I think I revealed most of my 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, Delawares, Wyandottes, Polish, Cornish and Buff Orpingtons! You know what I’m talking about!
Anyway the song was inspired several years ago when a friend told me she fed her chickens the garden huckleberries (Solanum melanocerasum) she grew in her garden and I thought, I bet those chickens love her and would do anything for her.
The photo is mine. Those are some Ameraucana chicks that I purchased last spring. I couldn’t help myself! But anyway, listen, if you too like chickens 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.
Petey is saddened by the loss of local flora and fauna, but can still find moments of joy in creatures like the Texas Horned...
Petey talks about seeds and the native annual Nama hispidum that had a spectacular spring show. Let’s listen.
Xanthisma gracilis is an annual and found all over the southwest and into Mexico as well. Duh. A common name is slender goldenweed or...
