Upper Egyptians ethnics of Ta-Seti land (bordering the Red Sea) and from Punt called Bejawi, were stewards of agricultural lands once seized by the Indo-Aryan Canaanite Hyksos tribes. The Bejawi were also traders, an occupation that kept them in close contact with India and Sri Lanka.
The Egyptians herds depicted in art of the era reflect the great cultural transference of the generation.
So we get back around to that Indus hen. She came originally from North Western India and was guarded over by a caste of warriors who also looked over the Zebu, and flocks of sheep and goats, and the greatest livestock species of its time- the Horse. The Indus hen was property of the religious class of these Indo-Aryans- but as they migrated from place to place, the manner in which their livestock species came to be of use would also change.
Left to fend for herself in the ruins of the Great Egyptian Labyrinth, the Indus hen could very well have died out altogether. The Egyptians domesticated the goose and the ostrich. They kept vast flocks of guineafowl and Pharaoh quail. The chicken was an alien of dubious significance in the mind of the ancient Egyptian- until something remarkable took place...
She was wild in the palm thorn forests bordering Lake Fayoum. No doubt her populations were thin and highly vulnerable to periods of inclement weather. Decades would pass with the region suffering a great famine with vast regions of green vegetation covered over night by migrating mountain sized dunes of sand. Other decades were marked by extensive flooding resulting in vast miles of brackish marsh covering everything. Any fowl that could survive in the wilds of Fayoum must be a bit of a sandpiper and a bit of chukar simultaneously - not an environment that any species of junglefowl exists in. These were wild birds that flitted at the edges of villages digging in dung piles and in fields for insects. They were predated on by feral cats and dogs and hungry people. Its a wonder any survived. The survivors were adapting to environments created by the Egyptians while still being capable of survival without them. We can certain that life amongst the humans was vastly superior to life in the thorn palm forest with all its ichneumons and falcons, caracals and reed cats, eagle owls. It's nest constantly destroyed by egg eating snakes - its chicks by a myriad of sparrow hawks and cobras and adders.
The Nile River Valley is teeming in wildlife and in the days of ancient Egypt, the sky was filled with vast flocks of waterfowl. Consequently, there were a great many bird predators, species that hunted almost exclusively on birds and their eggs and or chicks. The Indus hen that survived in the Fayoum thorn palm forest was very different from her sisters back in the Levant. Nature was firmly in control of selection. Indus hens naturalized in the Fayoum were essentially throw backs- their wild instincts and behaviors- their morphology enabling them to fly and escape - to nest and rear chicks- they had reverted back to the wild junglefowl.
The Indus hen has three different junglefowl species as ancestors. The Indian Red Junglefowl, and the Burmese Red Junglefowl are the primary female founders. The Indian Red and the Grey Junglefowl are the primary male founders. Consequently, the phenotype of these castaway refugees was not identical to that of the Red Junglefowl. Their reversions didn't end up with them looking like the red junglefowl of Hawaii. Their reversion brought them back to the phenotypical patterns and pigments of their paternal Grey Junglefowl ancestors. This largely came about because that species inhabits the driest forests in its natural habitat. The Grey Junglefowl is the only junglefowl species that is native to the Indus Valley- where the A'brahm originated. Their native habitats in Western India are not unlike islands or interlocking oases of thorny evergreen forest, which essentially what the habitat is like in the Fayoum, though 40% cooler and less arid. These regions in Western India are prone to intensive flooding once a year. The Grey Junglefowl has a selective advantage in dry habitats as well as those that are flooded. It is seasonally arboreal and a great flier. When its very dry the birds spread out -they are only loosely associated with other individuals or families of their own species. The aridity of the natural environment of the Grey JF obliges birds to split up to find enough food to survive. The males tend to be hyper competitive.
The flocks of wild Indus hens -those descendants of three different junglefowl, composite reverts that had gone native on us- they were grey and taupe in phenotype and they were exceedingly wily.
The hens of this generational lineage that began frequenting villages began their arduous descent back into domestication. Gleaning for meals and befriending special people, in order to receive special meals and protection...lazing about all day, taking up residence in someone's house...They were dwindling in number as nearly a century went by before any fresh genetics appeared and the size of the population of humankind had shrunk exponentially- the vast majority of its populace having migrated to Karnak hundreds of miles to the south. We can imagine that there were probably only a few hundred birds in any given region of the Fayoum when Ta-Seti tribes established a new trading relationship with the Egyptians, carrying exotic materials from Sri Lanka, Yemen, Punt and beyond.
In a great once every three decade ceremony, all of the Egyptian empire came to the ruins of Fayoum to give tribute to the ancestors of the Egyptians. The Ta-Seti brought cinnamon and they also brought hundreds of Sri Lanka Junglefowl cocks, perhaps even a few hens to Fayoum. They were released into the ruins of the great Egyptian labyrinth. In short order, the Sri Lanka cocks were singing to Indus-Fayoum hens and successful marriages are taking place. The Sri Lanka JF released were purely wild animals. No two individuals were likely closely related. Genetics are exchanged. Within a few generations, a large majority of the newly radiating population is relatively unrelated with a recalibrated and diversified evolutionary potential. This growing population has been sired by a novel species.
Now selection is pulling the birds in two separate directions but thanks to the limited number of female founders- (the close genetic relationship of all female Indus hens to one another)- prevented the chickens of Fayoum to return to the wild as the Sri Lanka JF was certainly inclined to.
The Sri Lanka JF it found the otherworldly environments of the Fayoum to its liking. Whole classes of predators native to the subtropics are absent as well. The Sri Lanka JFs' selective advantage in swampy, densely vegetated thickets populated with an abundance of predators- gave the Indus-Fayoumi- now Sri-Lanka fowl a whole new lease in life.
The Sri Lanka JF males move in prides- they work together to defend a moving territory -very different strategy from the loner instincts of the Grey and Red - the Grey being more of a loner than the Red but both species males fight for dominance of groups of females- or a single female as is often the case-
Sri Lanka JF prides defend a single female and the territory she resides is in- be that moving about looking for food or nesting in. This species naturally lives in exceedingly hilly, rocky country with vertical outcrops, deep and inhospitable ravines. They have a large number of avian predators. This species also tends to nest off the ground, often taking over the nest of fruit pigeons. Interesting, male Sri Lanka JF actually build nests for their females and are compared with Red or Grey JF species, highly involved in the nesting process. To be clear, the Sri Lanka JF roosters were in summer camp heaven in the Fayoum but they lacked mates. Failing to seduce the Indus-Fayoum hens back out into the thorn palm swamp and sand dune engulfed ruins, the Sri Lanka JF roosters were obliged to locate nesting spots highly attractive to the hens. We can be certain these wild roosters also liked to roost as high as possible when in the villages- so great is their distrust for humans, cats and dogs. Their competition with Indus-Fayoum roosters was probably never for territories over a certain height or distance from humans.
When the first Sri Lanka JF rooster was successful in convincing an Indus-Fayoum hen to nest in a dovecote overlooking some ruin, a great moment in the domestication of the chicken transpired.
Soon the successful parents out populated the unsuccessful.Their hybrid progeny- the naturalized Indus hens with a generous infusion of male Sri Lanka genes- that first discovered the dovecote would be the genetic foundation of the Freisan, the Brakel, the Buttercup, the Penedesencas, and so on.
The Indo-Aryan Indus hen localized and selected within the Levant- that lineage became the ancestors of the Leghorn, the Minorca, the Andalusian, the Lakenvelder and etc.
Not incidentally, the Fayoumi fowl is considered one of the most highly disease resistant breeds, something some attribute to its ancient association with dovecotes- they frequented the floor level, foraging on insect larvae and etc- in the pigeon guano - or as was often the case in some regions, beneath tarps spread beneath the dovecote roosts to capture the guano for easier retrieval. Either way, the Fayoumi lived most of its life in incredibly hot climates with limited water, tons of predators and constant exposure to pathogens in the soil where it scratched and fed with its chicks... safe from predators and heat- yuck. Like the Sri Lanka JF their eggs hatch in a reduced number of days and are surprisingly independent, more likely to be covered at night by the rooster - not the hen and within the dovecote- on the ground or in a nest or cavity within the cote. The female is not covering the chicks at night after their first two or three days. The roosters are the primary protectors of the chicks and the hens as they forage far and wide for sustenance.
A few weeks later and the female if this composite has gone back to laying eggs- she's recycling as Sri Lanka JF hens are prone to. The hen continues to go through this process all year- because of that infusion of Sri Lanka JF genes into an incredibly closely bred population- they are essentially behaving like Sri Lanka JF in the environments of human habitations. Like their Levant female ancestors, the hens are fond of dumping all their eggs in one nest but unlike their lineage matriarchs, they tend to set at the drop of a dime.
The Fayoumi have become completely imprinted on the structures created by man.
Conversely, Indus hen - that stock being maintained over in the Levant -being selected by Levantine peoples - they are imprinted upon humankind itself.
The Fayoum fowl is self-perpetuating. The Indus hen of the Levant has lost much of the capacity to incubate its own eggs and rear its chicks. It's also not capable of living without food and water for any period of time. It requires that some portion of its food is left out by humans. Its the food that keeps them close to home. The Fayoumi is staying close to home because the external environment away from human habitation is exceedingly difficult to survive in due to heat and predation. There is more sustenance to be found in the Fayoum and the birds are roaming far and wide for it but almost invariably nest and rear their chicks within the dovecots.
A leghorn hen will dash about the farm yards away from all the other hens but she'll come running for food. She'll sleep outside if it suits her and she's not attached to any one rooster or any one hen. The leghorn rooster picks fights with his own shadow. Or seems incapable of defending the hen at all.
Consequently, the female leghorn tends to be a me me me machine. She tends to be an expert competitor with other hens.
The Fayoumi is eager to run for food as well but she's dedicated to a social unit. Wherever that rooster is she remains. She'll wander out several times a day but runs back to rest and check in at the shelter several times a day.
The recombination of these stocks created the Brakel Campine -and the pea combed Livorno- the Alsace and etc. - Centuries later, recombination of the Brakel Campine stock with heavy bodied Asiatic stock arriving in Western Europe from northern China via Eastern Europe and Russia would create the world's first large bodied cuckoo pattern type chickens. The Dominique, the Scots Dumpy- the Marans and the Plymouth Rock represent the genetics and history involved.
