Topic of the Week - Chicken Myths, True or False?

[Liz Birdlover]

Back to this... I cringe when I read about people not giving after and food for 3 days, and it's been my experience that all birds do so much better if they start drinking and eating as soon as they fluff up.

What are you thought/experiences?

Yes water & feed are available for mama & chicks, ready for them, & mama shows & teaches them right away...totally adorable to witness those 1st baby pecks at chick crumble, 1st dunk then shake of beak after 1st touch of drinking water & utterly hilarious to see chicks 1st encounter with a live mealworm!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Not a myth or fact just wondering
Do chickens feel empathy or grief like when a flock member dies or offspring or sibling dies?

Recently had an older hen, Pumpkin, pass on. Her best friend, Gypsy, a young hen that followed her everywhere & just had to snuggle next to her when perching & dustbathe with her, definitely did mourn. When Pumpkin passed, Gypsy was always looking lost, whining loudly & searching for her friend Pumpkin. She lost weight & was obviously sad. I actually rehomed her & her Roo, Vagabond, to a friend's place, joining a new flock of hens without another Roo there. Both of them have adapted well & Gypsy befriended one of their older hens, who looks & acts exactly like Pumpkin!

I had Cockatiels sitting on 4 eggs in a nest box years ago. As chicks were hatching, one night the male Tiel died. His hen was so distraught, I had to take over handfeeding the chicks & hatching the remaining 2 eggs in an incubator. The bird grieved! I had to raise all 4 chicks. She became very depressed & I had to handfeed her & move her into my bedroom. She ate on her own again after 2 mos. I had to introduce every single male Tiel one at a time, to see if she'd choose a new mate, but she was not interested. Finally after a year, one of the times when I let all my Tiels out to fly around their room & eat the veggie tray I set up in the middle, I noticed she seemed to like a new male Tiel. She finally accepted a new mate & started preening & singing again.

I think most living creatures do grieve to some degree, whether we notice it or not.

 

[Katanahamon]

Okay Sumi, I'll start: When my roosters crow each morning, they cause the sun to rise. j/k!

Actually, one myth that I hear all the time is that by doing this or by doing that chicks will feather out faster. I raise several different breeds, and quite often chicks of the same breed, from the same brood, fed the same feed, living in the same environmental conditions will feather out at different rates. For example, I find this especially true with my experience with FBCM. We've hatched some FBCM chicks that at four weeks were lanky, ugly, full of pin feathers, and with very few actual feathers right alongside four-week-old FBCM chicks who were fully feathered and things of picturesque beauty. They all eventually grew up to be fine, healthy birds.

I'm not saying that protein deficiencies will not stunt feather development, but quite often feathering has more to do with a chick's specific genetics than anything else.

It’s all in the genes..many sources will say periodic exposure to cooler temps cause faster feathering, I’m still looking for corroborating studies..

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119316256

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Here's another one...
If you touch any eggs a broody hen is sitting on, she will abandon them.
Same goes for wild bird nests.

What a bunch of crapola! A domestic or wild bird remains dedicated to eggs & babies, regardless of being touched by humans.

 

[Show Sebright]

Oops, my mad, not sure what I was thinking when I wrote that!

Originally I wrote:
"Crops are on the chicken's left side. Would you believe me if I told you that sometimes it's on their right side?"

What I meant was:
"Crops are on the chicken's right side. Would you believe me if I told you that sometimes it's on their left side?

Thanks for finding my error, I have edited my post.

Well then one of my ladies has an issue. It is in the middle.

 

[TBlevins]

Any heat source can be dangerous if you're being a putz. Not the inanimate object's fault if it isn't set at the right distance, using correct wattage bulbs, secured properly etc.

Here's one that my husband's grandmother swears happened with their chickens when she was a little girl growing up on the farm. She can't stand chickens because in her experience they are so dumb, when it rains they lookup at the water with their mouths open and drown. My birds just sit under the rose brush and hunt for worms. Is there some other truth behind this myth? A breed of especially dumb bird (I'd expect something like one of the meat bird crosses)?

I grew up being told they’d drown in the rain if they looked up!

 

[Happy hen lover]

Recently had an older hen, Pumpkin, pass on. Her best friend, Gypsy, a young hen that followed her everywhere & just had to snuggle next to her when perching & dustbathe with her, definitely did mourn. When Pumpkin passed, Gypsy was always looking lost, whining loudly & searching for her friend Pumpkin. She lost weight & was obviously sad. I actually rehomed her & her Roo, Vagabond, to a friend's place, joining a new flock of hens without another Roo there. Both of them have adapted well & Gypsy befriended one of their older hens, who looks & acts exactly like Pumpkin!

I had Cockatiels sitting on 4 eggs in a nest box years ago. As chicks were hatching, one night the male Tiel died. His hen was so distraught, I had to take over handfeeding the chicks & hatching the remaining 2 eggs in an incubator. The bird grieved! I had to raise all 4 chicks. She became very depressed & I had to handfeed her & move her into my bedroom. She ate on her own again after 2 mos. I had to introduce every single male Tiel one at a time, to see if she'd choose a new mate, but she was not interested. Finally after a year, one of the times when I let all my Tiels out to fly around their room & eat the veggie tray I set up in the middle, I noticed she seemed to like a new male Tiel. She finally accepted a new mate & started preening & singing again.

I think most living creatures do grieve to some degree, whether we notice it or not.

What a cute story about Gypsy.

 

[Iluveggers]

One of my friends is petrified of chickens because she’s afraid of getting bit...even after I explain they can’t bite. I told her she could get pecked by a chicken but they don’t have teeth. Lol

 

[Happy hen lover]

Rare as chickens teeth.
Finer than frogs hair!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Rare as chickens teeth.
Finer than frogs hair!

Off topic but funny...Some fish have human teeth!
Anybody need dentures?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58105044.amp