1. The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the red junglefowl, a member of the pheasant family that is native to Asia.

2. Chicken as a meat has been depicted in Babylonian carvings from around 600 BC.

3. Chickens aren’t completely flightless—they can get airborne enough to make it over a fence or into a tree.

4. Baby chickens are chicks. Female chickens are pullets until they’re old enough to lay eggs and become hens. Male chickens are called roosters, cocks or cockerels, depending on the country you’re in.

5. A female chicken will mate with many different males but if she decides, after the deed is done, that she doesn’t want a particular rooster’s offspring and can eject his sperm. This occurs most often when the male is lower in the pecking order.

6. The color of a hen’s egg is determined by the breed of chicken—and the color of their ears! Generally speaking, chickens with red earlobes will lay brown eggs, and chickens with white earlobes will lay white eggs. The color of the chicken’s feathers has nothing to do with the color of the egg. Surprisingly enough, there are no known nutritional benefit to brown eggs over white eggs (or vice versa), so it seems to be all in the personal preference!

7. With 25 billion chicken over the globe, Chicken is the most common type of poultry in the world. And, of course, there are more chickens on earth than people.

8. July 6th is National Fried Chicken Day.

9. Chickens have full-color vision—no color-blindness here!

10. Alektorophobia is the fear of chickens.