Some friends of mine have a bunch of hens who are their pets, and they love them to bits and dote on them. They are all named after NPR announcers, too. You should see their henhouse- a family of four could live in there. At any rate, they bought scarves for their hens, and the recent snow gave them an opportunity to use them. Personally, I think every hen needs a scarf now:





I think we can all agree that Pearl needs a scarf, right?
Tom Levenson
This is perfect in every way.
Dorothy A. Winsor
LOL. Tom Levenson tells the truth.
geg6
Totally.
Mai naem mobile
WTF? No Sylvia Poggioli or Meghna Chakrabarti?
greenergood
No! All chickens and ducks exposed to snow need proper body-warmers, like the ones you put on dachsunds before you take them out for a walk!!
MomSense
Don’t you think Pearl needs a scarf? I do. What color should it be?
schrodingers_cat
I put silk scarves or pearls on my cats but they seem to hate it.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: Red
HumboldtBlue
Sherpa has enough fur, doesn’t need a scarf.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
Ooh, perfect. I’ve got some red with just enough orange in it.
NotMax
Stopped at the post office to buy some stamps yesterday. Was going to go for the railroad stamps on the Available Here display at this branch until the clerk saw me checking the selection, asked with a knowing grin, “How about these?” and pulled out some cool dinosaur stamps which were not displayed. Instant sale.
Baud
Clothes make the
manmenhen.trollhattan
Best chicken post evah. Proud birds are proud.
NotMax
They didn’t give in to the temptation to name a rooster Steve Inscoop?
:)
zhena gogolia
They look very cute and proud of themselves.
Duane
You need a scarf.
pamelabrown53
@MomSense:
Rainbow.
ziggy
As freaked out as my chickens are with new things, I cannot imagine in my wildest dreams that they are happy about wearing those scarves. Maybe tolerating it long enough for a photo shoot? That’s what photo shop is for!
Mai naem mobile
@MomSense: iridescent like a pearl. The multipastel color baby stuff kind of color.
MattF
Answers a question raised recently.
Another Scott
@MattF: rofl. Perfect!
Cheers,
Scott.
TaMara (HFG)
First of all – y’all realize ducks have claws sharper than cats, right?
Second of all – we don’t play favorites here, Penny gets a scarf, they must all have scarves.
Should I give you my mailing address so I can suddenly be inundated with scarves? LOL
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I think of you every day when I put on my hedgehog mittens. Still love them as much as the day I got them.
guachi
My wife has chickens.
My wife knits scarves.
Dare I show her this post?
WaterGirl
@guachi: How could you NOT show her???
pamelabrown53
Okay…a little chicken fashion advice: Yuki Noguchi needs to trade scarves with Cokie Roberts and Melissa Block with Audie Cornish.
stinger
@NotMax:
I bought some of those, for when I write to my nephews (ages 6 and 4).
Josie
@pamelabrown53:
Agreed, but Nina Totenberg is just totally classy.
Aziz, light!
@TaMara (HFG): Ducks?
pamelabrown53
@Josie:
Hah! Exactly. Nina’s camera ready for her cover shot on “Chicken Vogue”.
BGinCHI
I can only assume they name their chickenshit after valued NPR personality David Brooks.
Eric U.
I need to figure out how to block that picture of Trump with his bad makeup. But the memes are pretty good so far
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Eric U.:
I saw a tweet asking if Trump had fired the photographer and his brother yet.
Mohagan
@Tom Levenson: True that!!
ThresherK
My wife and I have long held that it’s a law that Labrador Retrievers are only issued red bandanas, and Goldens are issued blue.
Now I wonder how this will be updated for pet chickens.
SFBayAreaGal
@guachi:
@guachi: Yes
oatler.
@NotMax:
No, the rooster is Ira Glass, chortle chortle.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
That makes me so happy! I have some bright red – sort of a coral red and I’ve started, but I’m not sure how long to make it. Believe it or not, there aren’t a lot of duck scarf patterns online.
Seanly
Ugh, my wife wants chickens. I know they’d cost us a lot more than we’d spend in eggs. However, I wouldn’t insult the chickens by naming them after NPR hosts, especially not biased hacks like Nina “I love Scalia” Toten-f’king-berg.
Hope
@pamelabrown53: thank you
opiejeanne
@Seanly: The eggs may cost a little more, but they’ll not only taste better, they’ll also be healthier than the battery-house eggs.
pamelabrown53
@Hope:
You’re welcome???
Kraux Pas
I suspect she’s the one who started all this. Cornish hen?
pamelabrown53
@BGinCHI:
Nah. Chickenshit smells sweeter than David Brooks.
Eric S.
@opiejeanne: I can confirm taste. My cousin has chickens. When he brings eggs everyone is excited.
Bruuuuce
@Eric U.: I haven’t tried it and so this is not an endorsement, but there is apparently a Chrome extension that will replace pictures of the Bloviator-in-Chief with kittens.
WaterGirl
@pamelabrown53: Exactly right!
pamelabrown53
@Kraux Pas:
Probably. Although my first-hand knowledge is limited to those stuffed with wild rice
rikyrah
Pearl definitely needs a ???
rikyrah
trollhattan
Inspecting the CA ballot there are still twenty Dem presidential candidates to choose from–nineteen plus Wilmer. A few have dropped out but several I never heard of. Are y’all feeling the Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente III-mentum? Rocky’s en fuego!
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That’s a good one!
Suzanne
Where is Ofeibia Quist-Arcton, DAKARRRRR?
rikyrah
Sab
So my dad’s cocker spaniel went out and rolled in the burdock burrs and came in, in the dark, covered in them. My husband didn’t notice and put his sweater on. I did notice, hours later. I tossed the sweater because I didn’t want to pick al the burrs out when I had already picked a bunch off of him.
I have been knitting him a new ine slowly. Now it’s cold and he has no sweater. ( An excuse, since he has a full coat of cocker dog fur-fuzz.) Just don’t want to go out in the snow slush.
Are all cockers canine roombas?
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I’d say you want to aim for something to hit somewhere between the length on Audie and Cokie, but not as long as Melissa.
So you could find the average height of a hen vs. a duck, or ask for Penelope measurements from TaMara :-) and go from there.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: hahahahaha
japa21
I strongly recommend people check out Penzey’s latest at their FB page.
Eric U.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: it’s an independent photographer, so he can’t, but he has said it’s photoshopped. Even though there are identical pictures from 3 other photographers.
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
She and Sylvia Poggioli, Rome are my absolute favorite.
“Always a pleasure.”
WaterGirl
@Sab: I had my first cocker for 7 years before she ever had a haircut of any kind. Warm February day she goes out in the yard for a stroll and comes back covered with burrs. I spent hours trying to get them out, then said fuck it and looked for groomers in the phone book.
She came back with very short hair instead of her long golden feathering, and I did get her groomed regularly after that, but never with a cocker cut, always with a “puppy” cut like she got that day.
Sab
@ThresherK: My goldens always got green, to set off their golden fur. My yellow lab was almost white. He didn’t like bandanas (skittish boy, that one.) My black lab mix got pink, because she was a girlish girl and wanted everyone to know that.
trollhattan
@Sab:
A friend’s springer would go out and roll in cow or horse shit anytime she got the chance, which was often in the San Joaquin Valley. Such a pretty, pretty smelly dog.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Perhaps you’d be interested in a flame-throwing trombone?
Eric U.
we had a dalmation and we lived across the road from a field that was almost always filled with cows. So we would occasionally have a green dalmation
pamelabrown53
@rikyrah:
How could Trump be more vicious when he never held any elective office prior to president?
Just another way he’s blown up the bar.
Sab
@WaterGirl: I inherited him from my late uncle, who got him show cocker cuts. We get him puppy cuts, and he seems to like those.
Is yours a Roomba vacuum?
trollhattan
@Eric U.:
We had a couple Dallys and the first LOVED fetch. In spring when the park grass was fresh and tall, he’d come home with bright green boots. It was pretty adorable.
Bruuuuce
@rikyrah: As it happens, this article just came across my Facebook feed. I can only hope it brings more folks around to Warren as the best candidate in our field. I’m not betting on it, though.
Sab
@trollhattan: My GSD dig that routinely. If I had a spaniel doing that I would get it a Ken doll haircut ( 1/8 inch all over.)
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: The same cocker I talked about above came in as I was studying at the dining room table with a friend. Something smelled just awful but I couldn’t find the source, couldn’t see manure or anything on her back or paws or anything.
Eventually I discovered that she had a very ripe dead bird tangled up in her feathering on her underside. (Not her butt, more like her tummy area.) That was fun.
BGinCHI
@pamelabrown53: And it has some use value.
Eric U.
@pamelabrown53: same way his kids complain about Biden’s nepotism. Plus now Trump has been president for 4 whole years and he’s done a great job, just ask him. Have you heard he won the biggest landslide ever?
BGinCHI
@Suzanne: Glad I’m not the only one who loves her send-off.
I do a very spirited version, alone in the car.
WaterGirl
@Sab: Mine is long gone :-( but one of her nicknames was “Hoover” because she inhaled her food rather than chewed it.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: My little white dog comes in with green shoes and socks after the lawn is mowed.
debbie
Jaunty!
debbie
@NotMax:
He’d be the chicken that never shuts up.
Eric U.
@trollhattan: grass stained feet are a lot more adorable than a coating of cow manure. I never thought about the fact that fresh cow manure must be green until the first time she coated herself with it.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Whoa, dead bird hidden in the fur? As a mother nature’s prank that ranks [heh] quite high.
Unrelated program note: if it continue episode 1’s quality the HBO McMillion$ mini-series is well worth watching. They could just follow special agent Doug Matthews and make it work, but it’s a compelling story too.
pamelabrown53
@Eric U.:
As frightening mendacious as Trumps projections are, I believe that that he is incrementally losing voters.
ziggy
@Seanly:
Do it! If she hand-raises the chickens, they will be lovely pets and very entertaining! The cost per egg is going to be outrageous (probably $5 per egg the first year, factoring in the hen house), but it’s not about getting cheap eggs, it’s the experience. And if your hens free range, or get other things to eat besides layer feed, the eggs will taste fantastic. You will never look at a chicken the same way once you see their personalities.
trollhattan
@Eric U.:
I won’t lie, I like my experience better. :-)
Both Dallys snatched up dead stuff at hyperspeed and it was a challenge to shake the dead whatever out of their maw before they swallowed it. Was not always fast enough. Ugh.
BGinCHI
@pamelabrown53: Agree.
Also, can we have a thread where we sort out James Carville’s bullshit?
Why are people listening to that guy? I read his “rant” against the Dems and it was full of bullshit assertions and lousy arguments. Fine if he wants to bitch about Iowa, but that’s low-hanging fruit.
trollhattan
@ziggy:
They seem pretty good at controlling garden bugs, slugs and snails as part of the bargain.
pamelabrown53
@ziggy:
So what is the cost per egg if you don’t factor in the hen house?
Sab
@WaterGirl: My yellow (actually white) lab used to have purple spots like a dalmatian when the wild cherries were ripe.
trollhattan
@BGinCHI:
I’ll guess two things: he loves being in front of the camera, especially after not having a real job for twenty years, and it gets him out of the house and away from you-know-who.
Other then news network bookers, I can’t imagine anybody takes him seriously or knows who he is.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Manner maketh
manmenhen.Suzanne
@BGinCHI: Ofeibia Quist-Arcton is my favorite person on NPR by a country mile. Her sendoff is loved by both Mr. Suzanne and me.
germy
Is there a pesticide I can use that will discourage carpenter ants and powderpost beetles?
Jager
My farm grandmother had a large flock of chickens, she took good care of them and enjoyed doing it. The farmhouse (a Sears two-story) and the large garden was fenced. One hen could wing it to the top of the fence, she’d hop down make her way to the Ivy covering the front porch, nest down an lay her eggs. I asked my grandmother why she let that chicken be in the yard, she said, “Alma is adventurous and likes time to herself.” I’m pretty sure we never had Alma for Sunday dinner either, she was the only chicken with a name.
trollhattan
@germy:
When I replaced some foundation that had been attacked by powderpost beetles I used either pressure-treated lumber or wood I painted with copper-based penetrating solvent. Similar to this.
Moisture management is helpful, if possible.
germy
@trollhattan: Thank you
germy
Robert Conrad, the actor best known for his role in the television show The Wild Wild West, has died. He was 84 and his death was announced by a family spokesman.
Another Scott
@Bruuuuce: Biden gets an “F”? Same as Trump? Really??!
Hmmm…
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@germy:
Somebody finally knocked off that battery.
One of the better go-to lead action-actors and had a pretty long career.
prostratedragon
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Suits trombonists to a T. And he’s quite good.
From an all-trombone horn album by Willie Colon: “Pena de amor”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@prostratedragon:
I love the flaming picture.
WaterGirl
@Sab: That’s funny. I laughed out loud
edit: My little white dog LOVES fruit. And tomatoes. So in the summer he comes in from outside with an orange/green combo on his muzzle – from the tomatoes and the tomato leaves. Or blue from stealing the blueberries. A lovely rose color from the raspberries.
The (previously white) muzzle never lies!
BGinCHI
@trollhattan: Bunch of folks on twitter (I know, I know) were pushing his rant about how the Dem Party was fucking everything up, how they weren’t gonna beat Trump, turnout down, etc.
I read their agreement in disbelief.
He sounds like Trump without the insanity, but with just as much entitlement and lack of insight.
I hope he fades back to wherever the fuck he came from. But I’m sure Bill Maher is calling his spokesperson as I write this.
ugh
Bruuuuce
@Another Scott: I didn’t do the ranking, and the source is not one I recognize as a troll or satire site. It’s possible that the Biden ranking included his role in Clarence Thomas becoming a disaster on SCOTUS.
chris
@germy: Look at diatomaceous earth. Available at the garden center, harmless except to the bugs. And your lungs, wear a mask.
zhena gogolia
@Eric U.:
One is something like “Your Tupperware after you stored marinara sauce in it.”
Baud
@germy:
I loved that show.
NotMax
Also announced today as dead is Victor Gorelick, 78, who began as a 16-year-ol intern/go-fer at Archie Comics in 1958 and rose to become editor-in-chief.
zhena gogolia
Open thread, so I’m again recommending the adaptation of Howards End that is available on Amazon Prime, with Matthew MacFadyen and Hayley Atwell. It was on PBS and I loved it, and then I realized it’s on Prime so we are watching it again. One scene between MacFadyen and Atwell is so good we replayed it three times last night. All the acting is great, it’s very faithful to the book, and the music is by Nico Muhly. There’s an actor in it I’ve never seen before, Joseph Quinn, who gives the most amazing performance as Leonard Bast. If you have Prime, watch it
ETA: the adaptation is by playwright Kenneth Lonergan and it’s brilliant
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Bruuuuce:
I have tried it, and this is an endorsement. It’s a lifesaver.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Both of my cocker spaniels do/did that as well.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Along the same vein, anyone yet watched The King on Netflix? Historically inaccurate sort of Shakespeare mash-up. The acting, though, is supposed to be fan-effin’-tastic.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
A little Chalamet goes a long way for me. I really don’t see anything much in him.
Joseph Quinn blows him out of the water
ETA: But I haven’t seen this movie, just Lady Bird and Little Women.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Maybe it’s genetic! :-)
ziggy
@pamelabrown53:
Right now I’m only getting about 2 eggs per day, my feed costs are roughly $1 to $2 per day (including organic feed, scratch, mealworms, hay) so about 50 cents to $1 per egg. When they all start laying that will go down to about 30 cents per egg. That is if you consider my labor is absolutely free, and don’t factor in the cost of ginormous run I built them last year. Free-ranging a large flock would be much less expensive. If they wore scarves or other clothing, cost would be outrageous.
Bruuuuce
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Thanks. I may drop it onto the desktop and avoid photos of the Hairpiece going forward
prostratedragon
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Firefox has it too.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
I haven’t seen it either but the online word of mouth, historical accuracy aside, is certainly complimentary.
wvng
Not to be a spoilsport, but you shouldn’t leave a scarf on a chicken, or put them in a jacket. They need to groom their feathers, which keeps them fluffy and makes them good insulators, better than a jacket would provide. I’ve had chickens for decades and they never had a problem with cold, except for some frostbite in extremities when it gets truly cold; when you should keep them in if you can.
However, for anyone questioning the joy of having a home flock of layers, my wife wrote “Ode to an Egg” after receiving a letter extolling the virtues of our eggs after we gave a dozen to a friend. There really is no comparison. Track 9 on her Poultry in Motion album. https://www.amazon.com/Poultry-Motion-Jan-Gillies/dp/B00KO58RPG
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
I guess Pattinson gives a really good performance.
prostratedragon
@Bruuuuce: My god I just tried it. Not only will you avoid images of pestilence, but the contrast with the accompanying headlines is hilarious.
LuciaMia
Im a monster. Looking at one of those chicken pics, my first thought was “Um, nice drumsticks.”
Steeplejack
@wvng:
This is concentrated awesome right here.
dexwood
@wvng: Late to the chicken party, but I second this. Chickens are damn warm blooded. Fluffing and preening are important to their daily self-care. Plus, I’d worry about the scarves being caught on things since chickens poke their heads into everything. As to the frostbite problem, a longtime chicken keeper we knew recommended coating their feet and combs with Vaseline to prevent it. It really did help when our temperatures dropped into the single digits. Before using this remedy you could see the affected areas turn a bit grey, Once we started using the Vaseline we never saw that again.
Steeplejack
@wvng:
Album looks great! “Ghost Chickens in the Sky”: “Workin’ for the Colonel for 30 years or more . . .”
wvng
@Steeplejack: Thanks. When we received the letter that inspired to song (we really did) we were just in awe. Also, check out the “Mike the Headless Chicken” track. True story. :-)
McMurray chickens carried this CD for a few years.
BGinCHI
@NotMax: If you check back here, yes, The King is excellent.
This past semester I taught the course most in my wheelhouse, on Shakespeare’s Henriad and Early Modern Historiography. That film came out halfway through the course and I was dreading having to watch it. Super low expectations.
I was floored by how interesting it is as an interpretation of the historical record as well as Shakespeare’s tetralogy.
I have a LOT to say about it.
zhena gogolia
@BGinCHI:
Oh, interesting.
NotMax
@BGinCHI
Thanks for the thumbs up.
Which I for one would be curious about and interested in hearing. Cliff’s Notes version or no.
BGinCHI
@zhena gogolia: I was really, really surprised.
Forget Chalamet and Pattinson and the celebrity bullshit. As a serious reckoning with power, war, and character-building, it’s a fascinating study of Henry. And also, amazingly, of Falstaff, who gets to do something besides waddle around as a cliché. The Catherine scene…such a knockout. The French king? Superb.
So much to think about, which is the best compliment I can give.
zhena gogolia
@BGinCHI:
Wow. I may have to get Netflix.
debbie
@BGinCHI:
I do the same. I love her exuberance!
lumpkin
They need little tiny matching tote bags.
MoxieM
@Sab: I don’t have Cockers, but always refer to my dogs as “reverse vacuum cleaners”. They bring the dirt, leaves, twigs and what not inside, not the other way ’round. Dogs are usually Newfoundlands (rescued), but the dog that most needed a home when I most needed a dog was a Gt Pyrenees/Black lab mix. She looks like a Pyr who borrowed somebody’s black tux. But I do miss the dinner-plate sized feet–they are much easier to work on!
MomSense
I finished Pearl’s scarf. While I was making it my son told me it wouldn’t be fair to the other ducks not to make scarves for them. So Mabel and Maddie are getting scarves.
I’ve lost it.
rikyrah
@germy:
RIP??
rikyrah
@MomSense:
That’s wonderful???
they are all getting scarves??
Tehanu
This is wonderful. Thanks for posting it.
Off topic, today was William Tecumseh Sherman’s 200th birthday. My hero.