The Martin Farm: A little information plus pictures

I think I need to give some information about how the process works. Chicken eggs need to incubate for about 21 days at a temp of about 99.5 degrees. Ducks are 28 days at 99.5 as well. Other animals need longer, like peafowl need between 26-29 days to incubate depending on the breed. Pheasants are 22-29 days, again depending on the breed. Quail are 16-25, a turkey is 28 days. For other birds here is a link to a page where I looked up information http://www.peafowlareus.com/hatching_chart.asp. At 20-22 weeks of age a hen will start to lay her first eggs. The shells won't be as thick or as tough her first couple of times but as she starts to lay more they will get stronger. They will lay an egg once a day, or every 24 hours. I found a site that gave FAQ's about chickens. I'm going to answer them to the best of my knowledge and hopefully help if you are curious about anything.

Some terms: Hen is a female chicken, Rooster/Cockerel is a male chicken, a chick is a baby chicken of either sex, a Pullett is a young hen, and a Capon is a castrated rooster.

Q) WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BROWN EGGS AND WHITE EGGS?

A) The big difference is the breed of chicken. Certian breeds lay certain colors. Like leghorns are the most popular for commercial businesses because they produce white eggs at a good rate.

Q) HOW OFTEN DOES A CHICKEN LAY AN EGG?

A) From my experience it ranges from a day, or every 24 hours to like 26 hours. They don't have to do it at the same time everyday.

Q) ARE CHICKENS VEGETARIANS?

A) No. When they free range they eat little bugs and grubs and that isn't vegetarian. They can even eat a mouse if they can.

Q) IF YOU HAVE AN OLD EGG IN THE REFRIGERATOR, DO YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT CONTAINING A DEVELOPING CHICK?

A) No. A chick can only develop from a fertilized egg. Plus if you refrigerate the egg it will prevent an embryo from growing because it needs to be at 95 degrees for 21 days to produce a chick.

Q) DO YOU NEED A ROOSTER TO GET EGGS FROM A CHICKEN?

A) No. A rooster is only necessary for fertilzation. I compare it to a woman's cycle, they just release an egg that happens to be in a shell every day.

Q) HOW DOES A HEN FERTILIZE AN EGG?

A) When the hen and the rooster mate, she can store the semen on the oviduct of later use. When she gets ready to lay the shell just surrounds it. The semen is viable for about 3 weeks in the oviduct.

Q) HOW MANY EGGS DOES A HEN LAY BEFORE SHE SITS ON THEM?

A) If they is more then one hen using the same nest box she should have up to 10 eggs, and some of them might not even be hers. When she does decide to sit on them she is considered to be a broody hen.

Q) WHAT IS MEANT BY GRADDE AA AND GRADE A EGGS?

A) Egg quality is by the size of the air pocket at the top of the egg and the stiffness of the white of the egg, which is usually determined by candling.

Q) WHAT IS FREE RANGE OR FREE ROAMING EGG?

A) This actually has nothing to do with the egg. It is more about the hen that layed the egg. If the hen is free range it means that they can run around outside usually in a field or pasture.

Q) WHAT IS MEANT BY DEBEAKING AND WHY IS IT SO COMMON?

A) Debeaking is done right after the chick has hatched. For similar reasons as why you make dock a puppies tail so young. It couses less stress and less pain on the animal. They do it electrically and that prevents the beak from getting to a sharp point. This will be beneficial to the younger chickens. Sometimes chickens can be mean and have to establish the pecking order. They can really hurt the other chickens, they can cause feather loss from pecking at them so much, it can even result in death. Last year it happened quite a bit actually with my flock. The older hens were not debeaked and so when the younger ones were introduced(and I didn't do it properly, they should have been introduced with protection first) they killed at least 4 young ones, without even caring

Q) WHO ARE THE WORST PREDATORS OF CHICKENS?

A) In the daytime it would be birds of prey suck as hawks, if you have cats or dogs that would do it. At night is the biggest problem, you have racoons, opossums, skunks and anything really that is meat eater that can manuver a coop if you keep them in. I like to let them free range during the day on the weekends and cooped up at night. It creates a little bit of a challenge to get them back in sometimes. But most of the time they want to go in at night to roost.