# Plymouth Rock Chicken (*Gallus gallus domesticus*) Plymouth Rock Chickens are friendly birds known for their beautiful striped feathers. They are great for farms and love to peck around in the grass. - **Category:** [Birds](https://www.snappit.app/explore/categories/bird) - **Rarity:** Common - **Danger:** 1/5 · Very low - **Also known as:** Barred Rock ![Plymouth Rock Chicken](https://media.snappit.app/site-media-v1/bf72b275cf20941d5c749405bfca2964a05df0aac8a63f03942f62987335adf7/image-560x560/w-560.webp) ## Appearance The Plymouth Rock Chicken is a large, sturdy bird famous for its distinctive black and white barred plumage, giving it a 'striped' appearance. It has bright red wattles and a single comb, with clean yellow legs and feet. ## Taxonomy - **Kingdom:** Animalia - **Phylum:** Chordata - **Class:** Aves - **Order:** Galliformes - **Family:** Phasianidae - **Genus:** Gallus ## Domestic chicken, up close The domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is the world's most common bird, with more than 26 billion alive at any one time. It was tamed from the red junglefowl of South and Southeast Asia. Hens and roosters both have a fleshy red comb on the head and wattles under the beak, but a rooster's are bigger, and only roosters grow long, curved sickle feathers in the tail. People now keep many breeds, from white Leghorns that lay almost an egg a day to fluffy Silkies. Also called: Chicken, Domestic fowl, Hen, Rooster, Chook. A bird that builds an egg in about a day, keeps a strict pecking order and cools off through the red comb on its head. Spin it, tap it, then test yourself. ### Special abilities - **Egg Factory** (24–26 h to build one egg): Inside a laying hen, a yolk travels down a long tube called the oviduct. Along the way it gets its white, two thin skins and a hard shell. The whole trip takes about a day. [4][3] - Only the left ovary works. The right one stops developing when the hen hatches. The left ovary holds several thousand tiny yolks-to-be. - The yolk spends about 15 minutes in the funnel at the top, 3 hours getting most of its white, and a little over an hour getting its shell membranes. - The longest stop is the shell gland, about 20 hours, where the shell is built and coloured. - About 30 minutes after an egg is laid, the next yolk is released. A hen does not need a rooster to lay: without one, her eggs are simply not fertilised. - **Broody Hen** (21 days from egg to chick): A broody hen sits on her eggs to keep them warm. After 21 days the chicks break out of their shells. [18][1][24] - The chick's heart starts beating after about 42 hours. - On day 20 the chick pokes its beak into the air pocket at the blunt end of the egg and starts breathing with its lungs. - On day 21 it cuts through the shell with its egg tooth, a hard tip on its beak, and hatches. A new chick weighs about 37 g. - Some breeds go broody much more often than others. Silkie hens are so broody that people use them to hatch other birds' eggs. - **Pecking Order** (Age 6 when its discoverer began watching hens): Hens in a flock sort themselves into a ranking. A higher-ranking hen can peck a lower one, and the lower hen backs down instead of pecking back. Knowing their places means fewer fights. [5][6][29] - The Norwegian scientist Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe was already watching chickens and writing down what they did by the age of six. His first study was based on summer holidays at his grandmother's farm. - He found that hens recognise each other and remember their rank. The order did not simply follow size or age, and sometimes three hens formed a triangle: A beats B, B beats C, but C beats A. - A dominant bird holds its head and tail up. A lower-ranking bird lowers them and crouches. - In very large farm flocks the order is harder to keep, and there is more pecking. - **Built-in Radiator** (34.6 °C average in a 50-hour heat test): On a hot day, warm blood flows into the bare comb and wattles, and heat escapes through the skin. It works a little like a car's radiator. [11][12] - In a 2016 study, some White Leghorn pullets had part of their comb and wattles trimmed. Later, all the hens spent about 50 hours in heat averaging 34.6 °C. - The trimmed hens got hotter and more of them died, while the hens with whole combs and wattles coped better. - In mild weather the trimmed hens were fine, so the comb matters most when it is hot. - The comb is also a signal: in tests with red junglefowl, hens that chose quickly picked roosters with longer combs. - **Dawn Crow** (142 dB at the rooster's own ear): Roosters crow to announce themselves. They crow before dawn even without a light to tell them the time, because an internal body clock wakes them up. [8][7][9] - In a 2013 study, 40 roosters kept in constant light still crowed at the time daybreak would have come. - In groups of four, the top-ranking rooster crowed first on almost every morning (97.6%). The others followed in order of rank. - A crow measured at the entrance of the rooster's ear reached 142.3 dB. Half a metre away it was about 102 dB. - When a rooster opens his beak to crow, his ear canal closes, so he does not deafen himself. - **Hawk or Fox?** (2 kinds of alarm call): Roosters have one alarm call for danger in the sky and a different one for danger on the ground. Hens that hear the call know what kind of danger it is and act the right way. [10][1] - In a 1993 experiment, a video of a hawk soaring overhead made roosters give the aerial alarm. A video of a raccoon made them give the ground alarm. - When scientists played the calls back with no predator in sight, hens crouched and ran for cover after the aerial call. - After the ground call they stood tall and watched instead. - Only the aerial call made hens look up at the sky. - **Stone Grinder** (0 teeth: the gizzard does the chewing): With no teeth, a chicken swallows grain whole. It is stored in the crop, softened in an acid stomach and then crushed in the gizzard, a tough muscular stomach. [14] - The crop is a pouch in the neck that stores food and water. When it is nearly empty, the chicken feels hungry. - The gizzard has two sets of strong muscles that work like teeth. - Chickens out on grass swallow small stones, called grit, which help the gizzard grind. - Chickens fed whole grains without enough pebbles need grit added to their food. - **Dust Bath** (Stale oil what a dust bath scrubs off): Chickens clean their feathers with dirt. A hen scrapes a hollow, wriggles into loose earth, flicks it through her feathers and then shakes it all out. [15] - When a chicken preens, it spreads oil from a gland near its tail over its feathers to keep them supple. Over time the oil gets old and stale. - A dust bath soaks up the extra oil and helps get rid of skin parasites. - Free-range hens spend a lot of time dust bathing and dig hollows in their favourite spots. - Hens with nothing loose to bathe in may 'pretend' bathe on a bare floor, and may start pecking each other's feathers. ### Body parts - **Comb** [16][1][26][11] - The comb is the soft, red, warm crest of skin on top of the head. Hens and roosters both have one, but a rooster's is much bigger. - Breeds have different shapes: a single comb with a row of points, a broad rose comb covered in little points, a pea comb like three small combs side by side, or a bumpy comb like the Silkie's. - Blood flowing near the surface of the comb helps a chicken get rid of extra heat. - **Wattles** [16][1][11] - Wattles are the two flaps of red skin that hang under the beak. - Like the comb, they are larger in roosters than in hens. - In a heat test, hens with whole wattles had warmer wattles than hens whose wattles had been trimmed, a sign that blood was carrying heat to the skin. - **Earlobes** [16][24][17][3] - A chicken's ear is a small opening hidden under feathers. The earlobe is a patch of bare skin just below it. - Most breeds have red or white earlobes. Silkies have turquoise-blue ones. - Red earlobes often go with brown eggs and white earlobes with white eggs, but it is only a rule of thumb. - **Beak** (0 teeth) [14] - Chickens have no teeth, so they cannot chew. They peck food up and swallow it whole. - Saliva wets the food and starts digesting it on the way down to the crop. - **Colour-rich eyes** (5 kinds of cone cell (we have 3)) [13][30] - A chicken's retina has five kinds of cone cells. People have three. - Four of them are used for colour, and one of those picks up violet light, including some ultraviolet that we cannot see. - The fifth, a double cone, is thought to help with spotting movement. - **Hackle feathers** [16] - The hackles are the long feathers that cover the neck like a cape. - A rooster's hackle feathers have pointed tips. A hen's are rounded. This is one way to tell a young cockerel from a pullet. - **Wings** [1][25] - Chickens can fly, but only for short distances: their flight muscles are heavy for their wings. - Their wild ancestor, the red junglefowl, flies mainly to reach a safe roost in a tree at sunset or to escape danger. - **Tail and sickle feathers** [16] - A hen's tail is short and held upright. - Only roosters grow sickle feathers: long, curved tail feathers that arch over the rest of the tail. - **Legs, toes and spurs** [16][24] - Chickens stand and walk on their toes. Most have three toes pointing forward and one pointing back. - A few breeds, such as the Silkie, have five toes on each foot. Some breeds have feathers on their legs and toes. - Roosters grow a sharp spur on the back of each leg, and it gets bigger as they get older. ### Stats | Stat | Value | Notes | |---|---|---| | Eggs a year | 200–300+ | commercial-type hens 200–260; some breeds over 300; many purebreds 100–180 [19][1] | | Egg-laying record | 371 in 364 days | a White Leghorn, No. 2988, in an official test ending in 1979 at the University of Missouri [20] | | Time to make an egg | 24–26 hours | about 20 of those hours in the shell gland [3][4] | | Egg to chick | 21 days | a new chick weighs about 37 g [18][1] | | First eggs | ≈20 weeks old | for laying hens [19] | | Weight | 2–4 kg | Leghorn hens 2.0–2.5 kg; Rhode Island Red roosters about 3.9 kg [21][22] | | Loudest crow measured | 142.3 dB | at the rooster's own ear; about 102 dB half a metre away [9] | | Kinds of cone cell in the eye | 5 | including one that sees some ultraviolet [13][30] | | Lifespan | 5–10 years | depending on breed; the oldest on record, Muffy, lived 23 years [1][31] | | Chickens alive | 26.5 billion+ | in 2023: more than any other bird [1] | ### Photos - [Crowing at sunrise: tall comb, long wattles](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rooster_crowing_close-up.jpg) (photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim, GFDL 1.2) - [A rooster crows in the snow; note the curved sickle feathers](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orange_rooster_crowing.jpg) (photo: GrinningIodize, CC BY-SA 4.0) - [A brown hen in her dust-bath hollow](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hen_dustbathing.jpg) (photo: Dave Crosby, CC BY-SA 2.0) - [A free-range hen and her chicks](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gallina_de_campo_(Gallus_gallus_domesticus)_y_sus_polluelos.jpg) (photo: Nathaly 1106, CC BY 4.0) - [White (Leghorn), speckled (Marans) and tinted (Rhode Island Red) eggs](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egg_colours.jpg) (photo: Timothy Titus, CC BY-SA 3.0) - [A White Leghorn hen: pale earlobe, yellow legs](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ARS-White_Leghorn_hen_(cropped).jpg) (photo: Stephen Ausmus, USDA ARS, Public domain) - [A Rhode Island Red rooster](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhode_Island_Red_rooster.jpg) (photo: Dictouray, CC BY-SA 3.0) - [A Barred Plymouth Rock hen](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barred_Plymouth_Rock_Hen_001.jpg) (photo: Jena Fuller, CC BY-SA 2.0) - [A white Silkie: fluffy crest, turquoise earlobe](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silky_bantam.jpg) (photo: Benjamint444, CC BY-SA 3.0) - [The wild ancestor: a red junglefowl rooster, Chitwan, Nepal](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_Junglefowl_(Gallus_gallus)_(21450873669).jpg) (photo: Lip Kee from Singapore, Republic of Singapore, CC BY-SA 2.0) ### Questions - **Do hens need a rooster to lay eggs?** No. A hen lays eggs whether or not there is a rooster. Without one, the eggs are not fertilised and cannot hatch. [3] - **How long does it take a hen to make an egg?** About 24 to 26 hours. Most of that time, about 20 hours, is spent in the shell gland, where the hard shell is made. [3][4] - **Why do chickens have a comb?** The bare comb and wattles help chickens lose heat on hot days. The comb is also a signal: in tests, junglefowl hens that chose quickly picked roosters with longer combs. [11][12] - **Why do roosters crow in the morning?** An internal body clock makes them crow before dawn, even in constant light. In a group, the top-ranking rooster usually crows first. [8][7] - **What is a pecking order?** It is the ranking inside a flock. Higher-ranking hens can peck lower ones without being pecked back. It was first described by Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe, who studied hens from childhood. [5][6] - **Why do chickens roll in dirt?** That is a dust bath. It soaks up stale oil from the feathers and helps get rid of skin parasites. [15] - **When and where were chickens domesticated?** The oldest bones that are clearly from chickens come from central Thailand, about 3,500 years ago, probably after red junglefowl were drawn to rice and millet fields. Some genetic studies suggest an earlier start, so the exact date is still debated. [2][1] - **How long do chickens live?** Usually 5 to 10 years, depending on the breed. The oldest on record, a hen called Muffy, lived to 23. [1][31] ### Chicken myths and facts Tap Myth or Fact for each claim, then check the answer. - "A hen needs a rooster to lay eggs." **Myth!** Hens lay eggs with or without a rooster. A rooster is only needed if the eggs are to be fertilised and hatch into chicks. [3] - "Brown eggs are healthier than white eggs." **Myth!** Shell colour depends on the breed of hen. Brown and white eggs taste the same and work the same way in cooking. [17] - "A hen with red earlobes usually lays brown eggs." **Mostly!** It is a good rule of thumb for many breeds, but not a law. Silkies have turquoise earlobes and lay cream or tinted eggs, and Araucanas lay blue eggs. [3][17][24] - "Roosters only crow at dawn." **Myth!** The big crowing session comes before dawn, but roosters also crow at other times of day, for example when lights come on or another rooster crows. [8] - "Chickens can't fly." **Myth!** Chickens can fly short distances. Their heavy flight muscles stop them going far. Wild junglefowl fly up into trees to roost. [1][25] - "Chickens see more colours than people do." **Fact!** Chickens have four kinds of colour cone cells to our three, including one that picks up some ultraviolet light. [13][30] - "The biggest hen is always top of the pecking order." **Myth!** The scientist who discovered the pecking order found that rank did not simply follow strength or age, and some hens even formed triangles of rank. [5] ### What to call a chicken Chickens have different names depending on their age and sex. - **Rooster or cock**: An adult male chicken. [1] - **Hen**: An adult female chicken. [1] - **Cockerel**: A young male chicken. [1] - **Pullet**: A young female chicken, less than a year old. [1] - **Chick**: A baby chicken, newly hatched and covered in down. [1] - **Chook or biddy**: Other everyday names for a chicken. [1] ### A chicken's life From a yolk inside a hen to a hen laying eggs of her own. - **Day 0**: An egg is laid. After 24–26 hours travelling through the hen, the egg is laid. If it was fertilised and a hen sits on it, a chick starts to grow. [3] - **About 42 hours**: First heartbeat. The tiny embryo's heart starts beating. [18] - **Day 14–17**: Getting into position. The chick moves into position for hatching, and by day 17 its beak points towards the air pocket at the blunt end. [18] - **Day 20**: First breath. The beak breaks into the air pocket and the chick starts breathing with its lungs, still inside the shell. [18] - **Day 21**: Hatching. Using its egg tooth and strong neck muscles, the chick cuts its way out. It weighs about 37 g. [18][1] - **First year**: Pullets and cockerels. Young females are called pullets and young males cockerels. Hackle feathers start to show the difference: pointed in males, rounded in females. [1][16] - **About 20 weeks**: First eggs. Laying hens start to lay at around 20 weeks old. [19] - **5–10 years**: Old age. Most chickens live 5 to 10 years, depending on the breed. The oldest on record, a hen called Muffy, lived to 23. [1][31] ### Domestic chicken vs red junglefowl vs common pheasant The chicken's wild ancestor, and a wild cousin that people often mix up with it. | | Domestic chicken | Red junglefowl | Common pheasant | |---|---|---|---| | Scientific name [1][25][28] | Gallus gallus domesticus | Gallus gallus | Phasianus colchicus | | Wild or tame [1][25][28] | Domestic, kept by people all over the world | Wild; the main ancestor of the chicken | Wild | | Weight [21][22][25][28] | About 2–4 kg in common breeds | Males about 1.5 kg, females about 1 kg | Males about 1.2 kg, females about 0.9 kg | | Head [1][25][28] | Red comb and wattles in both sexes, bigger in roosters | Red comb and wattles, bigger in males | Males: green head, red face wattle and ear tufts | | Flying [1][25][28] | Short distances only | Flies up to roost in trees at sunset | Short, fast bursts; prefers to run | | Native to [2][25][28] | Tamed in Southeast Asia; now worldwide | South and Southeast Asia | Asia, from the Caucasus to Korea and Taiwan | | IUCN status [25][28] | Not assessed (domestic) | Least Concern | Least Concern | Chickens come mainly from the red junglefowl, but they also carry some genes from other junglefowl, including the gene for yellow skin from the grey junglefowl. ### Is the chicken endangered? Chickens are the most numerous bird on Earth, but many old breeds are rare, and the wild ancestor faces a quiet problem. - **IUCN Red List:** Not Evaluated (NE). The domestic chicken is not on the IUCN Red List. Its wild ancestor, the red junglefowl, is listed as Least Concern. [25][1] - Domestic animals are not assessed by the IUCN - **Threat: Old breeds dying out** (12): Chicken breeds rated Critical on the US Livestock Conservancy's 2026 Conservation Priority List, including the Araucana and the Java. [27] - **Threat: Mixing with the wild ancestor**: Where free-ranging village chickens meet forest edges, they breed with wild red junglefowl, which may water down the junglefowl's wild traits. [25] - **Helping: Breed watch lists**: The Livestock Conservancy tracks rare chicken breeds in four groups, from Critical to Recovering, so breeders know which ones need help. [27] - **Helping: Breeds that bounced back**: Non-industrial Leghorns, Delawares, Jersey Giants, Polish and Sussex chickens are now listed as Recovering. [27] - **Red junglefowl** (LC): The wild ancestor, still common in the forests of South and Southeast Asia. [25] ### Chicken signals - Head and tail held high: A dominant bird, sure of its place in the pecking order. [29] - Head and tail lowered, body crouched: A lower-ranking bird giving way to a higher one. [29] - A rooster's aerial alarm call: Danger in the sky. Hens crouch and run for cover. [10] - A rooster's ground alarm call: A predator on the ground. Hens stand tall and keep watch. [10] - Crowing before dawn: The rooster's body clock at work. The top-ranking rooster usually goes first. [8][7] - Lying in a hollow, flicking dirt into the feathers: A dust bath: cleaning stale oil out of the feathers. [15] ### Looks - **Brown laying hen**: Ginger-brown feathers, a small single comb, small wattles and red earlobes. (A typical backyard and farm egg layer) [16] - **Rooster**: Black-breasted red: golden hackles, a red back, a black breast and glossy green-black sickle feathers, with a tall comb, long wattles and spurs. The red junglefowl wears the same colours. (Crows, and gives alarm calls that warn the hens) [16][25][10] - **Hen with chicks**: Fluffy chicks covered in down stay close to their mother. (Chicks hatch after 21 days, covered in fluffy down) [18] - **White Leghorn**: All white, with a single comb, white earlobes and bright yellow legs. (Lays about 280 white eggs a year. The world record layer was a White Leghorn) [21][20] - **Rhode Island Red**: Deep red to almost black-red feathers with a mostly black tail, red earlobes and yellow legs. (Lays brown eggs. It is the state bird of Rhode Island) [22] - **Barred Plymouth Rock**: Grey-and-white barred feathers, a single comb, red earlobes and yellow legs. (Raised for both eggs and meat; about 200 brown eggs a year) [23] - **Silkie**: Fluffy, fur-like feathers that cannot hold together for flight, a pompom crest, a dark walnut comb, turquoise earlobes, black skin and five toes on each foot. (Kept as pets and as broody hens that hatch other birds' eggs) [24] ### Chicken quiz 1. About how long does a hen take to make one egg? **About 25 hours.** About 24 to 26 hours, with about 20 of them in the shell gland. [3][4] 2. What is a young female chicken, less than a year old, called? **A pullet.** A pullet. A young male is a cockerel. [1] 3. How many days does a chicken egg take to hatch? **21.** 21 days. The chick uses its egg tooth to cut its way out. [18] 4. Who first described the pecking order? **Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe.** The Norwegian scientist Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe, who started watching hens as a child. [5][6] 5. Which part of a chicken grinds up its food? **The gizzard.** The gizzard, a muscular stomach helped by swallowed grit. [14] 6. What does a hen do when she hears a rooster's aerial alarm call? **Crouches and runs for cover.** She crouches and heads for cover, and looks up at the sky. [10] 7. In a group of roosters, which one usually crows first in the morning? **The top-ranking rooster.** The top-ranking rooster crowed first on 97.6% of mornings in a 2015 study. [7] 8. Does a hen need a rooster to lay eggs? **No.** No. Without a rooster her eggs are simply not fertilised. [3] 9. What do the comb and wattles help a chicken do on a hot day? **Lose body heat.** Warm blood flows to the bare skin and the heat escapes. Hens with trimmed combs and wattles coped worse in a heat test. [11] 10. How many kinds of cone cell does a chicken's eye have? **5.** Five. People have three. [13][30] 11. Which wild bird is the main ancestor of the chicken? **Red junglefowl.** The red junglefowl of South and Southeast Asia. [1][25] 12. Which breed has fluffy feathers, black skin and five toes on each foot? **Silkie.** The Silkie, which also has turquoise earlobes. [24] ### Sources (checked 2026-10-28) 1. [Wikipedia contributors. Chicken. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken) 2. [Peters J, Lebrasseur O, et al. (2022). The biocultural origins and dispersal of domestic chickens. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9214543) 3. [Ohio State University Extension. The Making of an Egg (VME-0021).](https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/vme-0021) 4. [Penn State Extension, Pennsylvania 4-H. The Hen (the reproductive system and fertilization).](https://extension.psu.edu/programs/4-h/opportunities/projects/animal-science/poultry/raising-rearing/viii-other-online-resources/the-reproductive-system-and-fertilization/the-hen) 5. [Wikipedia contributors. Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe. 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Most prolific chicken.](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/70781-most-prolific-chicken) 21. [Wikipedia contributors. Leghorn chicken. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leghorn_chicken) 22. [Wikipedia contributors. Rhode Island Red. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island_Red) 23. [Wikipedia contributors. Plymouth Rock chicken. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock_chicken) 24. [Wikipedia contributors. Silkie (chicken breed). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkie_(chicken_breed)) 25. [Wikipedia contributors. Red junglefowl. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_junglefowl) 26. [Wikipedia contributors. Comb (anatomy). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comb_(anatomy)) 27. [The Livestock Conservancy. Conservation Priority List (heritage breeds list).](https://livestockconservancy.org/heritage-breeds/heritage-breeds-list/) 28. [Wikipedia contributors. Common pheasant. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_pheasant) 29. [Animal Diversity Web. Gallus gallus (red junglefowl). University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Gallus_gallus/) 30. [Washington University in St. Louis, The Source (2010). Birds 'one-up' humans in ability to see color.](https://source.washu.edu/2010/02/birds-oneup-humans-in-ability-to-see-color/) 31. [Guinness World Records (2024). World's oldest chicken, Peanut, dies aged 21 (Muffy, oldest chicken ever, 23 years 152 days).](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/01/worlds-oldest-chicken-peanut-dies-aged-21-762849) ## Measurements & details - **Length:** 45-55 cm - **Wingspan:** 60-70 cm - **Weight:** 2.9-4.3 kg - **Lifespan:** 6-10 years - **Speed:** 15 km/h - **Clutch Size:** 6-12 - **Incubation:** 21 days ## Diet & Feeding An omnivore, it pecks and scratches for seeds, grains, insects, and leafy greens. - **Primary Foods:** seeds, grains, insects, worms, grasses, leafy greens - **Foraging Method:** Foraging ## Ecological connections - **Eaten by:** [coyote](https://www.snappit.app/explore/coyote) (*Canis latrans*) — Opportunistic predator in rural areas. - **Eaten by:** [red fox](https://www.snappit.app/explore/red-fox) (*Vulpes vulpes*) — A common predator of poultry in many regions. - **Eaten by:** [red-tailed hawk](https://www.snappit.app/explore/red-tailed-hawk) (*Buteo jamaicensis*) — Preys on smaller ground animals including chickens. ## Traits - [Wildlife](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/wildlife): Wildlife encompasses all undomesticated animal and plant life existing in their natural habitats. - [Feathered](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/feathered): Feathered describes animals, primarily birds, possessing a covering of feathers. - [Social](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/social): Social animals live in organized groups, cooperating for survival benefits such as foraging, defense, and raising offspring. - [Omnivorous](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/omnivorous): This trait identifies organisms whose diet includes both plant and animal matter. - [Colorful](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/colorful): Colorful describes organisms or objects displaying a wide range of bright and distinct colors. - [Grassland](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/grassland): Grassland habitats are terrestrial biomes dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants, supporting a variety of grazing animals. ## Collections - [Birds](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/birds) ## Safety **Danger:** 1/5 · Very low Always be gentle and calm around chickens. They are friendly but can be startled easily. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How to identify Plymouth Rock Chicken? Compare the silhouette, bill shape, tail length, wing bars and markings around the eyes. The same small brown bird at your feeder can look quite different in breeding plumage, winter plumage or its first year. Bird Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details. ### How long is Plymouth Rock Chicken? 45-55 cm ### What is Plymouth Rock Chicken's wingspan? 60-70 cm ### How much does Plymouth Rock Chicken weigh? 2.9-4.3 kg ### How long does Plymouth Rock Chicken live? 6-10 years ### How fast can Plymouth Rock Chicken move? 15 km/h ### What does Plymouth Rock Chicken eat? An omnivore, it pecks and scratches for seeds, grains, insects, and leafy greens. ### How does Plymouth Rock Chicken hunt? Foraging ## More Birds - [Black-crowned Night Heron](https://www.snappit.app/explore/black-crowned-night-heron) (*Nycticorax nycticorax*) - [Anna's Hummingbird](https://www.snappit.app/explore/annas-hummingbird) (*Calypte anna*) - [Great Egret](https://www.snappit.app/explore/great-egret) (*Ardea alba*) - [Blue Jay](https://www.snappit.app/explore/blue-jay) (*Cyanocitta cristata*) --- Source: [Plymouth Rock Chicken: Facts & Places to See — Snappit](https://www.snappit.app/explore/plymouth-rock-chicken)