In the Coop & Around the World - April 10, 2019

First: I’m back! I had some adventures in Vietnam and Cambodia, but now I’m back in the blogging saddle and ready to share some of my experiences. I told the Hipster Hens that I was visiting the home of their ancestors and I was not lying. The progenitors of domestic chickens were the wild jungle fowl that mostly lived in the rain forests of Southeast Asia. I ran into chickens everywhere I went - on the urban streets of Hanoi, the tiny hamlets along the Mekong River in Cambodia, pecking and scratching on the grounds of Buddhist monasteries, for sale in village markets, and even in the engravings on ancient Angkorian temple walls. The picture at the top is of a couple fine roosters that were strutting through the ruins of ancient Angkor Thom in Cambodia. Stay tuned for a post with anecdotes and pictures of all of those chickens! Also, everywhere I traveled I saw roosters that were obviously being groomed for fighting. Cockfighting is banned in Vietnam - however the ban is not enforced during special festivals and ceremonies and from everything I learned, the authorities turn a blind eye to cockfighting more often than not. I personally think cock fights are a brutal activity and would never grace the activity with the word “sport.” But are my feelings simply an artifact of the culture I live in? Most Americans think of cockfighting as cruel but are just fine with the barbaric way most of the meat birds and laying hens are treated in this country. It’s something to think about. So I did - and will be sharing a post on cockfighting in the near future.

Then: Meet Toby! Toby is our new five-month-old yellow lab puppy! The real truth is that I’ve been back from my travels for a while, but decided to hold off on the blog for a bit while I unpacked, settled in, and spent time searching for a new dog. Toby came along much more quickly than I expected, but as soon as we met, I knew he was the one. Toby’s been living here for a tad more than two weeks, and he is a joy!

Toby has taken over the position of Guardian of the Hipster Hens, which has been vacant since the sad passing of Bailey in 2017. Bailey was a wonderful dog with a fascinating backstory - and Toby, at his tender age, already has his own interesting past, which I’ll be sharing soon in an upcoming post.

Finally: In just three short weeks I’ll be driving to Webster City, Iowa, home of Murray McMurray Hatchery, where I’ll be picking up this year’s baby chicks - ten new little bundles of fluff! You can be sure that I’ll have things to say and pictures to show when that day rolls around. But in the meantime, here’s a great movie showing what goes on behind the scenes at Murray McMurray, and how they hatch all those babies and get them ready to travel to coops everywhere!