Chickens in the News! #9

Chickens are in! Here is one strutting its stuff on the Sao Paulo fashion show runway.

Things chickens should not be used for: Part 1.

Connecticut police find roasting chicken stuffed with pipe bomb on roadside, detonate it

SIMSBURY, Conn. (AP) -- Authorities in Connecticut are wondering who stuffed a raw roasting chicken with a pipe bomb and left it on a roadside.

Simsbury police Capt. Matthew Catania says a motorist noticed the chicken Friday morning. He says the bomb was large enough to harm a person if it went off.

The road was closed while the Hartford Police Department's bomb squad came and blew up the chicken.

Nobody was injured. No arrests had been made Monday night.

Chickens (not technically) in the News! #8

My good friend Johanna lives in Kabul, Afghanistan and sent me these pictures of a cockfight on the streets of Babur. According to her, the roosters don't get hurt, but instead win when the other chicken puts its head down. While I can't speak for all cockfighting in Afghanistan, I am positive that Johanna would not have sent me photos of a bloody all out cockfighting conspiracy in underground Babur. Mostly, you should enjoy the fabulous colors of the chickens. And for those of you interested in learning more about the exciting times and never-mentioned-in-the-media-true-to- life-and-often-very-normal-but-beatiful goings on of Kabul, I suggest you have a look at Johanna's blog. She is a wonderful photographer and amazing storyteller. I think you'll enjoy it.

Chickens in the News! #7

I have a 30ft catapult filled with chicken droppings - and I'm not afraid to use it

Will Pavia
March 5, 2008
From The Times

The headquarters of Joe Weston-Webb’s portable flooring empire is protected by security fencing, motion-sensor lights and CCTV cameras.

None of these conventional measures has deterred arsonists, however, and in desperation, Mr Weston-Webb has now fortified his defences with less orthodox technology left over from his time as a travelling showman.

A 30ft Roman catapult, loaded with chicken droppings from a nearby farm is primed each evening. And a cannon, which Mr Weston-Webb once used to shoot his wife across the River Avon, will fire a railway sleeper if triggered by an intruder.

Mr Weston-Webb was yesterday erecting a sign outside his business, which stands at the end of a farm track in the lower valley of the River Soar in Nottinghamshire – a place known locally as Soar Bottom. It reads: “Warning: These premises are protected by smart-poo and railway sleeper projectiles.” (Read more...)

Chickens in the News! #6

Consider this your first Public Service Announcement mixed with the News!....

Beware people in chicken mascot suits! One minute they will be protesting alongside PETA in Manila, Philippines against some horrible abuse of the International Declaration of Poultry Rights...


...and the next they will biting the heads of your children! You never know what will come over someone dressed in a giant chicken suit. Don't let this happen to you or someone you love.


This has been a message from your local Chicken Diction broadcasting network. You now may return to your regular scheduled programming.

Chickens in the News! #5

This is one of the best chicken stories I have ever come across. I wish I had thought of this when I was still in school...

85 hens close Phila. high school

By Sam Woods and Robert Moran
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Who let the birds out?

A fowl prank closed a Philadelphia high school today, canceling classes for 3,600 students.

Eighty-five "full-blown live chickens" - identified later today as Rhode Island Reds - were discovered roaming the halls of Northeast Philadelphia High School this morning as faculty arrived before dawn.

"They've created quite a mess," said Fernando Gallard, spokesman for the school district. "It's going to take us at least a day to clean up."

The flock was let into the school on Cottman Avenue over the weekend. (Read more...)

Chickens in the News! #4

If only our choices were as fun as this...

Chickens in the News! #3

I'm not sure exactly how this is news, but it was in the news.

Blessed chick: Hen that lays green eggs
Associated Press
Wednesday, January,30 2008 (Mexico city):

Ordinary-looking hen with brown feathers has become a celebrity in Cuautitlan, a small village north of Mexico City, because every day she lays an egg with a green shell.

At first glance, Rabanita looks no different from the other chickens in the yard.

"Since the December 5 she has been laying green eggs," said her owner, Elvira Romero.

Romero is a housewife who got the hen as part of a government aid package to help villagers.

"Well, my children say 'Oh Mummy, God looks favourably on you so that you were given as a prize a chicken that lays green eggs'," said Romero with a smile.

So far, there is no explanation for the colour of the eggs.

Romero says that Rabanita does not have a special diet different from the rest of the chickens, just the usual corn, tortillas and chicken feed.

Scientists believe that shell colour - which does not affect the colour or flavour of the yolk or white - is determined by the genes, and say blue or green shells are frequently found in the Araucana chicken strain.

Green egg layers attract a premium in some parts of South America, where poultry breeders aim to produce chickens, which lay nothing else.

Honestly, this is ridiculous. As if this is some sort of new discovery...Reuters obviously is not reading Chicken Diction!

Chickens in the News! #2

For this week's barely mid-week installment of Chickens in the News! we are going on a quick four-stop tour around the world to see the different lives (and death) that chickens have. It is a sobering life that chickens have throughout the world. One day my chickens will thank me for the life of luxury they lead. One day.

First stop: Jammu, where there is evidently a housing shortage for chickens.

Here we have some recently dead chickens in Kolkata, India.

Naked bathing chickens in Jakarta, and a nearby voyeur.

And finally, amorous roosters in Allahabad, India.

Chickens in the News! #1

Welcome to a new mid-week Chicken Diction series, called "Chickens in the News!" This will be a weekly post of a picture, story, news item, or other interesting happening, all involving chickens in some way or another. As our chickens get older, and therefore wiser it has become apparent that they are that much more world-savvy and I believe it is important to more fully represent their worldliness by including news about chickens around the world, in your backyard and mine.

For the inaugural installment of "Chickens in the News!" we we go to Shainghai, China where chickens are not only very skinny it would seem, but naked, dead, and hanging from a wire. Not all chickens enjoy the luxury of a Tucson backyard paradise, remember that young whippersnapper Chicken Diction aficionados. One of this blog's goals is to expose the harsh realities of the varied and complex lives that chickens have throughout this sometimes cruel world.

(This picture courtesy Reuters.com.
Okay not really - they don't know I have it, I didn't pay for it or ask permission, but I bet they didn't ask permission of that little girl either.)