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While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. University of Illinois Extension – Incubation and Embryology – What is a Chicken? Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. India and other jungle fowl species, also members of Gallus, may have contributed to the bird’s ancestry.

There is some debate about what the chicken’s scientific name should be. Chickens have a squat and rounded appearance. Chickens breed in the spring and summer months. Fertilized embryos develop quickly, and chicks hatch approximately 21 days later. Chicks are born covered in down, but they mature quickly, becoming fully feathered after four to five weeks. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Chickens belonging to the same age cohort and sex are often kept together in industrial production settings.

The pecking order is established within groups of female chicks by the 10th week of life. In groups of male chicks, however, fights for dominance may continue into adulthood. Chicken domestication likely occurred more than once in Southeast Asia and possibly India over the most recent 7,400 years, and the first domestications may have been for religious reasons or for the raising of fighting birds. Originally, meat production was a by-product of egg production. Only hens that could no longer produce enough eggs were killed and sold for meat.