Frightening Things You Didn’t Know About Raising Chickens

Published on Wednesday, March 24, 2010, by Joyce Slaton / Edit Post

Counterculture smarty-pants magazine Mental Floss gets in on the chicken-raising zeitgeist with an article in its March/April issue, "10 Provocative Questions About Raising Chickens" (not online, sorry). For instance, did you know that:

"Mating can also be deadly for a chicken. Occasionally, a cock will mount a hen too vigorously, leaving bald spots and claw marks on her back, known as 'rooster tracks.' The injured hens then become subject to cannibalism. To avoid this, farmers strap little aprons, called hen saddles, to their hens' backs, which allow the chickens to have protected sex."

This is not a lie! You can buy such things at agricultural supply shops, or, naturally, on eBay. There does not seem to yet be a market for handmade hen saddles yet on Etsy, but we bet it's coming soon.

Another fascinating, yet much more nauseating fact:

"Chickens have a multipurpose hole for excrement, eggs, and mating called the cloacal vent. If this hole becomes clogged with excrement--a condition known as pasty butt--a young chicken can get backed up and die. Without a mother hen to clean them, baby chicks raised by humans are particularly susceptible to pasty butt."

Funny, "pasty butt" sounds like a good thing.

Image source: Flickr member nukeit1 under Creative Commons

ALLFood Media
POST A COMMENT |14 Comments

COMMENT

  • Meanwhile, the chicken in the pic is obviously injured and being treated cruelly.

  • As far as baby-butt poo-cleaning, dogs do a similar thing--mother dogs lick their puppies' dirty bits to stimulate them into excreting.

  • This is all good information. I have a deep and abiding love of chickens and some day I will have my own little bunch. Just as pets, not for meat, though I wouldn't mind the eggs! Good to know about austrolorps and dominiques, thank you.

  • weewah, fascinating information! Do you have your own blog? I am thinking I want to stay away from roosters.

  • if the roosters only knew how superfluous they are to a happy flock of hens they might behave better. there's no real need to have one to keep hens. i love the sound of crowing but if there are close neighbors they might not appreciate the concert.

    a good bit of temperament can be predicted by breed. i loved the placid, easy-going natures of my austrolorps and dominiques. wyandottes were a...+READ

    if the roosters only knew how superfluous they are to a happy flock of hens they might behave better. there's no real need to have one to keep hens. i love the sound of crowing but if there are close neighbors they might not appreciate the concert.

    a good bit of temperament can be predicted by breed. i loved the placid, easy-going natures of my austrolorps and dominiques. wyandottes were a little flighty. and i'd never have rhode island reds again. they were chicken-size raptors and prone to go after anything that moved including each other.-COLLAPSE

  • I had a hen that was plucked bald by the entire flock. They kept after her untill they killed her. I always wondered what caused that behavior. Chickens can be extremeley absorbing to watch and I miss mine a great deal. There were some random rooster attacks that I didn't appreciate, though. The roosters have 2 - 3 inch spikes on the backs of there legs and when they attack they stab with these...+READ

    I had a hen that was plucked bald by the entire flock. They kept after her untill they killed her. I always wondered what caused that behavior. Chickens can be extremeley absorbing to watch and I miss mine a great deal. There were some random rooster attacks that I didn't appreciate, though. The roosters have 2 - 3 inch spikes on the backs of there legs and when they attack they stab with these things. I have twice shot a rooster in anger because of injuries from these spikes. The 1st time was when my 3 years old son had a puncture wound a scant inch below his eye. The blood was running from it, to down into his shirt. That bird was dead in record time and Gary was very impressed with his mama! The second gladiator attacked me repeatedly. The last time I was bending over in shorts scooping out some feed. He got me real good on the backs of my thighs, but it was the last time... Those birds are natural fighters, and they are beautiful in battle with each other. No I didn't fight cocks, they do it on therir own. That's why it became a sport. No moral judgments from me on that one. I know the bird and they are mean hombre's.-COLLAPSE

  • I was writing that *right* around lunchtime, AS IT HAPPENS.

  • hmm, my first response objecting to be categorized as one of a group of "people" verklempt over frightening facts about chickens didn't make it. ouch.

    censored for comment defending familiarity with chickens?

  • Dear god people, it's almost like they're actual living animals. None of this is frightening or in any way weirder than the things that normal pets undergo.

  • lol. chicken and pastry is an obvious pairing. can almost hear it calling out for a nice veuve cluckuot.

  • I did. I did. I did mean that. Sorry for the mistakes, guys.

  • LOLOL you're right. Such a telling mistake on my part! I have corrected, thank you so much, appycamper.

  • while we're at it, i do believe you mean "pasty butt."

  • Maybe you mean cloaca or cloacal vent?