Chickens - Facts for Kids

Habitat & Survival

Wild chickens naturally live in forests and thick vegetation where they can hide from predators!

Chickens take dust baths to keep their feathers clean and protect themselves from parasites!

Chickens can survive in temperatures from below freezing up to 95°F (35°C) when properly sheltered!

A chicken’s feet have special scales that help protect them from hot or cold ground!

Chickens roost (sleep) in high places to stay safe from ground predators!

Some chicken breeds can flutter about 50 feet (15 meters) and hop up to around 10 feet (3 meters) in the air!

Chickens have excellent hearing and can detect sounds that are too quiet for humans to hear!

Chickens use their beaks like hands to explore and manipulate objects in their environment!

When it rains, chickens naturally seek shelter because their feathers aren’t completely waterproof!

Chickens naturally prefer to live in small groups of 6–12 birds!

A chicken’s foot has special tendons that automatically grip tree branches while they sleep!

Chickens can see better in bright light than humans but have poor vision in the dark!

Some chicken breeds can survive in desert environments where temperatures reach 100°F (38°C)!

Chickens dig shallow holes in the ground using their feet and beaks to create dust bowls for bathing!

Some chickens live high up in the mountains, where it’s really cold and the air is thin. They need special care to stay warm and healthy, but they can do it if they have the right shelter and food!

Life Cycle

A chicken egg usually takes 21 days to hatch!

Chicks can walk, see, and feed themselves within hours of hatching!

A newly hatched chick weighs about 1.5 ounces (42.5 grams), which is less than a deck of cards!

Most chickens reach adult size by 4–5 months of age!

A hen can lay her first egg when she’s about 18–22 weeks old!

Most healthy hens can lay between 250–300 eggs per year!

Chickens don’t need a rooster to lay eggs, but they do need one to have baby chicks!

A mother hen turns her eggs over 50 times per day while incubating them!

The color of a chicken’s earlobes can predict what color eggs they will lay!

Just over a day after starting to incubate, a chick’s heart begins to beat, helping it grow strong and healthy inside the egg!

Chicks develop special temporary “egg teeth” that help them break out of their shells!

A hen can lay eggs in different colors including white, brown, blue, green, and even pink!

Each hen has a unique pattern of laying eggs — some lay daily, others every other day!

Chicken eggs have a natural protective coating called the “bloom” that helps prevent bacteria from entering!

The air space inside an egg grows larger as the egg gets older!

Diet & Feeding

Chickens are omnivores and eat both plants and small animals like insects!

A chicken can eat about 1/4 to 1/3 pound of food per day!

Chickens have no teeth, but they have a special organ called a gizzard that grinds up their food!

Chickens need to eat small pieces of grit and stones to help their gizzard grind food!

A full-grown chicken drinks about 500 milliliters of water each day — that’s about two cups!

Chickens can taste sweet, sour, bitter, and salty flavors, just like humans!

Chickens naturally spend about 50% of their waking time foraging for food!

Chickens need calcium-rich foods to produce strong eggshells!

Baby chicks don’t need to eat or drink for their first 48 hours after hatching because they absorb nutrients from their yolk sac!

A single chicken can eat up to 100 insects in one day!

A chicken’s crop can store up to 0.5 cups (118 ml) of food at once!

Chickens consume about 120 grams of food per day on average!

A laying hen needs to eat about 4 ounces (113 grams) of special feed to produce one egg!

Chickens naturally eat small rocks called grit to help grind their food, and can keep these rocks in their gizzard for up to four weeks!

Conservation & Population

There are over 200 different breeds of domestic chickens!

Some rare heritage chicken breeds have fewer than 500 birds left in the world!

Free-range chickens help control pest insects in gardens and farms naturally!

Some chicken breeds are considered living history and are protected to preserve genetic diversity!

Traditional chicken breeds are often better adapted to local climates than modern commercial breeds!

There are over 1,600 recognized breeds of chickens worldwide!