October 23, 2011
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A Big "Day" Out
The chicks had a big "day" out, today. I took them outside in the late afternoon
sunshine to have some sun on their little bodies while I cleaned out
waterers and other stuff. They loved it, but are very tired after their
big adventure!
Comments (7)
Aw! They are so sweet! and I love hearing them talk!
HUGS!
@AdamsWomanFell - That "happy chick" sound is so adorable, isn't it? You oughta hear the racket when they are unhappy though!
nice
peep...peep....peep....peep....
My friend has chickens. I did not know that chickens lay eggs every day, but you need a rooster to actually have baby chickens. That's freaky. What other animal just lays eggs? I guess it works out for us though, because then we can eat eggs. (That's probably the dumbest sounding comment I've ever left, lol!!!)
@your_paper_heart - Ducks, Geese and Turkeys also lay most days, the way it works is that like all birds, they lay one egg a day until they have enough to make up a clutch. Each hen, duck, goose, turkey has her own internal number that makes up a clutch and they don't exactly count them, to know how many there are, it's more of a sense for when there are enough eggs. Once she thinks she has enough for a clutch, she will stop laying, and then go into 'brooding' mode.
The reason that chickens and other domestic poultry lay eggs every day, is because we have learned to exploit their habits and take the eggs away each day. You would find many more hens would be going broody if we left the eggs in the nest because they'd see they had enough eggs for a clutch. We have also bred a few strains of poultry to never go broody, such as ISA Brown and the "commercial laying hens" that they use in battery systems.
Other hens of the older breeds go broody more often, and that when we can use them to hatch out chickens. Hens also lay eggs when there is no rooster, because they are on a cycle and the ovaries produce eggs whether there is a rooster to fertilize them or not.
@your_paper_heart - Also, Hens don't usually lay eggs during winter. It is only during the warmer months that they lay the most eggs. We then need to work it out so that we have some hens coming into 'lay' for the colder months, and even then, you will get fewer eggs in cool weather than in warm weather. Hope all this makes sense.
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