Chicken Facts for Kids
Gallus gallus domesticus · GAL-us GAL-us doh-MESS-tih-kus
A farm bird that clucks, scratches for food and lays eggs.
- 🏃 speed: not yet checked
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 📏 size: not yet checked
- 🎂 5 to 10 years5 to 10 years1
- 🍽️ plants and animals
- Not on the Red List (Not assessed)
A chicken is a bird that lives on a farm. A hen lays eggs. A rooster crows in the morning.
Chickens scratch the ground with their feet and peck to find seeds and bugs. The red comb on top of a chicken's head helps it cool off. Chickens can fly only a short way, just up to a fence or a low branch.
Chickens came from the red junglefowl, a wild bird of the forests of Southeast Asia. A flock has an order, so each hen knows who eats first. Hens talk to their chicks with soft clucks, and the chicks answer with peeps even before they hatch. Some chickens on old farms, like the flock at Oxon Hill Farm, live for many years.
How big is a chicken?
Chicken: no checked size yet, so there is nothing to draw. We only draw what a source says.
Chicken in numbers
| Length | no checked number yet |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| Top speed | no checked number yet |
| How long it lives | 5 to 10 years5 to 10 years1the farm's flock |
| What it eats | seeds, grain, bugs and greens |
| Where it lives | farms and backyards all over the world |
| What kind | Birds |
| Is it in danger? | Not on the Red List (Not assessed) |
A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.
Wow!
- Chicks peep to their mother even before they hatch.
- A chicken's red comb helps it stay cool.
- Chickens came from a wild bird of the forests of Southeast Asia.
Compare the chicken
Friends and neighbours
Wild turkey
Horse
RabbitThree questions
Books about the chicken, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about the chicken for free.
Where these numbers come from
- National Park Service, Oxon Hill Farm: chickens, checked 31 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Chicken (Q780), checked 30 October 2026.