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Something was wrong with Marissa! Her belly was blown up like an over-inflated basketball, she had lost interest in all the usual chicken activities and she spent all of her time standing in a quiet corner looking sad. Did she have ascites? How could I tell for sure? And how could I make this sweet little hen feel better?
Not only are South American chickens very strange birds, but they’ve been in South America way too long. When the Spanish first arrived in South America they noted the fact that there were already chickens there! People were keeping domestic chickens! Chickens, like cows, pigs, and sheep, are supposedly Old-World animals. So what were they doing in South America before the Old-World explorers/conquerors got there? How did they get there? Flying saucers, anybody?
Regardless, of whether we enjoy chickens through cracking open a dozen fresh pasture raised eggs, by digging into a box of fast-food fried chicken, or by tending our backyard pet chickens, we are all in collusion with an industry that kills half of the baby chicks as soon as they hatch because they’re roosters. Scientists have been working on a solution to this dilemma for a number of years and a real, practical solution may be near at hand.
Chicken movies: An idea whose time is undoubtedly near at hand, considering that there are all sorts of important Hollywood people who would not only advocate for a chicken movie but perhaps also be anxious to star in one. I’m ready to cash in and have put together a few great movie ideas.
There’s an ongoing serious Salmonella outbreak occurring among folks who keep backyard chickens, and CDC’s best response is to continue to trot out essentially the same old list of impractical rules. Why is nobody working on eliminating Salmonella from chickens in general and backyard flocks in particular? In this post I suggest a strategy.
In this blog post, the author comes upon a blatant display of battery cage torture chambers in the FFA Building at the Minnesota State Fair.
We went to beautiful and geologically unique southeastern Minnesota and found CHICKENS! Also, how long chickens live, chicken saddles, and the coolest chicken coop ever!
This is the story of a lovable and tenacious Rhode Island Red chick named Roz, who entered this world crippled with curled toe paralysis—and then got better.
What innate weirdness dwells in the human psyche that compels us to domesticate an animal just so we can watch it fight?
Spring is here!. And you know what that means. It’s time for Hipster Chicks!
Salmonella continues to be a problem in eggs and large-scale egg recalls continue to pop up in the news. Is there anything you as an egg consumer should look for when shopping for eggs that might reduce your risk? In fact, there is!
I ran into chickens everywhere I went in Vietnam and Cambodia: The urban streets of Hanoi, the hamlets along the Mekong River in Cambodia, pecking and scratching on the grounds of Buddhist monasteries, amongst the ruins of ancient Angkorian temples, and for sale in the local markets. Warning: Like everywhere else in the world, the people of Southeast Asia eat chickens, and that is discussed here. They also eat eggs and any number of things we don’t eat in the US.
The chickens of Vietnam and Cambodia - Introducing Toby the Lab, Guardian of the Hipster Hens - And Baby Chicks! Coming soon to a coop near me!
Ingredients for frostbite: Take one coop of chickens. Add one polar vortex event.
In May of 2018, backyard chickens in Los Angeles County, California began to die – first in one backyard, then in another, then in many, many more. It was the beginning of the spread of a terrible scourge known as Virulent Newcastle Disease (vND), a contagious and deadly viral disease that affects birds. By January 2019, in spite of the heroic efforts by staff of the US Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, not only had vND found its way into large commercial flocks, it continued to spread through many, many more backyard flocks southern California.
Thinking wistfully of spring. And dealing with the problems of winter, including frostbite and rodents in your coop. Frostbite in rodents is not discussed.
Here are a few gift ideas for your chicken people. And your chickens!
