Chapter 21 nineteen chickens

in every bowl ★Origin There are four species of jungle fowl in the genus Gallus: the red jungle fowl, the Ceylon jungle fowl, the gray jungle fowl and the green jungle fowl.All of these species have contributed to the birth of the modern chicken, but the greatest credit goes to the red jungle fowl.The chickens on our grain drying farm still use this scientific name today. The red jungle fowl has a wide range, extending from India, South China, to Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Java and Sumatra.The domestic chicken originated somewhere in this vast area; the green junglefowl also came from Java, Bali and nearby islands, so it also had at least a small contribution in the evolution of the modern chicken.When chickens were controlled by humans and moved westward, the Ceylon and gray jungle fowl in western and southern India may have also brought in some genes for the original red jungle fowl that was farmed.We don't know exactly what kind of animal this hybrid was before it finally headed west and north into the Middle East and Europe, but its route seems easy to reconstruct:

Vietnam before 8000 BC Indus Valley, then Somalia before 2000 BC Egypt before 1350 BC China before 1122 BC Greece and its colonies, then the Roman Empire 700 BC︱500 years ago Persia and Mesopotamia before 600 BC Great Britain before 100 BC It is actually easy to imagine how humans introduced and mastered jungle chickens.Finding the location of chicks and capturing them is actually not that difficult; if the chicks are brought home when they are young, before they have even hatched, these birds are often very impressed with the first creature that comes their way.If early humans wanted to keep animals around their homes, chickens (or ducks or geese) might have been easier to keep than other animals.Chickens don't need to be housed in pens, and if a fox or cat takes one, the damage isn't too great (poultry is a high-risk crop in this sense).Flocks come and go, to mate with wild jungle fowl, and return to the nest, or emerge shortly thereafter with a brood of chicks.The initial relationship between chickens and humans may have been very casual.

I have only observed the behavior of wild jungle fowl in Sri Lanka, but their behavior is not very different from the other three species of jungle fowl.If grown completely wild, these chickens would be very shy and always secretive; at the same time, because they have many terrestrial, aquatic, and arboreal predators, some of which often attack silently, they Must be alert at all times.Jungle chickens are basically terrestrial animals. Once other creatures approach, they mostly take the way of escaping and seldom fly. Part of the reason is that they generally choose to peck around in bushes or dense woods, which are not suitable for fast flight.

In very rural areas, the so-called local "domestic" fowl are half|wild and look very similar to their ancestral flocks; I have found them in Borneo, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, This is also the case in Sri Lanka and the Philippines.In India, the hens that roam villages and yards are called soil hens, and they are so peculiar that it is difficult to classify them.Exotic species such as the Rhode Island Red (Rhode Island Red, [Note]) are very famous and highly rated, but most of the chickens I saw during my travels in Asia were semi-wild State of the country hen. [Note] Rhode Island is a place name in the United States.

The process of converting chickens from wild to domesticated is different from the process of raising other mammals by humans. Raising chickens is not too labor-intensive and less dangerous.Chicken husbandry should be gradual and natural, not only for free-spirited chickens but also for protein-hungry humans. We still don’t know the place and time when chickens were first raised, but the genotype recently discovered by the Hope Medical Center in Los Angeles can infer that Vietnam should be the place where this important evolution occurred. As for the time when it occurred It can be traced back to 10,000 years ago, far longer than we currently think.However, because the relationship between chickens and humans is relaxed and gradually formed, there may not be a clear beginning time, and this relationship may even occur in many places at the same time.In fact, the process of raising chickens may not have been done by a single individual or culture, but after humans began to settle and gave up their nomadic life, jungle chickens naturally became domestic chickens in Asia; the seeds scattered around human settlements Constantly attracting wild birds, they later specialized in food scattered by humans for a living, and finally stayed here.For peoples without written records, cultural idiosyncrasies quickly become archaic and universally accepted, something that only is, has always been, and always will be.This is why oral traditions, especially descriptions of time, end up being falsified.

Before domestic chickens were kept, humans hunted wild fowl for their meat and presumably also used its richly colored plumage (especially the black and red feathers of the red jungle fowl) as decoration, and perhaps in religious ceremonies.The rooster's glossy black tail feathers may have been used to declare class and alliances.Few things in nature are as beautiful and long-lasting as feathers; flowers fade and leaves wither, but with the right care they last from generation to generation.In addition, chickens also produce eggs.Undoubtedly, when humans first discovered eggs, they must have eaten them immediately.Eggs are a nutritious and highly nutritious food supplement and a delicious gift to the hunter-gatherer.

We still don't understand what motivates humans to keep chickens around, maybe it's just because raising chickens is easier than catching chickens, and birds are animals that provide multiple benefits to humans.First, of course, their tasty meat, and second, their feathers and eggs.Another thing that cannot be underestimated is the sports and entertainment that chickens bring to humans.Finally, it is used as a sacrifice, or in other rituals such as predicting the future. Exactly how long ago humans started betting on cockfighting is still unclear, but it is still a very common activity in many places where wild jungle fowl still exist.Even domesticated roosters are still extremely aggressive, and it is from this characteristic that humans have developed this brutal sport.In summary, humans raise chickens for many different reasons: for the two completely different foods of chicken and eggs, for decoration, status, religion, divination, and entertainment.Chickens appear to provide more varied feedback to owners than other livestock.

Domestic chickens in the New World were introduced from other places.In 1520, during his conquest of Mexico, Curtiz imported a flock of chickens from Europe.It is reported that the number of these chickens is about 1,500. Currently, the number of chickens raised by humans is between 8 and 10 billion.While feathers and manure are arguably important by-products, chickens are now mostly raised for chicken and eggs. The industry's intensive chicken farming methods are extremely harsh and cruel, and there is a tendency to do everything possible to treat chickens as machines.They trim the beaks of the chickens and stuff them in tiny wire cages so they don't have a chance to move around like live animals.The science of feeding chicken flocks is highly developed; after a few weeks of hatching, the chickens are sent to the slaughterhouse (here the chickens are hatched from the incubator, not from the coop).Veterinarians are trained to treat whole flocks, not individual chickens.Except for lovers of show breeds, and those who specialize in rare breeds that are commercially extinct, chickens are not considered as individual animals at all.

There are at least 200 strains and species of domestic chicken on record, most of which are now extinct or very rare.The first poultry show in the United States as we know it was held in 1849.Among the many good producers of chicken and eggs, there are also some deformed products, such as the bantam, whose feet are so short that it waddles like a duck when it walks.Another example is the Japanese phoenix bird, whose tail feathers can be up to eight feet (about 2.4 meters), which is obviously only suitable for exhibition purposes.There is also a species of araucana, which lays eggs with blue shells.

Commercial producers of chickens and eggs produce chickens and eggs by trade name, not breed.In addition to being of interest to private enthusiasts as well as livestock historians, the Bream, Cochin, Jersey Giant, Langshan, Ancona, Rhode Island Red, Andalusian, Long Ticlair Gone are the good old days of chickens and breeds such as the Columbia rock pheasant. In much of Europe and North America, today's offspring of the red jungle fowl are crammed into a factory-style rearing system that is far from humane.Just to feed the population of a large city, millions of chickens are slaughtered and transported every day.Chickens are certainly the most valuable and accessible food source for humans.It's hard to imagine what we would do without them.However, the care a chicken receives while alive is far less than the love it receives after death.This is the biggest difference between man and his behavior, we depend on animals for our own welfare, but we are completely indifferent to their welfare.