A Poultry Task Trivia Quiz

Answer: Asia

Most domestic chicken breeds originated in the southern and southeast parts of Asia, except for the Clade breed which came from the Americas, Africa and the Indian sub-continent. By the 5th century BC, this breed had made it way from India to Greece, and, from there, to the rest of Europe.

Answer: Bird that gives birth every day

What a lovely evocative description of the hen. Chickens appeared in Egypt from the 15th century BC onwards, having arrived in that land from Syria and Babylonia according to ancient chronicles. Its ability to lay one life giving egg a day, either for rearing or consumption, is really quite miraculous when you think about it.

Answer: Yardbirds

This has no connection with the term, many centuries later, given to prisoners cooling their heels in jails, but the fact that most domestic chicken were once kept in enclosed open air yards at the back of houses - complete with a small coop in which they slept, laid and incubated eggs.

This was shut at night to protect them from various predators. During the day they scratched around their yard, squabbling with one another periodically, rearing their offspring, or batting their chookie eyelashes at the rooster, if the household possessed one. Alas, this is not the case today, with the high demand for quality, evenly-sized eggs, and the majority of chickens are kept in row upon row of very small cages instead on battery farms.

Answer: He dances in a circle around her

How sweet. During his dance of romance for the required time around the hen of his choice, our dapper rooster will also periodically lower the wing closest to her, as if beckoning her to his manly side. This initiates a mating surge in the hen, and she begins to respond to the twinkle-toed lad. That's all he needs. Before you can say Foghorn Leghorn, he gets on with the job in hand.

There you go, lads. Why not take up ballroom dancing as a hobby? You could meet the love of your life.

Answer: One will lay on top of the other

Chickens have a pecking order for who goes where and who gets what, with the dominant hen getting first dibs at food supplies and nesting locations. If a nest is big enough, the two hens squabbling over it, may settle their differences amicably, and share it. If it is too small, but with both hens determined to own it, one hen will often try to lay an egg on top of a sitting hen, or even roll the eggs her rival has produced out of the nest to another location. Because hens, once they begin laying, prefer the same spot to produce those daily miracles, this makes it relatively easy to allow them to have free range of your yard. You'll always know where to look for the eggs.

This is only a good idea if you're not trying to develop a garden or a vegetable plot though, as they'll scratch both to bits, the little villains.

Answer: By turning eggs over periodically

When incubating their eggs, hens are described as being broody. During this period, the hens stay almost constantly on the nest, rarely eating or drinking, but maintaining the required temperature for hatching with their body heat. They will defend their eggs rather strongly at this time as well, so be warned.

At regular times, too, they will turn their eggs into different positions so that that body heat is maintained evenly throughout.

Answer: Softly cluck to them

To encourage them to hatch, the mother hen often clucks softly to the eggs, in a type of lovely lullaby. All chickens, no matter in what order the eggs were laid, hatch within one to two days of one another. When that time arrives, they begin by pecking a small hole with their egg tooth (a very small attachment on the upper part of the beak) through which to allow the air in. Following a period of rest, they start to enlarge that hole further pecking around and around one end of their egg until it breaks off in a type of lid, allowing each chicken to crawl out and dry itself off in the heat of the nest.

Answer: Three weeks

It takes about 21 days of setting on her nest before the chickens begin to hatch. The incubation period itself doesn't begin until the required number of eggs are laid. That is when the hen stops producing any more, and the next stage of keeping the eggs at a regular temperature begins.

Answer: The yolk sac they absorbed

After they have made an air hole for themselves in their eggs, the chickens rest for a time, and then, as they enlarge the hole further over the next one to two days, they consume the remaining egg yolk sac for sustenance before breaking through completely.

The mother hen remains on the nest until this process is complete for her entire brood and they're ready to be introduced to the world. She is fiercely protective at this stage as well, so don't goo and gah in delight at the fluffy little balls that are emerging and try to pick them up.

It distresses the hen - and her beak is very sharp indeed. Once the chickens are all ready, she begins training them to find food for the next couple of weeks, while keeping an ever vigilant eye on them.

Answer: A broiler

It seems very sad that, after having gone through all that, some chickens are seldom live for longer than six weeks. These are the one selected to be consumed by man, and not kept for egg production alone. These chickens are known as broilers. Free range broilers live for approximately fourteen weeks . At least it's quick, but is still a sorrowful fact of life.