Chicken Facts for Kids: Amazing Chicken Lifecycle & Fun Facts
In this fun animal fact file, you'll discover amazing chicken facts for kids, learn about the chicken lifecycle from egg to adult, find out what chickens eat, where chickens live and learn some surprising facts. This guide has everything you need about chickens and chicks!
Quick Chicken Facts
Scientific name: Gallus gallus domesticus (the domesticated red jungle fowl)
Animal group: Bird
Diet: Omnivore (they eat plants, seeds, worms & insects)
Habitat: Farm, fields & gardens
Lifespan: 5-10 years
Can they fly: Only for 3 seconds!
Amazing Archie Fact: Chickens are the closest living relatives of the mighty T-rex! Even though they don't look scary, they are related to dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago! 🦖
Chicken Lifecycle
Now we will tell you about a chickens lifecycle, from the egg to adulthood!
Egg
A hen lays an egg through a hole (cloaca). It's the same opening she uses to go to the toilet so sometimes eggs have poo on even though the egg travels through a different part of the chickens body.
Chick
After about 21 days the egg hatches. The chick uses a tiny 'egg tooth' on the end of its beak to crack the shell.
When it first hatches it looks a bit wet because it is covered in the egg fluid. When the chick hatches it's eyes are open and they can see straight away! Within a few hours the chicks look soft and fluffy, they start walking around, exploring and eating seed. It stays close to its Mum to stay warm and as it grows its fluffy down is replaced with feathers. Amazing Chick Fact: Before they hatch, chicks can cheep from inside their eggs, and their mum can hear them. This helps the hen know when her babies are hatched and keeps the family together. (Dinosaurs did this too!) 🐣
Young Chicken
Over the next 6-20 weeks, the chick grows quickly and begins to change into a young chicken. Its fluffy body is replaced with feathers, and it gets bigger and stronger. The young chick scratches the ground to find food. The boy chicks turn into cockerels and get big combs. The girl chicks get ready to lay eggs. Archie says: I thought chickens pecked the ground for food but they scratch backwards to find tasty worms and insects!
Adult Chicken
At around 18-24 weeks, a young chicken becomes an adult chicken! Adult chickens have all their feathers and are fully grown. Hens (girl chickens) start laying eggs, Cockerels (boy chickens) protect the flock and wake everyone up with their famous "cock-a-doodle-do"
Hens can lay around 250-300 eggs a year. They live in groups called a flock and have dust baths to keep clean. Amazing Chicken Fact: Chickens are very clever! They can solve simple problems and recognise over 100 faces including people! 🐔
What Have We Learned?
We've discovered that Chicken's eggs come out of the same hole they poo from! We've learned that Chickens are very clever and can remember people (maybe they have a best friend!) We've learned that Chickens are related to dinosaurs and that chicks can cheep in the eggs and talk to their Mums!
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