I mean maybe eggs, if allowed to roam and given their shells back. But modern chickens are just absolutely genetically ravaged by centuries of breeding for absurd egg output and massive growth.
Before domestication they'd lay about a dozen a year. Now they lay once a day or so.
Chickens always gave a lot of eggs. That's why they were popular since ancient times. As long as they had surplus food, they start laying eggs. A dozen a year is just misinformation - that's only in the wild, during spring because that's when they have a surplus a food. If humans feed them every day, then they lay eggs because they always have extra food.
We raised free roaming wild chickens. The hens had a high up coop we'd close to keep safe from predators that they'd return to on their own at night.
A dozen a year is just misinformation - that's only in the wild,
That's likely true, but I also have serious doubts that a chicken completely untouched by human breeding would output like the breeds bred to lay even if given unlimited food. I also doubt their bodies are made for such production.
They still lay about 24 eggs a month, sometimes more sometimes less depending on the temperature and if there's a rooster around. Again, we had the wild breed of chicken (Gallus gallus). We also had guinea fowl and ducks.
It's an animal that can reproduce a lot. Don't know why people find that hard to believe but don't bat an eye at the reproduction rates of rabbits.
I mean maybe eggs, if allowed to roam and given their shells back. But modern chickens are just absolutely genetically ravaged by centuries of breeding for absurd egg output and massive growth.
Before domestication they'd lay about a dozen a year. Now they lay once a day or so.
Chickens always gave a lot of eggs. That's why they were popular since ancient times. As long as they had surplus food, they start laying eggs. A dozen a year is just misinformation - that's only in the wild, during spring because that's when they have a surplus a food. If humans feed them every day, then they lay eggs because they always have extra food.
We raised free roaming wild chickens. The hens had a high up coop we'd close to keep safe from predators that they'd return to on their own at night.
That's likely true, but I also have serious doubts that a chicken completely untouched by human breeding would output like the breeds bred to lay even if given unlimited food. I also doubt their bodies are made for such production.
They still lay about 24 eggs a month, sometimes more sometimes less depending on the temperature and if there's a rooster around. Again, we had the wild breed of chicken (Gallus gallus). We also had guinea fowl and ducks.
It's an animal that can reproduce a lot. Don't know why people find that hard to believe but don't bat an eye at the reproduction rates of rabbits.