Why Can't Chickens Fly?

Answer 1

They can, but not very well.

Most domestic fowl breeds are bred to be very much heavier than their wild ancestors, either to produce lots of eggs, or to produce meat, or both.

Most can therefore only fly a little -- enough to get up onto a gate, or perhaps into a tree to roost. Their wings are basically too short for the size of bird.

If you keep bantams (miniature breeds), you'll see that they can fly much better -- easily up into a tree. However, they are naturally ground-living birds, so tend to do this only to roost or to escape predators.

If you keep jungle fowl (the ancestor species), you'll need to put mesh over the top of the pen, as they can fly really quite well -- perhaps nearly as well as a common pheasant, which is fairly closely related.

Other poultry species (geese, ducks, turkeys etc) are mostly also bred to be much bigger than the wild type, and have similar difficulty flying much.

Answer 2

Chickens are descended from tropical forest birds called jungle fowl that are related to pheasants. They took up life on the ground and evolved strong legs for walking and running but lost the ability to fly long distances (they didn't need it because they don't migrate). When humans domesticated these birds, we selected the largest, heaviest ones that produced more meat and bigger eggs, which made it even harder for them to fly. Today, many chickens live their entire lives on factory farms in tiny cages where they can barely flap their wings, much less fly. (How fast do you think you could run if you'd spent your whole life in a room the size of a refrigerator?) Some breeds of "fancy" chickens are bred more for looks than meat or eggs and are usually kept in large pens or cages where they can run and flap their wings. These chickens can still fly short distances like their wild ancestors.

Answer 3

chickens have descended from wild fowl which were able to fly. but when domesticated they lost their need to fly because they got their food and protection from us. special muscles in their wings that 's function is to give enough thrust for them to take off and stay in the air without fatigue became weaker.
they became heavier too. but at the same time they got stronger legs as a part of adaptation to life on land. but chickens can still fly as high as a medium height tree or atleast to the roof of their penn.

Answer 4

They belong to the category of game birds that are heavy bodied with short wing span. They move around in the bush. although they can fly for short distances. They are taxonomically close to turkeys, pheasant, quail, grouse, peacock etc.

Answer 5

chickens can fly but only over short distances because of their large chest muscles.

Answer 6

They can. We just don't let them. We bred them so that many of them no longer can.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mchicken.html

But, I've seen some "free range" ones that, while they will never "fly like the wind", still manage to get airborne.

Answer 7

cuz they're chickens..........