For the chicken meals recipe use of chickens, see Chicken as food. Male and female chicken sitting together. Chickens are one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, with a total population of 23.

7 billion as of 2018, up from more than 19 billion in 2011. In 2011 a study in genetic and archaeological evidence conclude that the origin of the modern-day chicken is from Southeast Asia. Dunghill fowl: a chicken with mixed parentage from different domestic varieties. Pullet: a young female chicken less than a year old. In the poultry industry, a pullet is a sexually immature chicken less than 22 weeks of age.

In fact, chicken was originally a term only for an immature, or at least young, bird. In older sources, chicken as a species were typically referred to as common fowl or domestic fowl. Chick is then rarely used to mean chicken, but is mainly used in Merriam-Webster’s “Sense 1b” viz. This section needs expansion with: the origin of the term ‘chicken’ in general. You can help by adding to it. In most breeds the adult rooster can be distinguished from the hen by his larger comb. In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects, and even animals as large as lizards, small snakes, or sometimes young mice.