Even though chickens ears are seen only as small,  fleshy red or white earlobes, or auriculars (also known as ear coverts), the inner ear channels and amplifies sound, and plays a significant role a one of the senses.

Near the auriculars and below and behind the eye, the ear is located. The auriculars channel sound waves into the ear opening,  and towards the eardrum, a thin membrane that vibrates in accordance with the sound waves. The waves are passed down the columella, one of the smallest bones in the avian body, and transmitted to another membrane called the oval window via the cochlea in the middle ear. The cochlea is filled with fluid, and tiny hairs called cilia are attached to its walls. They move with the sound vibrations, as blades of grass do in the wind. Vibrations are translated into electrical impules, and sent to the brain via the auditory nerve.

When human cilia are damaged, they never re-grow, and so throughout life, hearing slowly decreases. The same happens in birds, right? WRONG!!! Birds can regenerate their cilia!!!

Avians also have semicircular canals, the saccule and utricle, which regulate balance, just as they do in humans.

I hope this was interesting, feel free to browse my website!

It also has a blog, where regular information on photography, new camera releases and tutorials in using adobe photoshop is posted. You can visit the blog here.

In general, chickens are social animals, living in peace and harmony. When a new bird is introduced, this harmony is temporarily disturbed as the hens squabble to sort out their pecking order. The pecking order is the heirachy by which chickens live. The hens have a little squabble, and the hen that wins is the dominant hen. She gets access to the food and water first, and can put any hen who dares confront her back in her place with a sharp peck. On the other hand, the lowest ranking hen gets to go to the food last, and can be pecked at by any hen. Because of this system, hens live in peace, but when the balance is upset, peaceful Poppy can turn into ferocious Frostie.

In this article, I will cover a few points of bad behaviour and give some tips on how to deal with it.

Excess noise

It is usually the cockerel who makes the most noise, while crowing, this can only be avoided by not keeping a cockerel. Cantrary to popular belief, it is not necessary to keep a cockerel to get eggs. The cockerel is only needed to fertilize eggs. Sometimes, a hen will make lots of noise, when she has layed an egg. If this is her habitual egg laying noise, it is not possible to stop her from making the noise, but a few steps can be taken to reduce the amount of noise she makes. These include:

• Reduce boredom (see below)
• Reduce stress
• Practise good husbandry

Boredom

Overcrowding and small pens can cause boredom, which often manifests itself as feather pecking in adults and foot pecking in chicks. Chickens are attracted to red, (which is why feeder bases are often red), so if blood is drawn cannibalism can be the result. You should always keep some genitian violet spray handy because this is antibiotic, and stains the wound purple, to stop the chickens from attacking the hen.

Boredom can be prevented or alleviated by;

• Scattering grain over the ground to encourage them to forage ‘naturally’
• Hanging up bunches of green leaves for them to peck at
• purchasing, and hanging up blocks of seed

Fighting

This often happens when two cockerels come in contact with each other. This is why cockerels should be kept apart. This takes place over hens, territory, etc.

Fighting can also be found with hens, when a new hen is introduced, for example. This is done to establish the pecking order. Once this is established and all the hens know where they stand, peace will return.

Egg eating is addressed here. Corresponding section highlighted pink.

Chickens need all known vitamins and minerals, with the exception of Vitamin C.

Below is a list of Vitamins and Minerals, and the effects suffered by chickens in case of deficiency.

Because of the energy required for flying,birds have a very high demand for oxygen. Even though chickens don’t fly much, they still maintain these characteristics.

When a bird inhales, half the air passes through bronchi to the posterior (back) air sacs, and the other half goes to the posterior (front) sacs and the lungs. That in the posterior sacs is emptied into the lungs, rather than alveoli, gas exchange takes place between the blood capillaries and the air ‘capillaries’ known as para bronchi. Compared to mammalian gas exchange, that that takes place in birds is much more efficient because the partial pressure is the same as that of the environment.

Their lungs are quite different to mammal lungs, because, rather than being a single ‘bag’ for air, they have air sacs spread around their organs, which keep the pressure of air in the lungs constant.

They have no diaphragm, and therefore air flows into the lungs and is pushed out by muscular contraction.

Located at the bottom of the trachea (windpipe) is the syrinx, the birds voice box, and as they exhale they can crow, cluck etc…

Hope you liked this post, please check ot my other posts!

Cockerels are generally distinguished by larger head furnishings (combs and whattles) and colourful plumage (feathers).

Head furnishings direct the blood to the surface to keep the chickens cool. In winter, when its cold, chickens head furnishings may seem a little more pale than usual, this is because vasoconstriction occurs, which is where the blood vessels near the skin narrow and more blood is directed deeper down to conserve heat.

Layers pellet or mash for grown  hens

Growers pellet or mash for growing hens

Chick crumbs for chicks aged 0-6 weeks

Disinfectant such as dettol which has the added benefit of being a red mite deterant.

Apple cider vinegar a booster

Grit to help chickens breakdown food

Crushed oyster shell, boosts calcium and avoids soft shelled eggs, can be mixed in with grit

Wormer to worm them

Emergencies

Coxoid for the treatment of coccidiosis

Hibiscrub to clean up wounds

Wound powder for minor wounds

Smite spray for red mite

Red mite powder

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I think you can sex Partridge wyandotte chicks from the instant they hatch  the two sexes look very different. One is  dark with ‘eyeliner’ the others are light with no eyeliner. I am doing an experiment to see if this is true, taking into account other sexing tips like;

* hens develop wing feathers faster than cockerels

* hens have paler combs than cockerels

* hens wing feather tips are more round.

By the end of the experiment, I will update and reveal the result.

All is now becoming clear. The eyelner chicks have very plain plumage and hardly any comb, so they are the females. The males are colouring up, their chests are growing a bit of golden and their combs and wattles are a telltale sign.

The latest images below show the growers after having gone through several juvenile moults.  They now have more adult like feathers. Also, my experiment worked. The ones with eyeliner have indeed turned out to be  girls.

Now the cockerels are no doubt cockerels, and have gone through more juvenile moults to reach a colour that is similar to their final colouring. The hens have grown and matured, but their plumage colour has not changed much.

This is a very big attraction, remember to write it in your diary!!!