The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Jungle Fowl. Recent evidence suggests that domestication of the chicken was already under way in Thailand, Vietnam and the South East Asian jungles over 10,000 years ago. (Wikipedia)
In America and Canada male chickens are called roosters. Males under a year old are cockerels. Castrated roosters are called capons. Females over a year old are known as hens, and younger females are pullets
Chickens are omnivores. In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even animals such as lizards or young mice. Many small farmers let chicken range around the farm as a means of insect control.
In commercial chicken farming, a meat chicken generally lives six weeks before slaughter. A free range or organic meat chicken will usually be slaughtered at about 14 weeks. Hens of special laying breeds may produce as many as 300 eggs a year. After 12 months, the hen’s egg-laying ability starts to decline, and commercial laying hens are then slaughtered and used in processed foods, or sold as “soup/stewing chicken”. More than 50 billion chickens are reared annually as a source of food, for both their meat and their eggs.
