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Not my chook

blindchook

Stole this chook off’n FaceBook. I tell you, I like FB so much more now that I’ve quietly unfollowed a bunch of people and added chicken, history and beer groups.

Anyway, this girl has just gotten back from the vet, where she was diagnosed as having gone blind. Judging from comments under the picture, this is not hugely unusual, even in otherwise healthy hens.

In any kind of serious poultry setup, such a chicken would be culled. But hobbyists will make accommodations and blind chickens can apparently do well. The important thing is putting their food, water and bedding in exactly the same place.

The most famous blind FaceBook chicken (why yes, there is such a thing) is Mumble. (Her gallery is here, but I think you have to be a FB user to see it). She was hatched entirely without eyes, which doesn’t look horrible. In fact, Mumble is weirdly cute.

Even most hobbyists would cull a seriously deformed hatchling (Mumble’s owner was advised to do so), but she seems a thriving, happy bird. She’s a year old now, I think. In that time the owner has been contacted about eight other chicks hatched in the same condition. Nature is weird.

Honestly, we should use the domestic chicken as an emblem of something. Fortitude. Placidity. Calm in the face of adversity. Just getting the hell on with it.

Anyhoo, this is a long weekend here. It’s not celebrating anything particular, it’s just known as the August Bank Holiday. And, believe it or not, it’s the last public holiday in Britain before Christmas.

These people need Thanksgiving. They could call it Hooray, We Got Rid of all those Wretched God-Botherers Day.

Good weekend!

Comments


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: August 26, 2016, 10:30 pm

I thought this was the weekend you all get knifed and raped at some yuge street carnival, no?


Comment from Anonymous
Time: August 26, 2016, 10:46 pm

That knifed and raped stuff – that’s Paris you’re thinking about. The British just get hugely drunk and slag each other. Seriously, there’s less violence than after a good Dallas Cowboy’s Football game. Why the Brit’s wouldn’t hurt a blind chicken….

Which somehow segues us back to the topic at hand….


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: August 26, 2016, 11:19 pm

Are you shitting me??? They are all very stabby over there. And this weekend is Stabfest 2016 in London.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 27, 2016, 12:55 am

” … we should use the domestic chicken as an emblem of something. Fortitude. Placidity. Calm in the face of adversity. Just getting the hell on with it.”

Or maybe an updated kick-ass version of the Little Red Hen. The Chickess. A Boudica in red feathers—with a plump bosom, shapely thighs, a knock-out comb, and a tail to to make the roosters shiver. She can teach all the little chicks—boys and girls—about personal responsibility, integrity, fortitude, et cetera. Give her a tough little weasel sidekick.


Comment from OldFert
Time: August 27, 2016, 1:17 am

“…we should use the domestic chicken as an emblem of something. Fortitude. Placidity. Calm in the face of adversity…” Supper…


Comment from AliceH
Time: August 27, 2016, 1:34 am

Deborah – I like! The Chickess, her side kick tough little weasel… hmm.

Needs another comic relief character. A pudgy, bumbling nerd who wants to dig a hole and hide at every hint of danger, but in the end always stands for what’s right. Like a badger.


Comment from Niña
Time: August 27, 2016, 6:28 am

The problem with culling is that you have to kill the animal. Can’t do that. 😢

Some farmer I’d make!

(Vancouver is beautiful, as are the grandchildren. My butt is being kicked, however!)


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: August 27, 2016, 9:30 am

Surely you meant to type a fierce, noble, proud, handsome worm pie eater?


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: August 27, 2016, 1:59 pm

Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah
Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah
BANTAMAN!

…and his faithful companion Rosecomb!


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: August 27, 2016, 5:32 pm

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a Chicken!


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 27, 2016, 8:18 pm

Silly Ric Fan — there aren’t any Brits in London! Srsly, less than half of the population of London was born in this country, and most of the rest aren’t genetically any flavor of Englandisch.

Is the Notting Hill Carnival this weekend? Because, yeah…that’s very stabby. And, erm, ethnic.


Comment from AliceH
Time: August 27, 2016, 8:36 pm

er, a fierce, noble, proud, handsome badger whose love of worm pies provides comic relief and, er, something something.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 29, 2016, 7:06 pm

I meant to come back before now, but you are correct Stoaty, that chickens—the little hen—is certainly the image of steadfastness and constancy. Maybe that’s why so many women decorate their kitchens with chicken art—to remind them to just get the hell on with it.

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