Chicken facts!

• Fact 1 - Definition: The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domestic fowl bred for meat or eggs. Gallinaceous birds are described as heavy-bodied ground-feeding domestic or game birds including Turkeys, grouse, quail, pheasant and chickens
• Fact 2 - The chicken is the most populous bird in the world. Over 50 billion chickens are reared annually as a source of food, for both their meat and their eggs
  • Chickens farmed for meat are called broiler chickens, those farmed for eggs are called egg laying hens
• Fact 3 - It is believed that chickens were first domesticated over 10,000 years ago in the far east
• Fact 4 - Males chickens are referred to as 'cockerels or cocks' in the UK and 'roosters' in the US and Canada
• Fact 5 - Castrated roosters are called capons
• Fact 6 - Female chickens, over a year old, are called hens, and younger females are called pullets
• Fact 7 - Lifespan between 5 - 10 years, however, a free range meat chicken will usually be slaughtered at about 14 weeks
  Fact 8 - Domestic chickens are not capable of long distance flight unlike birds

• Fact 9 - A group of chickens is called a flock
• Fact 10 - Coxcomb - A coxcomb is the the fleshy red crest on the head of the domestic fowl
• Fact 11 - The direct ancestor of the domestic chicken is believed to be the Red Jungle fowl 
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• (Gallus gallus) which is a tropical member of the Pheasant family
• Fact 12 - Over 29 million eggs are eaten every day in the UK
• Fact 13 - Chicken diseases: Chickens are susceptible to parasites including lice, mites, ticks, fleas and intestinal worms
  • Bird Flu is a virus known as Avian Influenza
• Fact 14 - "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Answer: Recent studies show that the chicken came first, because of the methodology of evolution. An egg cannot occur unless a a chicken is able to lay that egg
• Fact 15 - Chickens are omnivores, this means they eat both vegetables and meat
• Fact 16 - Chickens are the closest living relative of the dinosaur called the tyrannosaur
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• Fact 17 - Ameraucana and Araucana can lay eggs colored in shades of green or blue, depending on the breed