I revealed most of my personal chicken history in this show. It is an ongoing saga, though I am much more in control of my crazy love for chickens. I finally recycled all my old hatchery catalogs. Okay that’s not quite true as I kept one Murray McMurray catalog…just for reference…really. Oh how I love to look at the pictures – almost always paintings, by the way – of the different breeds in those catalogs. And no, I do not read them at night under the covers with a flashlight. That’s frowned upon. But oh my gosh, Australorps, Delawares, Wyandottes, Polish, Cornish and Buff Orpingtons! You know what I’m talking about!
The photos are mine. That large black chicken is an Australorp. They are so friendly! The hen above is a Golden Laced Wyandotte. She’s pretty but not so friendly, especially when she goes broody. Oh well, but listen, if you like chickens too and would like to add a book about the history of chickens to the shelf where you keep your “raising chickens the right way” books and your hatchery catalogs, I recommend Why Did the Chicken Cross the World by Andrew Lawler.
I forgot to say that the genus Crotalus comes from the Greek krotalon or krotos for rattle or rattling. (A couple favorite native plants...
There are a dozen species of Melampodium and I wonder which one Linnaeus was looking at when he honored Melampus with the genus name....
In southeastern Arizona Datura wrightii is the preferred source of nectar for the moth Manduca sexta and you may also notice that the caterpillar,...
