Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Cloaca of a red-tailed hawk. A cloaca (/ k l oʊ ˈ eɪ k ə / ⓘ kloh-AY-kə), pl.: cloacae (/ k l oʊ ˈ eɪ s i / kloh-AY-see or / k l oʊ ˈ eɪ k i / kloh-AY-kee), or vent, is the rear orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive (), reproductive, and urinary tracts (if present) of many vertebrate animals.
Vent sexing in Wenchang, Hainan, China (2014). Vent sexing, also known simply as venting, involves squeezing the feces out of the chick, which opens up the chick's anal vent (called a cloaca) slightly, allowing the chicken sexer to see if the chick has a small "bump", which would indicate that the chick is a male.
Free range continued to be used, especially for breeding flocks and for pullets before they reached laying age, because of the lower rate of disease and greater overall health of grass-reared chickens. Breeding flocks (which lay eggs destined for incubation) are always given a better diet than flocks laying table eggs, since a diet that will ...
Hens crave privacy and darkness when laying eggs, so plan for at least one nesting box for every four or five hens. A box that measures 14"W-by-14"H x 12"D will give even a big gal plenty of room.
A male's crowing is a loud and sometimes shrill call, serving as a territorial signal to other males, [32] and in response to sudden disturbances within their surroundings. Hens cluck loudly after laying an egg and to call their chicks. Chickens give different warning calls to indicate that a predator is approaching from the air or on the ...
The name derives from the town of Bantam in Java [30] where European sailors bought the local small chickens for their shipboard supplies. Bantams may be a quarter to a third of the size of standard birds and lay similarly small eggs. They are kept by small-holders and hobbyists for egg production, use as broody hens, ornamental purposes, and ...
The hens suddenly get distracted from their egg laying when a handsome rooster (who resembles and sings like Frank Sinatra) is heard singing outside. Frankie's renditions of "It Can't Be Wrong" by Dick Haymes and " As Time Goes By " (from Casablanca , 1942) causes all the hens to refuse to lay eggs because they are too busy swooning.
A common practice among hatcheries for egg-laying hens is the culling of newly hatched male chicks since they do not lay eggs and do not grow fast enough to be profitable for meat. There are plans to more ethically destroy the eggs before the chicks are hatched, using "in-ovo" sex determination.