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Chickens (Miscellaneous; Compendium)

Get a lawyer to check the right claws.
 
And make sure you're first in the pecking order.
 
More chicken history.

Holy chickens: Did Medieval religious rules drive domestic chicken evolution?
May 2, 2017 in Biology / Evolution

Chickens were domesticated from Asian jungle fowl around 6000 years ago. Since domestication they have acquired a number of traits that are valuable to humans, including those concerning appearance, reduced aggression and faster egg-laying, although it is not known when and why these traits evolved.

Now, an international team of scientists has combined DNA data from archaeological chicken bones with statistical modeling to pinpoint when these traits started to increase in frequency in Europe.

"Ancient DNA allows us to observe how genes have changed in the past, but the problem has always been to get high enough time resolution to link genetic evolution to potential causes. But with enough data and a novel statistical framework, we now have timings that are precise enough to correlate them with ecological and cultural shifts." says Liisa Loog, the first author of the study.

To their surprise they found that this happened in High Middle Ages, around 1000 A.D. Intriguingly these strong selection pressures coincided with increasing urbanization and Christian edicts that enforced fasting and the exclusion of four legged animals from the menu. Could Medieval religious rules have increased the demand for poultry and thereby altered chicken evolution?

"With our new method we see that the time of selection coincides with an increase in the amount of chicken bones in the archaeological records across Northern Europe. Intriguingly, they also coincide with several socio-cultural changes, including a general increase in the popularity of Christian beliefs, new religious dietary rules and increase in urbanization (favoring traits that mean that animals could be kept in small spaces). We cannot say which one of these was most important but most likely a combination of all these factors affected selective pressures on European chickens and consequently their evolution." Says author Anders Eriksson. ...

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-holy-chickens-medieval-religious-domestic.html
 
There were a few at a picnic sight about 5 miles from here they all seem to have gone so maybe they have been necked.
 
I'm working in Jersey at the moment, and this story's created a lot of amusement - particularly that it's getting coverage in the nationals! - though I'd say "overrun" is quite the exaggeration.

I've not encountered any feral chickens myself, but it's not uncommon for them to be kept roaming relatively free on public land, or very near to it, and I've been surprised how many pet shops sell them - they seem to be a bit of a trendy upper middle-class way for well-off finance industry types to convince themselves they're doing something rural and earthy.

The article notes the lack of foxes (though there was a story going round some years ago about foxes being seen on the island - perhaps one of the most underwhelming cryptids!), but there's a surplus of domestic cats, so I'm surprised they haven't managed to pick off a few. On a similar note, parts of the island have huge pheasant populations - introduced decades ago because people wanted something to hunt, laws around hunting changed, and with no natural predators, the pheasant population boomed, the only thing keeping the numbers down being their tendency to wander idiotically into the path of moving vehicles.
 
The latest FT mentions the Jersey feral chickens, and how they are becoming a menace, ruining gardens, making an awful row, stealing cars, robbing banks, etc. I've just caught up with the latest Danny Baker show from last weekend, and he mentioned the story and had a caller saying the whole kerfuffle was an exaggeration: they're not roaming in gangs, there's a valley of posh houses whose owners have been put out at being woken up at dawn by the chickens, but that's about it.

Others also called in to mention the Bungay feral chickens who lived on the roundabout. Wiki has a page:
Bungay chickens

But it says they're not there anymore, the remainder having been relocated after locals poisoned/stole them.
 
maximus otter said:
Have we become such a nation of invertebrates that we can be intimidated by chickens?

Treestump > hatchet > pot.

maximus otter
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Any animals in sufficient numbers can be intimidating. But the answer is no, the people weren't intimidated, they were annoyed.
 
GNC said:
Any animals in sufficient numbers can be intimidating. But the answer is no, the people weren't intimidated, they were annoyed.
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I can't help but posit that he number of chickens to reach point of intimidation would very, very large.

Unless they were giant and/or zombie chickens.

Or dressed as clowns.
 
Chickens dressed as clowns would be cute.

But chickens are by far the most numerous birds in the world.

Think on that if they ever decide enough is enough.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
Unless they were giant and/or zombie chickens.

.
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462485/

When the American Chicken Bunker, a military-themed fried-chicken chain, builds a restaurant on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, local protesters aren't the only ones crying fowl! The previous tenants, fueled by a supernatural force, take "possession" of the food and those who eat it, and the survivors discover that they must band together before they themselves become the other white meat! Film lovers have been starved for sustenance. The relentless diet of predictability and pretense Hollywood has been serving up just doesn't cut it. Poultrygeist is hearty food for thought. In Poultrygeist, Troma takes on the the fast-food industry-skewering the soulless restaurateurs-in the world's first horror-comedy film to feature zombie chickens, American Indians and a bit of singing and dancing! It's Poultrygeist!Written by Troma Entertainment
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I'd heard of the name Poultrygeist didn't realise it was an actual film.

Genius title.
 
Troma films. so its probably brilliantly awful. Never seen it myself.
 
Ruffled feathers: feral peacocks split community in Canada


For a decade, a group of feral peacocks have divided the community of Sullivan Heights. Some of the residents of this suburban neighbourhood outside Vancouver love the birds, who have taken up residence in the local trees; others say they are kept awake by the peacocks’ screeching.
For Parminder Brar, the final straw came last year, when he says his father injured himself slipping on peacock excrement on Brar’s property. He formally issued a request to take down the tree where the peacocks had built a nest. The city turned him down.
So, this week, Brar cut down the tree himself.
The move has sparked a furore in Sullivan Heights, angering his neighbours and potentially earning Brar a fine of up to $10,000.
“The majority of us love them. They add value to the neighbourhood,” says Katie Taylor, who has lived on the street for 12 years.
Unlike their native counterpart, the Canada geese who periodically stop by and can be aggressive, the peacocks have proven to be peaceful neighbours.
“We haven’t seen any aggression from the peacocks,” Taylor says. “You can feed them from your hands.”

Many of the residents on the Sullivan Heights community Facebook page feel less warmly towards the birds. Complaints to the city authorities have been submitted since as far back as 2009, after a nearby farm where the peacocks used to feed closed down and the birds chose to relocate to Sullivan Heights.
The city initially responded by sending animal control staff to round up the peacocks and release them elsewhere. But the birds kept returning.
Ultimately, the issue was dropped because the community was split over whether to let the birds stay.
“It’s a legal grey area,” says Jaspreet Rehal, the city’s public safety manager. “They don’t fall squarely into any animal control rules, regulations and bylaws.”
Nevertheless, he says Brar’s decision to take the law into his own hands was wrong. “Cutting down the tree was not an option. It was a very healthy tree, it was important to the environment around it and we take tree removal very seriously.”
The next step, Rehal says, is to convene a consultation with the community as a whole to decide what to do, with the likely result that the peacocks are relocated.
For now, the birds have taken to perching on Brar’s roof.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...hers-feral-peacocks-split-community-in-canada

You know, I can't imagine peacocks nesting in a tree. I mean, yeah, they're birds it makes sense, but I just never thought about it.


and some in Stockport Uk too

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/angry-birds-gang-unruly-peacocks-3814176

A grandma has been left picking up the pieces after a gang of PEACOCKS trashed her home.
Jenny Gibson, 68, spotted the group of five birds hanging around outside her house and went to tell a neighbuor.
But she forgot to close her front door and the when she returned the feral birds had barged in and were causing mayhem.
Jenny found three birds wrecking her hallway and another two flying around her kitchen.
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maximus otter said:
Have we become such a nation of invertebrates that we can be intimidated by chickens?
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Yes, look at the massive MSM over-reaction to the idea of chlorinated chicken imported from America.
 
Ladyloafer said:
You know, I can't imagine peacocks nesting in a tree. I mean, yeah, they're birds it makes sense, but I just never thought about it.
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My parents used to keep a few Guinea fowls (sort of same shape as pea-hens) along with the chickens. The chicken hut was closed up at night but the Guineas used to roost in the trees and let us know in no uncertain terms if there was a fox about.
 
Have you ever tried tinned chicken ? It's pink, very soft (even the bones) and has a taste that unmistakably like - well- tinned chicken. I was wondering with the increase in popularity of chicken-meat whether male chicks were allowed to survive longer until can-size ?
 
Bad Bungle said:
Have you ever tried tinned chicken ? It's pink, very soft (even the bones) and has a taste that unmistakably like - well- tinned chicken. I was wondering with the increase in popularity of chicken-meat whether male chicks were allowed to survive longer until can-size ?
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sounds...delightful...

I'm no chicken expert but I understand the reason male chicks aren't reared for meat is because they take longer to grow to size than females, and then are a bit less tender meat, and its just not economical. Baby chickens are sexed and if males, are suffocated and/or chucked in a grinder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_culling . There are videos on youtube but I won't link because, eueww.

You'd think they could grow a few till can size? But again, it would be very economic. Kind of small to have to skin and de-bone etc.

btw, despite knowing all this I do eat chicken. So long as it has no resemblance to its former living self.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
I can't help but posit that he number of chickens to reach point of intimidation would very, very large.

Unless they were giant and/or zombie chickens.

Or dressed as clowns.
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Whilst playing Warhammer Online - if you tried to fight in the tier below your level you were turned into a chicken which resulted in many "chicken runs" - it was surprising how many players ran from a mass chicken attack or there was this - Warhammer Online Chicken Herder
 
mikfez said:
Whilst playing Warhammer Online - if you tried to fight in the tier below your level you were turned into a chicken which resulted in many "chicken runs" - it was surprising how many players ran from a mass chicken attack or there was this - Warhammer Online Chicken Herder
Click to expand...

Warhammer Online is fake, only sweaty nerds in a room with pens and paper is real.
 
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