Chicken and Ducks
Chicken Facts
Chicken Population and Diversity:
Chickens are the most common bird in the world.
There are more chickens on earth than any other type of bird.
There are even more chickens than humans in the world!
There are hundreds of breeds of chickens, ranging from fancy to backyard varieties, bred for food, and ornamental purposes.
Chicken Appearance and Egg Characteristics:
Chickens come in various colors including brown, white, black, gold, red, silver, blue, and green, depending on their breed.
Eggs from chickens also come in different colors including brown, green, and more.
Hens can lay up to 250 eggs per year on average. However, they may not lay eggs while molting, a process where they shed old feathers for new ones.
Chicken Behavior and Characteristics:
Hens cackle after laying an egg to keep predators away.
Chickens dream while sleeping.
Chickens have excellent memories, allowing them to learn and evolve.
Chickens are living descendants of dinosaurs.
Chickens aren’t completely flightless.
Chickens have complex communication.
Chickens bathe by covering themselves in dirt.
Chickens have a pecking order.
Eggshell color can be determined by the hen’s earlobe.
Chickens have very good color vision compared to humans.
Chickens are very intelligent animals.
Duck Facts
Duck Species and Family:
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the waterfowl family Anatidae.
Swans and Geese are also part of the Anatidae family.
Domestic Ducks:
There are more than 40 different breeds of domestic ducks. The most common is the Pekin duck.
The male duck is called a drake. The female duck is called a hen. A baby duck is called a duckling.
Duck Reproduction:
Ducklings are precocial. When they hatch, they are relatively mature and mobile and can find their own food.
It takes a duck about 2 weeks to lay a nest full of eggs before she starts sitting on them. The first egg may be 2 weeks old before it is warmed up and development starts.
Duck eggs typically take between 28 and 35 days to hatch.
Ducks lay between 60 and 300 eggs per year depending on the breed. The average is 180 eggs per year.
Duck Lifespan and Physiology:
Ducks live between 2 and 12 years depending on the breed.
Ducks do not have nerves or blood vessels in their feet. This allows ducks to swim in cold water, walk on ice or in snow because they don't feel cold.
Ducks have 3 eyelids, including a nictitating membrane.
Ducks have three types of feathers: contour, flight, and down.
Down feathers serve as an inner layer of insulation, while contour feathers serve as the protective outer shell. Flight feathers enable ducks to fly.
Ducks waterproof their feathers by coating themselves with an ointment secreted from the uropygial gland.
Duck Reproductive Behavior:
During the egg-laying process, hens pull down feathers from their body to create a bare patch on their abdomen called a “brood patch.” This allows efficient heat transfer to eggs.
When briefly leaving the nest, hens pull a layer of down feathers over the eggs with their bills to protect and keep them warm while away.
Peafowl
Peafowl Terminology and Group Names:
Only the males are actually “peacocks.”
The collective term for these birds is “peafowl.” The males are “peacocks” and the females are “peahens.” The babies are called “peachicks.”
A family of peafowl is called a “bevy.”
A group of the birds is also sometimes called an “ostentation,” a “muster,” or even a “party.”
Peafowl Growth and Behavior:
The male peachicks don’t start growing their showy trains until about age three.
It’s hard to tell the sex of a peachick because they’re nearly identical to their mothers. At around six months, the males will begin to change color.
The peacocks shed their train every year after mating season, so the feathers can be gathered and sold without the birds coming to any harm.
A peacock's crest acts as a sensor for mating.
Physical Characteristics and Features:
The average lifespan of a peacock in the wild is about 20 years.
They can fly, despite their massive trains.
A peacock’s tail feathers can reach up to six feet long and make up about 60 percent of its body length.
Thanks to selective breeding, it’s common for captive peafowl to buck the iridescent trend for all white feathers. This is called leucism, and it’s due to a genetic mutation that causes loss of pigmentation. These peafowl are often mistaken for being albino, but instead of having red eyes, animals with leucism retain their normal eye color.
Historical and Scientific Facts:
Peacocks were a delicacy in medieval times, but tasted terrible.
What makes the peacock’s feathers so brilliant? Microscopic “crystal-like structures” that reflect different wavelengths of light depending on how they’re spaced, resulting in bright fluorescent colors. Hummingbirds and shimmering butterflies have mastered a similar visual effect on their own wings.