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

[RodNTN]

Oh my goodness X2!

 

[casportpony]

GAH that would be a terrible thing to find lying around every fall...

Apparently one or more people published a webpage stating this as fact and it's been repeated here on BYC several times in the last month or so. If this were true, I'd be raking them up, lol.

This is what one person said:

if your unaware male ducks penis' do fall off after breeding season

 

[brucifer]

Here's a popular myth that is bound to raise a few hackles: Poultry heat lamps are dangerous and unhealthy for chicks in the brooder.

 

[casportpony]

Here's a popular myth that is bound to raise a few hackles: Poultry heat lamps are dangerous and unhealthy for chicks in the brooder.

Yeah, that will get some hackles up, lol.

 

[andreanar]

I had an older man in Runnings tell me that he can sex chicks by laying them in his hand. If the feet go up towards the sky its a cockerel.

My birds have always seemed to stick together by breed, so birds of a feather, flock together works for me.

That medicated feed (or DE) can cure Cocci. Ugh

 

[Lizardlicks]

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)?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I heard that same rumor about turkeys. No, CX are just fat, hungry versions of regular chickens. They're actually quite agile an intelligent.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/turkey.asp
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/turkey-drown.htm
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-turkeys-drown-themselves-in-the-rain

 

[Lizardlicks]

Yeah, it's just the weirdest thing for me because she's an incredibly smart, sharp woman and has no reason to spin tails.

 

[sunflour]

My hens never seem particularly angry when they're wet ("madder than a wet hen")

If you spray water on them, they are not happy and retreat , but if there's treats in the rain they run to it

heat lamps are dangerous and unhealthy

They are not healthy for humans who hang their hands and arms underneath to play with the brooding chicks....guess how I know ...yepp, I got some sun age spotting from my first broodies.

when it rains they lookup at the water with their mouths open and drown.

My gals only look up because bugs fly in their area when it rains.
This one about Turkeys is idiotic - wonder who was the original on this myth

 

[sunflour]

The most common myth IMO is that hens cannot lay without a rooster. When I got my first 6 gals, I was told this by a fellow with 20+ years of raising chickens who would not listen to reason. Since then I've had many folks shocked I get eggs with only hens.

I wonder if they think those commercial egg farms have roosters on duty so they get eggs..