For the culinary 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 chicken chashu 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.
