Poultry hens (or chickens) are one of the most numerous species of poultry and the oldest of wild animals tamed by humans.
The importance of chicken in our lives today is hard to overestimate. They say that if this bird suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth, mankind would overtake global hunger - after all, chicken is one of the most important and perhaps the most common source of animal protein in our diet. And its consumption is only growing over the years.
Here is today's resident of Russia. He eats 22 kg of chicken dishes a year, and this figure is very low, since the resident of the United States already has about 52 kg, and the Israeli and even more - almost 68 kg of chicken.
Appearance
Male hens are called roosters, and chicks are called chickens.
The weight of this species of poultry is variable and depends on the features of the constitution and breed indicators. Its borders are from 1.5 to 5 kg. Moreover, pronounced sexual dimorphism is manifested in the fact that cocks are heavier than hens. Sometimes the difference in weight is very significant and reaches 1 kg, or even more.
There are dwarf chicken - adult individuals of these species are not heavier than a kilogram. Light weight is usually inherent in decorative breeds, impressive to them to anything. Such, for example, are bentamki, otherwise called hen-kings. The weight of the male of this breed does not exceed 900 g, and the female is even less (from 450 to 600 g).
The general color of the hens is very diverse. Males differ from females in a brighter plumage. This is especially noticeable in the tail and cervical parts of the body. The tail is longer and more magnificent.
Both roosters and hens have clearly visible barbs and scallops. The crests can vary in shape - a pod, a rose, a tree leaf with cloves, etc. The scallop is larger than the chicken, but in any case this organ is not decorative, it plays the role of a temperature regulator in the bird's body. On the metatarsus, the middle part of the foot, roosters have bony formations called spurs. Slightly curved beak and legs of the same color, depending on the breed. They can be yellow, pinkish, black, other colors.
Origin
When asked where the chickens came from, zoologists usually refer to the studies of the English naturalist Charles Darwin. However, the first assumptions in this regard were expressed by the grandfather of the British scientist, also a biologist, Erasmus Darwin. He considered the ancestors of the discussed poultry wild banking (or red) jungle hens. This bird belongs to the order of chickens and the genus of jungle chickens.
The Latin name for modern domestic chicken is similar to the bank chicken - Gallus gallus. Sometimes, however, scientists use slightly different terms Gallus gallus domesticus or, in short, Gallus domesticus.
As for the banking chicken, it is found in the South Asian jungle. These are the countries of India, China, Indonesia and the Philippines. This bird species lives in forest, shrub and bamboo thickets, more often in mountainous areas than on the plains. The coloring and appearance of the bankers are in many ways typical of modern representatives of this poultry, except that wild individuals are more built-up than their bodies, and females do not have a scallop.
Banking chickens are mainly terrestrial, feeding on fallen fruits, grains and seeds of plants. On occasion, the bird can feast on a worm or slug.
Although the banker’s chicken flies, it’s short and short. Therefore, she prefers to rest on trees, but arranges nests on the ground, in dense thickets and forest litter.
Why do you need to know how and where the hens came from?
According to expert forecasts, already by the 20s of the 21st century, chicken will occupy a leading position in global meat consumption. The facts accumulated by poultry farmers do not seem to them quite sufficient, and they rely on the fact that an even deeper knowledge of the genetics of wild hens will help improve pedigree data and develop resistance in birds to various diseases, in particular, to bird flu.
So, is there a short answer to the question “where did the hens come from”? Until now, this is ambiguous. Meanwhile, chicken origin is becoming more important every year. For example, the yellow color of the skin of hens suggests, on the basis of genetic studies, that not only red bankers were domesticated. It is very possible that among the ancestors of modern males there are also genes of gray jungle chicken. According to modern versions, a hybrid domesticated bird has already left the borders of Southeast Asia. As a result, she became an ordinary domestic chicken.
When did hens become home?
According to Darwin, the first hens appeared in India around the 2nd century BC. However, modern archaeological finds and genetic studies testify to the earlier dates of the appearance of domestic chicken - namely, almost about the 7th-8th centuries BC, and not in India, but in Southeast Asia and China.
Known images of chickens in the tomb of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt Tutankhamun, and this is about 1350 BC. There were hens in ancient Greece. In Judea of the Gospel times, it was considered a well-known poultry.
How exactly the chicken was domesticated is still not entirely clear. Probably the banker hen appeared at the homestead at about the same time, but in different countries. This option seems to the researchers most likely. However, the oldest fossil remains of this poultry are determined to be more than 8 thousand years old, and they were found in China.
Where did the chicken come from in Russia? We have bred hens since ancient times. They came to us, most likely, from foreign traders and came to the court mainly because of their low demands on the conditions of detention. Appreciated due to eggs. They were considered good food in the winter and were expensive. But meat began to be appreciated and acquired economic significance only at the beginning of the 20th century.
Breeds of chickens
Chickens are bred and bred because of eggs, meat, fluff and feather. Hence, poultry breeds derived over many centuries, different in product groups: egg (Spanish, leghorn, minor, etc.) and meat and egg (universal) breeds, broiler chicken. Among farmers, decorative ones are also popular today - for example, bentamka, Chinese silk, Araucana, etc. They not only decorate the household, but also delight owners with high productivity indicators. Often there is a combination of meat performance and special constitutional indicators among representatives of fighting chicken breeds (kulangs, Indian fighting, shamo, etc.). But their breeding can be difficult due to the fact that they do not tolerate cold and have an aggressive and cocky disposition.
At present, industrial poultry farming has become so widespread that many breeds have long lost their originality, and amateurs or even breeders themselves attribute them either to one breed direction or to another. For example, the Leghors, which are considered egg-laying, gained the greatest popularity by the middle of the 20th century, and appeared by crossing birds of fighting breeds, Spanish hens belonging to ornamental, and egg-laying minor.
Trace in the culture
In many cultures, in particular in the Slavic, the image of a rooster was considered as a magic fiery symbol. It was believed that with its "crow" the bird turns directly to the Sun. Images and figures of this bird appeared on textiles (tablecloths, towels), on roofs of houses, on shutters. These birds were told in fairy tales, bull-calves, nursery rhymes, songs, proverbs and sayings. They often appeared in literary works.
Focusing on the third cry of a rooster (it is about five in the morning), the peasants went to work, and went to rest, as they said, "with hens."
The rooster is considered the national bird of France and Kenya. Chicken breeds are honored in two American states, as well as Switzerland.
According to the doctor of biological sciences, the Soviet and Russian ornithologist A. D. Numerov, images of chicken are present on coins of many countries of the world. 16 different chicken "portraits" - this is absolute leadership among the birds depicted on monetary metal signs, not only massive, but also memorable, dedicated to any events and dates.
We hope that in this article the answers to the question "where did the hen come from" turned out to be quite convincing.