It’s sad that some chickens don’t get a very good life because some people think they are only good for one thing. But apart from just laying eggs, chickens are good at so many things and they seem much happier when they get to express all of their chicken-ness in one go! To find out just how awesome chooks can be…
1. Draw a chicken.
2. Next to it, write down everything it needs to have a happy, healthy life.
3. On the other side of the chicken, write down things that it can do & produce.
4. Draw an arrow from each thing the chicken does or produces and write down where those things could end up and any ways they could be used.
5. Extra challenge: See how many of the things that the chicken makes or does could eventually connect up with the things it needs to be a happy chicken!
We might not be as different to chickens as we think!
lyrics
They call me Arabella Isa Brown
I’m a chicken from the baddest part of town
They locked me up with seven million hens like me
In a big smelly egg laying factory
But one day along came someone like you
And let me tell you just what they did do
Got me out and took me away
It was the first time I’d seen the light of day
I was a free chicken
A free range chicken!
They took me home and gave me my own patch
I had to learn just how to peck and scratch
I was so happy, I just had to express
I could finally provide a bit of chicken-ness!
I was a free chicken
A free range chicken!
When I say ‘Bok’, you say ‘Begerk!’
When I say ‘scratchin’ you say ‘dirt!’
Now let me see you scratch, c‘mon get to work!
So ever since the day I came on the scene
I’m way more than just an egg-laying machine
Fluff the ground, eat the bugs, scratching the weeds
Do my bit of do to give the soil a feed
Cos I’m a free chicken. A free range chicken!
Now I’m a very happy hen indeed
Got food ‘n room to move ‘n everything I need
So come on now, be a chicken too
So you can see that you’re like me and I’m like you
Be a free chicken. A free range chicken!
Express your chickenness!
credits
from Grow Do It,
released September 2, 2016
Charlie Mgee: ukulele & vocals
Mal Webb: trombone, slide trumpet & gourd bass
Michael Barker: drums
Alex Burkoy: electric guitar begerks
Written by Charlie Mgee & Formidable Vegetable Sound System.
Recorded at: Twisty Pole Studios - Rotorua, NZ & Casa-del-Mal - St Kilda, VIC.
Produced by Spoonbill & Charlie Mgee.
Mixed & mastered by Spoonbill in King Lake, VIC.
I originally wrote this song when I was 8 years old, but many thanks to Arabella the chicken and Carolan for inspiring the lyrics!
With a wheelbarrow full of dirty
electro radish-beets, crusty jazz ukulele, swingin' strings and hyperactive horns, Formidable Vegetable are here to sow the garden of your mind with seeds of future-resilience in the funkiest way possible.
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