This delightful little chart popped up on Boingboing a few weeks ago. It was one of the first things I remember learning about chickens when my mother decided to start raising them. The illustrator got the self-satisfaction of the hen just right. Click to make it a little bigger.
This is a fun article on the pop philosophy of raising chickens.
Watching chickens is a very old human pastime, and the forerunner of psychology, sociology and management theory. Sometimes understanding yourself can be made easier by projection on to others. Watching chickens helps us understand human motivations and interactions, which is doubtless why so many words and phrases in common parlance are redolent of the hen yard: “pecking order”, “cockiness”, “ruffling somebody’s feathers”, “taking somebody under your wing”, “fussing like a mother hen”, “strutting”, a “bantamweight fighter”, “clipping someone’s wings”, “beady eyes”, “chicks”, “to crow”, “to flock”, “get in a flap”, “nest eggs” and “preening”.
For people who’ve spent some time around chickens a lot of what’s in this essay will ring true.