Comments on: Amanda Visell's chicken reproductive poster

By: Fallandmisstheground

Fallandmisstheground — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Sorry to be pedantic, but OVA is plural. The singular is OVUM.

By: Melanie Henderson

Melanie Henderson — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:14:00 +0000

The rooster is placed where the rooster would be pertinent if we were having a fertilized hatching egg: near the oviduct drawing, after the ova is released. That’s where the fertilization occurs. You totally don’t need a rooster for your hen to lay eggs. You need a rooster for any of those eggs to hatch to chicks. This poster would facilitate discussion, and clarification. If you are relying purely on the absolute total un-misunderstandable correctness and complete clarity to the nth degree of posters to teach your kids, then you don’t deserve to complain about said posters. I agree about the typos/spelling errors though. For goodness’ sake, can ANY educational poster be grammatically correct?

By: Calimecita

Calimecita — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:19:00 +0000

Ovuduct??

Also, I agree with others that the representation as a cycle (even without the final arrow) is misleading. And if the cock were placed closer to the start of the egg’s journey through the ovIduct, it would perhaps be better, as fertilization needs to happen before the egg membranes & other stuff are added.

By: MelSkunk

MelSkunk — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:00:00 +0000

I’m pretty certain parthenogenesis, though rare, is possible in chickens. I’m not clear how often it leads to viable offspring though. So even the rooster is not totally needed for hugs.

By: Mantissa128

Mantissa128 — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:40:00 +0000

“If the rooster loves the chicken very much…”

We all know he’s just after some cloaca, like the rest of us.

By: Susan Carley Oliver

Susan Carley Oliver — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 05:50:00 +0000

I have chickens, and I get this question all the time. I ask my female questioners “do you need a guy around to lay your monthly egg?” That usually gets ‘em thinking.

By: Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 04:05:00 +0000

Is it mandatory that infographic posters have typos? In this case it’s “layed.” And as others have pointed out, the poster doesn’t clearly achieve what it announces it will do, which is explain how a hen will produce an egg every month whether or not a cock (I prefer the less squeamish British term) is present. However, that’s no great mystery. Human females also produce an egg every month, whether or not a male is present.

The drawings are nice, though.

By: Greg Maletic

Greg Maletic — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 01:28:00 +0000

Her illustrations are so nice, but does everything have to have its eyes closed? Wouldn’t that chicken look better staring us, even with its lifeless chicken eyes?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 01:15:00 +0000

Can we just call a cock a cock?

By: sarah shevett

sarah shevett — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:58:00 +0000

Without the rooster there is no reproductive cycle.

By: Cefeida

Cefeida — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:57:00 +0000

Wrong! The cycle starts with a chicken hatching from an egg, not with the egg being laid. The egg was indisputably first.

By: OldBrownSquirrel

OldBrownSquirrel — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:43:00 +0000

It’s an actual technical term; I didn’t make it up.

In other news, it’s apparently also the name of a band.

By: emo hex

emo hex — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:55:00 +0000

So it’s final then . . . The Chicken!

By: Dani4a

Dani4a — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:42:00 +0000

Give this poster a good proofreading and you might actually be able to get the $30 out of me.

By: wawb

wawb — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:17:00 +0000

The “egg … is released through the vent which is also shared by the intestine.”

It’s not a matter of “laid” versus “layed”, then. It’s “pooped out the bum.”

By: Rick Westerman

Rick Westerman — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:57:00 +0000

From all of the previous comments about the lack of an arrow between the “egg is layed” and “the process starts all over again” the answer is obviously “the chicken”. In other words you can follow the one-way line from the chicken to the egg but not vice-versa. So the chicken has to come before the egg.

By: irksome

irksome — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:23:00 +0000

I came here in the hope of finding the answer to the age old question of which came first and I leave disappointed, doomed to continue lying awake at night, wondering.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:22:00 +0000

That hen wouldn’t look so smug if she knew we could all see her lady bits.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:22:00 +0000

That’s illegal in most countries.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:21:00 +0000

I was fine with “big hug,” but now that “cloacal kiss” is on the table I agree that it was a missed opportunity.

By: Mike Dowler

Mike Dowler — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:18:00 +0000

You need a rooster to make a female chicken. That is how the process starts all over again – unless this chicken is pumping out special female-chicken-Jesus eggs. I’m kind of getting the vibe that the poster is trying to have some underlying female empowerment message (females are awesome because we don’t need males to ovulate!)… or is it honestly just in the draft phase since it’s part of “a new line of science posters?” A science poster should be accurate and not politically slanted. And little boys don’t need to be dodging the swinging pendulum.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Absolutely right. I came here to say “BUT! BUT! That cycle is wrong because a chick won’t hatch if there was no rooster,” just like Joshua above.

There won’t be a cycle if there’s no rooster. It’s true that the graphic doesn’t have that final arrow, but that minor detail is easily missed, and the title says both “cycle” and “don’t need a rooster.”

By: Joshua Bardwell

Joshua Bardwell — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Ah. I see. It’s confusing that the title of the poster is, “you don’t need a rooster,” but then roosters are involved.

By: Jonathan Badger

Jonathan Badger — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:59:00 +0000

Artist needs to take some seminars from Edward Tufte — unless one already knows otherwise, the cycle clearly shows it restarting with the birth of the hen. If this was moved out of the circle it would be much more informative.

By: hadlockk

hadlockk — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:58:00 +0000

Shouldn’t the last step read “the egg is laid”? Right now it reads “layed”. As in, “I laid down the baby to sleep”.

By: OldBrownSquirrel

OldBrownSquirrel — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:53:00 +0000

I think you’ve misunderstood. Fertilization is described as optional, and the “process” that “starts all over again” is ambiguous, with no arrow pointing from laying to hatching; in the absence of fertilization, the cycle picks up at the next egg being formed, though that’s not clearly stated.

By: OldBrownSquirrel

OldBrownSquirrel — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:51:00 +0000

You demand the term “cloacal kiss”? These are chickens we’re talking about, not ducks; it’s not as though there’s any penetration happening.

By: Joshua Bardwell

Joshua Bardwell — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:48:00 +0000

But. But. It’s just not true.

The eggs laid by chickens who have not had access to a rooster are not fertilized and will never hatch into a chicken. Hens (and some other poultry) are capable of self-fertilizing, but this is very rare and cannot be considered the norm.

Either this is a joke, or I have misunderstood it, or it is terribly ignorant.

EDIT: Or I am totally misinformed regarding a chicken’s reproductive system, in which case I owe my girls an apology.

DOUBLE EDIT: If it’s a joke, it’s not funny, because a lot of people actually think this is true, and I spend a lot of time setting them straight.

By: kansas

kansas — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:38:00 +0000

Charming, yes, but the “big hug” nonsense spoils it.