Thursday, October 11, 2012
Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | New Photo Gallery
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Thursday, October 11, 2012 |
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Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | New Photo Gallery |
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Close to Nowhere More chicken stuff OK, I might be obsessed about chickens. But I’ve always loved chickens since my Aunt Myrl’s rooster used to chase me and peck at my heels. Never did understand why he objected to me coming out the back door. He liked me just fine if I came out the front door of Aunt Myrl’s house. But, more about Miracle Mike, our headless chicken from last week: • Mike was a very famous chicken in 1945-47. He toured with sideshows, along with such companions as a two-headed cow. His photo was in many magazines, including “Time” and “Life.” Price of admission to see Mike? 25¢! At the height of his popularity, Mike earned $4,500 per month ($48,000 in 2010 dollars). He was valued at $10,000. That’s a lot of money for a defective chicken! A lot of copycat chicken beheadings followed Mike’s success, but no other chicken lived more than a day. Mike died in March, 1947, at a motel in Phoenix, on his way home from a tour. An autopsy determined the axe missed Mike’s carotid artery and a clot prevented him from bleeding to death. Although most of his head was gone, most of his brain stem and one ear was left. Most of a chicken’s function are controlled by the brain stem, so Mike was quite healthy. Oh, by the way, Miracle Mike is on Facebook (www.facebook.com/IamMiracleMike). Won’t be long until I’ll be sporting a Miracle Mike T-shirt! • Along with our two grown chickens, and the new rooster Willie, we have some new baby chickens. We started out with six and are now down to two. Seems like chickens get “fowl” pox. I kinda think it should be called “people” pox, but nobody listens to me, so... Fowl pox is caused by mosquitoes, so according to the website at HobbyFarms.com, decrease the mosquito population around your flock. Yeah, right. Fowl pox is not contagious, even among chickens and looks pretty much like chicken pox. Chickens only get the pox on the “non-feathered” portions of their little bodies. When my kids and then my granddaughters had chicken pox, all their “non-feathered” parts were covered. Gremlin still has scars from chicken pox. I wonder if our chickens will be scarred? • One thing we will never, ever do with our chickens is try to cut a head off to eat the chicken. Once you’ve named a chicken and held and petted it, that chicken cannot be eaten. And I’m postive we won’t try to be a Miracle Mike copycat! Willie’s keeping his beautiful head! |
    
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