History through the eyes of a chicken Chris A. Kniesly
The annals of Ancient Egyptian king
Thutmose III
described a marvelous foreign bird that
“gives birth daily.”
Zoroastrians viewed them as spirits
whose cries told of the cosmic struggle
between darkness and light.
Romans brought them on
their military campaigns
to foretell the success of future battles.
And today, this bird still occupies
an important,
though much less honorable position
– on our dinner plates.
The modern chicken is descended
primarily from the Red Junglefowl,
and partially from three other
closely related species,
all native to India and Southeast Asia.
The region’s bamboo plants produce
massive amounts of fruit
just once every few decades.
Junglefowls’ ability to lay eggs daily
may have evolved to take advantage
of these rare feasts,
increasing their population
when food was abundant.
This was something humans could exploit
on a consistent basis,
and the birds’ weak flight capabilities
and limited need for space made them
easy to capture and contain.
The earliest domesticated chickens,
dating at least back to 7,000 years ago,
weren’t bred for food,
but for something considered
less savory today.
The aggressiveness of breeding males,
armed with natural leg spurs,
made cockfighting a popular entertainment.
By the second millennium BCE,
chickens had spread from the
Indus Valley to China
and the Middle East to occupy
royal menageries
and to be used in religious rituals.
But it was in Egypt
where the next chapter in
the bird’s history began.
When a hen naturally incubates eggs,
she will stop laying new ones
and sit on a “clutch” of 6
or more eggs for 21 days.
By the middle of the 1st millennium BCE,
the Egyptians had learned
to artificially incubate chicken eggs
by placing them in baskets over hot ashes.
That freed up hens to continue
laying daily,
and what had been a royal delicacy
or religious offering
became a common meal.
Around the same time as Egyptians
were incubating eggs,
Phoenician merchants introduced
chickens to Europe,
where they quickly became
an essential part
of European livestock.
However, for a long time,
the chicken’s revered status
continued to exist
alongside its culinary one.
The Ancient Greeks used fighting roosters
as inspirational examples
for young soldiers.
The Romans consulted chickens as oracles.
And as late as the 7th Century,
the chicken was considered
a symbol for Christianity.
Over the next few centuries,
chickens accompanied humans
wherever they went,
spreading throughout the world
through trade,
conquest,
and colonization.
After the Opium Wars,
Chinese breeds were brought to England
and crossed with local chickens.
This gave rise to a phenomenon called
“Hen Fever”
or “The Fancy”,
with farmers all over Europe
striving to breed new varieties
with particular combinations of traits.
This trend also caught the attention
of a certain Charles Darwin,
who wondered if
a similar selective breeding process
occurred in nature.
Darwin would observe hundreds of chickens
while finalizing his historic work
introducing the theory of Evolution.
But the chicken’s greatest
contribution to science
was yet to come.
In the early 20th century,
a trio of British scientists
conducted extensive crossbreeding
of chickens,
building on Gregor Mendel’s
studies of genetic inheritance.
With their high genetic diversity,
many distinct traits,
and only 7 months between generations,
chickens were the perfect subject.
This work resulted in the famous
Punnett Square,
used to show the genotypes
that would result
from breeding a given pairing.
Since then,
numerous breeding initiatives
have made chickens
bigger and meatier,
and allowed them to lay
more eggs than ever.
Meanwhile,
chicken production has shifted
to an industrial, factory-like model,
with birds raised in spaces
with a footprint
no larger than a sheet of paper.
And while there’s been a shift
towards free-range farming
due to animal rights
and environmental concerns,
most of the world’s more than
22 billion chickens today
are factory farmed.
From gladiators and gifts to the gods,
to traveling companions
and research subjects,
chickens have played many roles
over the centuries.
And though they may not have come
before the proverbial egg,
chickens’ fascinating history tells us
a great deal about our own.