the.com/chicken
the closest living relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex, now clucking in your backyard.
means A common domesticated fowl raised for its eggs and meat, or — colloquially — a coward or a children's game of nerve.
from From Old English 'cicen,' originally meaning a young bird, with the diminutive '-en' ending you also hear in 'maiden' and 'kitten.' Its root is the same flock that gives us 'cock,' likely echoing the bird's own clucking. The 'coward' sense came later — chickens being famously skittish — and gave English both 'chicken-hearted' and 'to chicken out.'
- population
- Outnumber humans roughly three to one
- dino DNA
- Genetically closer to T. rex than lizards
- memory
- Recognize over 100 individual faces
- headless
- Mike survived 18 months without his head
- daylight eggs
- Hens need light to keep laying
gallus gallus domesticus — the red junglefowl domesticated ~8000 years ago, now ~26 billion individuals worldwide
cornish cross broiler — hybrid breed developed in 1930s, comprises ~95% of us commercial chicken meat production
leghorn chicken — italian breed, dominant commercial egg-laying chicken, produces ~300 eggs per year per bird