Chicken terms

[Jennell]

I’ve had chickens for about a year now, there are WAY to many terms in my opinion. It hurts my head and is a struggle to keep up with. My question is ..
1– everyone says chickens don’t have taste receptors therefore they can’t taste spice… if that’s true WHY do we add yellow mustard to eggs to make them stop ? Answer I got : “ they don’t like the taste.” Well how’s that if they have no receptors ? You hear some people say my chickens don’t like bananas with peels or watermelon rinds , or oranges, my chickens eat everything literally I give them.. but again no receptors so how do they like and dislike flavors ?!
2– EE mean the chickens lay colored eggs, not brown or white but COLORS hence Easter Egger bc Easter eggs are colorful compared to norm (white & brown). I’ve had people tell me wrong EE can lay brown and white..
3– if that’s the case .. then What in gods name are Barnyard mixes and what makes them BYM instead of EE ?
4– why do we incubate the eggs a certain way , we sit them in a certain position for 24 hrs and rotate the egg in a certain position, but the hens don’t do that ? They jus sit on them and move them here and there and they’re on their sides(the eggs) ? Not the pointed or round end sitting up..
5– why do we call a rooster who protects his flock but makes the owner stay at bay sometimes when he feels threatened an aggressive rooster who needs to be culled when i ln all reality he’s doing exactly what he’s supposed, he is the head of his flock, I’m not out there showing them water,food,etc .. attacking anything perceived as a threat. I’m not but it makes me feel good to know he’s keeping an eye,

Right now that’s all I can think of

 

[DobieLover]

1- chickens CAN taste. Just no where near to the level of mammals. They have a small fraction the number of taste buds.

2- EE means that the bird has a parent that is pure and possesses the blue egg gene. If she doesn't express that gene she will not lay blue or green eggs.

3- a BYM is an EE if one of it's parents is a pure bred bird that has the blue egg gene.

4- because humans aren't hens and are using machines to try to replicate nature.

5- because a good portion of humans feel they must control nature instead of learn to modify their own behavior and understand each species unique behaviors and needs.

 

[Jennell]

1- chickens CAN taste. Just no where near to the level of mammals. They have a small fraction the number of taste buds.

2- EE means that the bird has a parent that is pure and possesses the blue egg gene. If she doesn't express that gene she will not lay blue or green eggs.

3- a BYM is an EE if one of it's parents is a pure bred bird that has the blue egg gene.

4- because humans aren't hens and are using machines to try to replicate nature.

5- because a good portion of humans feel they must control nature instead of learn to modify their own behavior and understand each species unique behaviors and needs.

Thank you ! I always assumed chickens could taste because it jus didn’t make sense to me how some will devour a certain food and some jus peck at it , to me they’re testing to see what they like. Someone said it’s based on how things smell whether they like them or not.. so i get so confused ! Thank you ! Im jus trying to figure this all out. Lol

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The majority of Easter-eggers actually don't have a purebred parent. Most hatchery Easter-eggers are the result of breeding two Easter-eggers together to make more Easter-eggers. What distinguishes them from any other barnyard mix is that they have the possibility of inheriting the blue egg gene. There are no guarantees with Easter-eggers unless you do start with purebred birds in the parent generation, as the gene for blue eggs is dominant and so a mixed blue-egg-laying hen could still have a gene for not-blue-eggs and thus produce not-blue-egg-laying daughters. That's how some Easter-eggers end up not laying the expected colored eggs.

With the incubators and the orientation of eggs, what I have noticed with my birds is that, if a hen has deep enough nesting material to work with, she makes a bowl-like nest and aligns the eggs in a ring around it so that the fat end is oriented slightly upward and the pointy end slightly downward. But a lot of the time my girls kick most of their bedding out of their nest so that the eggs do lay flat. I have not noticed any difference in success rate either way with broody hens, but in an incubator it does seem like it makes a big difference to have the air cell oriented upward, at least in my experience.

And as far as roosters go, I strongly disagree with the idea that it's the rooster's job to defend his flock from me. That is decidedly not what he's supposed to be doing; if he's busy focused on me when I'm out there, then he's potentially missing the actual threats that it is his job to alert the other birds to. I think the confusion there lies with that people assume that their rooster thinks they are a predator when he attacks them, but the actuality of it is that their rooster sees them as another rooster that must be dominated and run off from his hens. That's why generally the tactics to dominate a rooster to put him in his place don't work for very long. Those tactics simply reinforce that you are another rooster to be fought instead of showing him that you are an entity outside of the pecking order. The best roosters for flock defense that I have owned have understood this; the father-son duo I own now who I have witnessed actively defending their hens against hawks have never once shown me any aggression in their lives, and they are 9 and 7 years old respectively. Worth noting as well, a rooster can be brave and tough with other roosters and an absolute coward with actual predators, so him attacking humans is not even proof of his worth as a flock protector, it only proves that he knows he has breeding rights and is desperate to keep them. And, because training roosters is so time consuming and the success rate abysmally low for most people, culling them is most often the best route for everyone's safety. There are good roosters out there who do understand that humans are in no way a threat to the flock and still perform above and beyond in defending their hens, so putting up with human aggression in roosters just is not necessary.

 

[Jennell]

The majority of Easter-eggers actually don't have a purebred parent. Most hatchery Easter-eggers are the result of breeding two Easter-eggers together to make more Easter-eggers. What distinguishes them from any other barnyard mix is that they have the possibility of inheriting the blue egg gene. There are no guarantees with Easter-eggers unless you do start with purebred birds in the parent generation, as the gene for blue eggs is dominant and so a mixed blue-egg-laying hen could still have a gene for not-blue-eggs and thus produce not-blue-egg-laying daughters. That's how some Easter-eggers end up not laying the expected colored eggs.

With the incubators and the orientation of eggs, what I have noticed with my birds is that, if a hen has deep enough nesting material to work with, she makes a bowl-like nest and aligns the eggs in a ring around it so that the fat end is oriented slightly upward and the pointy end slightly downward. But a lot of the time my girls kick most of their bedding out of their nest so that the eggs do lay flat. I have not noticed any difference in success rate either way with broody hens, but in an incubator it does seem like it makes a big difference to have the air cell oriented upward, at least in my experience.

And as far as roosters go, I strongly disagree with the idea that it's the rooster's job to defend his flock from me. That is decidedly not what he's supposed to be doing; if he's busy focused on me when I'm out there, then he's potentially missing the actual threats that it is his job to alert the other birds to. I think the confusion there lies with that people assume that their rooster thinks they are a predator when he attacks them, but the actuality of it is that their rooster sees them as another rooster that must be dominated and run off from his hens. That's why generally the tactics to dominate a rooster to put him in his place don't work for very long. Those tactics simply reinforce that you are another rooster to be fought instead of showing him that you are an entity outside of the pecking order. The best roosters for flock defense that I have owned have understood this; the father-son duo I own now who I have witnessed actively defending their hens against hawks have never once shown me any aggression in their lives, and they are 9 and 7 years old respectively. Worth noting as well, a rooster can be brave and tough with other roosters and an absolute coward with actual predators, so him attacking humans is not even proof of his worth as a flock protector, it only proves that he knows he has breeding rights and is desperate to keep them. And, because training roosters is so time consuming and the success rate abysmally low for most people, culling them is most often the best route for everyone's safety. There are good roosters out there who do understand that humans are in no way a threat to the flock and still perform above and beyond in defending their hens, so putting up with human aggression in roosters just is not necessary.

Thank you !
He doesn’t “attack” me he jus has 2 hens that he doesn’t like for me to get close to unless they’re hurt or they come to me on their own, he more so makes me stay away from him, if I go towards him or come around a corner on him to fast he will try to flog me , he has chased/cornered me twice, and I did snatch him up after those incidents, idk if I should get rid of him or not. I love him he’s my first rooster he’s super sweet with his ladies , dances, calls them with soft coos for feed, treats, water, and stands guard at the front of the coop door calling over their egg songs im assuming to ward off any prey. He jus has random days where he doesn’t like me, in or around the fence.