Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The UK alone consumes more than 34 million eggs per day. [84] Hens of some breeds can produce over 300 eggs per year; the highest authenticated rate of egg laying is 371 eggs in 364 days. [85] After 12 months of laying, the commercial hen's egg-laying ability declines to the point where the flock is commercially unviable.
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 conceived or after they hatch. [3]
A yolkless egg is most often a pullet's first egg, produced before her laying mechanism is fully ready. In a mature hen, a yolkless egg is unlikely, but can occur if a bit of reproductive tissue breaks away, stimulating the egg-producing glands to treat it as a yolk and wrap it in albumen, membranes and a shell as it travels through the egg tube.
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 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.
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.
The first amniote egg – that is, a hard-shelled egg that could be laid on land, rather than remaining in water like the eggs of fish or amphibians – appeared around 312 million years ago. [6] In contrast, chickens are domesticated descendants of red junglefowl and probably arose little more than eight thousand years ago, at most. [7]
It is highly disagreeable to eat un-castrated male chickens. In fact - the term chicken is meaningless. In the barn yard - there are three variations of "chickens": "hens", "roosters" and "capons". Hens lay eggs; roosters impregnate the hens; and capons get their nuts cut off and then they get eaten.