Was the chicken in the Americas before Columbus?
They raised ducks.
Good question since there is one kind of chicken that was discovered in South America raised by Indians there ; it is a chicken with ear tufts that uniquely lays blue and green eggs- the Araucana chicken. [From this one came Americaunas, Easter eggers and recently, new breeds like Olive Eggers, etc.] Pure Araucanas have a lethal gene that can result in reduced hatchability but are otherwise very good foragers and alert enough to be good free ranging chickens. I don’t think up to now anyone has solved the mystery of its origin since jungle fowl do not lay blue or green eggs. Where did the gene for blue egg color appear?
Based on the slap-fighting that’s been going on about this, my best guess is, the chicken got here pre-Polynesian, then continued to be bred and eaten separately from the initial introduction(s); as Heyerdahl suspected, the first colonization of (at least) the eastern Pacific Islands such as Easter Island came from South America, with the Polynesians arriving later (and I doubt his view is controversial any longer, apart from some knee-jerk hidebound dumbasses who just hate Heyerdahl); the final genetic kick came post-1492.
Chicken Bones Suggest Polynesians Found Americas Before Columbus
By Heather Whipps
04 June 2007
https://www.livescience.com/1567-chicken-bones-suggest-polynesians-americas-columbus.html
Chicken DNA Challenges Theory That Polynesians Beat Europeans to Americas
New finding casts doubt on the theory that Polynesians made it to South America.
6 Minute Read
By Roff Smith, for National Geographic
PUBLISHED March 19, 2014
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/3/140318-polynesian-chickens-pacific-migration-america-science/
Ancient DNA Explains How Chickens Got To The Americas
Kristina Killgrove
Senior Contributor
Archaeologist, Writer, Scientist
Nov 23, 2017,10:32am EST
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2017/11/23/ancient-dna-explains-how-chickens-got-to-the-americas/