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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]

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]