Dear Lionpainter, Chickenpainter
In a message dated 12/1/2015 6:01:02 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
lionpainter@xxxxxxxxx writes in "Savvy Thereabouts": "I have been so inspired
by the
chickens and their conversations that I've been painting them; 4 paintings
so far."
Congrats!
A beautiful species, it is, too. The lion, yes, but the chicken, too.
Linneo, as the Italians call them, called the chicken "Gallus gallus
domesticus" in 1758.
Linneo was NOT flouting Grice's desideratum ("Do not be more informative
than is required"). His "gallus gallus" serves some purpose (of Linneo -- he
was a Nordic type, hardly overinformative).
Linneo found that the "Gallus gallus domesticus" was a genetic derivation
of the simple 'Gallus gallus', with some hybridization with the "Gallus
sonneratii".
Geary objects: "This is difficult to understand, but not impossible. It was
Temminick in 1813 who called the Gallus sonneratii the "Gallus
sonneratii," so the puzzling fact that Linneo knew all this in 1758 is a mere
implicature of the 'hic et nunc'.
The Romans used chickens for oracles, when flying ("ex avibus", Augury) and
when feeding ("auspicium ex tripudiis", Alectryomancy).
The hen ("gallina") gave a favourable omen ("auspicium ratum"), when
appearing from the left (Cic.,de Div. ii.26).
For the oracle "ex tripudiis" according to Cicero (Cic. de Div. ii.34),
only chickens ("pulli") were consulted.
The chickens were cared for by the "pullarius", who opened their cage and
fed them pulses or a special kind of soft cake when an augury was needed.
If the chickens stayed in their cage, made noises ("occinerent"), beat
their wings or flew away, the omen was bad.
If they ate greedily, the omen was good.
In 249 BC, the Roman general Publius Claudius Pulcher had his "sacred
chickens" "thrown overboard when they refused to feed before the battle of
Drepana.
Pulcher famously said,
"If they won't eat, perhaps they will drink."
(He thought his implicature was 'clever').
However, Pulcher promptly lost the battle against the Carthaginians and
all ninety-three Roman ships were sunk.
Back in Rome, he was tried for impiety and heavily fined.
In 162 BC, the Lex Faunia forbade fattening hens to conserve grain rations.
The Roman author Columella gives advice on chicken breeding in his eighth
book of his treatise, De Re Rustica (On Agriculture).
He identified Tanagrian, Rhodic, Chalkidic and Median (commonly
misidentified as Melian) breeds, which have an impressive appearance, a
quarrelsome
nature and were used for cockfighting by the 'savage' Greeks (De Re Rustica
8.3.4). (Columella adds, "We Romans invented civilisation," which Grice
takes as an example of the figure of rhetoric, the hyperbole).
For farming, native (Roman) chickens are to be preferred, or a cross
between native hens and Greek (or 'furrin') cocks (De Re Rustica 8.2.13). Dwarf
chickens are nice to watch because of their size but have no other
advantages ("than that," Columella adds).
According to Columella (De Re Rustica 8.2.7), the ideal flock consists of
200 birds, which can be supervised by one person if someone is watching for
stray animals.
White chickens should be avoided as they are not very fertile and are
easily caught by eagles or goshawks.
One cock should be kept for five hens.
In the case of Rhodian and Median cocks that are very heavy and therefore
not much inclined to sex, only three hens are kept per cock.
The hens of heavy fowls are not much inclined to brood; therefore their
eggs are best hatched by normal hens.
A hen can hatch no more than 15-23 eggs, depending on the time of year, and
supervise no more than 30 hatchlings.
Eggs that are long and pointed give more male, rounded eggs mainly female
hatchlings (De Re Rustica 8.5.11).
Columella also states that chicken coops should face southeast and lie
adjacent to the kitchen, as smoke is beneficial for the animals and "poultry
never thrive so well as in warmth and smoke" (De Re Rustica 8.3.1).
Coops should consist of three rooms and possess a hearth. Dry dust or ash
should be provided for dust-baths.
According to Columella (De Re Rustica 8.4.1), chickens should be fed on
barley groats, small chick-peas, millet and wheat bran, if they are cheap.
Wheat itself should be avoided as it is harmful to the birds. Boiled
ryegrass (Lolium sp.) and the leaves and seeds of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)
can be used as well.
Grape marc can be used, but only when the hens stop laying eggs, that is,
about the middle of November; otherwise eggs are small and few.
When feeding grape marc, it should be supplemented with some bran.
Hens start to lay eggs after the winter solstice, in warm places around the
first of January, in colder areas in the middle of February.
Parboiled barley increases their fertility; this should be mixed with
alfalfa leaves and seeds, or vetches or millet if alfalfa is not at hand.
Free-ranging chickens should receive two cups of barley daily.
Columella cruelly advises farmers to slaughter hens that are older than
three years, because they no longer produce sufficient eggs ("for me," -- his
wife, a piteous Roman matron, never followed Columella's advice -- "on
religious grounds," she said).
Cheers,
Speranza
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