How do chickens actually make eggs?
Firstly, chickens need to see enough light to trigger the release of the egg cell. (This is why chickens living in unlighted barns often stop laying all together in winter. Plus I imagine they are just feeling a bit gloomy.)
The egg cell becomes coated with a disc of nutritional material that will feed a developing chick - the yolk. At the same time, the chicken is producing albumen - the egg white - and all of these components become encircled by a layer of water, salt and calcium. This gradually hardens and forms the shell.
The egg is shaped by the muscles inside the chicken and is laid wide end first.
Chickens sit down to work on their eggs but stand up to lay them. Usually chickens are uninterested in their eggs once laid. They will only develop the urge to sit on their eggs at a certain stage in their maturity. (Only commercial poultry breeds that have been selectively bred over decades are able to lay an egg almost every day. It makes no sense for snow geese or bald eagles to lay so many eggs. They only lay as many as they can handle and then hatch them.)
A chicken will keep laying eggs until they see that they have enough to form a 'clutch' and then may attempt to sit on them to keep potentially developing chicks warm. This is called being 'broody'. (Commercial chickens never do develop this tendency, as they never get to keep their eggs.)
Chickens do not need a rooster to create an egg. Eggs develop and are laid regardless, and are obviously commercially produced eggs never fertilized. Birds are not mammals, and therefore gestate their eggs outside their bodies. (Humans ovulate and gestate their babies inside their bodies.)
This is a pretty simplified explanation of a very intricate process; for more elaborate details, go to the 'links' page under the "frequently asked questions" tab.
The egg cell becomes coated with a disc of nutritional material that will feed a developing chick - the yolk. At the same time, the chicken is producing albumen - the egg white - and all of these components become encircled by a layer of water, salt and calcium. This gradually hardens and forms the shell.
The egg is shaped by the muscles inside the chicken and is laid wide end first.
Chickens sit down to work on their eggs but stand up to lay them. Usually chickens are uninterested in their eggs once laid. They will only develop the urge to sit on their eggs at a certain stage in their maturity. (Only commercial poultry breeds that have been selectively bred over decades are able to lay an egg almost every day. It makes no sense for snow geese or bald eagles to lay so many eggs. They only lay as many as they can handle and then hatch them.)
A chicken will keep laying eggs until they see that they have enough to form a 'clutch' and then may attempt to sit on them to keep potentially developing chicks warm. This is called being 'broody'. (Commercial chickens never do develop this tendency, as they never get to keep their eggs.)
Chickens do not need a rooster to create an egg. Eggs develop and are laid regardless, and are obviously commercially produced eggs never fertilized. Birds are not mammals, and therefore gestate their eggs outside their bodies. (Humans ovulate and gestate their babies inside their bodies.)
This is a pretty simplified explanation of a very intricate process; for more elaborate details, go to the 'links' page under the "frequently asked questions" tab.
