Randy's Chicken Blog

05/12/2023

There’s a ton of controversy surrounding giving yogurt and other dairy products to your flock. Some say that the microbes present in natural yogurt act as probiotics and help chickens maintain good health. Others argue that chickens are birds, not mammals. Thus, they can’t process dairy and giving them milk is very bad for them. I’m researching for an article on this very topic and will report my findings sometime in January. Will my report contain this picture of a cute chicken eyeing an ice cream sundae? You can count on it. It’s a pretty cool pic!

02/12/2023

I’ve always wondered about all that folklore circulating about putting vinegar in your chickens’ water. Is there any truth to the vinegar idea? Has it been scientifically verified or is it something people do because that’s what their grandma/neighbor/favorite blogger told them to do?

So, I sat up and took notice when Gail Damerow addressed the vinegar/water thing in a recent blog post. Gail is meticulous about making sure the information she shares has been proven true and is based on facts. You can be sure that the material she shares in her books and on her blog is the real deal.

Some of Gail Damerow’s conclusions regarding vinegar: “Routinely acidifying the drinking water of healthy chickens [by adding vinegar] …offers no benefit.”

“On the other hand, an ill or injured chicken, or one otherwise under stress, may drink less than usual…Empirical evidence suggests that chickens like the taste of slightly acidified water, which therefore encourages them to drink more. But adding too much vinegar can have the opposite effect, causing chickens to stop drinking.”

Whether or not adding vinegar to your chickens' drinking water is a good idea depends largely on their health and on the ambient temperature.

01/12/2023

My Farmer-ish piece, The Barn, has just been nominated for a Pushcart award. I am honored beyond words.

Every year, independent presses from across the country, no matter how small, get to nominate up to six works for consideration for the annual Pushcart Prize, the best of the small presses. It is a…

01/12/2023

An interesting sidenote on one of my book picks: Claire Dineen, who blogs over at Bitchin’ Chickens, emailed me a book suggestion this past spring - The Woefield Poultry Collective by Canadian author, Susan Juby. Claire told me that she’d not read the book herself, but since she lives on Canada's Gabriola Island and the novel is set on nearby Vancouver Island her interest was piqued. My response: Why not take a look? Because, hey, the word poultry was in the title. That’s all it takes to get my attention. I clicked onto Amazon.

But here's what I discovered. Juby's book was published in the US under the title, "Home to Woefield." If I wanted the book with 'poultry' in the title, I would have to order it second-hand from Canada. So that's what I did. I received and read it in July. It was a fun read and, as you know, I’ve included it with my picks.

But here's the interesting part. As I was reading the book this summer, a business card fell out - placed there as a bookmark by the previous owner, no doubt. It was for Gigi's Bakery, Cathy Lepine - owner, Fort Smith. No state given.

A little internet sleuthing led me to discover that Fort Smith is in Canada's Northwest Territories. It is a little town of about 2000 folks, who are mostly First Nations, Metis, or Inuit. Gigi's is outside of town in a big blue building that also houses Ace's - a convenience store.

I found the business card in July - at the time there were all those wildfires burning up miles and miles of Canadian forest. In August, everybody in Fort Smith had to evacuate because the forests around the town were burning. I found this article about the evacuation. It includes a quote from Cathy Lepine - and her picture. I haven't been able to find any follow-up news.

I’ll probably never visit Fort Smith. But holding a book in my hands that probably belonged to a resident has made me care about this little town. And then there's Cathy's business card. I hope she's ok.

30/11/2023

Wow. How is it possible that 2023 is winding down already!? Per tradition, at the end of the year I publish a list of book picks. I choose a handful of chicken-themed books that I've read over the course of the year and review each book. Here’s this year’s list. I hope you find as much pleasure perusing my picks as I did in the process of choosing them!

Here are my 2023 chicken-themed book picks! Whether you’re a seasoned backyard chicken keeper or simply fascinated by these feathery creatures, I think you’ll find something here to fascinate, educate, and inspire you.

10/08/2023

News item: “Service was temporarily halted on a line of Mexico City’s subway system after a chicken got loose on the tracks.” Power to the line was shut down and a group of workers armed with jackets and brooms went onto the tracks to nab the bird. My take: Maybe I’m just a misanthropic crank, but I can’t help but think that in most cases, a chicken loose on the subway tracks would result in a response of: Nothing. If the powers-that-be would manage to give it any thought at all, the thought would be, “Maybe it will find its way out again. Or maybe it will get hit by a train. It’s only a chicken.” So, my hat is waaay off to the person or people in charge of this situation, who got this confused and frightened little bird out of harm’s way.

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Service was temporarily halted on a line of Mexico City’s subway system after a chicken got loose on the tracks.📹: Social media🎼: Korolk...

09/08/2023

The sad truth is that most eggs sold in the US come from hens who live out their entire lives inside dark barns in cruel cages. Gradually, 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 remove hens from those brutal cages. Recently, Vicky Bond, THL’s president, took some time away from her important work to talk with me about what THL is doing to free the hens. Here’s our conversation.

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 a

08/08/2023

A few years ago, the Australian newspaper The Daily Mail posted an article with the headline, “Why You Shouldn’t Buy Free Range Eggs: Top Vet Says Chickens Prefer Tight Spaces and Don’t Like Going Outdoors.” The headline is so blatantly false that I had to read it twice to make sure that it wasn’t intended as a joke.

Australian blogger/podcaster Mark Valencia (Self Sufficient Me), who keeps chickens and understands them a whole lot better than the Daily Mail’s so-called top vet, was outraged. In a YouTube video, in which he describes himself as “a passionate backyard chicken keeper and an advocate against caged hens” he asks that the viewer keep that headline in mind “as I go through this article and pick it to pieces like a flock of hens would pick to pieces of a cob of corn.” For the next eighteen minutes he brilliantly does just that. I’m linking it here for your entertainment.

But I think I could destroy the arguments of the Daily Mail’s “top vet” with a 30-second video. Every night I lock my hens in their coop to keep them safe from predators. In the morning, as soon as they seem me walk into the coop, the entire flock mobs together by the door. And as soon as I open the door, they burst into the great world in a huge explosion of feathers and glee. Do chickens like to be outside? A short video of that explosion would be all proof anybody would need!

In this video, I debunk the claim that free-range chicken egg farming is bad. And give a counter-argument to a recently published article that states "reason...

28/07/2023

One thing hasn't changed, Sammi is still a great listener. ❤️ Doesn't make it any easier though. 😢
*Thank you for bearing with me while I process losing Sammi. Thank you so much for the messages, cards & flowers. I really wish Sammi was here to see all the love you had for her & have extended to me.
I am doing my best to respond to all of your messages, thank you for your patience. Each message means a lot.
I want to start posting again, & I feel that the best way is to continue from Sammi's perspective. I might add my thoughts on the experience, but this has always been about Sammi.

26/07/2023

Ah, yes! Date nite in the coop! Because you need that special someone to hold while you groom, trim spurs, clip toenails, etc.

26/07/2023

With the heat and humidity, the entire flock and I are totally on board with this philosophy.

14/07/2023

For the last several years, I have been completely charmed by Sammi Chicken - right along with chicken people everywhere who have followed her adventures. Sammi brought happiness to everyone as she traveled all around America. Sammi has now traveled across the rainbow bridge. I trust that this sweet little red hen will charm and fill the hearts of everyone she meets on the other side. Thank you, Dave, for sharing Sammi with all of us, and my sincere condolences for the loss of your dear friend and traveling companion.

13/07/2023

Such a heartwarming story!

12/07/2023

28/06/2023

Have you checked your Silkie trees recently? They are in season, ripe, and ready to be picked!

Silkie chicken tree 🌳
Owner Eric Ouwinga

Árvore de galinhas de sedosa 🌳
Proprietário Eric Ouwinga

28/06/2023

Solve all your relationship problems: Chickens!

28/06/2023

WELL - I GUESS THERE'S A HOLIDAY FOR EVERYTHING!

THERE'S SURELY NO BETTER WAY TO IMPRESS PEOPLE THAN TO YELL YOUR TEXT!

20/06/2023

Okay - I need to get cute little hats for ALL my birds!

Looking sharp 😁

Com bom aspecto 😁

16/06/2023

The Humane League is an amazing organization that promotes the humane and ethical treatment of domestic food producing animals—like chickens! I recently exchanged emails with a Humane League representative. She was thrilled about the Supreme Court Prop 12 ruling (see my FB post from yesterday), but was concerned about the EATS Act, pending legislation that would prevent states from regulating the production of food products sold in that state but produced somewhere else. If the EATS Act were to become law, California’s Prop 12 and other similar laws that prevent cruel animal husbandry practices, promote food safety, and protect the environment would be jeopardized.

Stay tuned for a July blog article about The Humane League. In the meantime, here’s a short video produced by The Humane League that explains the good work they do.

Today, we are taking an emboldened stand: We exist to end the abuse of animals raised for food.It's time to rise up. To disrupt. To inspire. To create change...

15/06/2023

The Supreme Court Has Ruled in Favor of Chickens! I wrote a blog piece last October about the Supreme Court hearing arguments on some important laws affecting farm animals. In Chickens Get Their Day in Court, I discussed California’s Prop 12, that banned certain cruel animal husbandry practices perpetrated against chickens, pigs and other animals. Prop 12 passed in California in 2018 and banned the use of cruel battery cages for laying hens. The law is not just for egg-laying chickens in California but for any chickens anywhere that lay eggs purchased and consumed in California. Thus, egg farmers across the US who want to cash in on the huge California market would have to comply with the new regulations.

The 2018 law has never been enacted due to a bazillion legal challenges, which culminated at the US Supreme Court last October. And good news, sweet laying hens! In May, the Supreme Court reached their decision in favor of chickens and other farm animals.

Writing for the five-justice-majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch stated that "While the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list." The four justices joining Justice Gorsuch in supporting Prop 12, across ideological boundaries, were Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elana Kagan, and Amy Coney Barrett.

12/06/2023

Coming soon to the silver screen: Chicken City, a chicken movie! Chicken City is a documentary that explores the role that chickens have played in our history and our culture. Writer/director/producer Pam Percy suggests that chickens have been “worshipped, abhorred, adored, sacrificed, maligned, sentimentalized and idealized. Artists, musicians, authors, film makers, and even politicians have reflected on the chicken.” And this movie explores all of that! Here’s my interview with Pam Percy about Chicken City. It’s expected to be released later this year. I’m so excited!

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 ev

31/05/2023

Last week was a special week for Mary the hen and she deserves special mention. The third week of May is International Heritage Breeds Week, a week for celebrating and recognizing heritage breeds of domestic animals that have become rare and endangered.
Mary is a Campine, a breed of chicken that originated in Belgium, has been around since the time of the Romans, but has become very rare. Campines are small, high-energy chickens that sport either silver feathers, or gold, like Mary, and lay medium sized white eggs.
When Mary was a tiny hatchling, the eight-year-old daughter of one of my colleagues paid a visit. She decided that she would help me name this chick. She chose “Mary”, which also happened to be her own name. Mary the human just graduated from high school last week and Mary the chicken is celebrating her tenth hatch-day.
Mary, at ten, is just as high-energy as she was as a pullet and is celebrating this convergence of special occasions in the coop with her friends.

27/05/2023

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!

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! Thousand

25/05/2023

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.

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 2

25/05/2023

A couple of years ago, Gail Damerow wrote an interesting piece about umwelt and chickens. Umwelt is a concept developed in 1905 by German zoologist Jakob von Uexküll. Dr. Uexkül proposed that each species has its own spectrum of sensory capabilities, and because of that, each species perceives and experiences the world in its own unique way. Because of our different umwelts, the chickens in my flock are experiencing a different world than I am. Even though we’re both living in the same place at the same time, I live in people-world while they inhabit chicken-world.

Okay, umwelt requires some heavy thinking. So, hang on while I shift gears and tell you about a new kid’s book about chickens. I don’t know if Diane Sorensen is familiar with umwelt. But you know what? She’s nailed it. Sorensen has authored a children’s book that is definitely voiced from a chicken’s perspective. The stories in this book are firmly set in chicken-world.

In The Tales of Mr. Ken Rooster and the Six Sassy Hens, an intrepid flock of six hens and an anxious rooster have amazing adventures in a series of tales. And they experience all of their amazing adventures without ever leaving the confines of their backyard. Oh! Except for Fancy the hen who likes to hop the fence.

In each story something out of the ordinary happens. In one story the flock feels threatened by an unfamiliar object, which they eventually investigate. And they find out that it is delicious and that it is a watermelon. In another story, Henny and Penny, BFF’s, have a pecking order dispute. Then, there are predator encounters and some minor injuries. With each situation, Mr. Ken Rooster declares that he’s sure things will not end well. And then they always do. These adventures are not earth-shaking. They are tempests in a teapot. Kerfuffles in a coop. And isn’t that exactly what life is like in chicken-world?

In between adventures, life unfolds predictably. Mr. Ken crows in the morning, the hens hop from the roost and get down to the business of pecking up bugs, scratching for worms, dust bathing, laying eggs…living their lives. And the next day they get up and do it all again. And isn’t that exactly what life is like in chicken-world?

With these tales of Mr. Ken and the hens, Diane Sorensen has shown a knack for telling stories that is both simple and entertaining. And Maggie Sullivan has perfectly captured these stories' inherent whimsy with her illustrations. Regardless of if you’re reading this charming book to your kids, or to yourself, you’ll be amused, entertained, and pleasantly immersed in chicken-world.

23/05/2023

It is disheartening that I must report the passing of another member of the flock after having just lost Clucksie the Silkie Hen. But Roz the Rhode Island Red has just flown away to join Clucksie in the happy free-range pastures of the great beyond. I love all my feathered pets, but Roz was special. She was crippled when she hatched—curled toe paralysis. In 2019 I wrote about how I worked with Roz to make her feet function. Not only did Roz eventually walk, but all that extra attention turned her into the friendliest Rhode Island Red in the universe. Every time I went into the coop she would saunter up and start pecking at my boots. It’s like she was saying hi to a friend. Goodbye special girl. It was hard to lose you and I’ll always remember you.

05/05/2023

Friday humor.

Happy Friday!

04/05/2023

I’m pleased to have recently met and conversed with author and film producer/director Pam Percy. Longtime readers may recall that back in 2019 I published a bit of fluff called, “The World Needs A Couple of Good Chicken Movies.” Pam ran across that piece, and left a message in my in-box that she is (drum roll, please!) making a chicken movie! And from everything I’ve heard and seen about it, it’s going to be well beyond good!

Pam is a bonafide chicken person. She’s been raising chickens since 1985—long before you and I and most of the rest of the chicken people out there realized how cool that is. Now, after the release of her award-winning film Finding Loren, she’s rolled up her sleeves (or maybe just kept her sleeves in the rolled-up position) and is hard at work on Chicken City, a documentary film based on her book, The Complete Chicken. The movie will, in Pam’s words, tell the story of how chickens “have been worshipped, abhorred, adored, sacrificed, maligned, sentimentalized and idealized” throughout history.

Stay tuned for my upcoming blog post later this month about Pam and Chicken City. In the meantime, you can click over to the Chicken City website to learn about the movie—which is still in production but is due to be released later this year.

03/05/2023

I am sad to report the passing of my sweet Silkie hen, Petula Cluck, known to me and all her friends as “Miss Clucksie.” Clucksie is one of the babies in the basket of Silkie chicks I posted on May Day. I wrote about Clucksie and her hatchmates in the post “Six Silkie Chicks Grow Up”.

Clucksie was a little under the weather when I left for Egypt, as hens sometimes are. But rather than improve while I was gone, as hens often do, this little hen’s health nosedived. I’m so grateful to Lisa, my chicken care-giver, for the extra care she offered to my little girl while I was not here to take care of her, and to the Cedar Pet Clinic for the compassionate care they provided.

This little hen was too fragile and was suffering too much for the folks at the clinic to get a good diagnosis, but she had a raging infection, and I suspect salpingitis and yolk peritonitis; not readily treatable. Like all of my older hens, she’d gone through a fallow period during the winter and was just coming back into lay. It’s a tricky time for older hens, and sometimes something just goes very wrong with their complex egg-laying equipment. And being chickens and prey animals, they keep their bodily malfunction and their suffering to themselves until it’s too late.

All Silkie owners know that Silkies are not productive birds. The eggs they lay are small, and they go broody at the drop of a hat. But they are the gentlest, most personable, and most beautiful chickens in the universe. Every Silkie hen is a princess. Clucksie was a princess. Fly high, sweet bird.

02/05/2023

Things have been pretty quiet on the social media front here at Randy’s Chicken Blog. Sorry about that. I’ve been on an adventure in Egypt and Jordan. Here’s a shot of me on my trusty camel, Thutmose, gamboling around the pyramids.

Egypt is incredible. They’ve got pyramids, y’know! They’ve got the amazing desert! They’ve got the amazing Nile! They’ve got, um…camels! But…(pause as I toss away my exploring fedora and firmly place my chicken-reporting hat on my head), do they have chickens?

Well, way back in 1323, an Irish friar named Simon Fitzsimmons made an arduous journey all the way to Cairo. This was at a time when everybody had a few chickens scratching in the dirt outside their hovels. But what the good friar saw in Egypt amazed him—thousands of chickens pecking and scratching in the streets of Cairo; feeding off the grain that had fallen from the bags carried by passing camels.

Did my experience in modern Cairo mirror Friar Fitzsimmons’s experience? Not exactly. But I’ve got some interesting stories to tell. Stay tuned for those stories in a post that I should manage to publish in the next week or so. It’ll be all about my Egyptian experience, as well as the story of Friar Fitzsimmons, a bit about Howard Carter, the discoverer of King Tut’s tomb, and Carter’s chicken connection, a tale of a pharaoh’s chickens, and a bit about chickens-as-hieroglyphics!

28/04/2023

Some eye candy to brighten your Friday!

Seeing double 😁
Owner - Diva girl Silkies

Ver o duplo 😁
Proprietária - Diva girl Silkies

01/04/2023

Perhaps there are some chickens that man was never meant to tamper with.

14/03/2023

3.14 is Pi Day. (That is, unless your country styles the date as 14.3, in which case you could have scones or cake or something.)

07/03/2023

Part 2 of "Crested Chickens, Vaulted Skulls, and Damaged Brains" investigates the genetic connection between vaulted skulls and crests. Is there a genetic connection between these two traits? When I set out to write this series, I didn’t know the answer to that question. But as I researched the topic, I came to realize that even though people have been wondering about the crest/vault connection for hundreds of years, the answer has been elusive. But recent research has brought the answer almost within our grasp. Will research come down on the side of two different genes controlling these two traits? If there are two genes, the bad vault gene could conceivable be bred out of existence and we could imagine future Jennifers with beautiful crests and normal, healthy skulls and brains. If one gene controls both traits then, sadly, it is what it is.

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 k**b or vault sticking up from the top. A misshapen skull results in a misshapen, unusual, ...

04/03/2023

Good morning
~Ziggy

02/03/2023

A special thanks to Sarina Brewer, a fellow Minnesotan internationally recognized for her avant-garde taxidermy sculpture. I perused the internet for photos of vaulted skulls to illustrate my article on that topic, and the best photo I found was a shot by Sarina of a skull in her collection. When I reached out to ask her permission to use the photo, she not only agreed, but also generously sent me some additional shots. In our exchange of emails, Sarina suggested that as an artist, she gives animals a second life through her sculptures. In the entirety of her 30-year career, Sarina has used only humanely acquired animals. She informed me that she is always seeking ethically-sourced chickens. She uses a lot of chickens in her art, and would gladly “accept donations of deceased animals, but also will pay people for fancier more exotic ones.” To find out more about Sarina, her art, and Rogue Taxidermy, you can visit her at sarina-brewer.com.

02/03/2023

The update on my sweet old Polish hen, Jennifer, is that there is no update. As I reported last month, she eats, drinks, and appears healthy, but she spends her days standing in one spot with a vacant stare. Jennifer’s brain is irreparably damaged.

Prior to her brain injury Jennifer lived a long happy life. Most chickens don’t make it to their tenth hatchday, as she has done. But brain injury hangs like the sword of Damocles over the crested head of every Polish chicken. Their vaulted skulls make brain injury practically inevitable. I promised Jennifer and all of you that I would research vaulted skulls and share what I learned. And I’ve actually written two articles.

Part 1 of "Crested Chickens, Vaulted Skulls, and Damaged Brains" explores the genetics behind crests. It also delves into the history of Polish chickens and their crested cousins. Crests have been around a good, long while. And unfortunately, so have vaulted skulls.

The origin of Polish chickens and the genetics behind their crest.