Roosters are famous for their loud crowing, which is around 100 decibels on average. Some are even capable of crowing over 140 decibels, which is loud enough to inflict permanent hearing damage. To avoid deafening themselves, roosters developed a sort of built-in earplug: When their beaks are fully open, their auditory canals become completely blocked off. 1)
There is a rare breed of chicken from Indonesia that is completely black, including feathers, beaks, and organs, due to discoloration. They can be purchased for $2,500 and more. 2)
Most eggs are usually laid in the morning between 7 and 11 am. 3)
Baby chickens are chicks. Female chickens are hens from the time they are old enough to lay eggs. Male chickens are called roosters. 4)
Chickens communicate with more than 24 vocalizations, each with a different meaning, including alerting friends to different types of predators or letting mothers know if they are feeling well. 5)
The chicken is the first bird discovered to have its genome sequenced, allowing poultry farmers to more easily identify the most productive strains. 6)
With the help of specific clucks, hens can not only warn the flock of a predator or call out to the food they have found, but also show emotion. 7)
The world's oldest hen lived to be 22 years old. In the wild, hens live about 10 years, but in industrial breeding, broilers die at about 6 weeks, and layers at 1.5 years. 8)
Hens know how to refrain from eating a treat if they know it will give them a bigger reward in the future. 9)
A chicken's beak is sensitive to pain. Despite this, farmers trim chickens' beaks without anesthesia to reduce the mutual mutilation of crowded and stressed animals. 10)
The quail clucks to her chicks even before they hatch from the eggs. What's more, the chicks also squeal to her and to each other to synchronize hatching time. 11)
To get the hen's attention, the rooster performs an elaborate mating dance consisting of appropriate steps, sounds, and head movements, lifting and dropping food in the process. 12)
In choosing a mate, a hen pays attention to the size and color of the comb on her head: the larger and brighter, the better. Also of great importance is the place of a given rooster in the hierarchy of the flock and the mating dance he presents. 13)
Roosters show gallant behavior toward their favorite hens - they cover them from the rain with their own wings and share their food. 14)
When a hen hatches her egg, she turns it up to 50 times a day to make sure it is evenly heated. 15)
Hens like some individuals in the flock more than others. When they find food, they lead their closest friends to it first. 16)
The domestic hen is the most numerous bird species in the world - its global population is about 25 billion individuals. 17)
A chicken's heart beats between 220 and 360 times per minute. In comparison, the human one makes no more than 100 beats in that time. 18)
Hens, like humans, have good and bad dreams. 19)
The domestic chicken is one of the closest living relatives of the tyrannosaurus. 20)
Even two-day-old chicks are aware that a thing does not cease to exist when it disappears from their field of vision. It takes human children about seven months to understand this fact. 21)