Chicken Breeds Identify by Chart – chicken Identifier

The humble chicken is among the most ubiquitous and recognizable domestic animals on the planet, and hundreds of breeds exist in an almost bewildering range of shapes, sizes and colors.

However, if we want to understand where these chicken breeds came from, we have to travel back to the Southeast Asia of around 8,000 years ago where the story of the modern chicken began.

It is thought that chickens are descended from red junglefowl, a species that was domesticated – possibly in a single domestication event – between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago in the region where northern Thailand, Eastern Myanmar and southern China converge.

At first, they were not kept for meat and eggs as they are today but rather were likely kept for cockfighting as well as for ceremonial or religious purposes.

From there, the chicken spread first to China and India and then around the rest of the world – and with their arrival in Europe, a major change occurred.

Chickens are thought to have reached Europe with the Phoenicians, a seafaring people from the Levant, and their appearance there marked the first time they were farmed as a major livestock animal.

Following this, from the time of the Roman Empire, we have evidence that chickens were already being selectively bred for both meat and egg production, something that continued throughout the following centuries.

By the Middle Ages, domestic chickens had become more docile than their wild ancestors, and selective breeding also continued to improve their egg-laying prowess.