A poultry story

I thought I’d take up the theme of poultry again. It just seems to be an underlying theme in all my field work/travels. My first bus ride in Tanzania was immortalized by the presence of a lady holding a chicken, happily clucking away on her lap. Frankly, I think I could write a whole book on my poultry experiences… and I’m sure I would sell at least one: to my father.

Still, I am amazed by the number of poultry experiences I’ve encountered here in such a short period of time. Let’s list a few:

1. We are blessed on camp with the presence of Fabio – the relentless turkey. He is constantly parading to the genuinely uninterested female turkeys. And to the minibus. I wish I could sit him down and tell him to stop, or at least rethink his appearance, because frankly Fabio, you look a bit dishevelled.

2. In Manakara, while we were at the internet, a man stopped at the door. He was carrying a stick, holding chicken by their feet on either side. He was quite keen to sell them to us.

3. The geese and more importantly, the goslings. I think they are even better than baby bunnies… and anybody who was around when I was in the lab, knows that in itself is a feat.

4. The rooster in a bag. While waiting for our ride back to Kianjavato (scheduled at 8, leaving at 9:30), a lady tried stuffing a rooster in a plastic bag, to no avail. He was resisting greatly, though it really was for his safety. After a good 10 minutes, she resorted in lining a basket with said bag, and putting him in it. We laughed a bit, but then some 20 minutes later, we saw a basket being thrown from the office to one of the loaders. Megan questioned, “is that the chicken?”. Before I could answer, we heard an outraged cluck from the bag, confirming it was indeed the rooster. He then was tied onto the roof of the minibus. So really, the woman was simply trying to provide him with a windbreaker.

5. Calvin. Unexplicably, for a few days, there was a young rooster tied to a post in the kitchen, kind of like a dog on a peg. I assume he’d been naughty and they thought it was some form of adequate punishment.

6. My favorite – last night, while eating lunch, we heard a distressed cluck and turn around to discover a chicken on its back, frantically pedalling the air. It resembled some kind of grotesque beetly unable to turn back around. Luckily, whilst hilarity rippled through most of us, Henriette had the decency of helping to get it back on its feet. But it was funny.

7. Mass poultry transport – how do you get ducks and chickens back to Tana to sell on the market? By putting them in giant baskets tied to the top of taxi brousses of course.