which the chicken belongs, is a mere 8 million years old, and Gallus gallus, the chicken species, has been around only for the last 3 to 4 million years For a barnyard commoner, the chicken has a surprisingly exotic background Its immediate ancestors were jungle fowl native to tropical and subtropical Southeast Asia and India The chicken more or less as we know it was probably domesticated in Southeast Asia before 7500 BCE, which is when larger-thanwild bones date from in Chinese finds far north of the jungle fowl’s current range By 1500 BCE chickens had found their way to Sumer and Egypt, and they arrived around 800 BCE in Greece, where they became known as “Persian birds,” and where quail were the primary source of eggs The Domestic Egg We’ll never know exactly why chickens were domesticated, but they may well have been valued more for their prolific egg production than for their meat Some birds will lay only a set number of eggs at a time, no matter what happens to the eggs Others, including the chicken, will lay until they accumulate a certain number in the nest If an egg is taken by a predator, the hen will lay another to replace it — and may so indefinitely Over a lifetime, these “indeterminate layers” will produce many more eggs than the “determinate” layers Wild Indian jungle fowl lay clutches of about twelve glossy, brown eggs a few times each year In industrial production — the ecological equivalent of unlimited food resources combined with unrelenting predation — their domesticated cousins will lay an egg a day for a year or more Food Words: Egg and Yolk Egg comes from an Indo-European root meaning “bird.” The brusque-sounding yolk is rich in ...prolific egg production than for their meat Some birds will lay only a set number of eggs at a time, no matter what happens to the eggs Others, including the chicken, will lay until they accumulate a certain number in the nest... clutches of about twelve glossy, brown eggs a few times each year In industrial production — the ecological equivalent of unlimited food resources combined with unrelenting predation — their domesticated... they accumulate a certain number in the nest If an egg is taken by a predator, the hen will lay another to replace it — and may so indefinitely Over a lifetime, these “indeterminate layers” will produce many more eggs than the “determinate” layers