CLUCK NEWS: Chickens As Agents of Change In India

How do you improve nutrition, empower women, and increase household incomes in rural India? According to News-medical.net, the answer may be a new breed of chicken called the Kuroiler (pronounced Cure-Oiler). Developed by Keggfarms, the Kuroiler outperforms indigenous chicken breeds (called Desi) and Keggfarms has developed an elaborate system to raise and distribute the young chicks throughout the countryside.

CLUCK NEWS: Wall Street Journal Meets Backyard Hens

No one was too surprised when the New York Times started running sympathetic articles about urban chickens, but an upbeat Kris Maher article in the Wall Street Journal (subscribe today and get four weeks free) certainly seems to suggest a growing acceptance of backyard chickens. The focus of the article is the increasing numbers of coop tours, which usually feature play-on-words titles such as Tour de Coops or A Peep at the Coops. In Seattle this year nearly 50 households opened their coops for inspection. The article mentions that the forum on the backyardchickens website just topped 100,000 members.

FUNKY CHICKEN FACT #31: Chickens Beat Columbus to the New World

It is common, but quite possibly inaccurate, knowledge that the Spanish first brought chickens to the New World. Some archaeologists have concluded that chicken bones dated to sometime between 1321 and 1407 constitute proof that it was Polynesians traveling East and not Europeans traveling west that first brought chickens to the New World!

CLUCK NEWS: 'MY SUNCOAST' not too generous with news related to a domestic avian species

The webpage masthead says mysuncoast.com but the dire warning at the end of the article seems to imply that it is not our suncoast, but theirs, and they are retaining all rights. The warning says the content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed, which is a little weird because they encourage people to share the article, which certainly seems like a form of redistribution to us. Cautiously we proceed. Here goes:

CLUCK ASKS: Are Those Pasture Eggs Really Any Better?

CLUCK has read articles asserting that when a taster is blindfolded, store-bought battery cage eggs cannot be distinguished from backyard or pasture eggs. That may or may not be true, but without the blindfold most people prefer the free-range eggs because their yellow-orange yolks look so much better than the anemic yellow of most store-bought eggs. 

But beyond appearance and flavor is the question of whether there is actually any nutritional difference. And apparently there is.

CLUCK REDIRECT: Chickens Are Colorblind?

We don't engage in a lot of redirection, simply linking to other online articles, but this piece seems to contain an inspirational lesson that, as humans looking for meaning almost everywhere, seems to suggest that for all their bloody pecking order travails, chickens may have answered the "Why can't we all just get along?" question with getting along.

FUNKY CHICKEN FACT #29: Chickens Role in the Cold War

CLUCK routinely adds facts to our collection of funky chicken facts without much fanfare, but this one is even more surprising than the fact that chicken feathers could slash five million off the cost of a hydrogen powered car. It involves using chickens and nuclear weapons and unless you've heard about this previously you are unlikely to guess the connection.