Glasses For Chickens. Yes, Chickens!
A post by Charlotte
During the Second World War, food rationing gave civilians a much more limited diet than had been enjoyed previously, with eggs, sugar, butter and other foodstuffs available in carefully measured quantities which had to last the week.
Eggs Equal Sugar
My grandmother was a careful housekeeper and decided to keep chickens in her backgarden in suburban Carshalton Beeches in Surrey. She thought that she could exchange their eggs for sugar, tea and other necessities with her neighbours and barter for goods she needed.
So my grandfather put up a hen run, complete with chicken wire, and a hen coop so that the birds could be kept away from hungry foxes at night. The chickens arrived one day by van and were shown to their new home
Hen Pecked
The hens settled in, but it quickly became apparent that a couple of them were being bullied by the others, pecked and scratched at. As a result, the egg laying and general health of these particular hens was affected badly and so my grandmother went to the library to read up on the problem. She contacted the Ministry for Food for further advice.
She was amazed to learn that the solution to the problem of her bullied hens was to equip them with spectacles.
Spectacles Recommended By The Wartime Government
She sent off mail order for the spectacles and was amused when some small pairs of lenses arrived in the post wrapped in a box. The chickens were fitted with their new frames, which featured slightly tinted lenses, and voila, the problem was solved. Instead of picking on the two suffering chickens, the hens ignored them once the glasses were in place. The two hens relaxed and became very good layers, and without being pecked and worried, grew new feathers and altogether looked much better.
Really, rather than chicken spectacles, these gadgets were chicken goggles. I would be interested to learn how they were invented in the first place. It’s surreal to think that somebody actually considered fitting spectacles to a chicken’s eyes – and then actually did so.
A Source Of Entertainment
My grandmother continued to keep hens throughout the war and became quite an expert on poultry. Every so often a passerby would do a double take at the sight of hens in spectacles and ask for an explanation – finding the whole sight very amusing.
Unfortunately, the chicken glasses were eventually lost or mislaid and I never got to see them. But it just goes to show how useful glasses are for all sorts of purposes for eye protection, as well as improving sight.