Chicken Wikipedia

Chickens reached Egypt via the Middle East for purposes of cockfighting about 1400 BC and became widely bred in Egypt around 300 BC. Re-examination of bones from over 600 sites, and dating of those from 23 sites, identified the earliest probable chicken bones as from central Thailand, at Ban Non Wat, some 3,250 years ago. Hens remain on the nest for about two days after the first chick hatches; during this time the newly hatched chicks feed by absorbing the internal yolk sac. The hen sits on the nest, fluffing up or pecking defensively if disturbed.

Social hierarchy

It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is one of the most common and widespread domesticated animals in the world.

Social hierarchy

At about six months, males produce viable sperm, and females produce viable eggs. The chicken is a sacred animal in many cultures and deeply embedded in belief systems and religious practices.Roosters are sometimes used for divination, a practice called alectryomancy. In 2006, scientists researching the ancestry of birds switched on a chicken recessive gene, talpid2, and found that the embryo jaws initiated formation of teeth, like those found in ancient bird fossils. In the process of domestication, chickens were apparently kept initially for cockfighting, and only later used for food. This stimulates the hen to lose her feathers but also re-invigorates egg-production. In some other countries, flocks are sometimes force-moulted rather than being slaughtered to re-invigorate egg-laying.

To add chicken to a word list please sign up or log in. Chickens have been featured in art in farmyard scenes such npvip as Adriaen van Utrecht’s 1646 Turkeys and Chickens and Walter Osborne’s 1885 Feeding the Chickens. The pseudo-riddle “Why did the chicken cross the road?” dates to 1847, or earlier.

• It is estimated that chickens share between 71 and 79% of their genome with red junglefowl.
• Chickens have been featured in art in farmyard scenes such as Adriaen van Utrecht’s 1646 Turkeys and Chickens and Walter Osborne’s 1885 Feeding the Chickens.
• During the Hellenistic period (4th–2nd centuries BC), in the southern Levant, chickens began to be widely domesticated for food.
• Although many taxonomists and ornithologists consider it as a domesticated form of the wild red jungle fowl, some classify it as a subspecies of the red jungle fowl (i.e., G. gallus domesticus), whereas others, including the U.S.
• Mature males have long been used for sport (i.e., cockfighting, now outlawed in many jurisdictions) as well as for breeding.

A cockfight is a contest held in a ring called a cockpit between two cocks. Certain breeds, such as silkies and many bantam varieties, are generally docile and are often recommended as good pets around children with disabilities. This involves complete withdrawal of food (and sometimes water) for 7–14 days or sufficiently long to cause a body weight loss of 25 to 35%, or up to 28 days under experimental conditions. Hens, particularly from battery cage systems, are sometimes infirm or have lost a significant amount of their feathers, and their life expectancy has been reduced from around seven years to less than two years.

During the Hellenistic period (4th–2nd centuries BC), in the southern Levant, chickens began to be widely domesticated for food. Analysis of the most popular commercial breed shows that the White Leghorn breed possesses a mosaic of divergent ancestries inherited from different subspecies of red junglefowl. Inbreeding of White Leghorn chickens tends to cause inbreeding depression expressed as reduced egg number and delayed sexual maturity. When eggs are placed in a hypoxic environment, chicken embryos from these populations express much more hemoglobin than embryos from other chicken populations.