They were fed by hunting communities as well as by newer cultures where birds were domesticated. The hen seems to have been domesticated because of the eggs.
Hens were domesticated from the jungle fowl of tropical and subtropical Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent before 7500 BC. Around 1500 BC they were brought to Egypt, they were kept by the ancient Sumer, and around 800 BC they made their way to Greece, where quail was the main source of eggs. Horemheb’s tomb in Thebes, dated to around 1420 BC, contains paintings depicting a man carrying bowls of ostrich eggs and other large eggs, probably pelican, as a gift.
