The Life Cycle of a Chicken
The average life span of a chicken can range from 10 years to 15 years, depending on the specific breed of chicken and other factors, such as the environment. A chicken reaches maturity by approximately 6 months of age.
Other People Are Reading
-
Fun Facts
-
A hen does not need to mate with a rooster in order to lay eggs, but without one, the eggs are not fertilized and will not develop into chicks. Unfertilized eggs are what you buy at the grocery store.
A hen can lay up to 300 eggs per year, though she can only lay one egg per day.
Inside the Hen
-
It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go from creation to being laid. It begins without a shell as just the yellow part, traveling down a hen's oviduct. It is here that the albumen, or egg white, starts to form. Halfway down the oviduct, the membrane forms, encasing the egg yolk and the egg white. Then the shell develops. A shell is calcium and takes approximately 20 hours to fully form. Once the egg shell is complete, the hen will lay her egg.
-
Incubation
-
A mother hen will incubate her eggs for three weeks. Eggs need to be turned a minimum of twice a day in order for the chick embryo to continue developing. Without turning, the egg yolk will float to the top, separating the egg white and causing pressure that will kill the embryo.
The yolk of the egg contains the necessary nutrients for the baby chick to fully develop while the mother hen is incubating. The ideal temperature for baby chicks to properly grow is approximately 104 degrees, which the mother egg maintains throughout incubation.
Baby Chick
-
After approximately three weeks, the baby chick will crack the shell and emerge. A chicken has no teeth, so it uses its gizzard to make food small enough for swallowing and digestion. To do this, it must consume small rocks, also known as grit, to help the process. While a baby chick can survive at first without grit, it will need to start consuming it after about one week.
During the chick phase, the baby chicks will also lose their baby feathers, better known as "down." Adult feathers, also known as contour feathers, will emerge to replace them.
Adult Chickens
-
The baby chick begins to mature around 3 to 6 months of age. At this point, the rooster and hen can mate, starting the cycle of life over.
-
References
Resources
More Like This
Comments
-
Wow Fun Facts.
