My current home doesn't have a verandah or even a porch but I dream of owning a little farmette again, with a verandah overlooking chickens, goats and gardens. Absolute heaven!

Do chickens have taste buds?

It's funny. Our 1 year old araucana (Henny Penny, pic at the rite) loves cabbage and apple, but it appears our 5 week old chicks don't. They jumped on them to start with, then abandoned them for some newly-tossed hay.

Go figure.

So, again I ask, do chickens have taste buds? If so, where are they?

Another question .. if an egg has 2 yolks, and it's fertilized, does that mean that two very crowded chicks will hatch?

While I'm waiting for someone to comment and let me know... here are a few things we've noticed about our chickens:

-chicks twitter and tweet and sound like songbirds

-when they eat a lot, they store it in their crop and look like they have a huge right breast

-even when they are the same kind and same age, they grow at different rates

-chicks figure out why and how to scratch, even without someone to teach them

-they don't care where they poop... even on their food, in their water, or on their friends

-they figure out how to fly without anyone's help, and do so every chance they get

-they will put their head in almost any hole, especially if they have a worm and don't want to share

-no matter how much love the human gives, the chicks will always scatter at first sight

-if you're allergic to down or chicken or feathers, you shouldn't get chickens (obvious, I know)

-some chickens can be really sweet, and try to talk to you in their own chicken-language ... just listen and you might get the gist of what she's saying

-some silkie roosters will sit and brood on an egg just like a hen ... I say let him!

-chickens like to be with other critters - they are so sociable!

-hens can be very opinionated about where she wants to lay her egg ... we keep moving the plastic egg to the nesting box, but Henny Penny throws it onto the ground and lays beside it

-chickens' sounds have different meanings so when you stop to listen, you'll soon figure out what means "threat from the sky ... stop moving!"

-hold a chicken upside down and it will become almost hypnotized

-best time to grab a chicken to move to a different place or butcher is at night because they are almost catatonic in the dark (so I've heard ... ours aren't)

-the little bits of extra grains of shell on the eggshell are calcium deposits and won't effect the inside of the egg

-stress can cause a chicken to lose her feathers

-sometimes you can calm a stressed chicken by singing to her, or turning the radio to classical music

-some chickens have 4 toes and some have 5

-and last but not least ... you do NOT need a rooster (boy chicken) for a hen (girl chicken) to make an egg.

It's hot out these days ... 90's. Almost all of our 5 (6?) week old chicks have their feathers. Most of them anyway... still a little fuzzy down around their necks. No problem for them to keep warm outside. So as soon as the chicken coops are finished (slight hiccups in getting that done), all chickens will go outside.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, chickens have a few tastebuds (~30 located at the base of the tongue! :)