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Did you know....
Chickens lay colored
eggs?
Ameraucana & Araucana chickens lay eggs that are green or blue
depending on the breed. |
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Chicken farms raise chickens for food and eggs. There are more
of these in the world than any other kind of bird. They can be
found all over the world. Chickens are like other birds and
have feathers and wings and there are lots of different kinds.
Some people raise chickens as pets.
The 'best' breed depends on what you want to get
from them. Some of the best are:
| 1.
Egg layers |
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A. Rhode
Island Reds [brown eggs] |
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B. Leghorn
breed [white eggs] |
| 2.
Meat chickens |
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A. Arbor
Acres |
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B. Ross |
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C. Peterson |
| 3.
Two Purpose [eggs & meatiness] |
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A. New
Hampshires |
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B. Plymouth
Rocks |
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C.
Wyandottes |
California, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, and Pennsylvania produce the most
eggs in the United States. Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia
produce the most chickens.
A male chicken is a rooster and a female chicken
is a hen. Female chickens are called laying hens. Those
that are being raised for their meat are called broilers or
fryers. Babies are called chicks. They have a little red
comb on top of their heads and a wattle
under their beak. Adult chickens can weigh from one pound to
over eleven pounds. |
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Chickens used to be kept loose in a farmyard. They are kept in
henhouses now. These
buildings are usually one story high and are brightly lit.
Chickens lay bigger and stronger eggs if they have light
during the day and night.
The henhouse floors are concrete so that rodents
can’t get in. There
are corn husks, peanut shells and
wood chips on the floor. |
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Chickens
are fed from a giant tank that has machinery that pushes their food
through pipes so that it goes into feeding troughs
or bins. They get drinking
water this way, too. Scientists decide what the best
feed is and what the exact mixture should be.
Poultry farmers need to feed their animals lots of food.
It takes about four pounds of food to get a dozen eggs.
Farmers will try lots of things to get their
chickens to lay more eggs. Sometimes
farmers play calm music or warm up the cold floors with heat lamps
hoping that this will help.
Hens sit on their nests and lay eggs.
The eggs fall on a conveyor
belt that moves the eggs away from the hen and into a container.
The egg has a light shined on it.
The light will shine through the egg and show the farmer
whether there are cracks in the shell or anything wrong inside the
egg. If it is okay, the
egg is washed, brushed, and put into a container where it waits
until it gets shipped out.
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Avoid
the mess! Check if
that egg is hard-boiled or RAW!
Spin it. If it
spins easily, it’s hard-boiled.
If it wobbles,
Look out! |
There
isn't any difference between white and brown eggs
except the color of the shell! |
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