Why do battery hens have big, floppy combs?

[arlee453]

I don't think chicken's combs are like 'free willy' - you know the thing about killer whales having a floppy dorsal fin if they are kept in captivity... I always assumed the floppy combs were just because they were production chickens - a specially bred chicken based on leghorns, who have huge combs anyway.

 

[MRNpoultry]

It is partly the breed and the hormonres they give them. Leghorn hens comb should be kind of floppy, and leghorn roosters combs stand up.

Like my brown leghorn rooster has a big comb -

 

[FrontPorchIndiana]

If you look up leghorns in the American Standard of Perfection they have floppy combs. So, it's just the breed, they're supposed to look like that.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Okay, lets get one thing straight, battery hens are NOT fed hormones.

I believe the large combs are due to the breed influence of the Leghorn, but remember these birds are bred to be very efficient producers of eggs. Comb conformation does not fit into the selection criteria for these animals.

Jim

 

[eggchel]

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Leghorns/WhLegHen.JPEG

As you can see by this photo, floppy combs is normal on female leghorns as well as other Mediterraneans, such as Penedescencas:

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Penes/PartrPeneF.JPEG

(all photos from Feathersite.com )

 

[Wolf-Kim]

The breed has large floppy combs. Battery hens have a lot of Leghorn in their mix, so the combs are large and flop like a Leghorns. The Leghorn standard "calls" for a flopped comb in hens, if I remember correctly.

It is not hormones, because perfectly healthy raised hens can have flopped combs. A couple of my Dorking hens have floppy combs and I am pretty sure they were never battery hens. LOL

-Kim

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
You're right-the Standard does call for female Leghorn combs to "flop". An erect comb in a female Leghorn is a defect.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
You're right-the Standard does call for female Leghorn combs to "flop". An erect comb in a female Leghorn is a defect.

I remember that because I recall reading somewhere that many people who raise and show Leghorns, usually run two different lines. One line they breed for show quality females, in which the comb is suppose to flop, and then another line for show quality roosters, in which the comb is suppose to stand. It was very interesting, so I remembered it.

Thank you for confirming it for me. I appreciate it.

-Kim

 

[Keebler]

The Hens used in battery cages in commercial flocks in general are a hybrid of the white leghorn. The hens in commercial flocks are a number as they are hybridized. The large combs are genetic and therefore handed down generation to generation.

 

[cthrash1]

I think they do pump hormones into battery hens as well as other things...My DS was allergic to egg whites when he was a toddler, he would break out in a rash all over the trunk of his body, BUT when he'd eat fresh eggs from a friend of mine he had no ill effect. Thats got to tell you something right there...After that little experiment we started getting goats milk for him from her too, although he never had problems with regular milk.
The chickens in those places look to be very unhappy, unhealthy, and it makes me wish I had a bunch of money and acreage to just steal some away so they could see what it's really like to be a chicken.