{"id":3792,"date":"2014-12-12T12:02:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T17:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/?p=3792"},"modified":"2024-12-21T12:08:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T17:08:25","slug":"the-bird-that-flipped-the-world-secret-histories-of-the-modern-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/the-bird-that-flipped-the-world-secret-histories-of-the-modern-chicken\/","title":{"rendered":"The bird that flipped the world: Secret histories of the modern chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3794\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/chickens.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3794\" class=\"wp-image-3794 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/chickens.jpg\" alt=\"chickens\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Three laying hens of an urban farmer peer out of their pen. (Credit: David Stephenson)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One autumn day in 1842, a gift of five hens and two roosters arrived at Windsor Castle for the young Queen Victoria. These were not the scrappy little English chickens of the day, but enormous regal creatures carried to Britain by a naval officer returning from the Opium War in China. Victoria was entranced. She hired a royal poultry keeper and ordered a luxurious aviary built to house the exotic birds, which included a private apartment where she and her new husband, Prince Albert, could watch the fowl cavort on the pebbled paths.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2014\/12\/06\/the_bird_that_flipped_the_world_secret_histories_of_the_modern_chicken\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One autumn day in 1842, a gift of five hens  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The bird that flipped the world: Secret histories of the modern chicken &#8226; Andrew Lawler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One autumn day in 1842, a gift of five hens and two roosters arrived at Windsor Castle for the young Queen Victoria. 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