Chickens

Resident of the Third Street Coop and neighbor of the J Street Co-op

Chickens can be found throughout Davis; a lot of people keep them in their backyards. There used to be a chicken running around loose in the 7th & F Street area, but she may have been hit by a car, eaten, or recaptured, as she hasn't made an appearance since September 2004. Two roosters have been spotted multiple times during 2006 and 2007 wandering in front of the Bargain Barn and Fleet Services. A growing flock makes it's home where Solano Park meets the Arboretum.

It is legal to keep up to six chickens on private property in Davis. However, roosters are illegal for apparent noise issues. The Domes has a chicken named Chamomile.
Higby's in Dixon sells chicks in the spring/summer for about $2 each.

UC Davis Geneticists recently sequenced the chicken genome confirming chickens and humans are related. If you really need a chicken fix, you can eat your cousin at KFC. An alternative to chicken is tofu or Quorn nuggets.

To learn about other fauna that roam the streets of Davis, check out our Town Wildlife, or for the fenced in or caged animals, see our Town Fauna!

Crowing rooster at the Davis Experimental Farm, Picture by MatthewTom

• Fair Oaks, California, has had free-roaming chickens in its old city center for decades. Old Fair Oaks Village, a small town near Sunrise Bridge spanning the American River, has even been immortalized for its chicken fetish in a song. Slocum House, a restaurant inside the village, is famous for its little chickens running around on the patio where you eat.

• Chickens apparently don't necessarily need a head to survive... Fruita, Colorado was home to Mike the Headless Chicken, whose image is enshrined in a large statue in the town square. Poor Mike was going to be dinner, but Farmer Olsen cut off his head just above the brain stem and the hatchet just missed his jugular — Mike lived for 18 months beyond dinner and was fed by the guilt-ridden, but suddenly famous farmer using a dropper.
  

• sorry, I don't buy that. A chicken most assuredly needs a head. - EfremRensi
  

• Perhaps this would change your mind: Headless Mike

• PBS produced a hugely entertaining video all about chickens called The Natural History of the Chicken. The piece doesn't take any political stances, but addresses amazing chickens, chicken production, crazy chicken people, and even raising fighting cocks (no jokes!). Oh, Mike's in the video as well.

• The State of California maintains sentinel flocks of chickens throughout the state as an early warning system for vector-borne disease outbreaks.

Hen at the Davis Experimental Farm, Picture by MatthewTom

Chicken You Can’t Roost Too High for Me
(written & recorded by Frank Stokes)

Chicken, chicken, you can’t roost too high for me


Chicken, chicken, come down out of your tree


Chicken, chicken, chicken, you can’t roost too high for me


C... in a chicken coup


H... to make a better hen


I... am a Bird


C... as the rooster’s crows


K... is the killing word


E... I’m near the end


C - H - I - C - K - E - N


That’s the way you spell chicken.

Comments:

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2009-09-06 15:19:34   Anyone know whose chickens are running around 5th and F? There's a mom and three chicks. —ZN

2009-09-07 11:58:33   My husband almost got hit by a bus trying to avoid that chicken while biking and when my mom came to visit, she was just amazed that chickens wandered around the city. 5th and F chicken- you are my favorite. —EricaMacGregor