Is a Chicken a Mammal?
The chicken is a farm animal that is widespread in Germany. In addition to meat consumption, it is mainly eggs that are used in industry. However, the chicken's reproduction is different from that of a mammal.
The Chicken - History and Husbandry
- The well-known domestic chicken, which is also used for meat and egg consumption, is a domesticated form of a chicken that was once wild, the Asian bankiva chicken. The domestic chicken has meanwhile been optimized for meat set (broiler chicken) or egg production (laying hens) through targeted breeding. This is at the expense of animal health.
- A broiler from a non-organic farm will usually not be older than 28 days. With a birth weight of 40 grams, it weighs 1.5 kilograms when slaughtered. Above all, this rapid weight gain does not lead to painful damage to the sensitive chicken feet rarely do the legs collapse under the weight load and the animals only spend their last days lying.
- In the production of laying hens, on the other hand, only the females are used, the males are sorted out shortly after hatching, killed and mainly processed into animal feed. The laying hens are selected by breeding so that they lay eggs at an abnormally high level. Such a high-performance animal lays up to 330 eggs a year (the original chickens not even half). That means a lot of energy. For this reason alone, the animals do not get old, in rare cases up to four months. Constant egg production is debilitating and stressful, and leads to feather plucking and other behavioral disorders. Since their meat is not that tasty, laying hens are sold as soup chickens.
Why the chicken is not a mammal
- Chickens are pheasant-like, agriculturally they are assigned to poultry. It is known that chickens lay eggs from which the chicks hatch after an incubation period. The plumage is a typical characteristic of the bird family. Mammals, on the other hand, suckle their offspring with milk and have a more or less pronounced fur-like skin covering.
- Mammalian development also takes place in the uterus (womb) of the mother animal. Most of the chick develops outside of the womb, protected in the calcareous egg shell. The fertilization takes place by pairing the hen and the rooster, by the so-called houndstooth. However, the hen also lays eggs without being fertilized by a rooster.
- Immediately after the egg is laid, the egg is incubated for about 21 days. In laying breeds, the breeding instinct is barely pronounced. After hatching, the chicks are already fully developed and follow the mother (called the hen) until she no longer feels responsible. Depending on the breed of chicken, this can be between five and eleven weeks.
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