From Sea to Sea: or, the Chickens’ March to Rule the World

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From Sea to Sea:
or, the Chickens’ March to Rule the World

Chickens have played a small but important role in the history of the world for the last few thousand years. They are believed to have been derived from wild junglefowl found in Southeast Asia. Peters et al. (2022) state that the first domesticated chickens were found in Thailand around 1650 BC. They theorize that the development of rice farming attracted the birds from the neighboring jungles, where they were captured and domesticated. Thus began the chicken’s march to rule the world.

The birds quickly spread throughout the Asian continent before being transported to Greece and Rome via maritime trade. In these early years, they were seen as sacred and often functioned as omens. Egyptians hung eggs in their temples as offerings to the god of the Nile for a plentiful flood (which was necessary for good crops). The Romans consulted the sacred hens before every important event and a bevy of them was carried along in every military campaign (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 2022).

The rap

idity with which chickens became an essential part of the civilized world can be attributed to sailors, who brought the birds on voyages as a source of eggs and fresh meat (as well as symbols of good fortune). They could be penned in a small area and fed kitchen scraps with minimal grain (remember these birds are not yet one’s average genetically modified backyard clucker).

By 500 BC, chickens occupied a permanent place in Roman-occupied territories throughout Europe, including England and Germany. Within a thousand years they had made their way as far west as the Baltic Sea and as far north as Sweden and Finland (Peters et al., 2022). The extended period was no doubt caused by the need for the species to adjust to the frigid temperatures of the north, a process spanning multiple generations.

Chic

kens first arrived in the Western Hemisphere with the natives who sailed from Oceania to settle Hawaii in about 1200 AD (Peters et al., 2022). However, their presence was not documented, and Christopher Columbus brought the first recorded chickens in 1495 when he made a second voyage to the New World (Storey et al., 2011). Chickens came with the colonists to Jamestown in 1607, but all disappeared during the “Starving Time”. The Pilgrims brought the first surviving flock to America in 1620; tradition states that these were Dominiques.

Professional development of chicken breeds began in 1865 when a Poultry Club was formed in England; it only lasted three years but was credited with writing the first book of standards (The Poultry Club, n.d). In 1873 the newly-founded American Poultry Association (APA) published its Standards of Excellence, which is the basis of all other standards worldwide. The association devoted itself to creating standards for and categorizing breeds.

After the Second World War, the meat chicken industry boomed, as breeders worked to create a breed that could be fattened quickly. Broiler enthusiasts, seeing the possibility of a good profit, marketed the meat to consumers. By the 1980s, chicken had become the top selling meat (National Chicken Council, n.d). At the same time, selective breeding produced hens that would lay eggs prolifically.

In 2020, as COVID-19 shut down business and caused food shortages worldwide, chicken-keeping became more and more popular as people tried to make the best of an uncertain life. Hatcheries reported that more people ordered chicks that year than they had ever experienced (Chappell, 2020). Even with the pandemic gone, chick sales are still fairly high and chickens remain honored guests in the backyards where once their ancestors roamed free not so long ago.

With more cities than ever allowing backyard chickens, and chicken still the number one meat in demand, it appears that the chicken’s march to world dominion is complete, with two exceptions - Antarctica and Vatican City. According to Statista (2022), there are 26 billion chickens in the world as opposed to only 8 billion humans (United Nations, 2022). It is clear that the lowly chicken, once honored as sacred and revered as an oracle, still holds sway over an ever growing number of subjects throughout the world.

Photo Descriptions: Miss Prudence (Plymouth Rock) by @Evadig; Red Junglefowl by Subramanya C K; Child feeding hens on a schooner (c. 1800s) by National Park Service; Dominique Hen by gunthercox; Hens at an egg production center by US Dept. of Agriculture; Winston Churchill (Golden Duckwing Phoenix) by @Evadig

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