Chicken myths and old wives' tales, please!

[midget_farms]

We moved to midget farms 3 years ago - actually we are in a pretty uppity neighborhood & you can imagine my neighbors surprise when they heard the rooster for the first time.

I free range them (we have a couple acres so they never leave the yard). We have had each & every neighbor & total strangers stop & bang on the door to tell us our chickens have escaped! They are complete stumped when I tell them that chickens cant read maps or street signs so they don't know how to leave.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
Uhm, Roosters don't lay eggs?

Also, if you take a set of keys and hang them over an egg if the keys swing along the major axis the egg contains a pullet, minor axis a cockerel--or maybe its the other way around. Of course if it goes on an angle then the chick will be confused. I'm sure all major hatcheries do this.

 

[Cleebee]

The neighbor boys were very cute peeking through the fence with the older one knowingly telling his brother about which ones were roosters. All hens here! He sounded very knowledgeable, though. But then one day our girls were squawking LOUDLY and the boys' dad was out in the backyard with them. I called through the fence, "Sorry, I hope they aren't too annoying." He replied, "Nah, they aren't annoying, I just hope I won't have to do the birds and the bees talk!" I was like

???

Then the other neighbor thanked us for "cutting their gobblers." As in stopping our hens from crowing. I was stunned and said, "Oh, they won't crow." He nodded knowingly like we had some sort of secret between us.

But they are sweet neighbors, not caring that we have hens when we aren't supposed to.

A friend of mine asked in 6th grade sex ed if chickens had periods.

Fair question when you're figurin' it all out!

To the question RE needing roosters or not, I reply that we lay eggs regularly without a "rooster" having anything to do with it.

That usually shuts them up.

 

[Larryb52402]

Some 35, maybe 40 years ago many large hatcheries sold EE and other blue/green egg layers under various names. In those ads it stated that there were studies that "may have indicated" these eggs were lower in cholesterol. Once stated, it's always true!! hehehe

I bring eggs from the farm to some of my friends in town. One lady just loves the quality and it thrilled by the variety of color in the eggs shells. He small niece (4 years old) asked it the blue eggs would have blue chicks inside. When I was told about this, I stated the eggs came from a group of Amerianas that are in fact Blue/black/splash. SO there is a chance if that egg would have incubated, and hatch the chick could have been blue. But, alas, it would not be the color blue she was thinking when she sees the blue in her crayon box!

Year ago, as a teen, I kept a small flock of EE/Americana/Araucana for fun. When I showed the colored eggs to a long time farmer, he just shook his head and asked what I was feeding them to get those colors. He would not believe this was a breed of chickens!

 

[bigpinkmotherhen]

The Marine Corps recruiter, who signed up the young man down the road, told him she thought the hen had to sit on the eggs for a while to ripen them before they were ready to eat. I hope she knows more about warrioring than chicken raising.

 

[chickenshagg]

I had somone once tell me that "she only buys and eats organic eggs, you know the brown ones". I had to explain to her that it was not the color of the egg that made it organic.

 

[Ohhhdear]

Quote:
Me too! One of my girlfriends and I were sitting on our deck watching the hens and she asked how they could lay eggs without having a rooster in the flock. I just looked at her and shook my head, and reminded her that women didn't need a man to have a period. Oh! she said, sheepishly, finally figuring it out. LOL!!

 

[tammyd57]

My niece, who is grown and I *thought* was intelligent, says that "those ropy-looking white things" in eggs were rooster semen and had to pick all of that out of each egg before it was cooked. I explained that it was the chalaza, which holds the yolk in place and even unfertilized eggs have them, and is perfectly fine to eat.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

I've heard that one too! I was asked if I could take the roo out of the pen by someone who'd bought eggs from me. When I asked why that was pretty much the answer!

EDIT to add: Sadly this was an older lady in a country town... got to wonder about some people...

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Boy, there is something I could say, here, but I won't, in deference to the family orientation of BYC.

But I am most certainly biting the inside of my cheek with the effort!