Chicken Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers
What is a chicken?
A: The chicken is a type of domesticated fowl.
They are one of the most common and widespread domestic
animals, with a total population of how many?
A: More than 19 billion as of 2011.
There are more chickens in the world than what?
A: Than any other bird or domesticated fowl.
Humans keep chickens primarily as a what?
A: A source of
food (consuming both their meat and eggs) and, less commonly,
as pets.
Originally raised for cockfighting or for special
ceremonies, chickens were not kept for food until when?
A: The Hellenistic period (4th–2nd centuries BC).
Genetic studies have pointed to multiple what?
A: Multiple maternal origins in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.
The clade found in the Americas, Europe, the Middle
East and Africa originated where?
A: In the Indian subcontinent.
From ancient India, the domesticated chicken spread to
where?
A: Lydia in western Asia Minor, and to Greece by the 5th century BC.
Fowl had been known in Egypt since the mid-15th century
BC, with the "bird that gives birth every day" having come to Egypt from
where?
A: From the land between Syria and Shinar, Babylonia, according to the
annals of Thutmose III.
In the United States, Canada,
Australia and New
Zealand, they are more commonly called what?
A: Roosters.
Males less than a year old are called what?
A: Cockerels.
What are castrated roosters are called?
A: Capons (surgical and chemical castration are now illegal in some parts of
the world).
Females over a year old are known as what?
A: Hens, and younger females as pullets.
"Chicken" originally referred to what?
A: Young domestic fowl.
What was the species called at the time?
A: Domestic fowl, or just fowl.
In the Deep South of the United States, chickens are
also referred to by what slang term?
A: Yardbird.
In some breeds the adult rooster can be distinguished
from the hen by his larger what?
A: Comb.
Chickens are omnivores and in the wild, they often
scratch at the soil to search for what?
A: Seeds, insects and even animals as large as
lizards, small snakes, or
young mice.
How long does the average chicken live?
A: For five to ten years, depending on the breed.
The world's oldest known chicken was a hen which died
of heart failure at what age?
A: 16 years.
Adult chickens have a fleshy crest on their heads
called a comb, or cockscomb, and hanging flaps of skin either side under
their beaks called what?
A: Wattles.
Collectively, these and other fleshy protuberances on
the head and throat are called what?
A: Caruncles.
Domestic chickens are not capable of long-distance
flight, although lighter birds are generally capable of flying for short
distances, such as what?
A: Over fences or into trees (where they would naturally roost).
Chickens may occasionally fly briefly to explore their
surroundings, but generally do so only to do what?
A: To flee perceived danger.
Chickens are gregarious birds and live together in
what?
A: Flocks.
They have a communal approach to what?
A: The incubation of eggs and raising of young.
Individual chickens in a flock will dominate others,
establishing what?
A: A "pecking order", with dominant individuals having priority for food
access and nesting locations.
Removing hens or roosters from a flock causes a
temporary what?
A: Disruption to this social order until a new pecking order is established.
Adding hens, especially younger birds, to an existing
flock can lead to what?
A: Fighting and injury.
When a rooster finds food, he may do what?
A: Call other chickens to eat first.
He does this by clucking in a high pitch as well as
doing what?
A: Picking up and dropping the food.
This behavior may also be observed in mother hens who
do what?
A: They call to their chicks and encourage them to eat.
Hens cluck loudly after doing what?
A: Laying an egg, and also to call their chicks.
Chickens also give different warning calls when they
sense what?
A: A predator approaching from the air or on the ground.
To initiate courting, some roosters may do what?
A: Dance in a circle around or near a hen ("a circle dance"), often lowering
the wing which is closest to the hen.
Chicken eggs vary in
color depending on the hen,
typically ranging from bright white to shades of brown and even what?
A: Blue, green, and recently reported purple.
Hens will often try to lay in nests that already
contain what?
A: Eggs and have been known to move eggs from neighboring nests into their
own.
The result of this behavior is that a flock will do
what?
A: Use only a few preferred locations, rather than having a different nest
for every bird.
In 2006, scientists researching the ancestry of birds
"turned on" a chicken recessive gene, talpid2, and found what?
A: That the embryo jaws initiated formation of teeth, like those found in
ancient bird fossils.
How many chickens are reared annually as a source of
meat and eggs?
A: More than 50 billion.
In the United States alone, more than 8 billion
chickens are slaughtered each year for what?
A: Meat.
How many chickens are reared for egg production?
A: More than 300 million.
The vast majority of poultry are raised in what?
A: Factory farms.
An alternative to intensive poultry farming is called
what?
A: Free-range farming.
Chickens farmed for meat are called what?
A: Broilers.
Chickens will naturally live for six or more years, but
broiler breeds typically take how long to reach slaughter size?
A: less than six weeks.
A free range or organic broiler will usually be
slaughtered at about what age?
A: 14 weeks.
Chickens farmed primarily for eggs are called what?
A: Layer hens.