Chicken Facts 🐥

• Chickens are omnivores

Many people think chickens are vegetarians, but besides eating seeds , grass , and grains they will catch and eat insects, lizards, and even mice.

•Chickens have strong color vision

Many believe that chickens have poor vision and are colorblind, but in fact, their color vision is better than humans due to a well-organized eye with five types of light receptors enabling them to see many colors in any given part of the retina.

• Chickens have complex communication with specific meanings

Chickens are capable of at least 30 different vocalizations and each one means something specific. They alert each other to food, call young chicks, purr in contentment, and warn other flock members of predators. Mother hens even talk to their babies when they are still in the egg with soft purrs. The unborn chicks respond with soft, high-pitched peeps.

• Egg color is determined by genetics:

A hen's breed indicates what color egg she will produce. For example, Leghorn chickens lay white eggs while Orpington's lay brown eggs and Ameraucanas produce blue eggs. Typically a chicken's egg color can be determined by its earlobe color.