![]() ![]() When a rooster finds food, he may call other chickens to eat first. Adding hens, especially younger birds, to an existing flock can lead to fighting and injury. Removing hens or roosters from a flock causes a temporary disruption to this social order until a new pecking order is established. Individual chickens in a flock will dominate others, establishing a ' pecking order', with dominant individuals having priority for food access and nesting locations. They have a communal approach to the incubation of eggs and raising of young. Chickens may occasionally fly briefly to explore their surroundings, but generally do so only to flee perceived danger.Ĭhickens are gregarious birds and live together in flocks. ĭomestic chickens are not capable of long-distance flight, although lighter chickens are generally capable of flying for short distances, such as over fences or into trees (where they would naturally roost). Both the adult male and female have wattles and combs, but in most breeds these are more prominent in males.Ī 'muff' or 'beard' is a mutation found in several chicken breeds which causes extra feathering under the chicken's face, giving the appearance of a beard. ![]() Collectively, these and other fleshy protuberances on the head and throat are called caruncles. Chicken math paper skin#Adult chickens have a fleshy crest on their heads called a comb, or cockscomb, and hanging flaps of skin either side under their beaks called wattles. The identification can be made by looking at the comb, or eventually from the development of spurs on the male's legs (in a few breeds and in certain hybrids, the male and female chicks may be differentiated by colour). However, in some breeds, such as the Sebright chicken, the rooster has only slightly pointed neck feathers, the same colour as the hen's. Roosters can usually be differentiated from hens by their striking plumage of long flowing tails and shiny, pointed feathers on their necks ('hackles') and backs ('saddle'), which are typically of brighter, bolder colours than those of females of the same breed. Ĭhicken may also mean a chick (see for example Hen and Chicken Islands). In older sources, chicken as a species were typically referred to as common fowl or domestic fowl. Yardbird: a chicken (southern United States, dialectal) Ĭhicken was originally a term only for an immature, or at least young, bird.In the poultry industry, a pullet is a sexually immature chicken less than 22 weeks of age. Pullet: a young female chicken less than a year old.Dunghill fowl: a chicken with mixed parentage from different domestic varieties.Cockerel: a young male chicken less than a year old.Chook / tʃ ʊ k/: a chicken (Australia/New Zealand, informal).Capon: a castrated or neutered male chicken. ![]() Īn adult male is a called a cock or (in the United States) a rooster and an adult female is called a hen. Fowl have been known in Egypt since the mid-15th century BC, with the "bird that gives birth every day" having come from the land between Syria and Shinar, Babylonia, according to the annals of Thutmose III. From ancient India, the chicken spread to Lydia in western Asia Minor, and to Greece by the 5th century BC. Genetic studies have pointed to multiple maternal origins in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, but the clade found in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa originated from the Indian subcontinent. There are numerous cultural references to chickens – in myth, folklore and religion, and in language and literature. There are more chickens in the world than any other bird. Humans now keep chickens primarily as a source of food (consuming both their meat and eggs) and as pets.Ĭhickens are one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, with a total population of 23.7 billion as of 2018, up from more than 19 billion in 2011. Originally raised for cockfighting or for special ceremonies, chickens were not kept for food until the Hellenistic period (4th–2nd centuries BC). An adult female bird is called a hen and a sexually immature female is called a pullet. A male that has been castrated is a capon. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult male bird, and a younger male may be called a cockerel. The chicken ( Gallus domesticus) is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. ![]()
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