This from our chicken-raising inspiration, Eileen Brown, UK social media expert. She was visiting the Hotel Antares, Honfleur and noticed some cute chickens in the gift shop – some of them have slots in back for money a la piggy bank.
Eileen’s note: There is chef chicken, cook chicken, housekeeper chicken and hooligan chicken with her cap on backwards in the hotel shop. I thought of you both.. 🙂
Here are the cooking chickens, a bit closer up…
On this one, my own handwriting (marginal on the other cartoons) just wasn’t legible.
It does look weird though to have it neatly typed, doesn’t it?
I was always very surprised to find out what men were REALLY thinking.
I have to think roosters are the same.
Found this on the City of Seattle’s web site – a company in Seattle that will help you get started with urban chicken farming: Seattle Urban Farm Company. Their chicken page is here .
Our chickens are starting to slow down egg production as the summer wanes. I wish Seattle had had more of a summer, though I’m glad we didn’t have to break out the fans on the chickens this year. They pout and bawk in the rain, but they have no defense against the heat besides panting. At least in the cool they can retreat to the coop and budge up together.
As I wander around noticing all things chicken in human culture, I have realized that chickens have also permeated the fitness/get healthy meme in our society as well as the cookbooks “eat healthy” meme of our society.
Check out the Livestrong Chicken Wing Exercise here – Chicken Wing is apparently a bad condition to be in (I had thought it was describing the motion of the exercise). Basically the shoulder blade juts out because the surrounding muscle tissue is weak or the nerves are damaged. Strengthening the area controls this condition.
Step 1 of the exercise begins while lying on your back (see Livestrong for more dignigied info).
Step 1 - lie on your back, hand to opposite knee, thumb up.
Step 2 of the exercise is the actual motion – you bring your arm back across your body in a diagonal motion, straight up in the air, until it is directly overhead. Return to your knee with thumb down, and repeat. If you wanto go for broke, they also recommend throwing both arms above your head, but I did not cartoon that part as you see it often enough in other chicken drawings….
There is actually an exercise recommended by the Mount Nittany Medical Center called Chicken Wing which follows more along the lines I thought – you are imitating a chicken’s movement’s a bit more. Both hands behind head, elbows bent like chicken wings). They recommend it for post-breast-surgery patients.
This past week Microsoft held its annual Gamefest conference – usually folks from the game industry, developers, students etc all gather round in the Convention Center in downtown Seattle to hear panels and speeches and get updated on the latest technology from Microsoft and other places. (Though of course cause Microsft holds the conference, there’s a lot o’ Microsoft in there. )
Jason went, and that meant because he didn’t have to commute he could sleep later than he wanted to. I of course had to leave on time which means I resorted to my time-honored way of communicating when the spouse is sleeping: chicken cartoon.
Jason can't get over the CHK-2 D-2 robot!
I admit I tried to go for a “Business Cat” -like representation of Business Chicken, which is nothing like she appears in real life of course.
One of the many Business Cat LOL creations
Ok when we last left our avian heroines, they had passed the weight test at the vet. But it was time for a closer look. Here is Dr. Tracy Bennett with the help of an able assistant, shining a bright light on Shy Chicken (who we presume is not liking it very much).
Examining Shy Chicken
The vet apparently called Shy Chicken the Omega Chicken (as opposed to Bossy, the obvious Alpha Chicken). In addition to looking at Shy Chicken’s bald spot, the doc also looked at the butts and other areas of the chicken. Here, Bossy noisily complains of the strange experience.
Bossy Chicken is examined
I suspect when it comes down to it, none of them are entirely graceful patients. The doc was amazed at how big Bossy has gotten. Jason silently wonders: Will she ever stop growing?
Business Chicken gets the business
In the end however, all the chickens received clean bills (and butts) of health. Jason said they all are fine, the feather loss is normal, and not to worry.
Clean Bill of Butt Health
Thank goodness! One case of blowout is enough for a while! 🙂
Ok, so when we last left our photo essay, Jason had taken all three chickens in the dog carrier (we have never owned a dog by the way- perhaps more apt to call it a chicken carrier) to the vet, aka, Exotic and Bird Clinic. We’d entered the mysterious portals via Jason’s great photograhy and are now in the examination room WITH THE CHICKENS!
Jason quote” For some reason the chickens really did not want to come out of the carrier. They made offended chicken sounds.”
And of course all these awe-inspiring vet tools…
Vet tools of the trade
First of course, like your own visits to the doctor, the chicken’s have to be weighed.
Shy Chicken gets weighed
Business Chicken gets weighed. I think that's 2.28 lbs not 228 lbs!
Weighing Bossy Chicken
So far, so good. Everyone seems a healthy weight, even though chickens are just protein balloons with feathers that pop out eggs every day or so….
I think you may remember that in a prior post, I was concerned about some balding/feather-free spots on Shy Chicken, and especially what seemed like a recurrence of Butt Disease or at least a worrying pecking order agressiveness possibly making an appearance.
Because I was traveling for business I was not there to handle the medical necessities so once again Jason had to do the needful. Before the appointment I begged him: PLEASE take photo! PLEASE take photo! In part because I’ve never seen where he takes them, but also because I have recently seen the Pioneer Woman blog and one thing that Rhee does, is nice photos. She of course makes over a million dollars and can afford to hire photographic help and watch a lot of bull rodeos. Myself, I’m just lucky my husband has a great Canon camera and he’s not afraid to use it (when he remembers to bring it – hence the begging and whining).
Because the photos make the blog post heavy, I figured I’d break them up into two parts.
Shy Chicken tends to be the first in because she’s ironically more approachable and grab-able than the other ones. You see Business Chicken checking her out above.
All three chickens in the dog carrier
Bossy is the last to be capture and in fact escapes from the carrier. Jason says it was the biggest pain in the ass. The only way to think about capturing chicken’s effectively is to think of them as battleships, he says.
It’s not just that they look like battleships when they cool themselves by sitting on the lawn with legs invisible – it’s that they have a hard time turning completely around. So what you have to do is chase the chicken so its facing a wall or somewhere it does not want to go. It has a hard time turning around, and in that lull of its struggles, you have time to grab it he says.
Eventually Jason manages to stuff them all inside the dog carrier that we brought them to the house with, long ago. Then, he drives off to the doctor’s office Bird and Exotic Clinic of Seattle .
Bird and Exotic Clinic of Seattle
Our bird doctor for this visit is Tracy Bennett, whom you will see more of during the second post. Jason said she seemed okay if I went over there one day and did an interview which I think would be fun. Are other urban chicken owners as neurotic as we are? Inquiring minds will want to know!
Guess what?!! Chicken butt!!
Maybe I’m just a romantic sap, but I like the idea of Mitzi Perdue – widow of “Chicken Man” Frank Perdue (remember those oven-stuffer-roasters?!!!) is an artist. To be precise, an egg artist – she makes purses out of ostrich eggs!
Frank Perdue himself was meticulous as his wife – read here the Ad Age story of how the agency won Frank’s business beat out all the others and went on to create the masterpiece “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.” I like how he did the research work entirely himself – and when he found the right match, was willing to listen to their advice even if he wasn’t the quotable rockstar in the beginning.
Business Chicken 