Randy's Chicken Blog FB Page

30/01/2025

Continuing with the theme of science and truth, I’m going dark on Facebook. FB’s decision to end fact-checking was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but I’ve been disgruntled with Facebook for a good long while.

People used to actually see my stuff on Facebook. But as FB’s algorithms have evolved, fewer and fewer of my posts ever make it into anybody’s feed. It’s weird because lots of people subscribe to this newsletter and click onto my blog from here. Hundreds more find their way to my blog every day through search engines.

Then there’s Facebook. I spend hours researching and writing content, enhancing articles with pictures I’ve taken and edited, polishing, formatting and finally publishing each new piece. I’m proud of the work I do. For the most part, these shiny new articles don’t get any attention until I send out a newsletter. But then my faithful readers click over to them. Some of my stuff eventually picks up steam and gets some serious traffic from web searches.

But then I post those very same articles on Facebook. And crickets. Because of FB algorithms, only 4-5% of my FB fans ever see any given post in the first place. Of those maybe one or two actually like the post. Maybe one of them actually clicks onto the post. So, there you go. What’s the point of Facebook?

When I started writing this newsletter a couple of years ago, I stopped writing original content for Facebook. My Facebook posts are simply a cut-and-paste from my newsletter. So, if you’re one of the few intrepid FB fans who actually sees this on FB, this is it. This is my last Facebook post. But do not despair. Randy’s Chicken Blog lives on over at the actual blog. And the newsletter continues! Bye, FB. It’s been real!

29/01/2025

And speaking of science and seeking the truth, here’s more. I ran across an on-line video recently of a person talking about how a pecking order within a flock was not a real thing. The guys who came up with the pecking order idea, this person claims, were mismanaging their chickens and that’s why those hens pecked each other. Hens are just too nice to peck each other, this person claims.

And, well…that’s one opinion. But social hierarchy in chickens and other animals is a concept that has been shown over and over and over again in study after study after study for years and years and years. Come on, people! Science!

Anyway, it takes an irritating grain of sand to compel an oyster to produce a pearl. And if that video was the irritating grain of sand, the article about the history and science of social hierarchy in chickens, that I’m working on right now, will hopefully be the pearl. And I guess that analogy makes me an oyster. Nevertheless, stay tuned.

28/01/2025

In my November newsletter I wrote about some of the nice comments people leave on the blog and how much I appreciate them. For the sake of balanced reporting, I thought I would say a few words about the other kind of comments I occasionally get.

I don’t know why, but it’s the thoroughly researched science-based articles that seem to be lightning rods for most of the negative comments. For instance, there’s the whole business of how scientists now categorize birds as living dinosaurs. And because chickens are birds, they are also dinosaurs. I wrote a lot of paragraphs explaining the evolution in scientific thinking that led to the current understanding - from the late 1800’s all the way to Yale biologist Richard Prum’s Nature paper that categorically stated “birds are a lineage of dinosaurs.”

And I’ve also written waaay too many paragraphs about Dr. Mary Higby Schweitzer’s cutting-edge research that led to the conclusion that of all the animals alive in the modern world, birds are most closely related to T. rex. And, because of some sloppy reporting in the mainstream press, how the false rumor began to circulate that it was chickens that were most closely related to T. rex. I explained in two articles how that rumor was false and how it probably got started. At great length and in excruciating detail – including my correspondence with Dr. Schweitzer.

And those well-researched articles have elicited comments like these:

“Wrong - chickens have been proven to be the closest living relatives of the t Rex at a molecular level try again”

And…

“I'd appreciate some kind of source or reference as to where you got the information that chickens are dinosaurs. Like, did you hear it from your uncle joey”

I could just slide comments like these into the trash, but I’ve posted them. And I’ve politely answered them. But really. Are people who write comments like this even reading the articles? Are they just trolls trying to make me crazy? If that’s the case, it’s sort of working. Come on, people! Science!

25/01/2025

In the spring of 2013, almost twelve years ago, I filled my brooder with twenty-two fluffy, peeping babies – the beginning of my first flock. Then those fluffy baby chicks proceeded to change my life. From that first day up to right now, every morning of every day starts with going to the coop. I spend a lot of time with the hens. “He has chickens” is an attribute everybody who knows me knows about me. And, well, there’s Randy’s Chicken Blog. I’m that Randy.

Only a few of my hens have traveled this entire journey with me. Last summer, with the death of Mary the Campine, there remained only two hens from the original twenty-two – Jennifer and Sam.

Today’s sad news is that Sammy has passed. Had she lived until her spring hatch day, she would have been twelve years old this year. That’s an incredibly long life for a hen. Until the last few weeks, Sam never had a sick day in her entire life. She was never at the bottom of the pecking order, nor was she ever at the top. She simply lived her life uneventfully in her own unassuming way, pecking and scratching around the run, interacting with her friends, hopping onto the roost to sleep every night and laying lots of pretty green eggs. I am pretty sure that Sam lived her life as fully and happily as any hen ever possibly could. Fly high, sweet girl. I will remember you always.

24/01/2025

Sulfur shelf mushrooms (aka chicken of the woods) thrive in my woods and in forested areas across much of the United States and beyond. And they are delicious! With its savory profile, chicken of the woods can easily stand in for chicken in a variety of recipes, adding depth and heartiness to any dish. It goes without saying that chickens everywhere support this substitution!

Sulfur shelf mushrooms (aka chicken of the woods) thrive in my woods and in forested areas across much of the United States and beyond. And they are delicious! With its savory profile, chicken of the woods can easily stand in for chicken in a variety of recipes, adding depth and heartiness to any di

23/01/2025

As a blog writer, I occasionally embark on a little online exploration to see who’s sharing or linking to my content. On one such recent digital meander, I stumbled upon the website ReadUpNext. It lists authors and their works. And that’s where things became interesting.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a California-based vegetarian chef named Randy Graham had written a series of cookbooks. His books were featured on the site, complete with an author profile and—here’s the kicker—a picture. The picture wasn’t of him. It was me! It was this picture!

Now, I’m really confident I’ve never written a cookbook, vegetarian or otherwise. But I knew exactly where the image came from. I’d written an article for an online publication called Permaculture News, and that’s the author’s headshot I’d submitted. Somehow, the ReadUpNext folks decided that I was Chef Randy. Or they figured one Randy Graham was as good as the next. Anyway, I imagine they simply pulled my picture off that website and inserted it on theirs.

I was intrigued by this other Randy Graham. I decided to track him down and let him know about this mix-up. His books are available on Amazon, so I ordered one. When it arrived, I flipped through it and thought, “Hey, these recipes look pretty good!”
But then came the Twilight Zone moment in the plot of this story: I discovered from the cookbook that Chef Randy’s full name is Randolph B. Graham. That’s my full name!

That boosted my urge to track down my doppelganger (or am I his doppelganger??). I learned he writes a column for the Ojai Valley News, so I tried contacting him through the newspaper. Two weeks passed with no response. Determined, I turned to Facebook, found his page, and sent him a message.

To my delight, he replied the very same day! Like me, he’d never spoken to another Randy Graham before—other than himself. We exchanged messages, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy. But then again, with a name like Randy Graham, how could he not be, right?

I also reached out to ReadUpNext with this friendly note:

"Hi, ReadUpNext! Just a quick FYI: The author’s photo you’ve posted under the Randy Graham cookbooks is actually a picture of me—Randy Graham the chicken writer—not Randy Graham the cookbook author. We are two different people. While I’ll admit I am undeniably handsome, and the little Silkie hen I’m holding is adorable, for the sake of accuracy, you might want to update the photo with one of the correct Randy Graham.”

Weeks have passed, and I’ve heard nothing back. My picture is still up on the site. For all I know, the entire website is run by bots.

28/12/2024

In June 2023, I shared a short interview with producer/director Pam Percy about Chicken City, her fascinating chicken documentary that was still in production at the time. Since then, a lot has happened! Production has wrapped, and the completed film has made waves at international film festivals, earning accolades from the Paris Film Awards, New York Movie Awards, International Gold Awards, and Florence Film Awards.

And now, you can watch this incredible movie! Chicken City is available for streaming on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Hoopla, Vimeo, and other platforms. This unique documentary tells the amazing story of chickens. A cast of animated chicken narrators will take you on a journey through history, revealing how chickens have profoundly influenced human culture. From art and literature to music, film, and even language, the humble chicken has left its mark on our world.

Whether you're passionate about art, literature, music, film, or chickens, you won’t want to miss this captivating movie about how the humble birds that live in our backyards have shaped our history and culture.

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

27/12/2024

A chicken walks into a library. She walks up to the librarian’s desk and clucks “Book…book…book?”
The librarian blinks in surprise but quickly recovers. “Oh! You want a book. I’ve got just the thing for you! Chickens, Gin, and a Maine Friendship is a delightful read—and it prominently features chickens!” She hands the book to the hen, who tucks it under her wing and struts out.

A short time later, the hen is back. She walks right up to the librarian’s desk again and repeats, “Book…book…book?”
The librarian raises an eyebrow. “You read that already? You must be quite the reader! Well, here’s another: Fowl Play. It’s all about chickens.” Once again, the hen tucks the book under her wing and heads out.

But before the librarian can even sip her tea, the chicken is back. This time, there’s a tinge of desperation in her clucks. “Book…book…book?!”
The librarian shakes her head. “Either you are a very fast reader or you aren’t reading the books at all. This time I’ll give you a choice.” She holds out three books. “A Conspiracy of Chickens is a wonderful memoir. And here are two kids’ books—Chicken Little and Chicken Talk.”

The hen anxiously grabs all three books, awkwardly tucks them under her wing and dashed out the door. By now, curiosity is getting the better of the librarian. She grabs her jacket and follows the chicken out of the library. She follows her across the street, through a park, and to a pond on the other side. There, sunning himself on a rock is a frog. The little hen runs up to the frog, spreads all three books in front of him and desperately squawks, “Book…book…book?!”
The frog glances at the three books, rolls his eyes and dismissively croaks, “Read-it…read-it…read-it.”

Sorry. That bad joke is my very belabored way of announcing that it’s time once again, per tradition, to present my annual year’s-end review of chicken-themed books. I hope you’ll discover something here to add to your reading list—and that you won’t scroll through the entire collection of reviews muttering, “Read-it…read-it…read-it.”

This year, as always, I’ve read a whole stack of books with a chicken theme or connection. As is my tradition, I’ve narrowed down that stack to a short list of favorites. Here’s the list along with some commentary. If you chose to move any of these gems onto your reading list, don’t forget t...

24/12/2024

Have a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a joyful Kwanzaa, or a wonderful Solstice! Or if you don’t celebrate any December holiday, I wish you a pleasant month and at least one occasion where you laugh so hard with friends that you can’t catch your breath. Then carry that into the new year!

23/12/2024

Because of tradition, it feels almost essential during this holiday season to head over to YouTube and enjoy Cluck of the Bells. Admittedly, this version has never been the most sophisticated rendition of this classic holiday tune, but we should all give it a listen. These feathered ladies put such earnest effort into it—well, most of them, except for that one in the back—and they actually do a really good job for a flock of cartoon chickens. And, well, tradition!

Our chickens' world-wide debut. A little holiday treat brought to you by the best chicken choir this side of anywhere! Enjoy this musical gem. (Vocals by Da...

22/11/2024

I heard from Hannah last week. She’d just lost a bantam hen, and then found my 2018 article, When Your Hen Dies. Hannah wrote, “Your blog post is lovely and has helped me during this time. Thank you.”

2017 was a bad year for me. That was the year I had open heart surgery. And my mom passed away. Bad stuff like that. On top of that, there was a whole series of deaths in my coop—eight over the course of a year. It wasn’t like a major infectious disease invaded my coop. I would lose a chicken and deal with the loss, and then before I knew it somebody else would be sick with something else—or somebody would die suddenly. It was constant heartbreak.

The final affront was the evening I went to the coop to put chickens to bed and found my little Silkie rooster pal, Snowball, dead on the coop floor. That’s when I wrote When Your Hen Dies. I think I wrote it as an exercise in self-consolation. It allowed me to work through my own feelings about chicken ownership. I originally got chickens because I thought it would be a fun hobby. And it was fun. It was beyond fun. It was spellbinding. I was so drawn in by this little society of distinct personalities living in my coop!

Then I lost one. And then more followed one-by-one. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t found that having experienced the loss of a chicken makes it any easier when I lose the next one. I mourn each death. And the sadness I feel with the latest loss in my coop is just as palpable as the sadness I felt with the first. So, needless to say, my feelings were a little raw in early 2018 when I wrote that piece. It’s pretty obvious, I think.

But if my words provide some comfort for anyone at all, then they were worth writing. I’ve heard from more people about this article than anything else I’ve written. Rebecca wrote, “No one ever warns you that you’ll fall in love with your chickens and that eventually they will and do break your heart. Thank you for this beautifully written article.” From Susan, “I lost my hen today that I hatched in an incubator exactly a year ago. We've been through lockdown together and I'm going to miss her so much. Thanks for writing this.” And this heartbreaking message from Lauren, “I lost two hens yesterday in a (most likely) hawk attack. I know that owning chickens came with risk and the occasional inevitable, but I’m DEVASTATED. You are right- they are easy to love and hard to lose. I can’t stop crying and didn’t even want to work today. Thank you for your words.”

I regularly check my blog analytics numbers to see how I'm doing. How many people are finding their way to the articles I post? What are they reading? What’s not getting read? Those numbers help me as I think about what topics I should write about next.

But analytics numbers don’t mean a fraction as much to me as the actual messages from readers like the ones that I shared here.

I love to hearing from you! You can post a comment at the end of an article, or contact me privately via the “contact me” button on my home page. I appreciate the time and effort that anyone takes to get in touch and assume that person was genuinely affected (hopefully in a positive way) by what I had to say.

After our pet chicken dies, then what? We are often loath to talk about it, because too many people just don’t get it. While nearly everybody understands the importance of our cats and dogs in our lives, to most folks, chickens are “just chickens.”

21/11/2024

Last week I heard from Tamara about the two articles I posted last year on vaulted skulls and brain damage in crested chickens. I wrote them because of Jennifer, my Polish hen. Jennifer had become brain-damaged, and her plight sent me on an information quest that resulted in those two pieces.

Tamara wrote that she had found her Polish rooster, Pancake, with blood on his crest. And after that, Pancake became lethargic and unsteady. His changed behavior sent her on an information quest and that’s when she found my articles. She wrote, “I read a few less than helpful articles before finding yours and cannot thank you enough for breaking it down so clearly. I'm not sure what to expect over the next few days, weeks, months? But I will be sending a link to your articles to everyone I know with crested birds because I imagine, like me, the majority do not have a clue how vulnerable they are…Thank you (and Jennifer) for your extremely informative articles.”

You are so welcome, Tamara, from me and from Jennifer, who, two years after her trauma, is still brain-damaged, but still with us and living the best life she can. I’m hoping for the best for Pancake and I’m glad he’s got you looking out for him.

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