chickens

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Egg Shortage Puts a Damper on Holiday Prep

Bird flu in nearly every state has caused eggs to get pricier, or vanish from store shelves completely

(Newser) - If you're shopping this weekend for fixings for your Thanksgiving feast, don't be surprised if eggs are hard to find, or expensive when you do find them. Per the Washington Post , shelves in many supermarkets nationwide have been sans eggs, with bird flu to blame for the most...

Feral Chickens Terrorize English Village

Though others say the chickens are just a long-time, charming part of the area

(Newser) - A village in Norfolk, England, is under siege—from about 100 feral chickens. Residents of Snettisham say the large flock that has taken up residence there is so noisy that locals have trouble sleeping at night, and that the birds are also digging up gardens, Yahoo News UK reports. "...

Bird Flu Hits the Country's Largest Egg Producer

Cal-Maine Foods says bird flu found in chickens at Texas plant; almost 2M birds are destroyed

(Newser) - The largest producer of fresh eggs in the US said Tuesday it had temporarily halted production at a Texas plant after bird flu was found in chickens, and officials said the virus had also been detected at a poultry facility in Michigan, the AP reports. Cal-Maine Foods, based in Ridgeland,...

In California's 'Egg Basket,' a Fast-Spreading 'Trauma'

Poultry farmers forced to kill million-plus birds to control outbreak of avian flu in Sonoma County

(Newser) - Last month, Mike Weber got the news every poultry farmer fears: His chickens tested positive for avian flu. Following government rules, Weber's company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of egg-laying hens—550,000 birds—to prevent the disease from infecting other farms in Sonoma County, north...

We Pump Out 8-Pound Chickens. That Could Be an Issue

KFC and Chick-fil-A's need for 4-pound birds is rising

(Newser) - It's a potentially big problem involving a small thing: America needs more 4-pound chickens. That's the upshot of a Wall Street Journal piece that takes a look at the friction between the larger 8-pound birds chicken processors prefer and the smaller variety that fast-food chains like Chick-fil-A and...

Producers Seek to Use 'Cruelest' Method Amid Bird Flu Outbreak

Animal welfare advocates say ventilation shutdown is 'basically cooking animals alive'

(Newser) - Poultry producers fighting the ongoing bird flu outbreak want the government to make it easier to kill flocks using a method animal advocates have described as the cruelest one available. The US Department of Agriculture is being lobbied to make Ventilation Shutdown Plus—closing off barn vents so birds die...

Humans Revered Chickens for Centuries Before Eating Them
Long Before Chickens Were
Dinners, They Were Our Pals
NEW STUDIES
Jun 11, 2022 2:50 PM CDT

Long Before Chickens Were Dinners, They Were Our Pals

These potential spiritual guides only became dinner about 2K years ago, research suggests

(Newser) - Chickens and humans have only been mingling for about 3,500 years, not as long as 10,000 years as previously believed, and for a good chunk of that time our feathered friends were revered, not eaten. That's according to new archaeological research which sees chickens as "actually...

We've Had to Kill 9% of Our Chickens

Avian flu outbreak has decimated flocks of laying hens

(Newser) - The avian flu outbreak has taken a huge toll on America's poultry flocks—mainly from culling, not disease—and consumers are feeling the pain with higher prices for eggs, chickens, and a lot of other products. "More than 28 million laying hens have been culled as a result...

Another Postal Service Issue: Mail-Order Chicks, Dead

Thousands aren't surviving usual shipments to Maine farmers

(Newser) - When Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies before Congress Friday and Monday, he'll surely get lots of questions about how new policies might affect mail-in voting. But he might also get questions about a new and grisly problem with mail-order chicks. The Portland Press Herald reports that thousands of chicks...

One of America's Top Chicken Industry CEOs Indicted

Pilgrim's Pride CEO Jayson Penn indicted on price-fixing charges, along with 3 others

(Newser) - One of America's top chicken industry CEOs could be caged for up to 10 years as part of a federal antitrust investigation. Pilgrim's Pride CEO Jayson Penn was indicted Wednesday along with former company vice president Roger Austin for alleged price-fixing, the Wall Street Journal reports. Mikell Fries,...

The Chickens Churned Out Eggs. Then Came the Gas

Egg farmer Kerry Mergen says 61K chickens were euthanized due to drop in demand due to virus

(Newser) - A Minnesota contract egg farmer says his livelihood has been erased along with 61,000 chickens owing to a drop in demand triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Kerry Mergen and his wife, Barb, produced 4,500 dozen eggs per day, which were turned into fluid egg and sent to food...

Leave My Chicken Alone, Girl Tells SNL

Show joked about unusual pet's custom wheelchair

(Newser) - A Vermont girl isn't happy that her disabled pet chicken was joked about on Saturday Night Live. The chicken, named Granite Heart, is learning to walk with a custom wheelchair, per the AP . On a recent SNL episode, the television show's "Weekend Update" co-host said she should...

First-of-Their-Kind Eggs Aim to End a Brutal Practice

Researchers want to stop culling of male chicks

(Newser) - Shoppers in Germany are the first in the world to have a chance to buy what the Guardian calls "no-kill" eggs. The eggs result from a new process that aims to eliminate the culling of male chicks—an industrywide practice in which billions of chicks are gassed or sent...

Scientists' Quest: Making Chickens Happy

Study in Canada may result in better living conditions, even if only briefly

(Newser) - How do you measure a chicken's happiness? Is it in the way it runs for food? How much time it spends preening? To size up what might make chickens happy in their brief lives, researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, are putting 16 breeds through physical...

CDC: Go Ahead, Dress Your Chickens for Halloween

This is an actual government press release

(Newser) - If you want to dress your chicken up for Halloween, the CDC wants you to know that it's just fine with you letting your avian freak flag fly, reports KUTV . In an actual news release meant to soothe those whose Halloween plans were thrown into emotional upheaval, the government...

Florence Killed 5.5K Pigs in NC, Spewed Manure

3.4M chickens and turkeys also perished

(Newser) - Hurricane Florence unleashed torrential rain, dangerous wind gusts, and now a new environmental hazard in North Carolina: the overflowing of its hog manure lagoons—and it's "nasty," per the New York Times . Many of North Carolina's nearly 10 million pigs are located on large-scale farms...

America Now Buys Thousands of Chicken Diapers Each Month
America Now Buys Thousands
of Chicken Diapers Each Month
in case you missed it
Aug 11, 2018 3:01 PM CDT

America Now Buys Thousands of Chicken Diapers Each Month

This is really our world

(Newser) - It's touted as "Levi Strauss meets Calvin Klein," and this fine piece of fashion can be yours for just $37.99. Except it won't be for you. The item in question is a chicken diaper made by FeatherWear , and if you've never heard of chicken...

KFC Suffers Mass Closures Over Lack of Chicken

Some 600 of its 900 UK locations were closed Monday

(Newser) - The chicken has crossed the road, "just not to our restaurants," explains KFC UK in a tweet addressing its weird problem: no chicken. USA Today reports about 900 of the chain's roughly 21,500 locations are in the UK, and only 300 of them were open Monday...

Trump Chicken Appears Next to White House

'Seriously?' asks Fox anchor

(Newser) - A giant inflatable chicken with President Trump's hairstyle appeared next to the White House Wednesday afternoon, causing squawks of dismay or clucks of approval, depending on political affiliation. The balloon is owned by documentary filmmaker Taran Singh Brar, who says he wanted to make a point about Trump being...

Woman's Profane Rooster Rant Goes Viral

The 'inconsiderate jerk' crows at 5:30am without fail

(Newser) - Roosters aren't for everyone. The much-maligned male chicken is banned in cities across the US, and now one woman in a small town in Michigan is so fed up with hers that she posted an expletive-ridden rooster rant on Facebook last week. Largely hailed as hilarious, her post has...

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