The Egg and I

Actually, this post has less to do with the lowly egg than with what came first – the chicken.

I love chickens!

Chickens have always charmed and fascinated me with their comforting, throaty little sounds as they scratch around the yard, with their occasional bouts of chicken “hysteria,” with their amazing rainbow of breeds. Besides, who doesn’t love fluffy, peeping, vulnerable baby chicks? And roosters simply crack me up with their preening and bluster!

Apparently I’m not the only person to find chickens so fascinating, judging from the number of famous chickens throughout history. Here are just a few examples:

Super Chicken – alter ego of Henry Cabot Henhouse III, this superhero raced to the scene of the crime in his Super Coupe (“Coop?”) and always prevailed. I was much enamored of this cartoon show and can still sing the theme song on request (“…when you think that you will take a lickin’, buck buck buck buck!”).

Foghorn Leghorn – a large and over-confident cartoon rooster with a memorable voice (and complete disregard for the opinions of other characters), he was never the same after the death of voicemaster Mel Blanc.

Camilla – Gonzo’s love interest on the Muppet Show, she was a hen of few words (“bock bock”) with sultry blue eyelids that distinguished her from other less attractive chickens.

Of course there are also the San Diego Chicken, the Funky Chicken, Chicken Little, Robot Chicken and undoubtedly countless others who have stood out from the flock, but time doesn’t permit me to discuss them all now.

If you have the good taste to share my love of chickens, I can recommend some interesting books from the Sno-Isle catalog in which to peruse the pleasures of poultry:

The Fairest Fowl : Portraits of Championship Chickens , photographs by Tamara Staples ; essay by Ira Glass ; text by Christa Velbel

Extra Extraordinary Chickens , Stephen Green-Armytage

Home to Roost : a Backyard Farmer Chases Chickens through the Ages , Bob Sheasley

Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance :Reflections on Keeping Chickens , Martin Gurdon

Last but not least, blogger and Make magazine founder Mark Frauenfelder writes fondly of learning to keep chickens in his book Made by Hand : Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World .

Enjoy, and may your chickens always come home to roost!