How many eggs does a chicken lay?
Have you ever wondered how many eggs a chicken lays on average? How are chickens kept? You can find out more about this and more about this type of pet here.
Interesting facts about the appearance of the chicken
The chicken belongs to the pheasant-like genus, it is a bird that lives on the ground most of the time because it is not a good flyer. But the chicken can run all the faster on its thick, strong legs. Free-range domestic chickens, however, have their flight feathers clipped on their wings so that they cannot flap away. The chicken was already worshiped in ancient Egypt because, as an early riser, it announced the sun god just before sunrise. Other facts about the domestic chicken that you should know are as follows:
- The domestic chicken weighs between 1.8 and 2.2 kg.
- A naturally kept domestic chicken with a natural laying behavior can live between 15 and 20 years.
- The plumage has many colors, not all chickens are white or brown, but mottled black and white, speckled or even completely black. Once a year the plumage is changed when moulting.
- The chicken's feet are free of feathers, but covered with yellow horn scales. It has three toes pointing forward, one toe pointing back. Above this is a pointed spur that the significantly larger roosters use as a dangerous weapon in combat.
- The body of the chicken appears rather squat, the head is relatively small. A typical feature are the red comb and the red wattles.
- All chickens can only see clearly at a short distance. They no longer perceive anything that is further than 50 m away.
The chicken is a farm animal that is widespread in Germany. In addition to eating meat ...
That's how many eggs a chicken lays
In order to clarify this question, it is important to distinguish whether you are talking about a wild chicken or a laying hen. Laying hens are now bred to lay a particularly large number of eggs.
- A chicken living in the wild, which is allowed to keep its eggs and hatch after being laid, lays a maximum of 36 eggs per year. The embryo begins to develop in the egg 24 hours after the egg is laid. After approx. The chicks can hatch for 21 days.
- You can influence how many eggs the domestic chicken lays. If you take the egg away from the domestic chicken within 24 hours, you will induce it to produce and lay eggs again. You can significantly increase the chicken's fertility through this process, but the chicken can lay a maximum of 300 eggs a year. Every now and then it takes days to recover without laying eggs. However, the increased egg production significantly reduces the life expectancy of these chickens.
The social behavior of the chicken in the natural environment
The best way to keep chickens is undoubtedly free-range. The chicken needs exercise, it wants to scratch and wallow in the sand, peck for worms and be able to move around freely. At night the chicken goes to a stall and sleeps sitting on a perch. This is a natural sleeping position as the chicken feels protected from enemies at lofty heights. It prefers to lay its eggs in dry straw, which it puts together to form a nest. How many eggs a chicken lays depends on its size and age. Usually there are between 5 and 7 eggs in a nest. Chickens are sociable birds, but they have a pecking order in the truest sense of the word. The most senior animal is chopping its way up. The rooster defends its hens against enemies and rivals.
