a shorter life span? I believe I read that somewhere and was curious. Is it because they lay more eggs than the average chicken?

-How accurate is sex-link chicks for differentiating gender? Are they ever mixed to the point where it may be inaccurate? (does that make sense?)

-What does it mean when a hen is all of a sudden talking way more than they usually do? Today my chicken who is typically a little chatty, was soooo loud! It was like staccoto (sp?) "ba-ba-ba-ba" for a good 10 seconds over and over again. And she also seemed a little paranoid too but for no reason and nothing out of the ordinary. Just curious if there are reasons they will go in spurts of crazy noises.

-It kind of freaks me out thinking of them eating ticks, do the ticks die pretty quickly once they are swallowed? Do bees ever sting them when they eat them?

-I see sooo many chickens on here who get sick/die for some reason or another but obviously you dont hear about the ones who dont. So how often does the average hen run into the average sickness?
How often does the average become eggbound?
How often does the average have sour crop?
How often does the average get mites or lice?
What percent would you guess die from a illness or disease before dying of old age? (This does not include predator attacks)
Obviously it varies but it would be nice to get an idea.....


Im a curious girl Thanks for any insight! Im sure I will think of more....

 

[Erica]

Hi theacw,

I'll have a go.
1. No idea. I would have thought pallor meant lower circulation to extremities, i.e. stressed.

2. I doubt there's a correlation between hatchery vs backyard and lifespan. I think care and management are the main factors in longevity. Really high volume egg layers may deplete calcium to the point where their bones weaken, but realistically backyard birds have a wealth of natural food and can always get plenty of sunlight and calcium for their bones. Sometimes production birds are more prone to reproductive disorders like internal lay; but then again backyard bird more commonly have the communicable respiratory disease, so it probably balances out.

3. Sex link by color, the way most hatcheries do it, is extremely reliable, probably around 99% (at a guess). That's if they're putting a silver rooster over a red hen. Other forms of sex link by colour or patterning may be less reliable (e.g. it's possible to sex by leg color with some birds, but not easy to do and not very reliable).

4. Sometimes birds become noisier if they're disturbed by laying. But then again they sometimes just go off for no reason. Hard to answer.

5. Not sure about ticks, and I've never seen a hen eat a bee (they apparently taste terrible), but my hens last week were going hell-for-leather to eat centipedes. No harm done, but I hated to think of the thing inside them stinging and writhing about. Chickens seem very hardy with this sort of thing.

6. Eggbound: you know, I haven't seen a single case of it in 13 years. I may just be lucky, but I suspect it's not as common as (say) internal lay (where soft shelled eggs break inside). I've seen that quite often when the birds got into meat meal (too much bone) or dolomitic limestone (interferes with calcium).

7. Sour crop. Again, I haven't had it in a single bird. I never use antibiotics and always use probiotics (e.g. kefir) so perhaps this is why. However I have seen blocked crops (the blockage at the end toward the gizzard) from hay fibres. About once in 2 years maybe? Not common. Having said that, I also don't use commercial feed very often. But even when I did, I didn't see sour crop. (That's perhaps 500 birds I've raised or bought in all that time, maybe more.)

8. Mites and lice are about 95% guaranteed if you free range (especially if you have trees where wild birds roost). They're a fact of life. Penned birds with a roof or netting may never get either.

9. Illness or disease? If you start with non-diseased birds, I would put this at about 1-2% (if raising from hatch). That is, I lose about one or two in a hundred that have hatched successfully, if I look at their lifespan between hatch and about 18 months. After that age I often sell the birds (due to lower productivity), or dispatch them for food, or retire them as broodies, so I can't speak for my birds after they're about 3 years of age. Anyone keeping older birds will most likely have a higher death rate.

There now: some highly personal thoughts; they probably won't be easy to compare to others, because everyone does things differently.

 

[lclough1998]

Chickens are born with as many eggs in them that they will lay in their lifetime is what I have been told. They don't just die when they stop laying. If you keep them healthy, they will lay regularly. Winter time alot of people use lights to extend the daylight to keep the chickens laying regularly, some folk just go with the flow and let the winter be a break time for them.

Edited to say great questions and I will watch for others answers to the rest of them.

 

[linguafranka]

my girls go pale when calm & bright red when they are alert or alarmed.

 

[theacw]

Thanks for the replies guys! Especially erica for all that you added.

Very interesting to learn. I am glad to hear about the problems with chickens, much more rare than I was expecting. I actually thought it was pretty common for them to get sick/eggbound/sour crop