#159— Dead or Alive

Weird Things You Didn’t Know About Chickens

They are more interesting than you’d think.

Lacie (left) and Liza. They decided to sit on their eggs at the same time and co-parented the chicks together. Photo by HF Sylaj 2022.

Two years ago I moved from America to Kosovo. One of my top reasons was so that I could have chickens. I have wanted chickens my entire life. Raising chickens was against the zoning laws of the small town we lived in America, but we had a house in Kosovo where we could have them (my husband is originally from here). There are many reasons why we decided to move, but chickens were a top one for me! Now it has been almost a year and a half since I have been chicken keepers (as well as ducks and geese) and I have learned some surprising things about these wonderful birds!

You don’t need a rooster to get an egg from a hen.

The process of creating and laying an egg for a hen is similar to a human woman’s ovulation. The egg is created even if it hasn’t been fertilized by a rooster.

Most eggs sold in stores are unfertilized. Eggs that have been fertilized are no different in taste or nutrition than an egg that hasn’t been.

An egg won’t begin to develop an embryo unless it has been kept at a consistently warm (at least 98.6 F/37 C) temperature for a few days. Even fertilized eggs can be kept out on the counter (if…