The Amazing Chicken

MUMMIFY A CHICKEN!

Mummify a chicken! Just like (sort of) the ancient Egyptians. See Chicken Mummies at the Teacher’s Corner for a materials list and instructions.

Arts, Crafts, and Chickens

	Colorful Clucking Chickens is a papercraft-and-pipecleaner project for elementary-level kids. Make a cool flock.
	From First School, the Chicken and Hen Theme page has printable letter sheets (H is for Hen), coloring pages, and crafts for preschoolers, among them a handprint chicken and a chicken greeting card.
	Make a handprint chicken (or a footprint pig) with these instructions from Handprint and Footprint Art.
	From Artists Helping Children. Chicken and Hen and Rooster Crafts for Kids has instructions for many varied chicken crafts, among them a stand-up rooster, a paper chicken mask, chicken sock puppets, and thumbprint chicks.
	Maya Angelou’s My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2003), illustrated with color photographs, is the story of eight-year-old Thandi who lives in a Ndebele village in South Africa. Thandi describes village life and culture to the reader (her “stranger-friend”), concentrating on the things she particularly loves – the brightly painted houses of the villagers, her mother’s beautiful beadwork, and the chicken who is her best friend. For ages 6-10.
	Musical chickens! Sandra Boynton’s Philadelphia Chickens (Workman Publishing, 2002) is a book-and-CD “zoological musical revue,” with 20 catchy tunes, among them the title (chicken) song, performed by the Bacon Brothers. For ages 5 and up.
	Bake chicken cupcakes – that is, cupcakes that look like chickens – with this recipe from Easy Cupcakes.

POETIC CHICKENS

	Check out Jack Prelutsky’s poem Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens The title poem begins: “Last night I dreamed of chickens/there were chickens everywhere/they were standing on my stomach/they were nesting in my hair”).
	At Kenn Nesbitt’s Poetry4Kids, see My Chicken’s on the Internet.
	Karin S. Wiberg’s Chicken Haiku (Clear Sight, 2018) is a collection of 24 clever illustrated haiku, all about chickens. All ages.
	William Carlos Williams’s classic The Red Wheelbarrow involves white chickens.

CHICKENS IN THE MOVIES

A very small genre.

	In Peter Lord and Nick Parks’s Claymation comedy Chicken Run (2000), the residents of a sinister Yorkshire chicken farm (all at risk of Death by Chicken Pie) plan their escape with the help of Rocky Rhodes, an American flying rooster.
	In Disney’s animated Robin Hood (1973), all the characters are animals: Robin Hood and Maid Marian are foxes; Little John a brown bear; King John a lion. The minstrel Allan-a-Dale is a rooster (voiced by Roger Miller).

CHICKENS IN YOUR BACKYARD

	Tillie, of Terry Golson’s Tillie Lays an Egg (Scholastic, 2009) lives with six other hens in the henhouse in the backyard of Little Pond Farm. The other hens cooperatively lay their eggs in nesting boxes, but Tillie prefers the garden, the porch, the kitchen, the laundry basket, and the pickup truck. Color photographs follow the unpredictable Tillie around the farm. Think hide-and-seek, with a chicken. For ages 3-7.
	Gail Damerow’s Your Chickens: A Kid’s Guide to Raising and Showing (Storey Publishing, 1993) is a useful kid-friendly guide covering all the basics, including chicken breeds, coops, maintenance (What do you feed them? What to do in winter?), and egg management. The book has diagrams, photographs, fact boxes, a glossary, and a source list. For ages 10 and up.
	By Kimberley Willis and Rob Ludlow, the annoyingly titled Raising Chickens for Dummies (For Dummies, 2009) covers all the basics, as does Jerome Belanger’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Raising Chickens (Alpha, 2010). Comprehensive and useful, though I maintain that ignorance of chickens does not necessarily make you a complete idiot.
	Also helpful for beginners: Gail Damerow’s savvy Storey Guide to Raising Chickens (Storey Publishing, 2010); Rick and Gail Luttmann’s Chickens in Your Backyard (Rodale Books, 1976); and – my current favorite – Jenna Woginrich’s Chick Days: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens from Hatching to Laying (Storey Publishing, 2011), illustrated with great color photographs.
	Jessi Bloom’s Free-Range Chicken Gardens (Timber Press, 2012), illustrated with drawings and color photographs, shows hopeful chicken-owners how to manage both wandering chickens and a growing garden.
	Photographer Stephen Green-Armytage’s Extraordinary Chickens (Harry N. Abrams, 2003) covers fifty fantastic, fabulous, and bizarre breeds of chickens with splashy color photos. For even more spectacular chickens, see the sequel Extra Extraordinary Chickens (2005).
	Judy Pangman’s Chicken Coops (Storey Publishing, 2006) has 45 plans for a range of creative chicken houses, variously for small flocks, large flocks, city flocks, and country flocks. Convert your backyard tool shed or build a coop on wheels.
	For the artistic chicken owner, Chris Gleason’s The Art of the Chicken Coop (Fox Chapel Publishing, 2011) has designs, materials lists, and step-by-step instructions for building seven truly gorgeous chicken coops, including a chicken gypsy caravan. Get your kids to try their hands at designing a spectacular coop of their own.

A GIFT OF CHICKENS

Heifer International is a charitable organization dedicated to sustainable solutions to world hunger. For $20, donors can give a flock of chickens to a needy family.