Why hens and roosters can not fly like other birds?

Answer 1

weight and wing size

chicken weighs alot more than other birds proportional to its wing size. The bigger birds you see that are capable of flying have huge wing spans. As for chickens, turkeys, penguins, etc, they have relatively small wings for their body mass. This is because the chickens you see nowadays are breed to be fat and meaty. Through this process, they became to heavy to fly.

Answer 2

Cannot fly like other birds? You mean like penguins and ostriches?

Chickens have been selectively bred to be fat for eating. At the same time it's obviously not desirable for all that investment in feeding and care to be able to fly away. Between the two, weight has been bred in and the ability to fly has been bred out, helped by wing clipping where necessary.

Answer 3

Ha! Some of them can and do fly short distances. This is considered an undesirable trait by most poultry raisers. They object when their chickens insisting upon roosting in tree overnight when the forecast predicts sleet and freezing rain. So generally, most breeds have been developed so they are not capable of doing more than hopping up onto an indoor roost provided by the owner.

Answer 4

They are ground birds by nature, but some breeds can fly pretty well.

Answer 5

Functionally, it's because their small wings are too small to lift their heavy bodies very far.

Historically, it's because we bred them that way. Heavy bodies make for better eating, while wings aren't nearly as yummy; plus they're easier to keep if you only have to fence them in and don't have to build a top to the cage.

Answer 6

The flight muscles founf in these birds are weak when compared to other birds so they cannot fly.

Answer 7

Some of them do fly. Have you not heard of a chicken's wings being clipped?

Answer 8

1. they are too heavy.
2. they lived with the man. he protect them. so they don't have to run away from enemies... and therfore lose their ability to fly.
like in a war - if you need to do - you will do it.
if you don't need - you will forget how to do it...
and as they don't need to fly - they became heavy...

Answer 9

selective breeding

Answer 10

wellbred chicks?