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History of the Humble Chicken

© Greg Davies

Humans have been eating, keeping, fighting, breeding and admiring poultry for thousands of years. In fact, chickens were perhaps the first species of birds ever domesticated. There are 4 distinct wild fowls in the Indian sub-continent. These are the Red Jungle Fowl, Grey Jungle Fowl, Ceylonese Jungle Fowl and the Java Jungle Fowl. It is generally believed that all our present-day breeds of chickens are descendants of the first of these, the Red Jungle Fowl that was first domesticated as long ago as 3-4000 BC. It appears, by looking at the breeds longest established in the Indian region that the primary purpose for the development of chickens was indeed, cock fighting, with the most famous of the fighting breeds being the Asil (Aseel). It was a bird of Royalty, being kept by princes and kings. There was a rigid caste system with 5 levels, the top belonging to royalty and the lowest belonging to the peasantry. From these beginnings, other breeds began to evolve in other parts of Asia. In the Malaya regions, the leggier Malay Game began to take shape, the Japanese developed the heavy Shamo and Tuzo breeds and in the Indonesian region, the lighter Sumatra Game was born. The Japanese also gave us the word "bantam", believed to originate from the Javanese 'ban tom' which means 'small fowl'.

By 1400 BC, the Chinese had already invented crude incubators to hatch large numbers of chickens and the Egyptians also developed incubators which were capable of hatching thousands of eggs, with men actually living inside to regulate the incubating and hatching conditions. Chickens were reported in Babylon by the year 700 BC, being brought home by soldiers of the Persian armies which had conquered India. Europe saw chickens with the return of the conquering armies of Alexander the Great around 500 BC. The Greeks became fascinated with cock-fighting and the sport was so popular it became a sport of the early Olympic Games. The Romans continued the spread of chickens across the globe. Cock fighting was being practiced in Britain at the time of the invasion by Julius Caesar around 55 BC. The fighting cock was proudly accepted as a symbol of courage and was frequently used on military standards.

During the Middle Ages, important races of chickens were beginning to develop in three widely different regions. These were Mediterranean, Asian Soft feather and Asian Game fowls. Each had specific characteristics depending on the requirements of the area. Mediterranean fowls seldom go broody, lay large numbers of pure white eggs, have white ear lobes and large combs. Breeds such as Leghorns, Minorcas and Spanish descended from these. The Asian Soft feather fowls developed in the mountainous regions of Asia and were characterised by gigantic size, looser and softer feathers and feathered legs. From these came the Langshans, Brahmas and Cochin breeds. The Asian Game fowls were hard and tight in feather, very aggressive, laid brown eggs and went broody easily.

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