Letters from Readers - Dear Randy’s Chicken Blog

You may have noticed that down at the bottom of the page of every post on my blog there’s a clickable link that says “Contact Me.”  You can find another “Contact Me” link by clicking on the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner of the page.  And if you do click on one of those links, you’ll wind up at a box where you can leave a message for me.

 Enough readers actually find their way to the message box that I get a steady trickle of messages.  I love hearing from you! And as long as the message is not too outlandish or is trying to sell me something, I try to answer each one via email. 

Last week was a banner week for messages—the steady trickle turned into a torrent for a bit.  The week started out with this message from Nancy.  Nancy, by-the-way, is not her real name.  Her name and the names of all message writers that follow have been changed.

Nancy’s Message:

Hi Randy!....I am wondering your opinion on someone making a claim that my chickens pecked a five inch hole in their car. I have had free range chickens for 4 years on my property. I would attach a picture, but it doesn't allow me to in this 'contact us' page.
Thank you!
Nancy 

My reply to Nancy:

Hi Nancy!
So, somebody is suggesting that your chickens left a five-inch hole in their car.  I assume they claim the chickens did this with their beaks since chickens have a hard time using tools.  Is the car like the coach in “Cinderella” and made of a pumpkin?  If it is, then it's highly likely that they did.  Chickens love to eat pumpkins!  If, on the other hand, the car is made of Styrofoam, then it's still quite probable that the chickens did the damage since I've seen what they can do to foam insulation.  Styrofoam, btw, is not a good choice for car material.  

But if this car is made from metal, as most cars are, then we all need to be really worried.  Because that would mean that your chickens have abnormally strong beaks.  Since normal chickens can't peck through metal, it would mean that your chickens are mutants.  It also means that no wood or metal fencing that chicken enclosures are normally made out of will contain them, so soon they'll escape, will be running amok and the world will be in danger!  Do NOT let them reproduce!

Best regards,
Randy
Randy's Chicken Blog

Does my reply sound snarky to you?  That definitely was not the intent and I hope that Nancy realizes that the idea of chickens pecking through metal is preposterous and that I was laughing with her at the ridiculousness of that claim.

Nancy’s message came last Monday. I didn’t receive any messages on Tuesday, but got two on Wednesday.  The first Wednesday message was short and trollish.  Was it from an actual troll?  Well, you have to leave your name and email address when you leave a message, so perhaps not.  On the other hand, there’s nothing to say the name and email address left with any given message are real.

Craig’s Message:

CHICKEN ARE NOT DINOSAURS

 My Reply to Craig:

 Hi Craig!
Looks like your keyboard is stuck on all caps.  There's a button on the left-hand side called "Caps Lock."  You may want to check and see if that's on.

I assume that you're contacting me regarding my article "Are Chickens Dinosaurs?"  In that article I suggested that the prevailing scientific opinion was that all birds are dinosaurs.  While there continues to be debate on this topic today, the "birds are dinosaurs" movement has been going on for at least a hundred years.  I think one of the most important recent research findings was that of a team headed by John M. Asara and Lewis C. Cantley, both of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School that compared the peptide sequence found in a T. rex skeleton with that of modern species and found that it most closely matched chickens and ostriches, both birds.  

Dingus and Rowe (Dingus, L., and T.Rowe. 1998. The Mistaken Extinction.W. H. Freeman, New York.) have stated it succinctly:  “…birds are avialian, maniraptoran, tetanurine, theropod, saurischian dinosaurs.”  The key words in that sentence are the first two and the last.  

Here are a few more articles that you might find enlightening:

Downsized Dinosaurs: The Evolutionary Transition to Modern Birds (Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:248–256 - sorry don't have a link)

The Mesozoic Radiation of Birds

Birds are Dinosaurs:  A Simple Answer to a Complex Problem

Taken together, the scientists who subscribe to the bird-dinosaur link are a pretty impressive bunch and they have more degrees than a thermometer.  A really big thermometer!  

Best regards,
Randy
Randy's Chicken Blog

Craig’s message probably didn’t require a reply of that length—or any reply at all for that matter.  Oh well, I was in the mood…

The second message I received on Wednesday was delightful and just sort of made my day.

 Madelyn’s Message:

Hi, so my name is Madelyn and im in 6th grade. So science teacher says you are not a good resource for a project im working on, he said I can you use you as a source if you have a chicken degree or chicken pta. If you could respond it would mean the world to me. I love chickens so much, I don't have any but im trying to convince my mom to get me some. Please respond to me asap!

My Reply to Madelyn:

Hi Madelyn!

Thanks for getting in touch!  First of all, I'm really happy to hear that you love chickens!  I do too, obviously!  They are a bit more work than some other animals because unlike dogs, cats, and all the little guys like hamsters and guinea pigs, they can't live in your house.  As I'm sure you know, you would need to build or buy a coop for them outside - and that takes both some time and some money.  That might be the hard part to get your mom to agree to, but maybe if you continue to show how responsible you are, and that you would do a really good job taking care of them, she'll eventually see your side of things.

OK, regarding using me as a source reference for your project - Here's kind of a long answer:   Before I retired, I was a scientist, so I spent my whole career working on projects, and I needed to gather information for pretty much any project I ever did.  When anybody gathers information, it is really important to know that the information is true.  When I write an article for my blog, it's actually a whole lot like doing a project, so again, I need information.  There are three types of information in my blog articles:  An example of the first type of information is, "Chickens are really cool!"  In this case, I'm just giving my opinion, so I don't need to provide any proof.  An example of the second type of information is this:  "When the temperatures inside your chicken coop is below freezing, the chickens' water will freeze."  In this case, I'm telling about something I have seen myself. While a picture of the frozen water might be a good idea, I don't have to offer any proof beyond that.  An example of the third type of information is, "Today it has become generally accepted by scientists that birds are dinosaurs."  In this case I've gotten my information from somewhere.  When you read my article, how do you know I got my information from a reliable source?  How do you know that I'm not just making it up?  Sadly, you don't.  I am very careful to use reliable sources for any information I share, and I keep track of where I got the information.  If I was writing for a scholarly journal, I would actually list all the places my information came from, but I don't do that for my blog articles.  

So unfortunately, your teacher is right.  Using my blog as a reference is probably not a good idea simply because you don't know and can't prove that I didn't just make everything up.  That's why you have to be careful about stuff you read on the internet.

But here's how I can help.  If you can tell me specifically what your project is and what information you were planning on using from my blog, I can tell you where I got that information.  More than likely all of those sources of information would be references your teacher would approve of.  

So, send me a reply and let me know what you need and I'd be happy to help out.

Good luck with your project and keep loving chickens!

Best regards,
Randy
Randy's Chicken Blog

Over the next couple of days, my inbox exploded with messages and questions about the dinosaur/chicken connection—they all seemed to be coming from the same middle-school in Oklahoma.  It appears that dinos and chickens were a hot topic and all the kids were hashing it out and trying to come to a conclusion.  Since everybody was probably at home and attending class via their computers, I imagine there was a lot of back-and-forth messaging going on.  The spate of messages to my in-box culminated with this one:

Harper’s Message:

I know you own a chicken farm but I am wondering like how the chickens became chickens like did they evolve from dinosaurs? We started a petition at my school for further research as to where the chickens came from. If you could please email me about the cause it is an amazing cause and we just want further research as to where they came from. Please and Thank You. -  Harper, Brooklyn, Madelyn, Heidi, Mia, Kaylee, Chloe, Leah, Emily, Anna, Liam, Dylan, and twelve more. 

My Message to Harper:

Hi Harper, Brooklyn, Madelyn, Heidi, Mia, Kaylee, Chloe, Leah, Emily, Anna, Liam, Dylan, and everybody else!

First, I think it’s fantastic that all of you are interested in and maybe even excited about science.  I think you’re sixth graders - did I get that right?  When I was in sixth grade I got really interested in science and then when I was in seventh grade, I decided I was going to become a scientist, probably mostly because I had a really good science teacher.  I hope that all of you have a good science teacher, too!  I suppose you’re doing distance learning from home right now.  I hope that's going ok - I'm sure you would rather be in actual school.

Anyway, after deciding to become a scientist in seventh grade, that's eventually what I did!  So, I'm actually not a chicken farmer.  After I retired from being a scientist a few years ago, I got a flock of chickens as a hobby and found out it was really fun - because chickens are so cool!  Then I started writing my blog, which is mostly read by other chicken hobbyists.  But it looks like all of you and some of your other Sand Springs classmates have been looking at my blog as well, and that's great--I hope you are enjoying reading it and hope you're learning some good stuff.

Good luck with your petition!  I hope you get a chance to do some research into where chickens came from.  If you study that topic, you’ll probably find out that chickens evolved from wild birds called Asian jungle fowls.  And Asian jungle fowls evolved from other birds.  But the really interesting story is about birds.  Scientists agree that birds evolved from a group of dinosaurs called theropods.  Most scientists now agree that since theropods were dinosaurs, that means that all birds, including chickens, are dinosaurs.

Here are some links to some good information:

This is a great YouTube video from National Geographic called "Are Birds Modern-Day Dinosaurs?"

Here's an article from Scientific American called "How Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds"  There are some big words in here, but I'll bet you can handle them!

Here's one from the Natural History Museum in London called "Why are birds the only surviving dinosaurs?"  There's a good video at the top of the page.

Take a look at these references and let your teacher know you did - maybe he or she will give you extra credit!  

Thanks for getting in touch, think about becoming scientists, and Go Sandites!

Best regards,
Randy
Randy's Chicken Blog

Unfortunately, Harper sent her message from the school’s email system which doesn’t accept emails from outside the system.  I found out about that when my reply bounced.  So, here’s hoping that Harper and everybody else is still looking at my blog—their messages inspired a blog post. And my reply is right here!