Chicken Types, Characteristics & Uses

Specialized breeds such as broilers and laying hens have been developed for meat and egg production, respectively. Females (mature hens and younger chickens, called pullets) are raised for meat and for their edible eggs. The chicken is perhaps the most widely domesticated fowl, raised worldwide for its meat and eggs. Chicken, (Gallus gallus), any of more than 60 breeds of medium-sized poultry that are primarily descended from the wild red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus, family Phasianidae, order Galliformes) of India. These domesticated chickens spread across Southeast and South Asia where they interbred with local wild species of junglefowl, forming genetically and geographically distinct groups.

Chicken breeds can either be egg or meat producers. Some hens, for instance, can lay around 150 eggs annually, while others can lay over 300 eggs. Adult female chickens lay a varied number of eggs annually. Modern egg-laying breeds rarely go broody and those that do often stop part-way through the incubation cycle.

Italian Meatballs

• The chicken was the first bird species to have its genome sequenced.
• There is some debate about what the chicken’s scientific name should be.
• These birds lay eggs ranging from olive green to pure white, blue, and dark brown.
• Here is how to classify these birds based on sex and age.
• They are improved chicken breeds that farmers raise for meat and eggs.

The standard chicken breeds come in different classes. Egg-producing breeds include ISA brown, Leghorn, Marans, Plymouth Rock, Sussex, and Wyandotte. Some common breeds include Rhode Island Red, Cornish Cross, and Leghorns.

Domestication and economic production

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. 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.

Keeping chickens as pets became increasingly popular in the 2000s among urban and suburban residents. Broiler breeds typically take less than six weeks to reach slaughter size, some weeks longer for free-range and organic broilers. The first pictures of chickens in Europe are found on Corinthian pottery of the 7th century BC. Phoenicians spread chickens along the krikya-online.com Mediterranean coasts as far as Iberia. These chickens may have been introduced during pre-Columbian times to South America via Polynesian seafarers, but this is disputed.

Here is how to classify these birds based on sex and age. It comes in two varieties, the rose comb and the single comb. Ancona is a widespread breed belonging to the Mediterranean class.