Silver Chicken

Silver chickens are a domesticated species of bird found in The Frost Lands and in farms across Aekor and Trecath. Their eggs contain traces of various metals such as silver, copper, nickel, iron, and cobalt, as well as occasionally some extremely valuable metals like gold and platinum.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Silver chickens have a round, spherical body, with long shiny grey feathers. Their necks are short, and on top sits a round head. Their beaks are long and sharp, and on the back of their heads are a long burnt orange comb that droops down over their heads. Silver chicken eyes are large and yellow, with reddish eyelids. Their legs are long, except they are mostly hidden from their thick belly feathers that hide over 50 percent of their legs. Each foot ends in 3 toes, each equipped with black claws. On the bottom of their toes are sharp scales that are used by males to fight other males in combat for females. Their tail feathers are long, their sickle feathers can reach up to 30 centimetres long in adult males. Their lesser sickle feathers are much shorter, averaging at about 10 centimetres. These birds are also very heavy, as their body contains large amounts of metals.

Sexual Dimorphism

A striking difference between sexes, male silver chickens have a more vibrant plumage, with shades of greens, blues and purples in their tail and head feathers. Males are also slightly bigger, about 10% larger than the females.
Females have a more brownish tinge to their feathers across their body, with only 2 purple feathers on their heads just behind their eyes.

Genetics and Reproduction

Eggs

Silver chickens were originally domesticated for their prized eggs. The shells of these eggs contain traces of metals. The metals that can be found are:
Silver, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Potassium, Gold, and Platinum.
Percentages of the metals can be altered by selective breeding and genetic variation, which has been used to increase amounts of rarer metals such as gold and platinum.
Silver chickens lay one egg a day until they have a clutch, which is usually 7-9 eggs. They will sit on both fertilised and unfertilised eggs. Females lay unfertilised eggs when they do not have access to a rooster, which is why most farms have only female hens without a male.

Growth Rate & Stages

Silver chicks hatch from their eggs after 3 weeks, or 21 days, of incubation. It does not make a difference if a hen incubates the eggs or if they were incubated in specialised chambers.
It then takes about 20 weeks for a chick to become sexually mature, and they will start to lay eggs, with or without a rooster. Most chicks between those ages are kept in separate pens to the adult chickens.

Dominance Stage

During a four week period starting when they become sexually mature, they enter a dominance stage. This so called dominance stage is a period of time where the birds become much more aggressive. They will puff up their feathers when approached by anything, even their own species, in order for them to appear much larger. They will also gang up on predators like foxes and hawks, and will attempt to kill and eat them.

Ecology and Habitats

Before silver chickens were domesticated, they lived in a range of environments in the Frost Lands. They were most common roaming the meadows of the feet of the several mountain ranges, like the Frost Mountain Range and the Miorin Mountain Range. They would also frequently inhabit the forests just south, migrating there during the winters where it was tolerably cold unlike the north.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Silver chickens feed on organic material that have traces of metals in them. Concentrated bananas and silver carrots are on the menu, as well as chicken feed that is mass produced by large companies containing all the minerals they need. The chickens have some ability to lay eggs containing more metals than they consume, and if they were to consume more metals they can produce more metallic eggs which is why their chicken feed contains a lot of metal.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Silver chickens originated in the Frost Lands, on the south of the Frost and the Miorin Mountain Ranges. When domesticated, some were brought on ships across the oceans towards Trecath and Aekor, and now they exist in farms in the three continents.

Average Intelligence

Silver chickens have been shown to be rather intelligent. They were previously thought to be very unintelligent but more recent studies and tests show they can figure out rather complex puzzles. Tests done by various universities have shown that the chickens can tell apart up to a hundred harmonid faces and even remember them.

Lifespan

6 years

Average Height

40 - 50cm

Average Weight

8 - 10kg

Geographic Distribution

• Frost Lands
• Greenerth

Related Ethnicities

• Kozkonyonyaosi