So calm yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us...
Chickens are funny creatures. Alan opens the door to their coop every morning. By the time I leave for work they are standing on the side and in the middle of the road. I slow down and they look at the car and peck the road. I honk and some of them run alongside the car or right in front of it and stop and peck the road and grass some more. I honk again and inch forward. Somehow I get past all of them without anyone getting run over. They peck the road. They weren’t worried in the least!
So what came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, I don’t know about everywhere but around here it’s the chicken. We didn’t have fresh eggs before they got here. When they came they were cute little chicks. It was a mixed batch so we didn’t know if we were getting hens or roosters or what. We got mostly hens but there are three roosters. I really like the fresh eggs. We have all colors of eggs; light tan, brown, white and green.
The roosters act like typical males, strutting around thinking they are really something. All three roosters wanted to be in charge. They fought for dominance. One gets to be the boss rooster and bully the others. After all the posturing took place it seemed like the flock divided into three groups, one for each rooster. I think of them as chicken harems. The head rooster is called a Production Red. He’s kind of pretty, for a chicken anyway.
Chickens were domesticated about 8000 years ago and there are over 150 kinds of domestic chickens. In fact there are more chickens in the world then any domesticated bird. Different breeds have different characteristics. These run from how they look to the color of eggs they lay. They have funny names, too, like Transylvanian Naked Neck or Waki Waki Hawa. In the bunch of chickens that we got there are Buff Orpingtons, Columbian Wyandotts, Production Reds, Golden Laced Wyandottes, Black Australorps, and Light Brahmas. There was a Speckled Sussex as well, but it died. According to Alan we still need more chickens that include Welsumers, Barnevelders, and Cochins. The Cochins are the chickens who have the big balls of feathers on their feet that look like shoes. To me they all just look like chickens!
It is thought that the nearest relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex is a chicken. This was decided from research on collagen that was extracted from the thigh bone of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex. There were similarities between the dinosaur collagen sample and the bone collagen of chickens. This gave support for the hypothesis that birds as we know them today are descended from dinosaurs. I didn't know collagen would last 68 million years. Before that, there was still the thought that there was a relation between the two. The dino-bird connection was based on physical similarities in the creature’s body and bone structure.
You can knit or crochet a chicken. My friend from LSSK made a great purse. She experimented and came up with the pattern herself. There are other chicken patterns as well, like chicken potholders, magnets and stuffed animals. If you can’t have the real thing you could make a fitting substitute!
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| Chicken Clutch from Gari. http://www.etsy.com/shop/garilynn |
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| Close up of chicken's head on Gari's purse. http://www.etsy.com/shop/garilynn |
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| Chicken potholder Gari made. http://www.etsy.com/shop/garilynn |
Knitayear goes on. August 26 is day 148. I helped a school district and actually was included. They asked my opinion and asked for suggestions. I felt like they really wanted to know what I thought. I chose a purple mohair. The purple is a royal color and the mohair binds it all together and makes it strong. Day 149 is August 27. It was a busy day but I got a lot accomplished. I was very industrious and chose a yellow variegated soy yarn. I did a slip stitch pattern that makes this section look industrious too! Day 150 is a lazy day. I chose a light green from sock yarn for this day. Day 151 is an ambitious day. I have plans and actually get some things that I planned done! I chose a very thick turquoise yarn, for my big plans! Day 152 was not a good day. I was invisible. I suppose I let it happen. Anyway, I picked a beige homespun, kind of nondescript, like I felt all day today. August 31 was a lot better day. Got a haircut and got to go to the wine dinner. I also helped some people who appreciated it at work. I felt a lot more useful than yesterday! I chose a rainbow Noro, and used an orange/green section. I liked how the colors twisted together. They twisted to make a new color. I need to remember that experiences twist together and make new ones. And tomorrow will be a better day. I don’t suppose there are any orange and green chickens. Unless it’s Easter!
Tomorrow is a busy day.
We got things to do, we got eggs to lay.
We got ground to dig and worms to scratch,
It takes a lot of sittin', gettin' chicks to hatch.
Oh, there ain't nobody here but us chickens.
There ain't nobody here at all…
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