Chicken Myths/Rumors: True or False, Please Share!

[jBabychickn]

I’m not sure how to complete the form..I’m a tech phobia, it takes me a while..but I’m confused about frost bite on combs/wattles, some say cover with Vaseline to protect…others say DON’T Touch…True or False?

Maybe it helps BEFORE it happens?

 

[Silexian]

Myth/rumor: Round eggs hatch pullets.
Story: I have no idea where this idea originated.
True or false: true in my experience.
Evidence: when I regularly hatched out chicks I set round eggs and the batch was only (at most) 1/8 cockerels. There was definitely more than one variable so I really can't say for sure wether it's true or false. Lots of people swear by it though.

My grandma swore by the pointy eggs produce cockerels and round eggs produce pullets theory. I have experimented with it a few times. I have found that pointy eggs do not hatch as well, as a more uniformly shaped egg. I have not produced enough evidence for myself to see a significant difference in the cockerel/pullet ratio, between pointy and round eggs. I do make sure the eggs I set. Are well shaped and uniformly sized for the breed of chicken that produced them.

 

[jBabychickn]

I sold eggs at the local farmers market for several years, & yes there were always some that wanted all brown eggs "because they taste better."
On the flip side, there were always some that wanted all blue eggs because "blue eggs have less cholesterol."
I started cracking eggs of different colors in a bowl (and left the shells in the bowls too) so people could see that although the eggs were different colors on the outside, they were all the same on the inside. Once people saw the white leghorn jumbo eggs also had rich golden yolks, they wanted those too!

There’s something about Brown eggs that I’ve always loved to admire, prolly memories of childhood of seeing them on the counter. But, it’s a true visual thing, not about taste. — Makes for a good Myth tho! Ha!

 

[jBabychickn]

Myth: Chickens are easy to raise

Ugh! I think I fell for this one!

 

[Silexian]

I want one like this.

Ha ha. Reminds me of the time a young visitor was teasing one of our roosters through the fence. After being told not to numerous times. Then watching that rooster bounce from heel to heel, flogging (spurs barely had points) him all the way across the lawn. When the chickens got turned out to free range in the afternoon.

 

[3KillerBs]

My grandmother told me once, like 40 years ago,lol to cut only one wing. That makes more sence to me since they will not have the same aerodynamic to flight properly. I would think.

I started with the primaries on one wing. He got out.
Both wings. He got out.
The secondaries on one wing. He got out.
Both wings. He got out.

Yeah, I clipped one wing. Went inside for awhile, came back out, & the rooster was outside the fence again. Then clipped his second wing, & went back in. Came back out again, he was outside the fence again. After that I tethered him the in coop by the food, & water for a couple weeks. That fixed his behavior. Never escaped again since.

If he were destined for dinner I'd have considered a tether.

We've had several chickens, pullets actually, who have been regularly flying over the four-foot fence around their run. At first it was only one, then two, and last night it was a full-blown insurrection of five "jumpers" (out of 12) who flew the coop and had to be retrieved and returned to their proper digs. Having had enough of these juvenile shenanigans, we shortened the feathers on each one's left wing to prevent further unauthorized jailbreaks. And today, indeed, there were none.

I haven't had it confirmed by people with longer-term experience, but I find that it's my POL pullets who are most prone to wander.

My theory -- pure speculation -- is that their hormones are telling them to seek out nests and that the general restlessness fostered by those instincts leads them to look outside the fence.

Myth: Pointed saddles = Male
USUALLY true

Obviously i have proof of it being true, but i have had 2 females also having some or all their saddles being pointed.
One was a pheonix hen and the other is either unrelated or her niece.
View attachment 2980968

I have heard of that with the Phoenix breed specifically.

 

[KyCoop]

Myth: If you have chickens you will get free eggs.
False: I have many receipts from the farm store to disprove this myth.
Now I don't have to buy them treats, but I do still have to have food, bedding and such. Still, NOT free.

 

[The-White-Elephant]

Chickens are not smart. They get out and then have no clue how to get back in by using the same way they got out through. However, as like many other animals and humans they can be channeled, not taught, by the known Pavlov operant conditioning.
Evidence: Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849–1936) The same study that he did with a dog, I have done with my girls since they went out to their own coop at about 12 wks. They love oats. However, I began to give them oats only if they were up in the roost before night time. I also did not allowed for them to go over any other to get oats. After a few eeks of everyday of the same thing, they all came to the roost to get the oats and they do pretty good at not jumping anyone, nor pecking and to wait until I came to them. I was really not into a training mode but more to make it easier for me. However, the see me in the evenings with a mason jar and all I have to do is hit softly with my nail in teh can top and they all come and I walk into teh coop and they are all crazy to get in teh roost because they have learned that only there is where they get oats. Scratch and everything else is in their bowls but oats, they have to be in the roost. Darn, it is hard being a teacher and stop teaching,lol

Yes, they do. They go out one way, come in the same way! We’re did you even read that?

 

[Auntiejessi3]

This is actually scientifically proven, believe it or not.

Ripley's believe it or not

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Myth: Pointed saddles = Male
USUALLY true

Obviously i have proof of it being true, but i have had 2 females also having some or all their saddles being pointed.
One was a pheonix hen and the other is either unrelated or her niece.
View attachment 2980968

Good point (pun intended har har) that pointed saddle feathers doesnt Always = male.

The flip side of that is:
True or false: Rounded hackle and saddle feathers and no sickle feathers = female.

That is also Usually true. But in a a few breeds males are hen-feathered meaning that their feathering is the same as females. Sebrights and Campines are two hen-feathered chicken breeds.