If I were a chicken, I know I wouldn’t want to be a nugget (or a patty, or a buffalo ranch sandwich, or whatever; you get the idea). I also wouldn’t want my embryos eaten, either. I’m sure I’d be a pro-choice chicken, but I’d much rather have my yolk and whatnot go to embryonic chicken stem cell research rather than an omelet. That would just be too weird.

But if I had to be somebody’s food, I would want to at least be happy food. I wouldn’t want to live what little life I had in a tiny cramped cage, being pecked or peed on by my neighbor. I would want to be able to turn around, take a dump in different place than the one I’m sitting in, that kind of thing.

That actually sort of sounds like my first apartment, only worse.

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Really big birds are an interesting category in cryptozoology.  Most people consider these to be nothing but fictional legends, the simple up-scaling of existing large birds like bald eagles and condors.  It certainly doesn't take much imagination to invent "something just like that bird over there, only bigger."

However, there are also vexing reports of really big birds which occasionally surface every few years.  Cryptozoologists speculate that some of these reports could be sightings of surviving pterodactyls (which went extinct X million years ago), or of teratorns (which went extinct only 6,000 years ago).  Teratorns were larger relatives of the condor, and lived in North America.  Many excellent examples of teratorns have been recovered from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.


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Pauline Gaines captured this amazing shot of a tiny and furious kingbird aggressively attacking a red tail hawk at Bonny Lake park in Colorado.. The hawk got close enough to the smaller bird's nest that it became territorially outraged to the point of essentially piggybacking on the much larger predator.

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This conversation crops up a lot on the various forums for chicken owners on the internet.  Several lines of chicken feed (such as Purina's Layena Sun Fresh) are labeled "No Animal Protein" or "Protein From Vegetarian Sources."  Then again, most consumers have also seen eggs and chickens labeled "Vegetarian Fed."

The odd thing is, chickens are not vegetarians.  Chickens are omnivorous, and when left to their own devices will eat a diet of about 80% plants and 20% insects and small animals.  (Yes, chickens will eat mice, lizards, small snakes - basically anything that they can catch.  You did know that chickens evolved from tyrannosaurus rex, didn't you?  Now you can see the resemblance!)


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So, baby ducks with momOK; maybe it's not all that heroic, but it is way too cute, and it's a lovely demonstration of the phenomona Konrad Lorenz call imprinting.

(Thanks, Juniperus!)

StarlingWhat would you guess would be the arch-nemesis of the California wine-growers and their grapes? Would you guess droughts, floods, fires, or the innocent little starling birds?  If you chose the starling as your final answer, you are absolutely correct. The starlings are known as gluttonous fans of the grapes and can reportedly eat their way through the fields in record time.


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Ralph, a Humboldt penguin and resident of Marwell Wildlife, near Winchester, Hampshire, Ralph, with wetsuitEngland, has an inexplicable habit of losing all of his feathers at once when he molts, instead of gradually. Usually as a penguin loses old feathers, new ones begin growing in. But not so nine year old Ralph. His keepers at Marwell Wildlife's Penguin World therefore hit upon creating a protective wet suit for poor Ralph, since until the new feathers grow in, the bald penguin risks rather serious sun burn. They made his wetsuit from the leg of a man's wet suit, and it seems to be working quite well for Ralph. His own feathers should have grown back in three weeks or so.

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More First Eggs, Flanked By Store-BoughtMost people who bought baby chicks this spring are approaching, or have already received, their first eggs.  I'm seeing a lot of egg-related questions on the chicken forums around the internet!  One question you may have is, what grade egg did your chicken just produce?

There are two factors that go into grading eggs: their size (Pee Wee through Jumbo), and their quality (C through AA).  Just as an example, the last eggs I bought at the store were Grade AA Large.

The weight of the eggs is pretty straightforward.  I'm a knitter, so I have a small digital scale which I use to weigh out sock yarn by the gram.  A small kitchen scale may give you enough resolution to weigh your eggs properly.  You can also buy egg scales, which is probably only useful if you plan to sell your eggs.

Egg Sizes:


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First egg, with store-bought eggs for scaleI got my first egg (ever!) over the weekend.  I opened the coop to refill their feeder, and there it was!  It was so tiny - about 2/3rds the size of a store-bought egg.  This is normal, because it takes a while for a pullet's system to get fully up and running. 

From what I have read, it can be up to a month before "the egg factory" is fully functional.  Until then, eggs will be laid sporadically, and "weird eggs" can be produced.  Some crazy stuff can come out of a chicken, and I'm on the lookout for anything unusual and exciting!


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