I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that in Japan, after Emperor Tenmu banned the eating of meat, certain animals were considered not to be meat. This did not include chickens, but it did include wild poultry. Also fish, eggs, probably others I’m not aware of/remembering.
I think this is related to why Japanese uses the same counter words for rabbits and birds. You can’t just say a number plus object in Japanese alone, because you need a counter word with it. So 2 bottles is “bottles 2 long things” and 4 pieces of paper is “paper 4 flat things”. Small animals are usually counted with the word “hiki”, so you’d say “salmon 5 hiki” or “dogs 2 hiki”, but birds use “wa” instead. I think rabbits are also wa so people could basically say “Uh, no we’re not eating meat, we’re just having some long eared furry birds.”
I had a fair sized yard flock for a number of years. I have seen chickens kill and consume snakes, mice, voles, all manner of insect of course, lizards, other birds foolish enough to try to get to the chicken feed, and once one of their own chicks that just wouldn’t shut up. They definitely eat meat.
When I go out to plant/weed I’ll open the coop door and yell “worm time” and my gals follow at my heels to get whatever treats I turn up. This is my first year with them and I can already tell the insect damage to my garden is greatly reduced. Thinking about adding guinea fowl and maybe some peafowl next year.
I heard once that chicken is considered vegetarian in some countries.
In my country, old people consider fish and chicken vegetarian for some reason
I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that in Japan, after Emperor Tenmu banned the eating of meat, certain animals were considered not to be meat. This did not include chickens, but it did include wild poultry. Also fish, eggs, probably others I’m not aware of/remembering.
I think this is related to why Japanese uses the same counter words for rabbits and birds. You can’t just say a number plus object in Japanese alone, because you need a counter word with it. So 2 bottles is “bottles 2 long things” and 4 pieces of paper is “paper 4 flat things”. Small animals are usually counted with the word “hiki”, so you’d say “salmon 5 hiki” or “dogs 2 hiki”, but birds use “wa” instead. I think rabbits are also wa so people could basically say “Uh, no we’re not eating meat, we’re just having some long eared furry birds.”
It’s true that chickens don’t eat meat.
Edit: This is not true.
I had a fair sized yard flock for a number of years. I have seen chickens kill and consume snakes, mice, voles, all manner of insect of course, lizards, other birds foolish enough to try to get to the chicken feed, and once one of their own chicks that just wouldn’t shut up. They definitely eat meat.
Pretty much every herbivore will eat meat every now and then.
When I go out to plant/weed I’ll open the coop door and yell “worm time” and my gals follow at my heels to get whatever treats I turn up. This is my first year with them and I can already tell the insect damage to my garden is greatly reduced. Thinking about adding guinea fowl and maybe some peafowl next year.
yeah, i saw a flock of chickens descend on a fullgrown chicken who just happened to be having a bad week. they’re evil creatures.
Indeed! I remember a story of a wounded pidgeon falling into a chicken coop… Not much remained of said pidgeon, apparently.
TIL while checking my own dumb joke. I guess I just thought they ate seeds, corn, etc.
Have you ever seen images like this?
Many animals we consider herbivores are opportunistic omnivores.
One video of a horse eating baby chickens was enough for me.
My chickens eat more mice than my cats.
Cows eat grass and corn tho. Therefore cows are made of plants, therefore cows are vegetables. Checkmate carnivores.
Chickens love eating bugs
haven’t you seen the hen dino out on a mouse? actually there are multiple videos of them killing mice and rats
Joking aside—is there a better way I could’ve written down chicken meat being considered a vegetarian option, you think?
Nope, my need to make dumb dad jokes is just insatiable. Sorry!