Something to crow about

Press, 23 May 1977, Page 9

Something to crow about

|NZPA-Reuter Rio Grande,. Ohio 1 A Japanese Blacktail ban-: tarn named Kung Flewk has: set a world record for prolonged chicken flight, flutter--ing 90.57 metres (207 ft 2in)) into a headwind to capture) first place in the inter-1 ) national chicken flying meet--(ing at Rio Grande, Ohio. Kung Flewk’s flight nearly :doubled the old mark and:, itook the top prize of $500.) ■More than 100 hens and ) roosters were flown from a i starting pad on top of a , mail box. “It’s really nothing more than a small farm chicken,” ] said the bird’s owner, Mr , Oscar Cope. < Mr Cope had -selected Kung Flewk for the flight i from several potential contestants in his “stable” be- ; cause it was the only one he,, could catch that morning. 1 the spokesman said. “It was • a very scientific selection 1 process.” i The previous world record - was 49.73 metres (163 ft 2in), i ’ set by an English game hen ) I in 1973. !i Birds from as far away as i i Holland and Bolivia were « enteral in the chicken-flying if

meeting at Mr Bob Evans’s I farm in the southern Ohio ) village. i Some trainers had expressed concern that the )wind might cut the length of some flights. Bui at least one official discounted that I view. I “We tested these chickens) i uphill, downhill, into the) wind, with the wind,” said Mr Lee Durieux, secretary, of the International Chicken) • Flying Association. “You j never know what these dumb things are going to do.” Judges kept a wary eye during morning weigh-ins lest someone try to enter a pheasant or quail, said Dr Clyde Marsh, an Ohio State University veterinarian and I a contest official. “The thing is. there’s) always the possibility of aI cross-bred bird or quail) being brought in to enter,”) said Dr Marsh. “After all,) last year somebody tried to) enter a mechanical'chicken.” ) Dr Marsh presided at the; weigh-ins, and he said he had also been assigned to i make sure that the birds i were not mistreated or) abused during the com-: petition. y j