Chicken Wikipedia

The word chicken comes from Old English cicen (pronounced essentially the same as in Modern English).

Mature males have long been used for sport (i.e., cockfighting, now outlawed in many jurisdictions) as well as for breeding. Farmers have developed numerous breeds and varieties to fulfill commercial requirements. Descendants of those domestications have spread throughout the world in several waves for at least the last 2,000 years.

Domestication and economic production

Chickens have been thought of primarily as providers of food, but their cognition, emotions, and sociality are comparable with other birds and mammals. Chickens are gregarious, living in flocks, and incubate eggs and raise young communally. The body is round, the legs are unfeathered in most breeds, and the wings are short. Chicken can mean a chick, and this was historically the meaning of the word chicken, as in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, where Macduff laments the death of “all my pretty chickens and their dam”. As of 2023, the global chicken population exceeds 26.5 billion, with more than 50 billion birds produced annually for consumption.

Modern varieties however grow much faster; by day 35 a Ross 708 broiler may weigh 1.8 kg (4.0 lb) as against the 1.05 kg (2.3 lb) of a heritage chicken of the same age. Newly hatched chicks of both modern and heritage varieties weigh the same, about 37 g (1.3 oz). While the origin is Germanic, it is unclear exactly where the word came from, although it could ultimately have come from an imitation of the sound a chicken makes.

Social hierarchy

Females (mature hens and খেলা88 younger chickens, called pullets) are raised for meat and for their edible eggs. In domesticating the chicken, humans took advantage of the red junglefowl’s ability to reproduce prolifically when exposed to a surge in its food supply. The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domesticated form of the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), originally native to Southeast Asia.

• As of 2023, the global chicken population exceeds 26.5 billion, with more than 50 billion birds produced annually for consumption.
• 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 domestic chicken has subsequently hybridised with grey junglefowl, Sri Lankan junglefowl and green junglefowl; a gene for yellow skin, for instance, was incorporated into domestic birds from the grey junglefowl (G. sonneratii).
• More than 50 billion chickens are reared annually as a source of meat and eggs.

Domestication and economic production

In the United States alone, more than 8 billion chickens are slaughtered each year for meat, and more than 300 million chickens are reared for egg production. More than 50 billion chickens are reared annually as a source of meat and eggs. An early study proposed that a single domestication event of the red junglefowl in present-day Thailand gave rise to the modern chicken. It is estimated that chickens share between 71 and 79% of their genome with red junglefowl. Domesticated chickens freely interbreed with populations of red junglefowl. Strongly inbred Langshan chickens display obvious inbreeding depression in reproduction, particularly for traits such as age when the first egg is laid and egg number.

To initiate courting, some roosters may dance in a circle around or near a hen (a circle dance), often lowering the wing which is closest to the hen. Chickens give different warning calls to indicate that a predator is approaching from the air or on the ground. A male’s crowing is a loud and sometimes shrill call, serving as a territorial signal to other males, and in response to sudden disturbances within their surroundings. Chickens are capable of mobbing and killing a weak or inexperienced predator, such as a young fox. Some breeds have a mutation that causes extra feathering under the face, giving the appearance of a beard.

The chicken is perhaps the most widely domesticated fowl, raised worldwide for its meat and eggs. These domesticated chickens spread across Southeast and South Asia where they interbred with local wild species of junglefowl, forming genetically and geographically distinct groups. Specialized breeds such as broilers and laying hens have been developed for meat and egg production, respectively.