All About Silkies, Nigerian Dwarf Goats & More
Pregnant goat or not? We get this question in emails a lot. People asking how to tell if a goat is pregnant. I also see it on a lot of posts on social media pages – people wondering if a goat they recently purchased is pregnant or not.
In fact, our first year breeding goats, we wondered the same thing….
Molting chickens may be a huge surprise for first time chicken owners. I know that it was for us. One day we went out to check on the girls and there were feathers EVERYWHERE!
What the heck?! I mean, it seriously looked like a huge pillow fight had happened overnight. None of the chickens seemed to be hurt, injured or missing. But we wondered what would cause this? Were they sick?…
Do you know someone who is a Crazy Chicken lady (or man)? What are the best gifts for chicken lovers?
Often times, the best gifts – for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and other holidays – are items that incorporate what we love and enjoy. …
If you are are looking into getting chickens for eggs, one question you may wonder about is “do roosters lay eggs?”
To answer the question do roosters lay eggs, first you need to understand basic chicken terminology. (And maybe also understand a little basic biology.) If you don’t already know, a rooster is a mature male chicken.
Of course, the short (and probably obvious answer) to this question is no. No, roosters do not lay eggs. Males of most species do not lay eggs, and roosters are not an exception to this.
Ok, so that seems pretty simple, right? But, if you were wondering do roosters lay eggs – that may have also made you wonder:
This perhaps, isn’t quite a simple as the fact that males do not lay eggs. But, the answer is still the same. Do chickens need a rooster to lay eggs? No, they do not.
However, if you want to hatch your own chicks either by incubating eggs or using a broody hen then you WILL need a rooster. While the answer to can chickens lay eggs without a rooster is yes, they can. The eggs that hens lay without a rooster are unfertilized.
In order to hatch and raise baby chicks from your flock, you will need fertilized eggs. And, you can only get fertilized eggs if you have a rooster (or roosters) with your hens. So, if you want to get chicks, then you will need a rooster.
First, roosters tend to be much more colorful and flashy than hens. So, if you want really striking looking birds in your flock, you may want to add a rooster or two.
Also, as mentioned above, while chickens can lay eggs without roosters, in order to get fertilized eggs you need a rooster. So, if you want to hatch your own chicks, you will also want a rooster.
Additionally, roosters are good flock protectors. They will help ward off potential predators. We actually had one of our boys defend his girls against a predator one night – he was almost killed, but he kept all of his girls safe and we were able to nurse him back to health.
So, even though the answer to the question – do roosters lay eggs – is no. There are several reasons you may still want to consider adding a rooster to your flock.
There are so many chicken breeds in the world, that it should come as no real surprise that there are chickens that lay green eggs.
Afterall, there are other colored egg layers, frizzle chickens, bantam chickens and all sorts of other fun types of chickens. So, getting green chicken eggs is not too much of a stretch.
We have all kinds of different breeds in our layer flock, and when we started getting our flock together, we intentionally added in some chickens that lay green eggs. We wanted to get all the different possible egg colors from our chickens.
If you have read about how chickens make blue eggs, you may have a bit of an idea as to how green chicken eggs may come about. All eggs start out white in color.
The egg color differences then come about by pigment being added to the shell during the time that the egg passes through the chickens oviduct. When and what kind of pigment is added determines the ultimate color of the egg. (source)
Most chickens that lay green eggs have a blue egg base that then gets a brown egg tint put over top at the end of the egg formation process. (source) This results in green chicken eggs!
Isbar’s may be the one purebred chicken that lays green eggs. They were developed in Sweden and lay varying colors of green eggs, sometimes with brown spots. Isbar’s are considered a rare breed.
Another interesting fact about Isbars is that they are autosexing – this means that you can tell the sex of the chicks at hatch.
Easter Eggers, while commonly referred to as a breed are not a purebred chicken. They are simply a cross of a blue egg layer with a brown egg layer.
Our Easter Eggers mingle with some of our other hens
Easter Eggers are above average year round layers of medium sized green eggs.
Favaucana’s are one of the types of chickens that lay green eggs which is also technically an Easter Egger. You can make your own Favaucana’s by breeding faverolles and Ameraucanas.
By VanTucky [CC BY 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Technically speaking an olive egger is a type of Easter Egger. Olive eggers are, as you can probably guess by their name one of the chickens that lays green eggs which are a dark olive green in color.
Olive Eggers are a cross of a chicken that lays blue eggs with a chicken that lays a dark brown egg. The blue egg has the brown tint added on making the egg appear olive green. To get darker olive colored eggs, simply mix in chickens that lay darker chocolate colored eggs.
The main reason to get chickens that lay green eggs is just to add a little fun and color to your egg basket. Also, if you are trying to make money raising chickens colored egg layers are always a popular choice for chicks to sell.
Another cool thing to having chickens that lay green (or other colored) eggs in your flock is it can help you tell which chickens are and are not laying.
Green chicken eggs are obviously different than other eggs in color. That’s the whole point, right? But in terms of taste, nutrition and all of the actual egg components, no, green eggs are no different than other eggs. Additionally, chickens that lay green eggs start laying eggs around the same time as other chicken breeds.
If you have your own chicken flock, or maybe you’re just starting to raise baby chicks, you may start asking yourself “how long do chickens live?” After all, you will want to be prepared for how long you will have your chickens, right?
When we started thinking about getting chickens, one of the first questions that we asked was that of “how long do chickens live”. We wanted to know how long we might have our first chickens as well as how often we may need to replenish our layer flock.
First, let’s just talk the simple, easy answer. In general, it is accepted that the life cycle of a chicken is an average of 8 year.
So, that’s all, right – 8 years is the answer to the question how long do chickens live.
Not, so fast.
First, although the life cycle of a chicken may average 8 years – that is just how long can that chicken live in general. Most chickens these days, especially ones in backyard flocks probably live much shorter lives.
Why?
Well, predators are a really big issue for chickens. I can’t tell you how many times we get messages from people who have purchased silkies or pullets asking if we have more available because something got their birds.
So, predator issues can most certainly bring the average down when answering how long do chickens live.
Another factor in how long the life cycle of a chicken will be is their care. There are a lot of people jumping into backyard chickens. Which is great – they can experience fresh eggs (which are SO good), as well as have some adorable pets.
However, most backyard flock enthusiasts aren’t going to run their chickens to the vet (like they might their dog) if they get sick. And the fact is, chickens can be fragile at times. Baby chicks need certain care. Adult chickens can get all sorts of things like Marek’s or respiratory diseases – sometimes simply from wild birds flying through.
That’s not to say that raising chickens is SUPER hard, it really isn’t that bad 😉 However, when issues do arise, the likelihood that chickens are getting top notch medical care is just not realistic.
So, clearly, health and medical care will play a large role in the answer to the question how long do chickens live.
Yes! Chicken breed definitely can play a large role in how long a chicken will live.
For example, just out of purpose, most meat breeds are not going to live very long. Not only are they butchered young, but most are bred to grow big, fast. This fast growth often times can cause significant health issues if they are alive much after butchering age.
Most meat breeds of chicken live to about 2 or 3 months before they are butchered when being raised for meat. Raising meat chickens can be a lot different experience than raising birds for egg production.
Also, there are production breeds, like sex link and leghorns. These breeds, sort of like meat breeds, are bred to have large eggs and to produce like gangbusters quickly. This means they start laying early and lay super often (5 – 7 times a week usually). So, how long chickens lay eggs can affect their overall lifespan.
This constant egg laying can ultimately take a toll on their overall health and potentially cause health issues. Which can cause them to have a shorter life span.
Bantam chickens should have the capability to have the same lifespan as other chickens of their same breed. However, being a bantam means being smaller and this can make them more susceptible to getting taken by predators.
As you can see, the answer to how long chickens live really can vary. Of course, we can answer that question by looking at the average life cycle of a chicken.
That answer, as we have reviewed, is about 8 years.
However, that answer is not really the end all, be all as there are a lot of other factors that will be at play. Particularly, breed, medical care, health and potential predators.
In our flock, we do have a few girls who have reached the 6 year age range now and still seem to be clucking along just fine 🙂 However, unfortunately, it is more common to loose some chickens earlier in life due to predators and other issues.
So, when you are thinking about getting chickens, it’s probably best to assume that 8 or so years is the answer to how long do chickens live – that way you are prepared to have and take care of your chickens for their entire lives if they make it to a ripe old age. However, be prepared, that is can be normal to lose chickens at a younger age when all of the life variables are taken into account.
