Do you know your chicken's comb or the red crown on chicken’s head, can mean and indicate many things. Chicken's comb primary purpose is to act as a blood circulator in chicken. It helps keep the bird cool during hot weather. Vascular flow of the blood runs through the comb to the rest of body, expelling body heat and cooling the chicken. whereas chickens bred to survive the cold will have smaller combs that can’t freeze as easily. Combs also are the way that chickens recognize each other. Usually, birds with the larger combs will be higher in the pecking order rank.
Chickens many different kinds of combs ranging from single, pea, buttercup, strawberry, cushion, rose, V-shaped and walnut they all look alike in how they function and with what they can tell you about the chicken’s health and age.
What colour, size and texture of a chicken’s comb can indicate about their health.
1. COLOUR
The colour of a chicken’s comb can tell you how healthy is the chicken, what phases of life it’s in as well as how old the bird is. Red, glossy combs indicate that the bird is a healthy, young adult chicken in the prime of its life. When layer about ready to lay eggs will quickly develop large and deep red combs. Mature, healthy roosters will have huge, rosy red combs.
Chickens that are either young, molting or old will generally have pale pink combs. However, pale pink combs can also indicate sickness or disease. Anemia will always cause a drop in the color or a chicken’s face, including the comb. Coccidiosis can also cause pale faces. Parasites, both internal and external, heat exhaustion or dehydration can all cause pale combs in chickens as well.
2. Purple/ blueish combs can indicate many things and, unfortunately, all of them are not good. Diseases such as avian flu, paratyphoid pullorum, chronic aspergillosis, tuberculosis and ergotism can all cause purple-ish blue combs. It can also be Signs of a heart attack or stroke can also affect the comb and cause it to change color to a dark purple. Sometimes when a chicken has a simple cold it can also develop a purple-ish comb.
3. SIZE
Comb size depends more on breed than anything else, it is important to take note of what is a normal size for your chicken so that you can know if it grow or not. Again, a healthy, mature bird will generally have a large comb. A shrinking comb can indicate sickness, parasite infection, stress or old age. Hens who have quit laying will normally experience a drop in comb color and size, which is normal.
4. Growing combs. This kind of comb obviously occur when a chicken is maturing or when they have ended molting season or when they have peaked in their health after being sick or injured. Also, cockerels will develop larger combs at an earlier age than pullets.
So as a chicken owner you should notice and know what your chicken's comb indicate, this will hell to detect their health and others.
