Poultry

Updated: February 2008
See also: Stock Exchange (Poultry Sales)

It is estimated that 11 billion chickens populate the planet. It would be impossible to count them all - from the small flocks scratching a living outside a smallholder's dwelling to the thousands bred in huge industrial complexes. They are all, however, derived from the Red Jungle Fowl Gallus gallus, of southern and southeastern Asia.

DNA studies have shown that domestication of the Red Jungle Fowl probably began about ten thousand years ago. Poultry have historically been kept for several reasons: as clocks, for cock-fighting and for religious reasons, but only in the last 200 years or so, have they been selectively bred for eggs, meat or exhibition.

It was probably the enterprising Egyptians who started the mass production of chickens and eggs for food. At the time of the Roman Empire, Europeans started to breed chickens for meat and eggs but it wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century that breeding for exhibition really became popular. Queen Victoria herself became interested in chickens, which popularised poultry keeping as a hobby and several colour variants of British breeds were produced as a tribute to her.

Poultry keeping was revolutionised after the Second World War. In 1945 less than one per cent of laying hens were caged, but by 1986 ninety three per cent of the national flock was kept in cages. Battery cages in the UK are now being phased out as more consumers have become opposed to the welfare implications. Free-range eggs are becoming more popular and now nearly one in four British hens is free-range. Intensification for meat production has become equally extreme. Pre-war it took 126 days to produce a 4lb bird, it now takes 42 days. There are also welfare concerns about broiler chickens and many people prefer to buy birds that have been reared in less intensive conditions.

Many people have decided that quality, welfare and traceability are of the utmost importance, and prefer either to buy their meat from places such as farmers markets or to produce their own. Hens can make very good pets and have the added advantage that they produce eggs. Most people with a garden will have enough room for a few hens and there is nothing more satisfying than collecting home produced eggs from happy and well kept hens. With the addition of a cockerel, many people get added satisfaction from breeding their own rare breed poultry and conserving our valuable rare breeds.