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Older hens gradually produce fewer eggs, and the eggs are usually larger. [1] Since the average lifespan of a pet layer hen is 8–15 years, [2] henopause has received attention as a potential problem for backyard or urban chicken farmers who are eventually faced with the decision to either slaughter older layers or keep them as non-producing pets.
While a single specific cause is unknown, chronic egg laying is believed to be triggered by hormonal imbalances influenced by a series of external factors. [1] As in the domestic chicken, female parrots are capable of producing eggs without the involvement of a male – it is a biological process that may be triggered by environmental cues such as day length (days becoming longer, indicating ...
The only living mammals that lay eggs are echidnas and platypuses. In the latter, the eggs develop in utero for about 28 days, with only about 10 days of external incubation (in contrast to a chicken egg, which spends about one day in tract and 21 days externally). [11] After laying her eggs, the female curls around them.
The Dorking is among the oldest British chicken breeds. It has sometimes been suggested that it derives from five-toed (rather than the usual four-toed) chickens brought to Britain by the Romans in the first century AD, [9] [10] but it is not known whether the Romans brought poultry with them, nor if they found five-toed poultry when they arrived. [4]
The egg is not retained in the body for most of the period of development of the embryo within the egg, which is the main distinction between oviparity and ovoviviparity. [1] Oviparity occurs in all birds, most reptiles, some fishes, and most arthropods. Among mammals, monotremes (four species of echidna, and the platypus) are uniquely oviparous.
The Booted Bantam or Dutch Booted Bantam is a European breed of true bantam chicken.It is characterised by abundant feathering on the feet and shanks, which gives it a "booted" appearance; and by vulture hocks, long stiff downward-pointing feathers on backs of the thighs, [4]: 139 from which the Dutch name Sabelpoot ("sabre-legged") derives.
[1] [2] Worldwide, around 7 billion male chicks are culled each year in the egg industry. [3] Because male chickens do not lay eggs and only those in breeding programmes are required to fertilise eggs, they are considered redundant to the egg-laying industry and are usually killed shortly after being sexed, which occurs just days after they are ...
Early experience can influence severe feather pecking in later life. [13] [20] [21] Commercial egg-laying hens have often already begun feather pecking when they are transferred to the egg laying farm from the rearing farm at approximately 16–20 weeks of age, and plumage quality can then rapidly deteriorate until peak lay at approximately 25 weeks of age.