Chicken Facts

What are chickens like?

Chickens are amazing and smart animals with unique personalities! There are hundreds of different types of chickens. Female chickens, called hens, lay eggs, while male chickens (roosters) do not.

Chickens love to explore outside, peck around for food, and take dust baths to keep clean. With great memories, chickens can recognize both their human and fellow chicken friends, and they communicate using different clucks and chirps. Mother hens are very caring, chirping to their eggs and teaching their babies how to find food and stay safe. Chickens even have dreams when they sleep!

Where do chickens live?

Chickens are found on every continent except Antarctica, where it is too cold for them to thrive. Chickens have spread around the globe mainly because humans brought them along as they traveled and settled in new places.

What problems do chickens face?

Many chickens are raised for their eggs and to be eaten, mostly on huge factory farms where they experience a lot of pain and suffering. They are kept in tiny spaces where they are unable to stretch their wings or go outside. Many chickens wind up getting sick or injured. On factory farms, chickens are given food meant to make them gain weight very quickly or produce lots of eggs, which is unhealthy and can be painful. They do not get to live nearly as long as they would if they were left to be free in nature.

How can you help give chickens a better life?

To help protect chickens, you can eat less of them or stop eating them altogether and choose plant-based foods instead. In fact, there are many products sold in the supermarket that look and taste like chicken but are made entirely from plants! A parent or guardian can also help you support the PLANT Act, which would help support the growth of plant-based foods.