Friends of ours keep chickens, usually 4 or 5, sometimes fewer if a fox gets a couple of them. The chickens are all in good health with proper plumage, and able to over winter without any thing other than the huddled warmth gained in their coop. Yet, because of the battery rescue chickens in the UK, chicken sweaters have become a fad. Battery chickens are industrial farm raised chickens, and as one might imagine, not in the best of condition. Bald, or nearly bald, they require sweaters to maintain proper warmth. Hence did those Brit rescuers of those poor unfortunate chickens hatch the idea to take up the needles and knit those defeathered chickens sweaters! It's a brilliant solution to a problem, but completely unnecessary for a properly plumed chicken. Because of etsy, and cottage industries being what they are, chicken sweaters are available for chickens who don't need them, and people who continue to anthropomorphize their animals, cannot resist buying them. Better judgement be damned!
I will confess that I wanted to see my friend's chickens wearing the sweaters, but wast old that the chickens are unagreeable to being dressed up. The chickens have spoken!
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