Farm Facts

DISCLAIMER: This email contains facts from the weekend that I learned about farm animals, not intended for younger audiences.

What is a baby horse? For years, I have lived under the impression that a baby horse was a pony. My wife thought ponies stayed ponies. I argued that no, a pony is a baby horse, just as a kitten is a baby cat and a puppy is a baby dog. Much to my dismay, I came home to find out she was right. A baby horse is called a foal. Foal is the generic term for the baby horse regardless of gender, but more specifically, a colt is a baby (young) male horse and a philly is a baby (young) female horse. In fact, they are considered colts or phillies until they are 4 years old. At which point they become a mare (female), stallion (male or alternate term for me), or gelding (male that has been fixed).

So as it turns out, a pony is a pony for life, they don't grow up to be horses afterall.

Also, are roosters busy? Meaning, does a rooster have to 'be' with a chicken in order for an egg to come out. I said no, but there were questions on how his all happened. No, the rooster doesn't go into the hen house every night and come out proud of himself. The eggs just come out naturally. In fact, they are not fertile eggs. The eggs in your fridge would never hatch into an chic (which makes me feel much better about the whole situation), which disappoints the wife as she went on for about 10 minutes about what all she could do if she had several chics milling about the house, at one point, we were even a travelling chic road show every Easter where the chics did various stunts (hey, it's a long drive). But basically if a rooster and hen do get together in marital bliss, only then are the hens eggs fertile and can hatch.

Just thought everyone should know all that, as there was greate debate over it this weekend and its suprising how little we knew about farm life and young animals.