Chicken

Descendants of those domestications have spread throughout the world in several waves for at least the last 2,000 years. Chickens belonging to the same age cohort and sex are often kept together in industrial production settings. A flock usually includes one dominant adult male, a few subdominant males, and two or more females that are carefully watched over by the dominant male. Chicks are born covered in down, but they mature quickly, becoming fully feathered after four to five weeks.

Social hierarchy

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

Domestication and economic production

• Mature males have long been used for sport (i.e., cockfighting, now outlawed in many jurisdictions) as well as for breeding.
• 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.
• Egg laying is stimulated by the long stretches of daylight that occur during the warmer months; however, artificial lights placed in chicken coops can trigger a hen’s egg laying response throughout the year.
• The body is round, the legs are unfeathered in most breeds, and the wings are short.

Specialized breeds such as broilers and laying hens have been developed for meat and egg production, respectively. 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.

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.

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