Why did the Chicken Cross the Road? Chickens and Forgotten History

Transcript
0:00 if you look outside your window on a
0:02 nice spring day you might assume that
0:04 Robins and sparrows are the most
0:05 numerous birds in the world but no not
0:08 even close or could it be say pigeons or
0:11 seagulls again not even close if you
0:14 looked it up you might find note of the
0:16 red-billed quail a weaver bird of
0:19 sub-saharan Africa that occurs in
0:21 astounding numbers and whose population
0:23 is estimated to exceed a billion and it
0:26 still it is not the most numerous bird
0:29 on earth if you even went back in time
0:31 to the passenger pigeon the most
0:34 numerous wild species ever found to add
0:37 its height had a population estimated to
0:39 exceed five billion it would not even
0:42 come close to the most numerous bird on
0:45 earth today Dallas Dallas domesticus and
0:50 how the bird that most of us simply know
0:53 as the chicken came to be the most
0:57 numerous bird on earth is history that
1:01 deserves to be remembered the exact
1:03 story of the domestication of the
1:05 chicken is not completely clear as
1:07 domesticated birds have interbred with
1:08 wild birds the DNA story is muddled most
1:12 scholars agree that the chicken was
1:13 domesticated from the wild red jungle
1:16 fowl member of the pheasant family that
1:18 still exists in large parts of Southeast
1:19 Asia today although the species is
1:21 threatened by hybridization with
1:23 domestic chickens
1:24 however genes of a similar gray jungle
1:26 fowl found on the Indian subcontinent
1:28 continent have been identified in modern
1:30 breeds of domesticated chicken as well
1:32 leading some scientists to suggest the
1:34 chickens may have been domesticated in
1:36 multiple domestication events in areas
1:39 of South Asia and China the
1:41 domestication might have occurred as far
1:42 back as eight to ten thousand years ago
1:44 and from Asia domesticated chickens
1:47 spread to the Middle East Africa where
1:49 chickens had an advantage of her local
1:50 guinea fowl who had the tendency to fly
1:52 away Europe and Oceania while chickens
1:56 were only thought to have come to the
1:57 Americas after contact with Europe there
1:59 is some evidence that there were
2:00 chickens in South America in the
2:02 pre-columbian era supporting the still
2:04 somewhat controversial theory that there
2:06 was contact in the Americas with
2:08 Polynesian people's surprisingly most
2:11 scientists agree that the original
2:12 domestic a
2:13 chickens was done for the purpose of
2:15 cockfighting not for eggs or meat male
2:18 chickens called have a natural
2:21 aggression towards one another and have
2:22 a sharp spur on their heel that they
2:24 used to attack chickens bred for the
2:26 purpose of fighting are called Gamecocks
2:28 and are selected for strength and
2:29 stamina fights are sometimes used
2:32 as a form of ritual sacrifice and
2:34 fighting represent fur ility the
2:37 sport which often included wagering
2:38 alongside religious and cultural
2:40 elements spread from the Indus Valley to
2:42 Greece and Rome and is depicted in
2:44 ancient mosaics the fighting chickens
2:48 would be placed in a shallow depression
2:50 that would serve as their ring where
2:52 they would find and that was called a
2:53 cockpit as the controls of a ship where
2:57 the pilot might steer the ship were
2:59 often placed in an open well on the deck
3:01 it resembled the cockpit and so came to
3:04 be known as the cockpit and then that
3:06 term which refers to where the controls
3:09 of the vessel are was eventually carried
3:10 over to aircraft where the spot that
3:12 controlled the aircraft was called a
3:14 cockpit also to racecars although now
3:19 banned in many parts of the world the
3:21 sport continues both legally and
3:22 illegally throughout the world it might
3:24 be the world's oldest continuously
3:27 played sport despite this use the
3:30 utility of domesticated chickens as a
3:32 food source is obvious they produce food
3:34 both in the form of eggs and meat they
3:36 require relatively few resources to
3:38 maintain foraging readily on insects and
3:40 food scraps they are poor fliers and
3:43 relatively easily confined and protected
3:45 cages at night they are easily portable
3:48 of boats and ships and relative to
3:50 larger domesticated animals they provide
3:52 a single meal rather than leaving the
3:54 problem of safely storing the excess
3:55 food whence a slobbering a cow or a goat
3:58 eggs are also easier to preserve and
4:00 transport than milk relative to wild
4:03 birds domesticated chickens are less
4:05 aggressive grow larger and produce
4:07 larger eggs earlier and more frequently
4:08 if chickens were domesticated for the
4:11 purpose of cockfighting it is clear that
4:13 the domesticated breeds were developed
4:14 as a source of food chickens came
4:18 somewhat late to Egypt given its long
4:20 history but Egypt produced a new
4:22 technology in chicken cultivation that
4:24 awed the ancient world egg ink
4:27 Bader's so significant that they were
4:29 mentioned by Aristotle who incorrectly
4:31 suppose that the incubation was done by
4:33 burying the eggs in dung the Egyptians
4:36 were reportedly protective of the
4:37 secrets of their incubation ovens which
4:39 allowed chickens to be produced faster
4:41 and more reliably if hens are used to
4:44 incubate eggs using the natural process
4:46 the hen will stop laying for a period
4:47 but if the eggs are instead removed and
4:50 artificially incubated the hen will
4:51 produced more eggs and queue bathers
4:54 also allow chickens to be incubated
4:55 year-round whereas chickens in colder
4:57 climates could not generally keep eggs
4:59 warm enough to produce chicks in the
5:00 winter months
5:01 despite Europeans knowing of the
5:03 Egyptian incubators and the time of the
5:05 ancient Greeks the operation of the
5:07 ovens which set the eggs in baskets at a
5:09 chamber below a higher chamber where a
5:11 smoldering fire was maintained was not
5:13 clearly understood and described by
5:15 Europeans until French science
5:17 scientists Rene Antoine Prashad de ray
5:19 Muir gained access to the ovens and
5:21 described their methods in 1750 the
5:24 process required skilled handlers who
5:26 maintained the fires and turned the eggs
5:28 wood is relatively rare in Egypt so
5:31 these smouldering fires kept in
5:33 dome-shaped chambers allowed smoke to
5:34 escape while keeping rain out usually
5:37 used the more common Egyptian fuel of
5:38 dried dung which was likely the genesis
5:41 of Aristotle's misconception about the
5:43 eggs being buried and Don Herschel
5:46 produced his own design for an egg
5:47 incubator but the colder European
5:50 climates favoured required more robust
5:52 fuel and a practical modern egg
5:54 incubator was not invented until coal
5:56 lamp incubators were perfected in the
5:58 1800s chickens and eggs were popular in
6:01 ancient Rome where the omelet was
6:03 invented at one point the fattening of
6:06 chickens was prohibited in Rome and the
6:07 eating of chicken limited to one per
6:09 meal in order to preserve supplies of
6:11 wheat the response was to invent the
6:14 cape on castrated rooster which can grow
6:16 up to twice it's normal size
6:18 chicken was one of the more common
6:20 proteins in medieval Europe where larger
6:22 animals could be prohibitively expensive
6:23 while chickens were relatively
6:25 inexpensive to acquire and keep but
6:28 archaeologists noted a significant
6:30 increase in chicken bones in the
6:31 archaeological record starting about 900
6:34 to 1000 AD historians have proposed a
6:37 number of reasons for the sudden
6:38 increase in chicken consumption in the
6:40 medieval period including increasing
6:42 urbanization and standards of living but
6:45 the largest driving factor may have been
6:47 religious practice Benedictine monks of
6:50 the period started enforcing rules
6:51 around religious fasting that included a
6:54 prescription against the meat of
6:55 four-legged animals but which allowed
6:58 the meat of birds and eggs as there were
7:01 at the time around 130 fasting days a
7:04 year in common Christian practice
7:05 chicken and eggs quickly grew in
7:07 popularity as favorite proteins in fact
7:11 an Oxford University study in 2017 of
7:14 chicken bones from the high medieval
7:15 period found that their DNA was rapidly
7:18 altering during the period as people
7:20 were selecting for larger less
7:22 aggressive species that produce more and
7:24 larger eggs and thus Christian feasting
7:27 practices in Europe literally changed
7:29 the very genetic structure of
7:31 domesticated chickens and if it seems
7:35 strange that religion affected chickens
7:37 understand that the symbolic importance
7:39 of chickens was not at all new as
7:42 previously mentioned
7:43 cockfighting had both religious and
7:44 cultural elements but the symbolism of
7:47 chickens goes much farther than that
7:48 eggs were a symbol of fertility in the
7:51 coming of spring in pagan rituals long
7:52 before the tradition of hiding Easter
7:54 eggs was described by Christians as
7:56 being symbolic of Jesus's emergence from
7:58 the tomb and resurrection the Persian
8:00 religion of Zoroastrianism saw the
8:03 crowing rooster is symbolic of a turning
8:05 point in the cosmic struggle between
8:06 dark and light on the Chinese zodiac
8:08 people born in the year of the rooster
8:10 supposed to be perfectionists who are
8:12 critical yoga tist achill but also
8:14 practical loyal and organized in Norse
8:17 mythology three roosters crowing
8:19 signaled the coming of Ragnarok the end
8:21 of times and multiple religions use
8:24 roosters in divination a practice called
8:26 electro-man see in the Japanese Shinto
8:29 religion the Roosters associated with
8:31 the goddess Amaterasu goddess of the Sun
8:34 in universe Islam considers the rooster
8:37 one of the three voices that are beloved
8:39 by Allah saying when you hear the
8:41 crowing of ask for Allah's
8:43 blessing for they have seen an angel the
8:47 Gospels of the Christian New Testament
8:48 tell the story of Jesus's of Jesus
8:50 telling Peter that before the rooster
8:52 crows you will
8:54 deny me three times thus the rooster can
8:56 be seen as nefarious but as the rooster
8:59 crowing led Peter to repent it is also
9:01 seen as a symbol of grace and
9:02 forgiveness the rooster is therefore the
9:06 symbol of st. Peter and in the ninth
9:08 century Pope Nicholas the first decreed
9:10 that a rooster should be placed atop all
9:12 churches as a reminder of Peters denial
9:14 of Christ not only does the rooster
9:16 still adorn the top of many European
9:18 churches but Nicholas's decree started
9:20 the tradition of placing roosters on
9:22 weathervanes chickens and their behavior
9:26 become intimately connected to culture
9:28 and have permeated language the Khalsa
9:30 when a chicken is to call them a coward
9:32 term that may date back to the 14th
9:34 century versions of the story about the
9:37 chicken named Chicken Little
9:38 or Henny Penny referring to a character
9:40 who mistakenly believes a disaster is
9:42 imminent go back as much as 25 centuries
9:45 chicken feed is an idiom going back to
9:47 the 19th century that means up poultry
9:49 song a politician promising prosperity
9:52 may promise a chicken in every pot a
9:54 phrase that while used in the 1928 US
9:56 presidential campaign actually dates
9:58 back at least to English King Henry the
10:00 fourth if a person's bad deeds come back
10:03 to them it is said that their chickens
10:05 have come home to roost and if the
10:07 flavor of an unusual food is difficult
10:09 to describe it is said to taste like
10:11 chicken if something is crooked it is
10:14 cockeyed if a man cannot defend himself
10:17 from a sharp tongued wife he is said to
10:19 be henpecked a reference to the fact
10:21 that chickens themselves will establish
10:23 an order within their community that is
10:25 called a pecking order itself a term
10:28 that is applied to any recognition of
10:29 status within a group a particularly
10:32 attentive mother or matronly figure is
10:34 called a mother hen and if that woman is
10:36 depressed that her children have grown
10:38 she is said to have empty nest syndrome
10:40 a leader who bullies people is called
10:43 the of the walk
10:44 referring to a fighting chicken whose
10:46 pen was called a walk if you are barely
10:49 making enough money to make ends meet
10:51 you are like a chicken scratching out a
10:53 living and if you're able to set some
10:55 aside then that is your nest egg and if
10:57 you can set quite a lot of side then you
10:59 are feathering your nest if you place
11:02 too much faith in one investment you are
11:04 putting all your eggs in one basket and
11:06 if you're planning how to spend
11:07 investment before it produces returns
11:09 you are counting your eggs before they
11:11 are hatched if something is particularly
11:13 difficult to find it is as scarce as
11:15 hen's teeth and if it gets away it has
11:17 flown the coop and for letting it go you
11:19 might be called a birdbrain if a person
11:23 is particularly irascible they may be
11:24 called hard-boiled and if they are
11:26 disorganized they are running around
11:27 like a chicken with its head cut off if
11:29 they back out on a promise they are said
11:31 to chicken out and a person who does
11:34 that might be by some called a bad egg
11:36 and if they've seen better days they
11:39 might say that they are no spring
11:41 chicken when putting a plan into motion
11:43 you're hatching an idea and if the plan
11:45 succeeds you have something to crow
11:47 about but if that plan fails you might
11:49 wind up with egg on your face if
11:52 something makes you particularly angry
11:55 and you can't let it go it is stuck in
11:56 your craw the story cannot be believed
11:58 is a cock-and-bull story if you're in
12:01 need of a joke try asking why did the
12:03 chicken cross the road and if you want
12:06 to befuddle someone ask them which came
12:07 first the chicken or the egg as food
12:12 chicken is among the most ubiquitous
12:13 Foods in the world part of almost any
12:15 cuisine that includes meat worldwide
12:17 some 55 million chickens are eaten every
12:21 day but that was not always the case in
12:25 19th century American chickens were
12:26 mostly used for eggs making chicken is a
12:28 meat rare used for special occasions and
12:30 papered by the rich discovery of a way
12:33 to synthesize vitamin D in the 1920s
12:35 improved chicken production as it
12:36 allowed chickens to thrive during winter
12:38 and improvements in breeding increased
12:40 production through the 1930s eventually
12:43 large-scale production vastly increased
12:44 the amount of chicken available during
12:47 the Second World War
12:48 meat and cheese were rationed in the
12:50 United States who was not only providing
12:52 for its vastly expanded military but
12:54 helping to serve the needs of allies and
12:55 liberated countries devastated by war
12:57 however poultry eggs and fresh milk were
13:00 not rationed and consumption of poultry
13:02 skyrocketed in America in the 1990s
13:05 chicken surpassed beef is the most
13:07 popular meat in Europe launch into the
13:09 fears of bovine spongiform
13:10 encephalopathy or mad cow disease and in
13:14 the United States as drought had reduced
13:15 beef stock and driven up prices versus
13:17 poultry in 2015 Americans in
13:21 average of 92 pounds of chicken per
13:23 person a year a record and the country
13:26 produced about 90 billion eggs the
13:30 worldwide trend is nothing short of
13:31 extraordinary
13:32 Eric Dorfman director of the Carnegie
13:34 Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh
13:36 did some math based on statistics from
13:38 the Food and Agriculture Organization of
13:40 the United Nations and determined that
13:42 in 2016 some 66 billion chickens were
13:46 produced in the world nearly nine for
13:49 every human on earth just as shocking
13:52 however is that just 55 years earlier in
13:55 1961 that number was just seven point
13:57 four billion chickens or about one
14:00 chicken for every 400 people on earth
14:04 and while chicken and poultry production
14:07 faces certain obstacles including
14:09 questions of food safety and treatment
14:11 of the animals especially in the
14:12 industrialized setting chicken is going
14:14 to continue to be a larger and larger
14:16 part of the human food supply
14:18 chicken is a relatively healthy form of
14:21 protein with relatively lower amounts of
14:23 saturated fat than alternatives and
14:25 including important nutrients like the
14:27 antioxidant selenium chicken is also
14:30 relatively efficient to produce it takes
14:32 about 2 pounds of feed to produce a
14:34 pound of chicken whereas it takes about
14:35 7 pounds of feed to produce a pound of
14:38 beef and 3 pounds of feed to produce a
14:40 pound of pork and chicken and eggs also
14:43 release relatively low amounts of co2
14:46 per gram of protein and if chicken is
14:50 going to continue to be a big part of
14:52 humanity's future it is a surprising
14:54 part of the world's passed in 2007
14:57 scientists were able to determine the
14:59 chemical composition of proteins that
15:02 were found inside a 68 million year old
15:05 Tyrannosaurus Rex bone and what they
15:08 found was and I quote remarkably similar
15:11 to chickens suggesting that chickens are
15:15 the animal on this earth that is most
15:18 similar to the Tyrannosaurus Rex
15:21 and of course suggesting that
15:24 Tyrannosaurus Rex tasted like chicken I
15:28 hope you enjoyed this episode of the
15:31 history guy short snippets of forgotten
15:32 history between 10 and 15 minutes long
15:34 if you did enjoy please go ahead and
15:36 click that thumbs up button if you have
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15:56 [Music]

In the 1850s, a fad started by Queen Victoria set off a massive increase in price for some very special items. Queen Victoria acquired a huge collection, and soon others in England and even elsewhere were jostling to get the best and most beautiful collections, competing over aesthetics and value.
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THG is great.

L

I love my little feathered Dinosaurs...

A new origin story for domesticated chickens starts in rice fields 3,500 years ago [06/11/2022]
Biblical Archaeology's Top 10 Discoveries of 2021 -- Bonus: Philistine bananas (4. Yavne, just Yavne) [01/15/2022]
Dawn of the chicken revealed in Southeast Asia [07/02/2020]
Why chickens are twice as big today as they were 60 years ago [01/08/2017]
Chickens are evolving 15 TIMES faster than expected: [10/27/2015]
Did Ancient Drifters 'Discover' British Columbia? [04/25/2012]
Archaeologists Find Evidence Of Origin Of Pacific Islanders [03/31/2008]
2007 - Year Of The Lapita? (Polynesian Breakthroughs) [12/13/2007]
Chicken bones show Polynesians went to Chile (Told ya so!) [06/05/2007]
First Chickens in Americas Were Brought From Polynesia (came before Columbus) [06/04/2007]
Polynesians Beat Columbus To The Americas [06/04/2007]

Know why the chicken stopped in the middle of the road?

She wanted to ‘lay it on the line’.

Modern Lovers 'Live' (1977) 5. I'm A Little Dinosaur
DeViLmaN | 81 subscribers | 5,696 views | October 12, 2014

Egg-xactly.

Me too. There's one about the Year of Four Emperors that came up in the search for the chicken topics, which is weird, but that looks like it'll soon form the basis for another GGG topic.

Cool. Looking forward to it.

L

She wanted to stretch her legs.
She was afraid someone would Caesar!
To get to the other slide.
There was a car coming.
She wanted to stretch her legs.
To prove to the possum it could actually be done!
The chicken cross the road in search of food.
Because she realize that there is a rooster on the other side…
to avoid lame and outdated jokes.
I don’t know, let the chicken mind its own business.
To go to the idiot’s house.
because Popeyes was on his side of the street!
Because she could
so you could later make a website out of it !!
To get a life…Now its time for all of you to get one.
because chickens are really,really dumb.
To find a world where no one would question his intention of crossing the road
because she saw what you did to her eggs
To prove it could be done!
No-one knows, but the road sure was pissed.
Because this is AMERICA ! It can go anywhere it wants.
Because it was a fundie chicken.
Because it wanted to find out what those jokes were about.
Give me ten minutes with that chicken and we’ll find out.

Cool!

Good video

in 2016 some 66 billion chickens were produced in the world

Very little.

66 = son of David [בן דוד]

Matthew 23
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Vera Liddell, 66...

Vera Liddell allegedly stole $1.5M in chicken wings from Illinois schools

Bookmark

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To see Gregory Peck.

lol

The comedian George Wallace: “The chicken is the only creature on Earth that never dies of natural causes.”

[snip] One of the earliest examples of bar jokes is Sumerian (c. 4500–1900 BC), and it features a dog: “A dog walked into a tavern and said, ‘I can’t see a thing. I’ll open this one’.” [1] The humor of it is probably related to the Sumer way of life and has been lost, but the words remain. [/snip]

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/tbgetc/this_bar_joke_from_ancient_sumer_has_been_making/

Heh...

Transcript
0:00	if you look outside your window on a
0:02	nice spring day you might assume that
0:04	Robins and sparrows are the most
0:05	numerous birds in the world but no not
0:08	even close or could it be say pigeons or
0:11	seagulls again not even close if you
0:14	looked it up you might find note of the
0:16	red-billed quail a weaver bird of
0:19	sub-saharan Africa that occurs in
0:21	astounding numbers and whose population
0:23	is estimated to exceed a billion and it
0:26	still it is not the most numerous bird
0:29	on earth if you even went back in time
0:31	to the passenger pigeon the most
0:34	numerous wild species ever found to add
0:37	its height had a population estimated to
0:39	exceed five billion it would not even
0:42	come close to the most numerous bird on
0:45	earth today Dallas Dallas domesticus and
0:50	how the bird that most of us simply know
0:53	as the chicken came to be the most
0:57	numerous bird on earth is history that
1:01	deserves to be remembered the exact
1:03	story of the domestication of the
1:05	chicken is not completely clear as
1:07	domesticated birds have interbred with
1:08	wild birds the DNA story is muddled most
1:12	scholars agree that the chicken was
1:13	domesticated from the wild red jungle
1:16	fowl member of the pheasant family that
1:18	still exists in large parts of Southeast
1:19	Asia today although the species is
1:21	threatened by hybridization with
1:23	domestic chickens
1:24	however genes of a similar gray jungle
1:26	fowl found on the Indian subcontinent
1:28	continent have been identified in modern
1:30	breeds of domesticated chicken as well
1:32	leading some scientists to suggest the
1:34	chickens may have been domesticated in
1:36	multiple domestication events in areas
1:39	of South Asia and China the
1:41	domestication might have occurred as far
1:42	back as eight to ten thousand years ago
1:44	and from Asia domesticated chickens
1:47	spread to the Middle East Africa where
1:49	chickens had an advantage of her local
1:50	guinea fowl who had the tendency to fly
1:52	away Europe and Oceania while chickens
1:56	were only thought to have come to the
1:57	Americas after contact with Europe there
1:59	is some evidence that there were
2:00	chickens in South America in the
2:02	pre-columbian era supporting the still
2:04	somewhat controversial theory that there
2:06	was contact in the Americas with
2:08	Polynesian people's surprisingly most
2:11	scientists agree that the original
2:12	domestic a
2:13	chickens was done for the purpose of
2:15	cockfighting not for eggs or meat male
2:18	chickens called have a natural
2:21	aggression towards one another and have
2:22	a sharp spur on their heel that they
2:24	used to attack chickens bred for the
2:26	purpose of fighting are called Gamecocks
2:28	and are selected for strength and
2:29	stamina fights are sometimes used
2:32	as a form of ritual sacrifice and
2:34	fighting represent fur ility the
2:37	sport which often included wagering
2:38	alongside religious and cultural
2:40	elements spread from the Indus Valley to
2:42	Greece and Rome and is depicted in
2:44	ancient mosaics the fighting chickens
2:48	would be placed in a shallow depression
2:50	that would serve as their ring where
2:52	they would find and that was called a
2:53	cockpit as the controls of a ship where
2:57	the pilot might steer the ship were
2:59	often placed in an open well on the deck
3:01	it resembled the cockpit and so came to
3:04	be known as the cockpit and then that
3:06	term which refers to where the controls
3:09	of the vessel are was eventually carried
3:10	over to aircraft where the spot that
3:12	controlled the aircraft was called a
3:14	cockpit also to racecars although now
3:19	banned in many parts of the world the
3:21	sport continues both legally and
3:22	illegally throughout the world it might
3:24	be the world's oldest continuously
3:27	played sport despite this use the
3:30	utility of domesticated chickens as a
3:32	food source is obvious they produce food
3:34	both in the form of eggs and meat they
3:36	require relatively few resources to
3:38	maintain foraging readily on insects and
3:40	food scraps they are poor fliers and
3:43	relatively easily confined and protected
3:45	cages at night they are easily portable
3:48	of boats and ships and relative to
3:50	larger domesticated animals they provide
3:52	a single meal rather than leaving the
3:54	problem of safely storing the excess
3:55	food whence a slobbering a cow or a goat
3:58	eggs are also easier to preserve and
4:00	transport than milk relative to wild
4:03	birds domesticated chickens are less
4:05	aggressive grow larger and produce
4:07	larger eggs earlier and more frequently
4:08	if chickens were domesticated for the
4:11	purpose of cockfighting it is clear that
4:13	the domesticated breeds were developed
4:14	as a source of food chickens came
4:18	somewhat late to Egypt given its long
4:20	history but Egypt produced a new
4:22	technology in chicken cultivation that
4:24	awed the ancient world egg ink
4:27	Bader's so significant that they were
4:29	mentioned by Aristotle who incorrectly
4:31	suppose that the incubation was done by
4:33	burying the eggs in dung the Egyptians
4:36	were reportedly protective of the
4:37	secrets of their incubation ovens which
4:39	allowed chickens to be produced faster
4:41	and more reliably if hens are used to
4:44	incubate eggs using the natural process
4:46	the hen will stop laying for a period
4:47	but if the eggs are instead removed and
4:50	artificially incubated the hen will
4:51	produced more eggs and queue bathers
4:54	also allow chickens to be incubated
4:55	year-round whereas chickens in colder
4:57	climates could not generally keep eggs
4:59	warm enough to produce chicks in the
5:00	winter months
5:01	despite Europeans knowing of the
5:03	Egyptian incubators and the time of the
5:05	ancient Greeks the operation of the
5:07	ovens which set the eggs in baskets at a
5:09	chamber below a higher chamber where a
5:11	smoldering fire was maintained was not
5:13	clearly understood and described by
5:15	Europeans until French science
5:17	scientists Rene Antoine Prashad de ray
5:19	Muir gained access to the ovens and
5:21	described their methods in 1750 the
5:24	process required skilled handlers who
5:26	maintained the fires and turned the eggs
5:28	wood is relatively rare in Egypt so
5:31	these smouldering fires kept in
5:33	dome-shaped chambers allowed smoke to
5:34	escape while keeping rain out usually
5:37	used the more common Egyptian fuel of
5:38	dried dung which was likely the genesis
5:41	of Aristotle's misconception about the
5:43	eggs being buried and Don Herschel
5:46	produced his own design for an egg
5:47	incubator but the colder European
5:50	climates favoured required more robust
5:52	fuel and a practical modern egg
5:54	incubator was not invented until coal
5:56	lamp incubators were perfected in the
5:58	1800s chickens and eggs were popular in
6:01	ancient Rome where the omelet was
6:03	invented at one point the fattening of
6:06	chickens was prohibited in Rome and the
6:07	eating of chicken limited to one per
6:09	meal in order to preserve supplies of
6:11	wheat the response was to invent the
6:14	cape on castrated rooster which can grow
6:16	up to twice it's normal size
6:18	chicken was one of the more common
6:20	proteins in medieval Europe where larger
6:22	animals could be prohibitively expensive
6:23	while chickens were relatively
6:25	inexpensive to acquire and keep but
6:28	archaeologists noted a significant
6:30	increase in chicken bones in the
6:31	archaeological record starting about 900
6:34	to 1000 AD historians have proposed a
6:37	number of reasons for the sudden
6:38	increase in chicken consumption in the
6:40	medieval period including increasing
6:42	urbanization and standards of living but
6:45	the largest driving factor may have been
6:47	religious practice Benedictine monks of
6:50	the period started enforcing rules
6:51	around religious fasting that included a
6:54	prescription against the meat of
6:55	four-legged animals but which allowed
6:58	the meat of birds and eggs as there were
7:01	at the time around 130 fasting days a
7:04	year in common Christian practice
7:05	chicken and eggs quickly grew in
7:07	popularity as favorite proteins in fact
7:11	an Oxford University study in 2017 of
7:14	chicken bones from the high medieval
7:15	period found that their DNA was rapidly
7:18	altering during the period as people
7:20	were selecting for larger less
7:22	aggressive species that produce more and
7:24	larger eggs and thus Christian feasting
7:27	practices in Europe literally changed
7:29	the very genetic structure of
7:31	domesticated chickens and if it seems
7:35	strange that religion affected chickens
7:37	understand that the symbolic importance
7:39	of chickens was not at all new as
7:42	previously mentioned
7:43	cockfighting had both religious and
7:44	cultural elements but the symbolism of
7:47	chickens goes much farther than that
7:48	eggs were a symbol of fertility in the
7:51	coming of spring in pagan rituals long
7:52	before the tradition of hiding Easter
7:54	eggs was described by Christians as
7:56	being symbolic of Jesus's emergence from
7:58	the tomb and resurrection the Persian
8:00	religion of Zoroastrianism saw the
8:03	crowing rooster is symbolic of a turning
8:05	point in the cosmic struggle between
8:06	dark and light on the Chinese zodiac
8:08	people born in the year of the rooster
8:10	supposed to be perfectionists who are
8:12	critical yoga tist achill but also
8:14	practical loyal and organized in Norse
8:17	mythology three roosters crowing
8:19	signaled the coming of Ragnarok the end
8:21	of times and multiple religions use
8:24	roosters in divination a practice called
8:26	electro-man see in the Japanese Shinto
8:29	religion the Roosters associated with
8:31	the goddess Amaterasu goddess of the Sun
8:34	in universe Islam considers the rooster
8:37	one of the three voices that are beloved
8:39	by Allah saying when you hear the
8:41	crowing of ask for Allah's
8:43	blessing for they have seen an angel the
8:47	Gospels of the Christian New Testament
8:48	tell the story of Jesus's of Jesus
8:50	telling Peter that before the rooster
8:52	crows you will
8:54	deny me three times thus the rooster can
8:56	be seen as nefarious but as the rooster
8:59	crowing led Peter to repent it is also
9:01	seen as a symbol of grace and
9:02	forgiveness the rooster is therefore the
9:06	symbol of st. Peter and in the ninth
9:08	century Pope Nicholas the first decreed
9:10	that a rooster should be placed atop all
9:12	churches as a reminder of Peters denial
9:14	of Christ not only does the rooster
9:16	still adorn the top of many European
9:18	churches but Nicholas's decree started
9:20	the tradition of placing roosters on
9:22	weathervanes chickens and their behavior
9:26	become intimately connected to culture
9:28	and have permeated language the Khalsa
9:30	when a chicken is to call them a coward
9:32	term that may date back to the 14th
9:34	century versions of the story about the
9:37	chicken named Chicken Little
9:38	or Henny Penny referring to a character
9:40	who mistakenly believes a disaster is
9:42	imminent go back as much as 25 centuries
9:45	chicken feed is an idiom going back to
9:47	the 19th century that means up poultry
9:49	song a politician promising prosperity
9:52	may promise a chicken in every pot a
9:54	phrase that while used in the 1928 US
9:56	presidential campaign actually dates
9:58	back at least to English King Henry the
10:00	fourth if a person's bad deeds come back
10:03	to them it is said that their chickens
10:05	have come home to roost and if the
10:07	flavor of an unusual food is difficult
10:09	to describe it is said to taste like
10:11	chicken if something is crooked it is
10:14	cockeyed if a man cannot defend himself
10:17	from a sharp tongued wife he is said to
10:19	be henpecked a reference to the fact
10:21	that chickens themselves will establish
10:23	an order within their community that is
10:25	called a pecking order itself a term
10:28	that is applied to any recognition of
10:29	status within a group a particularly
10:32	attentive mother or matronly figure is
10:34	called a mother hen and if that woman is
10:36	depressed that her children have grown
10:38	she is said to have empty nest syndrome
10:40	a leader who bullies people is called
10:43	the of the walk
10:44	referring to a fighting chicken whose
10:46	pen was called a walk if you are barely
10:49	making enough money to make ends meet
10:51	you are like a chicken scratching out a
10:53	living and if you're able to set some
10:55	aside then that is your nest egg and if
10:57	you can set quite a lot of side then you
10:59	are feathering your nest if you place
11:02	too much faith in one investment you are
11:04	putting all your eggs in one basket and
11:06	if you're planning how to spend
11:07	investment before it produces returns
11:09	you are counting your eggs before they
11:11	are hatched if something is particularly
11:13	difficult to find it is as scarce as
11:15	hen's teeth and if it gets away it has
11:17	flown the coop and for letting it go you
11:19	might be called a birdbrain if a person
11:23	is particularly irascible they may be
11:24	called hard-boiled and if they are
11:26	disorganized they are running around
11:27	like a chicken with its head cut off if
11:29	they back out on a promise they are said
11:31	to chicken out and a person who does
11:34	that might be by some called a bad egg
11:36	and if they've seen better days they
11:39	might say that they are no spring
11:41	chicken when putting a plan into motion
11:43	you're hatching an idea and if the plan
11:45	succeeds you have something to crow
11:47	about but if that plan fails you might
11:49	wind up with egg on your face if
11:52	something makes you particularly angry
11:55	and you can't let it go it is stuck in
11:56	your craw the story cannot be believed
11:58	is a cock-and-bull story if you're in
12:01	need of a joke try asking why did the
12:03	chicken cross the road and if you want
12:06	to befuddle someone ask them which came
12:07	first the chicken or the egg as food
12:12	chicken is among the most ubiquitous
12:13	Foods in the world part of almost any
12:15	cuisine that includes meat worldwide
12:17	some 55 million chickens are eaten every
12:21	day but that was not always the case in
12:25	19th century American chickens were
12:26	mostly used for eggs making chicken is a
12:28	meat rare used for special occasions and
12:30	papered by the rich discovery of a way
12:33	to synthesize vitamin D in the 1920s
12:35	improved chicken production as it
12:36	allowed chickens to thrive during winter
12:38	and improvements in breeding increased
12:40	production through the 1930s eventually
12:43	large-scale production vastly increased
12:44	the amount of chicken available during
12:47	the Second World War
12:48	meat and cheese were rationed in the
12:50	United States who was not only providing
12:52	for its vastly expanded military but
12:54	helping to serve the needs of allies and
12:55	liberated countries devastated by war
12:57	however poultry eggs and fresh milk were
13:00	not rationed and consumption of poultry
13:02	skyrocketed in America in the 1990s
13:05	chicken surpassed beef is the most
13:07	popular meat in Europe launch into the
13:09	fears of bovine spongiform
13:10	encephalopathy or mad cow disease and in
13:14	the United States as drought had reduced
13:15	beef stock and driven up prices versus
13:17	poultry in 2015 Americans in
13:21	average of 92 pounds of chicken per
13:23	person a year a record and the country
13:26	produced about 90 billion eggs the
13:30	worldwide trend is nothing short of
13:31	extraordinary
13:32	Eric Dorfman director of the Carnegie
13:34	Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh
13:36	did some math based on statistics from
13:38	the Food and Agriculture Organization of
13:40	the United Nations and determined that
13:42	in 2016 some 66 billion chickens were
13:46	produced in the world nearly nine for
13:49	every human on earth just as shocking
13:52	however is that just 55 years earlier in
13:55	1961 that number was just seven point
13:57	four billion chickens or about one
14:00	chicken for every 400 people on earth
14:04	and while chicken and poultry production
14:07	faces certain obstacles including
14:09	questions of food safety and treatment
14:11	of the animals especially in the
14:12	industrialized setting chicken is going
14:14	to continue to be a larger and larger
14:16	part of the human food supply
14:18	chicken is a relatively healthy form of
14:21	protein with relatively lower amounts of
14:23	saturated fat than alternatives and
14:25	including important nutrients like the
14:27	antioxidant selenium chicken is also
14:30	relatively efficient to produce it takes
14:32	about 2 pounds of feed to produce a
14:34	pound of chicken whereas it takes about
14:35	7 pounds of feed to produce a pound of
14:38	beef and 3 pounds of feed to produce a
14:40	pound of pork and chicken and eggs also
14:43	release relatively low amounts of co2
14:46	per gram of protein and if chicken is
14:50	going to continue to be a big part of
14:52	humanity's future it is a surprising
14:54	part of the world's passed in 2007
14:57	scientists were able to determine the
14:59	chemical composition of proteins that
15:02	were found inside a 68 million year old
15:05	Tyrannosaurus Rex bone and what they
15:08	found was and I quote remarkably similar
15:11	to chickens suggesting that chickens are
15:15	the animal on this earth that is most
15:18	similar to the Tyrannosaurus Rex
15:21	and of course suggesting that
15:24	Tyrannosaurus Rex tasted like chicken I
15:28	hope you enjoyed this episode of the
15:31	history guy short snippets of forgotten
15:32	history between 10 and 15 minutes long
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15:56	[Music]