Why are hens and roosters colored differently?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Not only in birds, but also in animals, males are more brightly colored than females. What is it connected with? Yes, just the males need to seduce the female. And females, as a rule, incubate and raise offspring. For these purposes, they need a less bright color. This is a kind of protection from predators. But people have the opposite.

But why are hens and roosters colored differently? Chickens have a pronounced anatomical structure - sexual demorphism. From Women

male chickens are distinguished by their colorful plumage. The plumage stands out most of all on the neck and on the magnificent long tail. In roosters, bone outgrowths - spurs - appear on the lower leg. Both the hen and the rooster have a distinct comb and beard on their heads. The comb and beard are thermoregulatory organs. They redirect blood flow to the skin. Usually the comb of a rooster is larger than that of a chicken.

Now we figured out why chickens and roosters are colored differently. But maybe conditions affect their color in some way.content? Let's look at the content of laying hens at home.

In houses, chickens are usually raised on the floor, using bedding. Sometimes poultry farmers keep poultry in cages or on mesh floors.

Outdoor content

This system involves placing chickens on a deep litter of moisture-absorbing and loose materials with low thermal conductivity. With outdoor cultivation, the bird can move more, and this has a positive effect on its he alth. Before planting a batch of birds, the litter is laid in a thick layer of about 20 cm. It is removed only after the end of keeping the birds.

Maintenance on mesh floors

If up to five heads of birds are placed per square meter when grown on the floor, then up to twelve heads when grown on mesh floors. Here the capacity of the poultry house is doubled.

Killing chickens in cages

This method is more progressive than placing the bird on a mesh floor. So the bird is kept on large

poultry farms producing eggs. Almost no one keeps chickens in cages in home apartments.

But how are laying hens fed? They eat twice a day complete dry food. The amount of feed poured depends on the filling level of the feeders. It should not exceed two-thirds of the feeder.

Feeding with dry compound feed provides for a daily allowance: about 120 g of feed per laying hen. Pera year, one chicken consumes approximately 44 kg of feed. If juicy and green food is included in the diet of laying hens, then the volume of the daily norm increases to 170 g or more.

Juicy and green feeds have a beneficial effect on the state of the body of laying hens, their productivity and viability. We tried to find out why hens and roosters are colored differently. We see that neither maintenance nor feeding affects the color of plumage at all.

Chickens are probably the most common birds on planet Earth. According to some estimates, now their number exceeds 13 billion! Humanity receives about 600 billion eggs from chickens a year.

Of course, everyone is curious to know why chickens and roosters are colored differently. But you must admit, this question does not interest anyone when delicious scrambled eggs are served at the dinner table.