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

[casportpony]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ds-looking-for-solid-proof-either-way.839001/

I started a similar thread and in it we came to the conclusion that it is a myth and products containing "cain" can be used when use properly.

 

[casportpony]

How about colored eggs taste different?

 

[casportpony]

My daughters boyfriend said he would not eat my eggs because they are not sanitary,only store bought eggs are sanitary lol She told him they all come from chickens butt and mother nature put a shell on it to keep it "sanitary" lol

That's a good one!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Oh, yeah, colored eggs taste different is a good one.
Also, blue eggs have more vitamins and less cholesterol. (As popularized by Martha Stewart in the 90's.)
The reality is a bit more complicated. Chicken egg taste and nutrition depends on a variety of factors like diet, environment, etc. A more active environment and healthier feeds results in more nutritionally dense eggs and less cholesterol.

Typically grocery stores sell lots of white eggs. It's been changing in recent years but historically groceries almost exclusively stocked white eggs. Therefore white became associated with commercial egg raising and other colors became associated with the healthier, tastier farm grown eggs, ESPECIALLY blue/green.

Blue eggs and green eggs are very rarely raised commercially so if you are used to buying eggs from a store and then you eat a blue egg there's a good chance it WILL taste different/be nutritionally different than any eggs you're used to getting. So it's not entirely unreasonable to think people associate those changes with the dramatic shell color change.

But the reality is that it's all about the husbandry (mostly the diet), and nothing to do with the shell color.

 

[Dawnclucks22]

One thing that really bothers me is that people tend to think that chickens lack any intelligence. How wrong they are! When my chickens hear the gate they run over because they know it's me and come when I call. They learned faster than any dog I've met. These beautiful creatures are so underrated!

 

[Dawnclucks22]

My daughters boyfriend said he would not eat my eggs because they are not sanitary,only store bought eggs are sanitary lol She told him they all come from chickens butt and mother nature put a shell on it to keep it "sanitary" lol

I had a relative say the same thing. I was showing her one and she said she only eats "washed" eggs. We don't wash the eggs we give her and unwashed are probably cleaner regardless because of the bloom covering them.

 

[Katherine Robertson]

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

Just like Cornelius from the Corn Flakes comercial?!! No way! lol

 

[Katherine Robertson]

One thing that really bothers me is that people tend to think that chickens lack any intelligence. How wrong they are! When my chickens hear the gate they run over because they know it's me and come when I call. They learned faster than any dog I've met. These beautiful creatures are so underrated!

They totally play stupid when I'm watching, and then conspire to break out of the run in the most crazy elaborate escape from Alcatrez/count of monticristo plots. Chickens are super way smart.

 

[JaeG]

One myth I've read a lot is that chicks 'drown' if the humidity is too high during incubation. They can't drown but they can run out of oxygen in their air cell and suffocate.

And yes, I've heard the 'bird brained' myth a lot. There are many studies on the intelligence of chickens and birds in general. The fact chickens live in complex social groups is a big clue to their intelligence. Here's a good article about their smarts:
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170110-despite-what-you-might-think-chickens-are-not-stupid

 

[smudge]

Lady, I have had the same experience. My chickens always group themselves by color.

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