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Most eggs sold in the US come from hens stuffed into cruel cages. As more and more people have come to realize how badly modern animal farming has gone off the rails, a number of organizations have emerged to shine a light on abusive animal husbandry practices and work to change cruel and inhumane animal farming systems. The Humane League (THL), one of the most effective of these organizations, is hard at work to get hens out of cages.
Chicken City will show you how steeped in history the chicken really is. Who would have thought that chickens have been around since the dawn of history. They have been worshipped, abhorred, adored, sacrificed, maligned, sentimentalized and idealized. Artists, musicians, authors, film makers, and even politicians have reflected on the chicken.
I researched the beginnings of chickens in Egypt and discovered that all evidence points to their arrival with the Persian conquest of 425 BC. But there’s a problem. There are ancient recorded instances of chickens clucking and pecking around Egypt before the Persians arrived. Way before! Thousands of years!
Egypt: The pyramids. The desert. The Nile. The chickens.
Yes, the chickens.
In 1323, an Irish friar named Simon Fitzsimmons traveled to Cairo. He was amazed by the sight of thousands of chickens in the streets of Cairo; pecking up grain that had fallen from the bags carried by passing camels.
In 2023 I traveled to Egypt. I was also amazed.
Perhaps there are some chickens that man was never meant to tamper with.
When people think of Polish chickens, they think of those elaborate, beautiful crests. Most people don't realize that Polish chickens also have “vaulted skulls.” Vaulted skulls are misshapen, with a large knob or vault sticking up from the top. A misshapen skull results in a misshapen, unusual, “hourglass” shaped brain. Vaulted skulls are often filled with holes. The only thing protecting parts of the chicken’s brain is a bit of skin and some feathers. Thus, chickens with vaulted skulls are vulnerable to brain damage. What are the genetics behind crests and vaulted skulls? And are these two traits connected?
Everybody knows that roosters crow in the morning. If you have roosters, you know that they also crow other times of the day. But have you ever wondered why they crow at all? What’s their motivation?
Do our chickens have emotional lives? People with cats and dogs will attest to emotional lives of their pets. Guest author Claire Dineen suggests that if we watch our flocks closely, over time, we will affirm that chickens have feelings too.
Here’s my yearly assemblage of chicken-themed books ! This year I’ve focused entirely on fiction. As you will see, there are some great chicken stories out there!
The State of California has passed laws that protects chickens and other farm animals from abuse. Will the Supreme Court find those laws to be constitutional?
When I stumbled across a giant puffball growing in my woods, my first stop was my garden. Then I swung by the coop and grabbed some eggs. Finally, I went into the kitchen and cooked up something delicious.
Bird flu has been marching across the US, destroying flocks in its wake. Since avian flu first appeared in the news this year, people have been wondering about how this disease relates to them. They have been asking: “Can I catch flu from my flu-infected chickens?” While this 2022 bird flu strain is less likely to infect people than strains seen in the past, the answer is definitely “Yes!” But, perhaps the more profound and important question people should be asking is, “Will bird flu cause the next human pandemic?”
Flu - The Coop, part 2. What is bird flu? Actually, what is any flu? And while we’re at it, what’s a virus?
Flu - The Coop, part 1. The author falls prey to Covid and then writes about avian flu.
Bullfighting: When you remove the pageantry, costumes, and choreography, it is animal slaughter for amusement. We can’t expect good lives for chickens until all domestic animals are treated with the same humane respect.
The Hipster Hens, the Graham Quackers and I have been throwing confetti around the coop! We’re celebrating the sixth anniversary of Randy’s Chicken Blog!
You’ve been keeping chickens for awhile and now you think you’d like to try some ducks. Cool! That’s what I did! But you need to know from the get-go that ducks are not chickens. Here are some of the differences I discovered in my first few months of keeping ducks.
It looked like Rafael was trying to grow his own little unicorn horn. But he’d gotten confused and had grown it on entirely the wrong part of his body. It was actually a feather follicle cyst. Who knew?? Feather follicle cysts are a rare phenomenon in chickens.
