Many years ago and I mean a long time ago (something over 4,000 years if the Old testament is to be believed) chickens (indeed all birds) did not lay eggs.
They, like mammals, gave birth to almost fully formed offspring. Not an easy thing for a chicken; you try pushing a broiler through your letterbox.
Until one day an incredibly stupid bird was born, a bird that could not distinguish between seed and grit. She would spend her days pecking at anything remotely seed shaped, much to the amusement of the other birds.
They mocked her something rotten, even the birds across the road would come over for a closer mock.
All to no avail, she carried on doggedly; she had true grit, that bird.
Until one day she met a mate. Or rather she became the victim of avian lust and (with grit between her teeth) she conceived.
21 days later, on her newly made nest, rather than forcing out a bird shaped thing with much grimace and cluck, she smiled, sighed, then eased out an egg. which out of ignorance she sat upon for a couple of weeks (A well earned bout of maternity leave) before the egg hatched to reveal the cutest thing imaginable.
The other birds looked on in disbelief and envy until, when hunger took them, the scuttled off to find some grit.
Yes! The chicken came first.
