Chickens

Chances are if you’ve been to a farm or even driven past one, you’ve seen chickens.  Maybe you’ve even had your own chickens in the backyard or helped a friend collect eggs.  Today’s mystery story taught us some pretty cool facts about chickens.  Let’s see what else we can learn! 

1-2-3 LET'S GO!

Critter At A Glance

What are some KEY features of a chicken? Boy chickens are called roosters and girl chickens are called hens.  Before a hen is fully grown it’s called either a pullet or a chick.  Although we see them all over the world today, it’s thought that they were originally from South West Asia.  Hens lay eggs most days, and the color shell depends on what breed they are.  The inside yolk color changes depending on the hen’s diet.  Even though they are birds with wings, they cannot fly more than a very small distance across the yard.  

What do they eat?  Chickens eat many things! They love scavenging for bugs and happily eat kitchen scraps of vegetables.  

How do they spend their day?  Chickens are very good at eating pesky bugs from gardens.  They enjoy pecking around the yard.  They need to have a safe coop to go at night, as many different animals prey on them.  The perfect coop has an area for them to perch and a smaller nest type box for laying eggs.  Chickens will sit on their eggs even if they don’t have baby chicks inside.  

Be sure to take a listen to the story of Dre, a chicken lost in the WILD!

Are you ready for an out of this world fact?  

Today’s neat fact is about chicken eggs. To find out if an egg is fresh or stale, place the egg in a bowl of water. A fresh egg will stay on the bottom and stale eggs will float. 

Critter Protectors we need you! 

Critter CHALLENGE

Today’s activity puts our ‘out of this world fact’ to the challenge.  Ask an adult to help you get an egg and a bowl of water.  Place your egg in the bowl. Does it sink or float?  This little trick is not only cool, but gives us a way to check eggs we aren’t sure about eating instead of just throwing them away.  

Give this a try and share your results!  #heymrjim 

Fact Sheet:- Chickens - Oldmacdonalds.com.au. https://www.oldmacdonalds.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Chickens.pdf.