What really did come first, the hen or the egg? And when its alive why do we call it a hen and when we eat it it's chichen?

J_9

Umm, the hen is the female and the rooster is the male. They are both chicken.

S SID

So what came first? and surely we dont eat the cockeral/rooster?

J_9

That is the age old question.

S SID

Yep, with no logical answer! Cockeral in a basket any1? Rooster with fries? Hen chow mein? Just doesn't go does it!?

Wondergirl

Of course the rooster, who is needed on some chicken farms to fertilize the hens, gets eaten (eventually) but usually male chickens are tough and stringy. The hens are plump and tender. There needs to be one rooster who can fertilize many hens. Nowadays, roosters are not important on factory farms, but are vital if the farmer has free-range chickens.

The chicken came first.

shygrneyzs

Many a rooster made it to my Grandma's chicken soup. Or if she was making chicken and dumplings. I will never forget one rooster, a beautiful bird, so colorful and very prolific. But mean as a rattlesnake. One day he took his last chunk out of my Grandma's leg and he ended up in Sunday's dinner.

S SID

Now i dont know wether to feel sorry for your Grandma or the rooster?

templelane

The egg came first it was late by a proto-chicken. A bird that was very close but not queit the modern definition of a chicken. A small final mutation in the gametes of said proto chicken resulted in it laying a chicken egg from whence the first chicken came.

firmbeliever

Lets not forget, the little ones are chicks..so once the hens and roosters become food they are chick'ens!!