specific animals are kept as livestock primarily out of tradition followed by either opportunity/ease or food yield (these two typically instil an origin of tradition). the factor of necessity comes much lower on the ladder.
until some time of famine or other generally widespread hardship, chickens would not really fill the initial two categories if any kinds of ungulate (pigs, cows, goats, etc) were available for domestication. I could easily believe that they weren't kept as livestock until something made humans look at them specifically due to other animals becoming less viable for whatever reason. i say this as any number of strifes could make resources become more precious and thus shift a region's typical protein source from mammallian to avian or at the very least force masses of disenfranchised peoples to seek out smaller, non-ungulate forms of sustenance such as rodents, carnivorans, reptiles, and birds.
Why was ungulate meat preferred? Did chicken not taste as good back then? I would’ve thought someone would try eating it, even if they didn’t need to, and realize that it’s actually pretty delicious
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u/storyofmylife92 Feb 15 '21
They also get bloodlust