Chicken Wikipedia

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. Fertilized embryos develop eaub.info quickly, and chicks hatch approximately 21 days later. There is some debate about what the chicken’s scientific name should be.

Chicken domestication likely occurred more than once in Southeast Asia and possibly India over the most recent 7,400 years, and the first domestications may have been for religious reasons or for the raising of fighting birds. Each flock of chickens develops a social hierarchy that determines access to food, nesting sites, mates, and other resources. At about six months, males produce viable sperm, and females produce viable eggs. Despite the chicken’s close relationship with the red jungle fowl, there is evidence that the gray jungle fowl (G. sonneratii) of southern India and other jungle fowl species, also members of Gallus, may have contributed to the bird’s ancestry. 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.

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. Broiler breeds typically take less than six weeks to reach slaughter size, some weeks longer for free-range and organic broilers. Advocates of intensive farming say that their efficient systems save land and food resources owing to increased productivity, and that the animals are looked after in a controlled environment.

• Specialized breeds such as broilers and laying hens have been developed for meat and egg production, respectively.
• Newly hatched chicks of both modern and heritage varieties weigh the same, about 37 g (1.3 oz).
• The concept of dominance, involving pecking, was described in female chickens by Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1921 as the “pecking order”.
• 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.
• Each flock of chickens develops a social hierarchy that determines access to food, nesting sites, mates, and other resources.
• In some other countries, flocks are sometimes force-moulted rather than being slaughtered to re-invigorate egg-laying.

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

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Sperm transfer occurs by cloacal contact between the male and female, in an action called the ‘cloacal kiss’. 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”.

Subsequent ovulations may occur within an hour after the previous egg was laid, allowing some hens to produce as many as 300 eggs per year. 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. Males (called cocks or roosters) and females (hens) are known for their fleshy combs, lobed wattles hanging below the bill, and high-arched tails. In the process of domestication, chickens were apparently kept initially for cockfighting, and only later used for food. Many people obtain chickens for their egg production but often name them and treat them as any other pet like cats or dogs.