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

[casportpony]

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..

That's a good one!

 

[brucifer]

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.

Hi @sunflour . Thanks for the reply. I wish we would see you at the Yo Georgia! thread.

Concerning infrared heat lamps and humans, findings from scientific studies support that both far-infrared and near-infrared radiation (light) are therapeutic to humans and have a wide array of health benefits. Here are just a couple of articles regarding studies which were published in peer-reviewed, scientific journals. There are many more in the science literature. You can get the gist of the findings by reading the abstracts at the beginning of each article:

http://www.national-toxic-encephalo...ntent/uploads/2012/01/AcceleratedHealing1.pdf

http://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/18/3/985.long

 

[Ravynscroft]

Just found this! And Kathy beat me to my current thorn!

"Ducks shed their penis every year and a new one grows back in the spring."
Where did this myth originate?

Ugh!!! This one I just have a hard time believing so many just take it as true! It's just not logical, IMO...

 

[perchie.girl]

Or chickens cant handle getting cold.... Cold is fine drafts are not...

 

[Katherine Robertson]

And here I thought my yellow ones were just being racist.

Everytime I go to my coop and see a squable, I can't help but think of Orange is the New Black. A bunch of ladies in prison....drama ensues, alliances are established...then broken lol.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

How about rumors about meat chickens? I've heard a lot of crazy rumors about those.

Meat chickens are GMO
They will die at 12 weeks no matter what
They can't forage
They need to be fed antibiotic to survive
They can't run

 

[shawthorne44]

On the thunderstorm one, there is pressure swings when a thunderstorm comes through. If my husband's injured hand can feel the storm coming, it isn't a stretch that the new eggs 'feel' something too.

 

[BabyGirl2]

OK, I heard this one from my aunt who heard it from a person working in a store selling chicks; if you turn a chick on its head (while holding its feet) you can tell which sex it is. Supposedly if it turns it head up its a girl, if it holds its head down its a boy (and it suppose to be the opposite for ducks). It works if you can keep the who does what straight in your head, which I can't always do.

 

[lazy gardener]

Egg shape: I actually played with that for a couple of years. My first random hatches were 60% cockerels. Then, after reading a study that indicated that there was a minor correlation between egg shape and chick gender: round = pullet, long/pointy = cockerel. The study did a measurement doing a ratio between circumference around the widest part of the "middle" and that of the ends. My following three hatches showed a shift to 60% pullet and 40% cockerel. Not bad. Huge improvement, huh? Unfortunately, the last 2 hatches, even with egg shape chosen to favor pullets, I ended up with a return to the 60% cockerel, and 40% pullet. But, hope springs eternal. I continue to experiment, and will work on refrigeration prior to set this spring.

Loved the worm gitter sticks. Need to make me some of those!

Determining chick gender: I've heard it said that if you pick a chick up by it's head, that a cockerel will lift his feet, while a pullet will let her feet dangle. Um... I can't fathom inflicting such treatment on a chick.

How bout this one: all chicks can be feather sexed.

Then, there's this one: Rhubarb leaves are poison. My chickens never read the rule book on that one. Every fall, when I open my garden up for gleaning, they skeletonize the rhubarb leaves.

 

[lazy gardener]

The rooster fertilizes an egg after it's been laid.

Roosters must have a penis.

Ducks and chickens can cross breed.

A RIR can't cross with a chicken of an other breed.

Sex linked chickens can only come from hatcheries.

You can make a hen go broody.