Chook

2006, Judith Brett, The Chook in the Australian Unconscious, in Peter Beilharz, Robert Manne, Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays, page 329, This little book, with its meticulous pencil drawings of chooks in mechanical contraptions and photos to show the machine in operation with a white leghorn called Gregory Peck, is evidence of both the sadism inspired by the chook′s comparatively flightless fate and the laughter we use to defend ourselves against the knowledge of that sadism.

Worm chickens once every three months and, if an occasional lice problem occurs, spray the inside of the chook shed with Coopex.

She decided to dig her way under the fence into their chook house and had great fun running around and biting the necks of about eight chooks and leaving them half-dead and bleeding. The neighbour was furious, and unfortunately it was Dad′s birthday, so when he arrived home from work, Mum said ‘Happy birthday and^([sic]) darling. Guess what? Your dog has half-killed most of the neighbour′s chooks.

Letting your chooks clean the compost of curl grubs will make it fairly safe to put on the garden.

Chook, chook, quack, quack, / Cock-a-doodle-doo; / All the ducks and the fowls / Admire me, they do.