Fowl Pages: Welcome
Please view our Resource page. Here you can view links to poultry topics: remember that Maine’s Cooperative Extension has many well-researched publications for your consumption. Some Fact Sheets from UMCE need to be purchased, some are free. We hope our website helps Maine poultry growers in their pursuits. Whether you view our links detailing accurate husbandry techniques, eliminating mites or you are looking for upcoming educational opportunities you will find something useful. We encourage you to browse the websites for other Cooperative Extensions across the country. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, California and Virginia are just a few of the states that have quality websites with many fact sheets free to download. Penn State University and Cornell University are two excellent sources for poultry information.
Membership
Our membership represents all aspects of poultry husbandry: hobbyists, game bird producers, farmers raising replacement layer hens for industrial farms, and the slaughterhouses we all rely on for processing our broilers benefit from our organization. Joining the Maine Poultry Growers Association will keep you informed of the many aspects of any type of fowl raising. Our monthly newsletter provides links to informational websites as well as the latest information on various topics ranging from Avian Influenza to small scale poultry housing.
History of the Chicken
Domestication of the chicken dates back to at least 2000 B.C. The domestic chickens' ancestry can be traced back to four species of wild jungle fowl from Southeast Asia. However, the Red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus or Gallus bankiva) is the most commonly found wild species in the world today and is considered the main ancestor of the domestic chicken. The chicken belongs to the genus Gallus of the family Phasianidae. Domestic chickens are simply classified as Gallus domesticus.
The sport of cockfighting had tremendous influence not only in the domestication of the chicken but also on the distribution of fowl throughout the world. After centuries of selection and breeding for numerous extremes, chickens now exist in many colors, sizes and shapes. There are more than 350 combinations of physical features known today. In 1873, the American Poultry Association was organized for the purposes of adopting standards of excellence and establishing a way of classifying the various breeds.
Although the purebred poultry industry served as the foundation for the development of the commercial industry, the two industries soon developed very different types of domestic fowl. While the purebred exhibition industry continued to select and breed fowl for standard conformations and plumage colors, the commercial industry developed specialized hybrids for meat and egg production. Today, the two industries are very different: The purebred fowl of today are basically the same as they were 100 years ago and are mainly raised as a hobby; whereas, the commercial poultry industry has developed into a science, which produces highly nutritious meat and eggs with extreme efficiency.