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(http://www.afn.org/~poultry)
April 2001 |
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(http://www.afn.org/~poultry)
April 2001 |
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In This Issue:
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NEXT MEETING:1:00 p.m. Sunday, April 22 at Dreher Park, Pavilion 7, West Palm Beach. See map & directions on page 3. |
by Lee Salmon, President
Our March meeting is always the most important one of the year. There were no new members or visitors present. Thank you all for your patience. I know working on the book is tedious. We are, however, all done. The changes are complete and it will be ready to turn in May. A relief for all of us although, it went very smooth and fast.
There were very few changes. The Pigeon and Dove class has been reinstated, the correct dates and times added and a 750 Bird limit included. Richard and Linda Wright will sponsor the floor pen trophies. Thanks Heavenly Acres!!!!
Think about the raffle. We doubled our money on the Turkey Fryer, maybe we should raffle off two of them next year.
PICNIC TIME: Date Sunday April 22, 1pm at the same location in Dryer Park. Club will furnish the meat, bread, condiments and drinks. If you haven't signed up for a side dish call and let me know. The pavilion is #7, just North of the Science Museum.
We voted to attend the Sweet Corn Festival in Yesteryear Village at the Fairgrounds. This will be on March 29 from 10:00 to 4:00. We can unload by our poultry pen and then go park. A day of fun and meeting potential new members. There will be more information about this event available at the Picnic.
Peggy and Kim Belvin are on for refreshments at the May meeting. Arvis gave a talk about external parasites and the best way to get rid of them. Something we should all know.
See you all at the Picnic, have a good
month.
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Palm Beach County Poultry Fanciers AssociationAnnual Picnic!Sunday, April 22 · 1 pm
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The Chicken: |
It Came. It Clucked.
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| By William Grimes, © 2001 New York Times Company
As printed in the New York Times, March 21, 2001 |
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One day in the dead of winter, I looked out my back window and saw a chicken. It was jet black with a crimson wattle, and it seemed unaware that it was in New York City. In classic barnyard fashion, it was scratching and pecking and clucking.
I looked closer, blinked a few times and shrugged off the apparition. Birds come and go. Usually they're pigeons, not chickens, but like other birds, this one had wings and would probably use them. Or so I thought.
Two months later it's still there. Not only is it still there, but I'm also feeding it, and it's feeding me, at the rate of five eggs a week. I have made the transition from homeowner to farmer, from food consumer to food producer. All because of one mysterious chicken that came and wouldn't leave.
The protagonist of this story has no name. It is known simply as the Chicken, a nonname that seems right, considering its obscure origins. How it came to a small backyard in Astoria, Queens, remains a matter of conjecture. The chicken made its first appearance next door, home to a multitude of cabdrivers from Bangladesh. My wife, Nancy, and I decided that they had bought the chicken and were fattening it for a feast. That hypothesis fell into doubt when the chicken hopped the fence and began roaming around our yard. It began pacing the perimeter of the yard with a proprietary air, sizing things up with a shiny, appraising eye that said, I've seen better, but I've seen worse.
We now had a chicken. Very nice. But what next?
Eating it was out of the question. As a restaurant critic and an animal lover, I subscribe to a policy of complete hypocrisy. Serve fish or fowl to me in any way, shape or form, but don't ask me to watch the killing. Once I meet it, I don't want to eat it. Besides, Nancy and I had come up with another origin theory that roused our protective instincts. The chicken, we concluded, had escaped from a live poultry market about four blocks away. It was on the run.
Our hearts went out to the brave little refugee. Returning it to the market would be tantamount to murder. Eat it? Never. We had to save it.
Both of us suddenly realized, however, that we knew quite a bit about the consumption side of the chicken equation, and absolutely nothing about the production side. We didn't yet know whether our chicken was male or female, for one thing. It didn't crow in the morning, and it didn't have a comb, so female seemed a safe bet. But then again, neither of us had ever had to answer the question.
The sex enigma was only one of many. Would the chicken freeze to death out there? What do chickens eat? Do they have to live in a coop? Do chickens get lonely without other chickens? Do they need roosters to lay eggs? As I racked my brain for chicken knowledge, about the only thing I dredged up was a piece of trivia: they are easy to hypnotize. I knew this because Al Gore often recalled happy days in Tennessee when he would line up chickens on a porch and put them into a trance.
A colleague put me in touch with a real-life farmer, Steve Townley of Milford, N.J. He poured balm over my anxieties. "Chickens will eat just about anything," he said. "They'll eat vegetables. They'll even eat grass." Cold, it seemed, would not kill my chicken off. "They just fluff their feathers," Mr. Townley said. A chicken coop, it turns out, is aimed at protecting the birds from predators. If there are no predators, there's really no need for a coop.
Chickens were beginning to sound like the ideal pet. Not a lot of personality, but undemanding. Why doesn't everyone in New York have one?
The chicken took to its new surroundings easily. Its main social task was to integrate into the local cat society, a core group of about five strays that we feed. Two of them, enormous gray tomcat brothers called Bruiser and Crusher, dwell in an igloo. They have a strong sense of territory, although they do allow a B-team of lesser cats to drop by for a meal. How would the two species deal with each other?
(Continued next month)
Please send any of the above to:
Mike Schmidt
1170 NE Town Terrace
Jensen Beach, FL 34957
Thanks!
"We Are Crowing For YOU!"
2001 Meal Schedule
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4-H Cookbooks For SaleA Note From Jeanette Robinson I will have cookbooks that 4-H kids are selling for $5.00. It contains the recipes from the people that enter the cooking contest at the South Florida Fair and they were put together in a cookbook. I will have them at the Picnic & meetings for anyone that is interested. Thanks. |
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| Black-tailed White Japanese Bantams |
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From Florida's Turnpike, take the Okeechobee Boulevard exit East to I-95. From I-95 take Southern Boulevard or Forest Hill Boulevard to Parker Ave. Take Parker Avenue to Summit Boulevard then go West 1/2 mile to the Zoo. Once in the Park, take the first right past the Science Museum to Pavilion 7. |
"We Are Crowing For YOU!"
© Copyright 2001 Palm Beach County Poultry Fanciers Association All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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