Chicken Facts

I'm always coming across interesting chicken facts in my reading, so I complied some of my favorites into a list. I find chickens to be fascinating. Just observing them on a daily basis & seeing their unique personalities is amazing. But for all you folks out there who may not be as obsessed as I am, I hope you can appreciate these interesting facts!

• A chicken can travel up to 9 miles an hour.
• Chickens were domesticated about 8000 years ago.
• Chickens have full color vision and can see in the UV range.
• There are many more chickens on earth than there are humans.
• The chicken is the closest living relative of the T-Rex.
• Alektorophobia (hope I spelled that right) is the phobia for a fear of chickens.
• A castrated male chicken is called a capon.
• Hens do not need a rooster to lay an egg. (This one surprises many people!)
• Chickens are naturally omnivores. (Again, this shocks most people, who assume they are vegetarians).
• Chickens lay all different colored eggs -- white, brown, green, pink, blue, olive, and dark brown.
• The core body temperature of an adult chicken is about 107.4 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• The life span of a chicken is between 5-10 years, but some can live as long as 15 years.
• Eggs are one of the highest quality proteins found in nature.
• All domestic chickens can genetically be traced to the Red Jungle Fowl.
• The longest recorded chicken flight was 13 seconds, traveling just over 300 feet.
• If there is no rooster present in a flock of hens, a hen can take on the role of a rooster.
• A chicken's heart beats around 300 times a minute. For comparison, a human's heart beats about 80 times per minute.
• A rooster takes about 20 breaths per minute, and a hen takes about 30 breaths per minute
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