From an otherwise wonderful book on animal Science, mentions only the Chinese in the annals of poultry raising for eggs.
We know though, from archaeological data that the Egyptians had layers and there were whole rooms devoted to the Incubation Stations; you gave them 3 eggs and they returned 2 chicks back.
Whether they were all the same breed, or a barnyard variety is hard to know. That was not recorded.
Perhaps the Egyptian method was geared to always outcrossing lines thinking that it did not matter? That we do not know, but we do know that they often buried the eggs in the sand and put a reed beehive on top, so they would not get over hot in the desert.
See the pictures below for the various incubation methods that have been used. Thanks to Alden Winter c. 1939
Hanselina 