In regard to the chicken question meta post one of the answers included this paragraph:
This opinion is based purely on the actual question, and ignores the silly story. Surely the silly story can be edited out of the question, and corresponding silliness in the answers can be edited out as well.
This statement indicates that removing "silliness" from a question in order to clarify the physics question could be appropriate. In other statements in policy locations (I can't rmember where at the moment) and in responses from mods when I have flagged some posts, the idea of editing a question to "make it better" has been encouraged.
How much editing to improve a question and bring it on-topic is allowed and even encouraged? Would removing the context of a chicken army and simply highlighting the possible physics concept/practice be an acceptable edit?
It might be helpful for the Phys.SE community to discuss this offsite and then develop some examples of allowed extensive edits as well as overly invasive edits.
We need to remember, the goal of PSE is to have good physics questions and answers.