Chickens – origin, habitat, needs

Chickens – where did they come from and how did and do the males of “chicken-like” species live in the “wild”?

My 14 week old Buttercups don’t seem so diffeenet from the “Jungle Fowl”

My straight run has almost 70% roosters, and, not wanting to kill them right off the bat, I am wondering: how did the chicken’s ancestors deal with all the roosters ….. ? …and so the searching is leading to chickens around the world – it’ll be interesting. But where is this notion that there have to be 5-12 hens for every rooster coming from? Is it a function of space? Overbreeding to relentlessly mate? Overbreeding for aggression for fighting? So I am investigating …. and copied/pasted some info from the www , giving credit where available.

What I want to know, other than having to feed the roosters too, without them giving any eggs, is there really a need to kill them (name it as you wish, but there just will not be enough “good homes” for all those brothers of all the egg laying hens everywhere. However, for those vegetarians living in the country, is there really no way to coexist? What happens to the Wild roosters? Here are a few articles that shed a little bit of light onto the subject.

The Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) is a tropical member of the Pheasant family. It is thought to be ancestral to the domestic chicken, with some hybridisation with the Grey Junglefowl. The Red Junglefowl was first domesticated at least five thousand years ago in Asia, then taken around the world, and the domestic form is kept globally as a very productive food source of both meat and eggs.
photo from wikipedia

The associations between individuals in a free-living population of red junglefowl are visualised in a cluster analysis. The flock structure is shown for the population when females are with and without chicks, and the differences described. Various kinds of groupings are present, from solitary individuals to mixed-sex flocks. The strongest associations maintaining flock cohesion are shown to be female-female pairings and it is these which break down when the females produce their chicks. *Department of Wildlife Sciences, Centre of Wildlife & Ornithology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202 002, India, **Bombay Natural History Society, S.B. Singh Road, Mumbai 400 023, India

Abstract: The habitat use and flock composition of the Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus in Dudwa National Park, India was studied between 1991 and 1994. Six habitats were monitored during winter and summer throughout the study period. Data on habitat use, flock size and flock composition were collected from monitoring of six line transects and regular sightings along the road. Bonferroni simultaneous confidence interval was constructed to determine ha-bitat use by Red Junglefowl. It showed preference for mixed forest and showed avoidance for teak forest. A total of 1174 individuals were seen more in summer, especially females. Maxi-mum flock size was observed in sal forest in winter 1992. More than 80% (n=465) of the total observations were of single bird. The Red Junglefowl though not threatened and a species of less concern, needs continuous monitoring and proper management inputs so that it does not follow the fate of some other pheasant species. one of the available studies of these ancesters of chickens: http://www.tropecol.com/pdf/open/PDF_41_1/kp41102.pdf
Reminds me so much of my buttercup hens: Ceylon Junglefowl (Gallus lafayetii) female, Sinharaja Forest, Sri Lanka – 2009

Whilst the domestic chicken was previously believed to be a descendant of the Red Junglefowl, recent research done by Eriksson et al. suggests possible hybridisation with the Grey Junglefowl. It was first raised in captivity at least several thousand years ago in the Indian subcontinent, and the domesticated form has been used all around the world as a very productive food source for both meat and eggs. Some breeds have been specifically developed to produce these.

interesting blog on the chicken origin subject
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/29/the-origin-of-the-chicken/© Girish Ketkar
Location : Tadoba, Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India
Date : 25 February 2012
delightful article worth your time: http://www.discoverwildlife.com/animals/jungle-fowl-remarkable-bird – image – a few of my chicks in the “field”

BUTTERCUP fowls originated in Sicily. The breed name refers to the peculiar form of duplex comb. Experiments with birds of similar comb morphology, imported from Egypt (Bateson and Punnett, 1905), suggest that Sicilian Buttercups may have derived from Nile valley ancestors (Punnett, 1923, p. 94). Since indigenous fowls of the East commonly carry wild type plumage pattern, it may be ventured that a

Sicilian breeder crossed duplex-combed Egyptian birds with a Campine or Braekel strain, and after a backcross to the Egyptian, obtained segregants from which buttercup plumage was developed. Experimental evidence submitted below makes the preceding highly probable, and it would be interesting to know if confirmatory Italian records exist.Buttercups display sexually dimorphic and dichromatic plumage pattern. With folded wings, the male is a black-tailed russet fowl; ground color in the female is lighter, varying in different strains from golden-buff to orange, and a unique form of black . . .Received December 15, 1952.

Poultry Science Association Inc.
http://ps.fass.org/content/32/4/683.abstract