FAQ

Chickens

  • How many chickens do you have?
    • 34 total; 31 hens and 3 roosters. Currently, sixteen of them are in another coop (they are still too young to be integrated into the general population).
  • Do they have names?
    • No. Naming them would be almost impossible as they are nearly identical.
  • Why are there eyes open at night?
    • Chickens practice unihemispheric sleep, which just means that half their brain is asleep at a time, so they can continue to watch for predators at night. As they feel safe in the coop, some of them do not keep one eye open.
  • Are the chickens warm/cool enough?
    • There is a temperature sensor in the inside coop just under the platform in front of the chicken door (it is just barely not visible to the camera). They have heaters when it is cold and misters (in the yard) when it is hot.
  • Do they get treats?
    • Yes, all the time. They like fruit (mostly watermelon and grapes) and insects (mealworms primarily) most of all.
  • How many eggs do they lay?
    • We get about three eggs every five days per hen (0.6 eggs/day/hen). This number is higher during the parts of the year where they like the weather and lower during the parts of the year where they do not like the weather.
  • What weather do they prefer?
    • We have Black Copper Marans, so they are very comfortable during fairly cold weather (even down into single digits). They seem to prefer almost anything other than the heat of summer.