21-day Eggciting Adventure: Day 3

Welcome Back Goat Life Farmer's!

Today I would like to introduce you to the flock and the types of Chickens we have here on the farm. We had someone ask how many chickens we have? We have 14 chickens right now in the coop!! 

What Breeds of chickens do we have?

We have several different types of Chickens in our coop, In the video we will introduce you to the chickens. But first let me talk a little about each breed we have.

Rhode Island Red 

The Rhode Island Red is an American breed of domestic chicken. It is the state bird of Rhode Island. It was developed there and in Massachusetts in the late nineteenth century, by cross-breeding birds of Oriental origin such as the Malay with brown Leghorn birds from Italy. Personally they are my favorite, they are really sweet and you can train them! 

Aruacana

Several breeds of the Araucana chicken were first bred in the United States in the 1930s. They came from a cross between two breeds from Northern Chile, Colloncas, and Quetros. Colloncas have no ear tufts but are rumpless and lay blue eggs; Quetros have ear tufts and tails but do not lay blue eggs. Araucanas are intelligent, alert, and, for a chicken, good at flying.

Ear tufts are very unusual and a breeding challenge. The short story is that you will always hatch Araucanas without tufts. The scientific story is ear tufts come from a dominant and lethal gene. This makes the odds of show quality offspring less than in other breeds. Since judges focus on tufts and rumplessness, type and color are secondary considerations. 

Aruacana with ear tufts

Barred Rock

Recognized by the American Standard of Perfection as a distinct pure chicken breed in 1874 and known as the kind of chickens that "Grandma" use to raise. This is one of the color varieties of the Plymouth Rock chicken family and an excellent winter/summer brown egg layer. The Barred Standard Plymouth Rock Chicken is a great back yard poultry for production and very kid friendly chicken. Most people call these "Barred Rocks” which is a short name for the Barred Plymouth Rock chicken. Some people confuse the Barred Rock chicken with the Dominique chicken breed. The Barred Rock has a single comb (straight comb) and has more of a straight pattern in the barred feathers. The Dominique chicken has a rose comb and a slight v pattern in the barring of the feathers. Both make for good chickens in the winter and good pet chickens. Cackle Hatchery® offers our own chicken breeds like the Barred Rock chicken and offer these baby chickens for sale online along with all our other breeds

ISA Brown

The ISA Brown is a crossbreed of chicken, with sex-linked coloration. It is thought to have been the result of a complex series of crosses including but not limited to Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites, and contains genes from a wide range of breeds, the list of which is a closely guarded secret.^[1] It is known for its high egg production of approximately 300 eggs per hen in the first year of laying 

So that is our chicken breeds! We have been hatching for several years now so some of our birds are now a mix breed and that is why they lay the olive eggs and may look like a cross.

Inside the Egg

We are on Day 3 of our 21-Day Eggciting Advernture! Here is what is happening inside the eggs!

Day 3: The embryo is lying on its left side. Onset of blood circulation. The vitelline membrane spreads over the yolk surface. The head and trunk can be discerned, as well as the brain. Appearance of the cardiac structures which begin to beat.

Activity 

I challenge you and your children to go outside and find different things from nature and build:

1. a nest

2. a chick

3. an egg

You can only use things from nature! Here are the one's my girls did! they really enjoyed it after they rolled their eyes at me in the beginning :) Post your pictures for us to see!!!

Tune in tomorrow for Anatomy of a chicken !!!