How is it there are still chickens?

[Judy]

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And in a number of places here, as well, including in a fair sized town about an hour from me.

 

[Beekissed]

If you will notice, they have no "breeding/mating season". It's pretty much all the time and eggs are constantly being fertilized and laid. Breed so many, lose a lot, some survive to perpetuate the cycle.

Personally, I feel that God created chickens as domestic animals, just like cows, horses, dogs, pigs, sheep, goats and cats. I don't believe the theory that they originated in tropical areas and evolved to adapt to other areas. The very first profession, despite what everyone says, was farming....Cain and Abel were farmers, one tilled and planted the land and the other raised farm-type animals.

But then, that is my belief...you can believe what you choose!

 

[Czech's_chicks]

When I hear about restaurants that specialize in chicken or anything egg related, I am still in awe at the sheer numbers of chickens there has to be...just for KFC alone!

 

[tls_ranch]

CNN just had a info "quiz" on how many chickens there are in the world and I believe the answer was 19 billion. The area with the most chickens per person was Bahrain (spelling?) with nearly 40 chickens per person.

 

[Farmerboy16]

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x2!

 

[Moochie]

I see it as adaptation. I suppose it goes back to the dinosaur days? Although many dinosaurs were wiped out, some creatures that lived in those eras made it..? If the t-rex was wiped out, then a smaller cousin of the t-rex lived? Then over time it adapted to it's surroundings. Survival is key, so instead of having mating seasons it could breed/lay all year (as someone mentioned before). It became smaller and became an omnivore instead of a strictly carnivrous diet. It became cute and cuddly to have the humans take care of them, well humans kind of did that. Making a whole bunch of show breeds and what not

The chicken is doing what it's supposed to do, survive.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Chickens were taken all over the world, wherever folks travelled, armies marched, and ships sailed. Domesticated at least 3000 years. Records, books, writings mention and picture chickens going back to 1000 years BC. Because they are a small, transportable livestock, they have gone wherever humans have gone for thousands of years.

 

[P-Funk]

Thanks, all. I get very upset every time I lose one of my girls, which is 4 now. The sheer amount of predators, namely in the Colorado front range, is amazing. So I fenced in a large part of the yard, had D.O.W. remove the neighbor dog, got a gun, got an LGD puppy bred specifically for hunting foxes,

and last night picked up 3 day-olds.

You all have wonderful points, but onthespot nailed it. We do work for them. I won't even leave the ranch without rounding up all the girls first. Sigh.