Can Chickens Fly and How Long Do Hens Live?

Oct 24, 2010
Mary Moustakas

Baby Chickens - M.Moustakas

Chickens are interesting and fun animals to raise for meat and eggs but can they fly and how do they eat with no teeth?

Many people raise chickens so they can have enough eggs and meat to share with others. Some raise them as pets and others raise them to show in poultry contests, like the county fair. So, knowing about chickens is important and vital to raising great chickens for meat or fun.

Do Chickens Fly

Chickens cannot really fly. They may go a short distance but their wings are too weak to fly very far. People have been keeping wild fowl for a long time. In China it is thought that people have been raising chickens for 4,000 years. Today there are over 113 different kinds of chickens.

What are the Most Common Breeds

Finding chickens that are used either for pets or egg production can seem like a daunting task. Here is a list of a few common ones:

Brahma
Leghorn
Cornish
New Hampshire
Rhode Island Red
Sussex
Polish
Plymouth rock

If Chickens Don’t Have Teeth How Do They Digest and Eat Their Food

Chickens do not have teeth so they need help digesting their food. Chickens have a pouch in their throat called a crop. Next it goes to the stomach then onto the gizzard. In the gizzard chickens have small sand and pebbles that they have eaten along with the food they eat. These small rocks and pebbles are called grit. Once the foods they have eaten reach the gizzard the walls of the gizzard and the grit break everything into small pieces.

Information About Chickens And Why They Do What They Do

You may ask a lot of questions as to why your chicken does this or that. Here is a list of some of those facts:

chickens clean their feathers by using their beaks.
chickens bath themselves in dust, called dust baths.
dust baths help get rid of pesky pests.
chickens do not have a good sense of smell or taste, but
excellent sight in the daytime, and
poor sight at night.
chickens like to sleep on a perch.
they peck each other to let each other know who is boss.
gathering eggs twice a day makes them lay more.

Chicken Facts For The Chicken Curious

What is a bantam? How long do chickens live? And how strong is an egg shell? Look at these answers:

chickens can live up to 12 years old.
the heaviest chicken was 22 pounds.
an egg, with the small end up, can handle up to 9 pounds before breaking.
a miniature of a standard chicken is called a bantam.
most eggs laid by a chicken in one year was 371.
largest egg ever laid was 12 inches long.
heaviest egg was 13 ounces.

For chicken lovers it's fascinating to know these little tidbits of information that we can share with our friends and families. It is fun to know chickens do take baths and to like sleep on a perch. And for most chicken pet owners it doesn’t matter that they can’t fly. They love them because they make wonderful pets and lay yummy eggs.

Find this article interesting. Read Chickens Facts: Which Chickens are the Best For Laying Eggs and

Chickens For The Backyard: Chicken Facts

Resources:

Gibbons, Gail. Chicks and Chickens. Holiday House, New York (2003).