Chicken Facts

Generally, most people are familiar with chicken as a food commodity, NOT as domestic pets which kept as though they were cats or dogs.

But just because the status quo perceives chickens to simply be food doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who actually keep them as pets, with most of them quite informed about the quirks and particulars of chickens.

In 2005, Walt Disney released Chicken Little, an animated CGI feature that put chickens on the spotlight. Playing with the storyline of an old fable entitled “The Sky Is Falling”, the movie did manage to highlight some facts about chickens, and in tune with the movie’s touching up on chicken facts below are some more unique factoids about chickens.

Chicken Facts

In terms of numbers, chickens actually outnumber the number of human beings in the world. In China alone, there is an estimated 3 billion chickens, which says a lot about their total population number.

Chickens are known to have breeds too, just like dogs and cats. In terms of breed numbers though, there are at least 200 types of chicken breeds and variations known to exist, including the rare and extinct varieties of chickens.

Oddly enough, the tyrannosaurus rex’s known closest living relative is said to be the chicken, considering the two creature’s bone similar structure. But unlike the carnivorous association pegged with the tyrannosaurus rex, chickens are omnivores, which means they eat either meats or vegetation.

In normal conditions, a chicken can live as long as 11 years in the wild. Due to the practice of confinement breeding of chickens in poultry houses, chickens raised for meat only live for as long as six weeks.

Also in their normal living conditions, chickens actually flock together, and aren’t solitary birds. A wild flock is known to implement a communal system in rearing chicks, as well as taking turns in keeping eggs warm.