History of chickens

Does Your Pet Chicken Have a Family Tree?

Your pet chicken’s ancestry may be traceable for several generations, assuming you know which rooster and hen were bred with each other.  But, history documents that chickens, as a species, have existed for centuries.

Their existence has been recorded in art, folklore, religion, and literature since long before the birth of Christ. Today’s chicken, it’s widely believed, descended from the Red Jungle Fowl in  Asia.

There is evidence that domesticated chickens (Gallus Domesticus) date as far back as 2000 B.C., in Pakistan. A breed of chickens resembling today’s Old English breed was used for cockfighting for centuries. This practice, a sporting event first introduced in 480 B.C. by Themistocles in Athens, Greece, is recorded to have been outlawed by the Queen of England in 1849.

The sport was imported to America, where it was practiced by many of the Founders and early leaders, but has by now been outlawed throughout much of the United States. However, it is still popular in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and South America. It is the most universal sport known to man.

The Rooster (Cock, until the name was changed) the Hen, and even the Egg have been immortalized symbolically throughout history.

The Rooster

The rooster has long been revered as a symbol of courage, majesty, virility, and pride. You might find these facts interesting:

·        A Babylonian word for the cock was “the King’s bird”. 

·        Today, the word “cocky” refers to the pride and arrogance of the rooster.

·        Prior to sun dials, time was measured by the crowing of the cock

·        The most famous rooster in the world crowed when Peter denied Christ three times.

·        The cockfighting rooster was considered as the National Emblem of the United States, but lost by one vote to the Bald Eagle.

·        The image of a rooster as art goes as far back as 520 B.C when fighting cocks were depicted on vases, altars, and tombs.

·        The rooster is the national bird of France.

The Hen

The Hen has long been considered the symbol of motherhood. In 1836, The Reverend C.S. Lovell wrote in The Hen , a primer for school children:

“Of all the feathered animals, there is none more useful than the common hen. Her eggs supply us with food during her life, and her flesh affords us delicate meat after her death. What a motherly care does she take of her young! How closely and tenderly does she watch over them, and cover them with her wings; and how bravely does she defend them from every enemy, from which she herself would fly away in terror, if she had not them to protect!”

That’s quite a tribute, isn’t it? Here are a few other facts about the hen:

·        Though the brain of the hen is small, research proves it to be very complex.

·        In earlier American history, the hen symbolized thrift, piety, and industry (ambition).

·        An analogy of undetermined source equates finding a hidden nest of eggs before the hen has started to sit . . . to finding hidden treasure.

·        A hen with chicks was mentioned in the New Testament as Jesus stood over the Mount of Olives and wept over Jerusalem:

“How many times have I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under wings, but you would not let me.”  [Matthew 23, Verse 37]

·        Each hen lays eggs that are peculiar in form, color, and size to her alone, and this is true throughout her life.

·        A hen will lay from about 240 to 320 eggs in her lifetime. She can deposit 17 times her weight into eggs.

·        The number of eggs she’ll lay is pre-determined.

Eggs

Eggs are historically associated with birth and renewal. The word “Easter” comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Many of our modern religious customs are derived from history, such as:

• The painting of Easter eggs dates from the thirteenth century.
• Food excavated from ancient tombs proved Egyptions used eggs in breads in the time before Christ.
• In ancient times, eggs were scarce, and were kept in caustic lime, in China.
• China started a tradition of boiling eggs for breakfast in natural hot springs.
• Scrambled eggs were invented in France.
• The Virgin Mary is said to have painted red and yellow eggs to delight the Baby Jesus

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