10 Interesting Facts About Chickens

Funny and strange facts about chickens you may have never known.

1. Did you know chickens can run up to 9 miles per hour compared to the average human who can run an average of 7 miles per hour?
2. There are more chickens in the world than there are humans. Some even say there are 10 times as many chickens compared to humans on Earth. Around 450 million chickens are thought to exist in the USA and a huge 3 billion live in China! (Just imagine all the chickens which have been killed all over the world)
3. After some testing done on chickens to see what their reactions are like to humans, the majority of them prefer people with more sexually appealable faces. In other words, chickens like people with beautiful faces and respond to them better. Chickens are also a lot like us in the way of being social. They are willing to fight to protect their young and they even mourn when one of their flock dies.
4. In a flock of chickens, if there is no rooster then one of the hens will take the role of a leader, stop laying eggs and even start to crow and if you think that’s bizarre, scientists have discovered that the T-Rex is related to chickens.
5. A chicken’s heartbeats between 280-315 times in 1 minute. Not only that, but a rooster takes around 20 breaths a minute and a hen can do between 30-35. Most people’s limit would barely reach the 200 beats per minute mark when they are at their maximum level during physical training.
6. Not only can hens lay eggs without the need of a rooster, but they also start laying eggs at the age of 6 months and can lay over 600 eggs in their first 2 years although hens can live to around 20. No wonder there are there so many chickens in the world…
7. Chickens can fly!!! Well sort of, the longest flight a chicken could ever manage was 13 seconds.
8. Chickens can live without their heads. (As long as there is no damage to the brain stem) One headless chicken was kept for 18 months and is the longest incident of a chicken surviving without its head. There are rumours of chickens living up to 3 years, but there is no evidence.
9. There are some problems with the yolk in a chickens egg. To even lay an egg, hens need to eat around 4 pounds of feed. To help the problem of the yolk, a hen will often turn the egg more than 50 times a day to stop the yolk from sticking onto the eggshell. An unusual case was found where the most yolk ever found in 1 chicken egg was 9 yolks.
10. Chickens were first used by man as a source of food 8,000 years ago. Since then we now have 60 breeds of chickens separated into 12 classes for meat producers, egg producers and even ornamental chickens (pets).