3 French Hens

In honor of the holiday season, we are re-releasing our 12 Days of Christmas special! For the next 12 days, we will re-release one episode a day, each one with our own spin on the classic holiday theme, "The 12 Days of Christmas."

Katie tells us all about Hen Fever.

Transcript

Chicken Mania

Speaker 1 0:13

On the third day of Christmas , my true love gave to me three French hens , hence and cindy . Would you be surprised at all to know that the term french isn't really specifically referring to a specific breed of hen , but rather just referring to anything foreign ?

Speaker 2 0:38

that was so poorly timed . Wait a minute . So we're using the word french just to refer to anything that's not english , english , no english , go on .

Speaker 1 0:54

So , and it's . It's also believed that it's . It could be a play on the word . So the latin word for uh , chicken is like uh , a golem . So and and that's very similar to the Latin word Anything pertaining to France is garlic , so chicken , france , so on . Now , cindy , you've heard of the beanie baby bubble have you ?

Speaker 2 1:29

you've heard of the beanie baby bubble . I have no , I used to have a lot of beanie babies . I don't know where they went .

Speaker 1 1:32

I think my mom threw them all out when I moved out . That's too bad , because now they're worth nothing . You've heard of the housing bubble yeah , yep the dot-com bubble . Have you heard of the chicken bubble ?

Speaker 2 1:47

that's chicken pox . Thank you very much , and it's called pus , not bubbles , sorry that was no , no .

Speaker 1 2:00

But on a more serious note , like our children , children are never going to have to have chicken pox .

Speaker 2 2:08

That occurred to me a couple of years ago for the first time . It never hit me that my child will never have to deal with chicken pox .

Speaker 1 2:15

Yeah , it was like a rite of passage in childhood . I remember eating my own body weight in popsicles when I had chicken pox , because I had them in my throat . Yes , yes , yes , oh yeah . Oh , the good old days . Good old days Getting so itchy . Now we just have COVID .

Speaker 2 2:33

Delta Omicron Omicron .

Speaker 1 2:37

Omicron , Umicron , Everybody .

Speaker 2 2:40

Cron . You say it Momicron , I say it Momicron .

Speaker 1 2:44

Back to the chicken bubble . Between 1845 and 1855 in the United States there was hen fever . No , not like saturday , like saturday night fever . Although some might say it was just as popular and perhaps even more contagious , it was not actually an illness of any variety . Instead , it was a craze for all things chicken , started by queen victoria . I feel like she's very much a trendsetter in her time . Because of her we have the white wedding dress , the engagement ring and now obsession with chickens , afc .

Speaker 2 3:32

Okay .

Speaker 1 3:34

Well , we're getting to that , oh , okay . Seat , okay . Well , we're getting to that , okay . So in 1852 , queen victoria received seven exotic hens from china . She was so excited by these little fluffy birds that she built an elaborate chicken coop for them , which she eventually did fill with other types of exotic animals . And what she did fill with other types of exotic chicken , and she would reportedly spend hours in the coop just sitting , relaxing , drinking tea and watching the little hens rung amongst her skirts . She would very carefully decorate each egg that was laid and then send them to royalty around Europe to show off her wealth and her new hobby .

Speaker 2 4:23

You know how around the holidays you always get that gift from a distant relative and you're just kind of like let's all see what Uncle Stephen sent . Can you imagine people during this time like let's see what Queen Victoria sent us oh , it's another egg . Oh , let's see what queen victoria sent us oh , it's another egg . Let's all pretend to be really excited . Make sure the next time we see her at court you tell her how lovely the egg was make sure you say thank you , make sure you take the chicken with you .

Speaker 1 4:49

Just pull it out of the the closet , just . You just have to have it with you for 45 minutes when you see her , and then you can , you put it away just have it out , when she visits exactly so her preoccupation with her little feathered friends spread like wildfire amongst the lower classes , as her perchance for poultry was disseminated by newspapers . And it wasn't before long before this new craze swept across the Atlantic to America .

Speaker 2 5:22

Wait a minute , sorry , the chicken craze or the decorating the ?

Speaker 1 5:26

egg craze , oh . No , the chicken , the collecting exotic chickens craze , oh okay , that one by 1849 , boston had its very first poultry exhibition , where reportedly 10,000 spectators showed up and there were nearly 300 exhibitors .

Speaker 2 5:48

I mean to be fair . I did also do that episode on the Battle of Bull Run where people showed up to watch the Civil War . Not surprised people showed up to watch a bunch of chickens well , these are all like chicken enthusiasts .

Speaker 1 6:03

I mean it's , it's , it's the 18 , it's almost 1850 , like . What are you going to be doing with your time besides breeding chickens and raising chickens and seeing chickens exhibited you ?

Speaker 2 6:14

could read the book of children's mirth or go to a chicken show mirth without mischief .

Speaker 1 6:22

And I have to say , cindy , like I read up a little bit of up on the boston poultry exhibition , well , first of all , you can still go to it , they still have it . Yes , it's not in boston anymore , it's outside boston . It has been canceled for the 2021 year due to COVID , unfortunately . However , I think maybe next year we should go . I'm just saying .

Speaker 2 6:46

I'm getting our tickets right now .

Speaker 1 6:48

I was absolutely fascinated by the gentleman who started the poultry exhibition . He was a man by the name of Dr John C Bennett , and to say he's a colorful character is a bit of an understatement . He had commanded a company for the Union in the Civil War . He was an advocate of the health benefits of the tomato .

Speaker 2 7:10

He was a tomato advocate .

Speaker 1 7:12

He was . He was a tomato advocate A tomavocate . He was a tomavocate An advocato .

Speaker 2 7:27

An advocato .

Speaker 1 7:31

That's amazing . He was , in addition to being an advocato , he was a pioneer in the use of chloroform as an anesthetic .

Speaker 2 7:42

He was a serial killer . I'm not a serial killer , I'm just a pioneer of the use of chloroform .

Speaker 1 7:50

He was a leader of the Latter-day Saints movement until he was expelled for adultery . He also helped to found some medical colleges , but then ended up selling medical diplomas , and he also bred chicken .

Speaker 2 8:04

Wow , a real Renaissance man .

Speaker 1 8:09

So the the boon in chickens . It continued like into 1855 , at its peak , at its Zenith , people were spending up to a dollar per egg , which in modern money that's about 30 dollars american . What ? I said three thousand dollars , no , not that , and then a breeding pair of birds , of exotic exotic birds , would set you back $120 , which again in today's money is about $3,600 . To kind of put things into perspective , if you really want to get an exotic it's a bantam , a Chinese bantam it's going to cost you $4.19 .

Speaker 2 8:55

Stocking stuffers Adding to your Christmas wishlist .

Speaker 1 8:59

There you go . So by 1855 , the market for these birds had just been . It had been absolutely flooded with eggs and chickens , and there was just no real market for them anymore . I found one disgruntled chicken salesman , chicken . They call him a chicken boss , but that didn't seem right either .

Speaker 2 9:25

That sounds so right ? No , that sounds . If I'm going to be selling chickens , I am absolutely calling myself the chicken boss . Can you just see the TLC show now ? Chicken boss , chicken boss , some angry guy in upstate New York , I'm the chicken boss .

Speaker 1 9:42

Because we know Ice Road Chicken Truckers was already taken .

The Tale of Hen Fever

Speaker 1 9:50

So this is what one purveyor of poultry is quoted as saying in 1855 . It's useless to try and sell them . You can't give up on them . No one will accept them . You can't starve them to death because they'll aggravate you . They'll become fierce and dangerous and they will knock down the strongest closet door . You can't kill them because they are as tough as a rhino and live tenaciously like a cat .

Speaker 2 10:14

Wait a minute , is this ? I mean they're describing chickens or they're talking about feminists back in the day ?

Speaker 1 10:19

No , he's talking about chickens ?

Speaker 2 10:22

No , that's how they refer to suffragettes . Suffragettes .

Speaker 1 10:25

Tough as a rhino , scrappy as a cat , can't give them away , can't lock them in a closet , can't do anything with them . They just want to vote . And that , cindy , is the story of hen fever .

Speaker 2 10:40

Ah , ah , ah ah , staying a chicken , staying a chicken , ah ah , ah ah , staying a chicken .

Speaker 1 10:48

Chicken , you're a fine girl , what a lovely chicken you'll be .

Speaker 2 10:55

I don't want to be a chicken . I don't want to be a chicken . So shake your butt .