Dumbest Things People Have Said About Your Chickens/Eggs/Meat

[Chickadee42]

I was showing some people a chicken and one of them asked me "how can you tell if it's male of female?" I pondered for a second, wondering how to answer politely, and then flipped the hen on her back. Everyone around me burst out laughing.

 

[kikithebird]

I just looked up wattlebirds, and they appear to be nectar feeders, like our hummingbirds. How large are they? I know they aren't related below the level of the family Aves, but it looks like they have some convergent evolution for filling very similar niches. In fact, the Wikipedia article even mentions convergent evolution, which is a rather rare thing for them to do.

Can they hover at flowers and fly backwards like our hummingbirds seem to do?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird#Superficially_similar_birds

The fierceness with which hummingbirds defend their territories may be why the Aztec War Deity is sometimes represented as a hummingbird; as well a why so much Aztec violence imagery is centered around the poor birdies.

Hummings have the highest metabolic rate of any endothermic organism - and they can still live a decade or more, which is unusual for animals with very high metabolisms.

Hummingbirds are capable of slowing their metabolism at night or any time food is not readily available, entering a [COLOR=0066CC]hibernation[/COLOR]-like, deep sleep state known as [COLOR=0066CC]torpor[/COLOR] needed to prevent energy reserves from falling to a critical level. During nighttime torpor, [COLOR=0066CC]body temperature[/COLOR] falls from 40[SUP]o[/SUP]C to 18[SUP]o[/SUP]C,[SUP][COLOR=0066CC][21][/COLOR][/SUP] with [COLOR=0066CC]heart[/COLOR] and [COLOR=0066CC]breathing rates[/COLOR] both slowed dramatically (heart rate to roughly 50 to 180 beats per minute from its daytime rate of higher than 1000).[SUP][COLOR=0066CC][22][/COLOR][/SUP]

During torpor, to prevent [COLOR=0066CC]dehydration[/COLOR], the [COLOR=0066CC]kidney[/COLOR] glomerular filtration rate ceases, preserving needed compounds like glucose as a source of fuel, water and nutrients.[SUP][COLOR=0066CC][19][/COLOR][/SUP] Further, body mass declines throughout nocturnal torpor at a rate of 0.04 g per hour, amounting to about 10% of weight loss each night.[SUP][COLOR=0066CC][19][/COLOR][/SUP] The circulating [COLOR=0066CC]hormone[/COLOR], [COLOR=0066CC]corticosterone[/COLOR], is one signal that arouses a hummingbird from torpor.[SUP][COLOR=0066CC][23][/COLOR][/SUP]
Use and duration of torpor vary among hummingbird species and are affected by whether a dominant bird defends territory, with non-territorial subordinate birds having longer periods of torpor.[SUP][COLOR=0066CC][24][/COLOR][/SUP]

they are nectar feeders with a long bill to get the nectar out of the banksias callistemons kangaroo paw grevilleas erimopholas and eucalypt flowers most australian native plants are bird polinated they can not hover nor can they fly backwards they look like this

 

[tandykins]

they are nectar feeders with a long bill to get the nectar out of the banksias callistemons kangaroo paw grevilleas erimopholas and eucalypt flowers most australian native plants are bird polinated they can not hover nor can they fly backwards they look like this

Love red wattle birds. Super cheeky - I'll get single birds following me from tree to tree on my long walks eyeing me curiously.

 

[tandykins]

A conversation I had with a friend last week.

Me: I'll show you how to cut up a chicken. Instead of buying chicken breasts I can get a whole chicken and get two wings, two breasts, two marylands, two litres of stock and when I'm done I grind up the bones and veggies from the stock and give it to the chickens for a treat.

Kel: ...you can't give chickens chicken meat! They'll get mad chicken disease!

Me: No honey - mad chicken disease is what -I- have.

 

[Blooie]

A conversation I had with a friend last week.

Me: I'll show you how to cut up a chicken. Instead of buying chicken breasts I can get a whole chicken and get two wings, two breasts, two marylands, two litres of stock and when I'm done I grind up the bones and veggies from the stock and give it to the chickens for a treat.

Kel: ...you can't give chickens chicken meat! They'll get mad chicken disease!

Me: No honey - mad chicken disease is what -I- have.

Love it!

 

[The Yakima Kid]

A conversation I had with a friend last week.

Me: I'll show you how to cut up a chicken. Instead of buying chicken breasts I can get a whole chicken and get two wings, two breasts, two marylands, two litres of stock and when I'm done I grind up the bones and veggies from the stock and give it to the chickens for a treat.

Kel: ...you can't give chickens chicken meat! They'll get mad chicken disease!

Me: No honey - mad chicken disease is what -I- have.

Many years ago, more than 30 years ago, I received my degree in Foods and Nutrition from Oregon State University. I remember being astounded when our professor showed us how to cut up a chicken in a laboratory class. I thought everyone knew how to cut up a chicken - and I asked why we had that demonstration, since it wasn't anything like our laboratory exercises. She noted that over the last decade with the popularity of prepackaged, precut chickens, more and more students didn't have the slightest idea of what to do with a whole chicken.

I can only imagine it is worse now.

 

[tandykins]

Many years ago, more than 30 years ago, I received my degree in Foods and Nutrition from Oregon State University. I remember being astounded when our professor showed us how to cut up a chicken in a laboratory class. I thought everyone knew how to cut up a chicken - and I asked why we had that demonstration, since it wasn't anything like our laboratory exercises. She noted that over the last decade with the popularity of prepackaged, precut chickens, more and more students didn't have the slightest idea of what to do with a whole chicken.

I can only imagine it is worse now.

To be honest I didn't learn until I was an adult. Someone suggested it to me as a way to save money and I've been doing it ever since. I like to use every last part if I can. I don't even buy ground beef anymore if I can avoid it. I buy whole beef hearts, separate out the best bits and grind it. Then I take the fat and freeze it for cooking and the rest gets ground into dog food. It's really delicious beef at $1.80/pound because hearts (and other offal) are "icky".

 

[TheKeeper]

Many years ago, more than 30 years ago, I received my degree in Foods and Nutrition from Oregon State University. I remember being astounded when our professor showed us how to cut up a chicken in a laboratory class. I thought everyone knew how to cut up a chicken - and I asked why we had that demonstration, since it wasn't anything like our laboratory exercises. She noted that over the last decade with the popularity of prepackaged, precut chickens, more and more students didn't have the slightest idea of what to do with a whole chicken.

I can only imagine it is worse now.

One of my favorite Jacques Pepin cooking shows was when he showed how to cut up a chicken (or any fowl) - It was so neat & quick.
It is practically a lost art in home kitchens.

I am in my mid-40's and looked on strangely often because I have processed not only fowl but pigs, deer, & elk.
Part of the enjoyment for me is the interest in the physiology of each animal.
So cool to see how things are connected & work together.
Whether evolution or divine direction, it's an amazing work of functional art.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

One of my favorite Jacques Pepin cooking shows was when he showed how to cut up a chicken (or any fowl) - It was so neat & quick.
It is practically a lost art in home kitchens.

I am in my mid-40's and looked on strangely often because I have processed not only fowl but pigs, deer, & elk.
Part of the enjoyment for me is the interest in the physiology of each animal.
So cool to see how things are connected & work together.
Whether evolution or divine direction, it's an amazing work of functional art.

Absolutely. It is a miracle, isn't it?

 

[oldrooster]

Quote:
In my area in the States, hearts, ox tail, tongue etc. because the cow is killed, cleaned, excavated, and broken down into smaller portions (smaller than a quarter) at a large factory style processing plant. I cannot get those cuts without paying almost as much or more than a top choice steak. I am too far from the local processor (for families and a few local specialty restaurants that are almost exclusively locally owned) to make a determination to see if it is financially feasible to buy meat , I might have to buy several and hundred pounds of lower quality meat to make it break even, let alone come out ahead....