Hatching Chickens Since 1936
Nine decades of hard-won flock knowledge including care guides, breed profiles, and stories from the hatchery floor.
The more chickens you have, the more difficult it might be to come up with a name for each one. Some chicken names are simply traditional human names. Others are puns of various sorts. Most flock keepers prefer female names for hens and male names for roosters. Many, however, mix and match or choose gender-neutral […]
People enjoy keeping chickens for many different reasons. Some chicken keepers simply have a passion for poultry. Others focus on the benefits chickens provide. In no particular order, here are 30 reasons to love chickens: Chicks grow fast. Chicks grow quickly from chickhood to maturity. In less than a year your new flock will settle […]
Chickens can swim, and some actually enjoy it. Others, not so much. That’s because a chicken is not as well equipped for swimming as a duck. But most chickens will at least wade into water to cool themselves down on a hot summer day. If the water is deep enough, a chicken might even paddle […]
One of the realities of breeding chickens is experiencing deformities in newly hatched chicks. Most of the time deformed embryos don’t survive to hatch, but sometimes one does. The more eggs you hatch, the more likely you are to occasionally find hatched chicks with deformities of one sort or another. Why deformities happen in newly […]
The United States was officially founded as a nation on July 4, 1776, when the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Although residents of the new country had plenty of chickens, many of the breeds we know today didn’t exist then. So let’s take a look at the chickens that were here at the […]
Spooky looking Zombie chickens have pale plumage over dark legs, skin, beak, comb, wattles, and eyes. Because of this coloration, the chickens appear to be undead. However, they are very much alive. They are also prolific layers and fun to include in the backyard flock. What makes a Zombie chicken? The Zombie chicken is a hybrid cross […]
A chicken’s egg tooth is a tiny horn-like projection at the tip of the upper beak of a newly hatched chick. Its purpose is to help the chick break through the shell at hatching time. Soon after the chick hatches, the egg tooth falls off. Domestic poultry and other birds share this trait in common […]
The definition of a standard chicken depends on the context. The term may refer to a large chicken compared to a bantam chicken. Or it may refer to a breed that conforms to its ideal description established by a central organization. Here is a detailed answer to the question, “What are standard chickens?” What is […]
The terms “sex link” and “autosex” both refer to chicks whose gender is obvious as soon as they hatch. But the two terms are not synonymous. Sex link chickens, or sex links, result from mating a hen and a rooster of two different breeds. Autosex chickens are the offspring of a hen and a rooster […]
Testosterone is generally considered to be a male hormone. But hens also produce testosterone. In fact, without testosterone hens wouldn’t lay eggs. Here’s a short version of how testosterone works in chickens. Testosterone in Roosters The best known androgen steroid, testosterone is responsible for why a rooster crows but a hen doesn’t. Testosterone is also […]
Few chicken breeds are truly outstanding for a cold climate. Specifically, three features make these breeds exceptionally cold hardy. They are: Small wattles Small cushion, pea, or rose comb Tight or dense feathering A lot of chicken breeds do well in cold weather. But they lack some of the features that protect them from extreme […]
Are chickens really birds? Yes, chickens are birds. They share many features in common with other birds, including feathers, wings, and beaks. But in some ways they also differ from most other birds. Here are five features that differentiate chickens from most other bird species. Breeds and Varieties One of the things that make people […]