Chicken has been a favourite pet for most of the people. They also considered as a commodity since chickens give many benefits to people. Meat, egg, feather, and even their appearance give us benefits. Their meat and egg are still on top of the chart for completing our nutrition needs especially protein and fat. Do you know that this animal has an amazing facts lies in it?
Raising a chicken or creating poultry farm was not so difficult as long as we understand their behavior, common disease that usually attack chicken, keep their coop clean, and treat their infection. The best part for having a chicken as a pet is there are amazing facts of chicken you must know. They maybe a common animals that we can find in every place, but surprisingly chicken have a unique or strange facts.
1. Chicken has a pecking order
What is pecking order by the way? Well, it was an action to form a social hierarchy among chickens to show who’s the leader is. So in a flock almost all chickens know their place among other chickens. The dominant birds will gain priority of food access and nesting locations. When you want to add a new hen or roosters into your flock it will cause unstable condition for awhile (fight and injuries) until a new pecking order is established. It is better to add more than one bird in a time.
Do not make you farm overcrowded or pack chickens into a small shed since if your farm or chicken’s shed contain of thousands of birds in it, it will collapses their social hierarchy. It will leave them to stress and the pecking order will swift into feather-pecking and even cannibalims. When you aware that your chicken farm is overpopulated, you must reduce it if you don’t want to lose all you chickens. When this happened you have to learn on how to prevent chicken from fighting to reduce fatal injuries that migth occured.
2. Chicken is close related to prehistoric animal T-Rex
Do you believe that? But indeed chicken that’s the amazing fact of chicken which is chicken as the closest to T-Rex compare to other modern animals. Even though the look nicer or cuter than the prehistoric animal. The scientist compare the sequenzed protein of T-Rex contain in the fossil’s bones. The bones still contain of intact soft tissue and preserved proteins. After they compare the protein’s chemical structure it showed the evolutionary link between chicken and T-Rex. It is supported the idea that bird evolved from dinosaurs.
3. Chicken is omnivore
It means that chicken eat almost everything from seed, grain,grass, fruits insect, meat, other animals like worms, mice, frogs, lizard or even a snake. See? chicken eat almost all things. They even eat their own chicks or the egg shell.
Chicken eat both live and dead meat while other carnivores may prefer eat fresh meat like lion or tiger or instead eat carrion like hyenas but chicken will eat both, they eat what they found or catch.
4. Chicken is a bit lactose-intolerant
What does it means? It means that chicken only produce small amount of lactose and do not digest milk or other product contain of milk well. You can give only small amount of milk, cheese, yogurt or butter to them since if you give it too much, they will probably get severe and bloody diarrhea, stomach ache, or cramp.
5. Chicken cannot have caffeine
Any products contained of caffeine can not be given to chicken. Humans may loves chocolates, coffee, tea, or any caffeinated drinks or food it cause us to stay awake and give a boost of energy. In human caffeine will stimulates the nervous system, however for chicken the result can be different. We know that according to the mass or body size chicken is way smaller than human. Imagine if they consume caffeinated food or drink, it is far too concentrated for them. The result will be increased in heartbeat, damaged kidneys, or hyperactivity.
Another chemical that may similar to caffeine is theobromine contained in a bar of chocolate. Both chemical will stimulated the brain, the effect of consuming this chemical for small animals such as chickens will almost equal to caffeine. Chocolate also contained of sugar that will lead a chicken into obesity, diarrhea, stomach ache, seizure and if you give them in a large amount it may lead them into death.
6. Chicken have their own language
Literally chicken can talk each other with their own languages. They have around 30 different calls as their language and each of it have a specific meanings. Those language can have meanings like, “there is a predator here”, “i found food here”, “i am scared”, and more of it.
Did you ever see a rooster or maybe a hen getting excited when they find food source? Usually when chicken find source of food they will calls out other chicken to come offer. Just like human when we find a treat.
7. Chicken is an intelligent animals
The amazing facts of chicken you must know is that they can distinguish more than 100 faces of their members. They have a great memories just like an elephants. They also can solve several complex problem, understand cause effect relation and also anticipate on something. There is a study when an object shown in front of chicks and after that it hidden from their view, the chicks still know that the object still exist and will trying to search it. But if they are an intelligent animal did you ever wondering what’s the reason of chicken crossing the road? It happened a lot till everybody made a joke according to that.
8. Chicken can change gender
Chicken really can undergo of natural sex changes. It may sounds odd but apparently its one of those things that actually happen. Normally, hen have just one functional ovary lies in the left side. During the embryonic stages of all birds two sex organs are present. When the female genes appear, usually it will develop only the left ovary and the right gonad (tested or ovotestis) will remains dormant.
But in some certain medical condition may cause the left ovary to regress while the function of left ovary became absence, the dormant right sex will began to grow (Mike Hulet, Penn State University’s). If the activaated right gonad is an ovotestis it will secreting androgens. It is hormones that are responsible for male characteristics, the result will make the hen undergo behavioral changes and acts like rooster. But indeed genetically they are still hen or female chickens. They may no longer lay egss but can not also conduct conception.
9. Chicken experienced REM sleep
Just like human chicken also experience REM sleep or they can dream. Their mind may wandering far from their sleeping shed and experience what we feel while dreaming.
10. Chicken needs sands or stone to act like teeth
Yes chicken have no teeth to grind their food into tiny little piece, so they have to swallow sands or stone as the replacement of teeth in the gizzard to grind the food.
Well, that’s all about 10 amazing facts of chicken you should know, there are so many other bizzare fact of chicken. If you want to have one, it will be usefull to know one or two information about chicken.