Domestic chickens are descended from wild Red Junglefowl, and potentially Grey Junglefowl. It is difficult to place exactly when and where chickens were domesticated, but it was at least 7,000 years ago. A fixture of farm life, chickens come in a range of sizes and shapes. There are over 60 breeds recognized by the American Poultry Association and hundreds of breeds recognized worldwide.
What They Eat
Chickens are omnivores, eating all types of food. Outdoors, they eat seeds, insects, grubs, worms and small animals such as mice and lizards. On large farms today, chickens eat a commercial diet packed with protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. Chickens drink lots of water. They require 2-3 times as much water as feed per day.
Where They Live
Chickens live wherever humans do. People have developed different breeds to fit different environments. Some breeds, such as Plymouth Rock, are good foragers. Others, such as Araucanas, are well-adapted to living indoors. In urban areas, backyard chickens are growing in popularity.
What They Do
Chickens are social, flock animals, with several hens living with one or more roosters. Hens spend their days laying eggs, pecking for food, or resting on a roost. Although chickens are birds, they do not have extended periods of flight like other birds. Their flight ability is typically limited to a few feet due to their small wing size and large, heavy bodies. Regardless of poor flying ability, domestic chickens are still able to get high into trees or homemade roosts for sleeping.
How They’re Doing
Because they are important to people, chickens are not in danger of extinction. However, some breeds of domestic chicken are rare, such as the Modern Game, the Campine, the Ayam Cemani and others.
Common Names
Bantam: miniature chicken
Barny: mixed-breed, or barnyard chicken
Broiler: a chicken (usually a cross breed) raised for meat
Chick: newly hatched baby
Clutch: eggs laid by a chicken in a single cycle
Cockerel: young male
Cross Breed: a chicken that is a mix of two or more breeds
Flock: group of chickens
Hen: one-year-old or older female
Pullet: young female
Rooster: Male older than one year
Animal Facts
Body Length: 14-34 inches
Weight: 1-10 pounds for adults
Lifespan: 7-8 years
Wingspan: 17-24 inches
Number of eggs laid: 280 or more a year
Taxonomic Category
Bird
Where at the Zoo
The Minnesota Zoo has a flock of chickens at the Wells Fargo Family Farm. When the Farm is open, visitors to the Chicken Barn can get a close look at the flock and follow the chicken’s life cycle from egg, to fluffy chick, to full-grown chicken.
Meet the Animals
The Zoo’s chicken flock changes from year to year. The current flock consists of Buckeye chickens.
- The Buckeye is an American chicken breed developed in Ohio in the late 1800s. It is raised to produce both meat and eggs. The Buckeye has reddish-brown feathers, and it lays brown eggs. This active, sturdy chicken is adapted well to cold climates like Minnesota’s.
The Minnesota Zoo is also home to a wild relative of domestic chickens. Guests with a keen eye may spot a female Sri Lanka Junglefowl in the aviary along the Tropics Trail.
Care at Well Fargo Family Farm
The Zoo’s chickens live in the Chicken Barn. This building contains roosts and nest boxes. It also houses areas where eggs are hatched into chicks. In warm weather, hens, roosters and chicks peck in the dirt of the fenced-in, outdoor yard.
Every morning, newly laid eggs are moved from nest boxes to a warm incubator. Eggs are generally incubated for 18 days. After that time, eggs are placed in a hatcher, where most will hatch at 21 days. Any unhatched eggs are removed and discarded.
When hatching, a chick uses a sharp projection at the top of its beak called an egg tooth. The chick makes a hole, or pip, in the shell, and then rests for 3-8 hours. After resting, it breaks the shell all around and pushes its feet against the small end of the shell. In about 40 minutes, a chick can work its way free from the shell.
After hatching, young chicks are moved into a brooder. This area is designed to keep chicks warm and dry, while giving them easy access to food and water. Chicks in the brooder range in age from two days to one week old.
- Unlike people, chickens can’t have a “sweet tooth.” While they can taste salt, they can’t tell which foods are sweet. Besides, chickens have no teeth!
- Before clocks were widely used, many people relied on roosters to wake them up in the morning.
- A rooster’s morning greeting, cock-a-doodle-doo in English, is chicchirichí in Italian, ko-ke-kok-ko-o in Japanese, and ‘o’o’o in Mandarin Chinese!
- People have developed different chicken breeds to fit different environments and production requirements. Some breeds, such as Plymouth Rock chickens, are good foragers. Others, such as Araucanas, are well adapted to living indoors. Leghorns and other cross breeds of chicken are raised for high egg production. Cornish chickens are often used in cross breeding to produce fast growing market chickens for meat.
- Chickens are smarter than you might think. Studies prove that if you show a chicken an object, and then hide it, the chicken realizes that the object still exists—something human toddlers aren’t always able to understand.
- In 2022, there were over 326 million egg-laying hens in the United States. Iowa has the most with 45.2 million hens! According to the American Egg Board, Minnesota ranks eighth among states for egg-producing hens.
- The United States has the largest broiler chicken industry in the world. According to the National Chicken Council, there were over 9.2 billion broilers raised in the United States in 2021.
Content Here
Sidebar Content
