Recently, the Hipster Hens and I gathered around to blow the candles out on another birthday cake. Randy’s Chicken Blog just celebrated its 5th birthday! Getting from the 4th birthday to the 5th required traversing a very interesting year.

It was right around this time last year that the first case of Covid-19 made its appearance here in my state of Minnesota. And it was about this time that the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be pandemic.

It was also about this time a year ago that my readership, which had been steadily increasing for four years, saw a huge upsurge. I’ve speculated that it was pandemic-related; lots of folks were staying home, those house-bound people looked for an at-home hobby and many of them decided on backyard chickens, and then they went on line looking for information about their new pastime, where they discovered my blog.

Did I get any of that right? If you’re one of the new readers, you know why you’re here. Welcome! I’m so happy to have you along!

There Was This Pandemic - In Case You Missed It

I wrote about the pandemic several times during the year. Yeah, I know. This is a chicken blog so I shouldn’t be straying too far from chickens. But the pandemic affected all of us, and we chicken keepers were not immune from that effect.

In a previous life, before I became a chicken blogger, I was a public health microbiologist. As a matter of fact, at one point in my career in public health, a colleague and I authored a fictional scenario to help hospital professionals assess their readiness to deal with a pandemic. In the scenario I co-authored, a deadly respiratory virus arises in Xian, China, becomes pandemic, then spreads across the US. That may sound eerily prescient, but I think everybody in public health knew that sooner or later something like that was going to happen.

On March 15, wearing my chicken blogger hat on top of my microbiologist’s hat, I posted “Keeping Bad Bugs at Bay - What Keeping Chickens Can Teach About Staying Safe From COVID-19,” which looked at precautions and safeguards in place to protect flocks from infectious agents and suggested that those same safeguards would protect humans from Covid-19. I wrote that if everybody followed the rules and guidelines to prevent spread, then, “deprived of new victims…the virus simply withers and dies.” Then I went on to say, “But, sadly, it isn’t really that simple because people don’t get it.” And now, a year later we’ve all lived through how so many people didn’t get it and didn’t follow the rules and how the virus didn’t just wither and die, but nearly 550,00 people did. Sigh.

Later in the year, I wrote about chicken hoarding. I’m sure you recall toilet paper hoarding. There were reports last spring of another type of hoarding—the same phenomenon that emptied grocery store shelves of toilet paper, only this one involved a living, peeping commodity that can’t just be stacked at the back of a storage closet. Hatcheries saw huge increases in baby chick sales, and customers experienced long calling queues when they tried to phone in their chick orders. Everybody was hoarding chickens!

I also reported on how the pandemic altered buying habits and supply lines and how that resulted in the tragic slaughter of 61,000 productive and healthy laying hens—in just one incident on just one Minnesota farm.

And I talked about how the pandemic affected stories I’d previously reported on: How a young Boston entrepreneur I’d written about, who was starting a business growing black soldier fly larvae for chicken food was hitting pandemic-related snags. And how Moreno Monti and Matteo Tranchellini, whom I’d interviewed regarding their new book of gorgeous chicken photographs, were unable to ship their newly published book due to pandemic restrictions in Italy.

And I told the unhappy story of the Hipster Hens sheltering in place – not because of Covid-19, but because of a marauding Coopers Hawk!

But that year is behind us. On to the next one! What’s coming up? A couple reviews of new chicken books! The continuing coop cam story—getting a system installed, and up and running, and in use, to, first of all, nab the nefarious egg eater! And duck stories! Lots and lots of duck stories! Do you think that I’ll maybe have to change the name of the blog to “Randy’s Chicken And Duck Blog?”

5 Years – 5 Top Posts:

And finally, in case you’re wondering, here’s the list of the five most popular posts from my first five years:

Fifth: Why is Marissa’s Belly So Bloated? Recognizing and Dealing with Ascites in Hens

The tale of Marissa, whose belly was blown up like an over-inflated basketball. This 2019 story details how I determined she had ascites, how I verified the underlying cause, and how I treated her. This post has seen a lot of traffic—people obviously want to know more about this condition. I’m happy for the interest and really happy that Marissa has done well with her treatment and is still with us today!

Fourth: Six Silkie Chicks Grow Up

The happy story of six baby Silkies—with lots of pictures and movie clips. One bright morning in May 2018, I traveled to Forest Lake, Minnesota where I adopted six baby chicks. By October, those babies were gone. In their place were six fine young cockerels and pullets. This post is about what happened in between.

Third: A Carton of Eggs: Part 2 - ALDI’s Goldhen Farm Fresh Eggs

This post has turned out to be perennially popular; maybe because it discusses a popular brand of eggs. The focus of the series was the information provided on the egg carton and what it tells us about the eggs contained within. In this case, in spite of the carton picture that appears to show a hen on a green hill in the sunshine, these eggs are produced by hens who never see the sun and are confined in battery cages. This post is four years old and deserves an update. One important event that has happened since this post was published was Aldi’s announcement that it would no longer sell eggs from hens in battery cages by 2025. And Aldi’s does, in fact, now offer cage-free eggs in addition to battery-cage-eggs, but to my knowledge still does not offer pasture-raised eggs – the most humane option.

Second: Marek’s Disease: Six Things You Should Know

While this 2018 post is long, technical, and depressing, it continues to be popular. Sadly, a lot of flock-keepers are searching for information because their birds are suffering and dying from this devastating disease. Last year I expanded the information in this post in Marek’s Disease: 8 Questions - 8 Answers . Both posts give the low-down on vaccinating your chicks for Marek’s at home.

First: Are Chickens Dinosaurs?

I’m sure you’ve heard or read the phrase, “Chickens are the closest living relative to Tyrannosaurus rex.” Probably more than once. It is false, misleading, and rankles me every time I come across it. My most recent encounters with this phrase: First, a caption in a popular national science magazine. I had some back-and-forth via email with the editor who wrote the caption and she has admitted her mistake. Second, on bottom of the bottlecap of a popular fruit drink – part of their “facts” series. They got this fact wrong. I’ve written to them and am waiting expectantly for a reply. Third, in the “true facts” section of a book recently published by a fellow chicken blogger for whom I have a great deal of respect. I have not reached out to her – maybe because I’m feeling it would be discourteous to point out errors to a peer. I probably need to develop some gumption and send her an email. Anyway, this post tells the real truth about the chicken/dino connection. And while it continues to be popular, obviously the misinformation continues to circulate. So spread the word, everybody! Spread the truth!