Hens, Roosters, Poults, and Eggs

Chickens, what are they? They are birds. The female is a hen, the male is a rooster and their young are poults (although I call them little yellow chickens). When a bunch of chickens hang out together it is a flock. There are many different breeds of chickens, from the large Rhode Island Reds to the miniature Bantams.


The rooster has a large red comb on his head, so does the hen but her is much smaller. White the rooster crows, the hen lays eggs. Roosters protect the hens so they are more aggressiveat times; however, a hen with poults can be a real tiger too.

Both roosters and hens have big gizzards that grind up their food the way we do by chewing our food.


Laying chickens are omnivores, and need much more than mere vegetable scraps. We feed our hens and their big daddy's (we have three roosters) layer pellets, sunflower seeds, and also just let them forage for food all day.


The most important detail a chicken owner needs to attend to is fresh water for the chickens and plenty of it. A dozen chickens will drink about two gallons of water on a hot summer day.


When chickens forage in the yard, they are looking for worms, grubs, ticks, insects, and anything else small. I've read that it is good to feed chickens chopped onion and raw garlic to control worm infestations but I don't do that because I don't want garlic and onion eggs.

Anatomy of an Egg

This is fascinating information. I found it on an Australian chicken site and wanted to keep it and share it on this chicken blog. The information and egg drawing originally came from EnchantedLearning.com.

The Yolk: The chicken egg starts as an egg yolk inside a hen. A yolk (called an oocyte at this point) is produced by the hen's ovary in a process called ovulation.
Fertilization: The yolk is released into the oviduct (a long, spiraling tube in the hen's reproductive system), where it can be fertilized internally (inside the hen) by a sperm.

The Egg White (albumin): The yolk continues down the oviduct (whether or not it is fertilized) and is covered with a membrane (called the vitelline membrane), structural fibers, and layers of albumin (the egg white). This part of the oviduct is called the magnus.

The Chalazae: As the egg goes down through the oviduct, it is continually rotating within the spiraling tube. This movement twists the structural fibers (called the chalazae), which form rope-like strands that anchor the yolk in the thick egg white. There are two chalazae anchoring each yolk, on opposite ends of the egg.

The Eggshell: The eggshell is deposited around the egg in the lower part of the oviduct of the hen, just before it is laid. The shell is made of calcite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate.

This entire trip through the oviduct takes about one day.

Growth of the Embryo: The fertilized blastodisc (now called the blastoderm) grows and becomes the embryo. As the embryo grows, its primary food source is the yolk. Waste products (like urea) collect in a sack called the allantois. The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide gas occurs through the eggshell; the chorion lines the inside surface of the egg and is connected to the blood vessels of the embryo.

The Incubation Period: The embryo develops inside the egg for 21 days (the incubation period), until a chick pecks its way out of its eggshell and is hatched.

The Chicken Tractor