More and More Urban Chickens

We love Backyard Chickens

With the prices of eggs going up many people are raising chickens in their backyard so they can have farm fresh eggs.


 Read more at ........

http://www.kpho.com/story/29914363/urban-chickens-take-wing-as-egg-prices-soar

The Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival April 13th through the 15th.

The Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival will be held in Moulton April 13th through the 15th.

Farmer's chickens lay green eggs

Just a little story about a farmer and his chickens.
Farmer's chickens lay green eggs

Chicken Abuse ???

Humane Society of the United States on Wednesday took aim at the largest producer of fresh eggs in the country, releasing images and a report it said documents federal safety violations and inhumane treatment of chickens.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40236758/ns/us_news-environment/

Cheltenham chicken lays giant egg

A chicken belonging to a Gloucestershire man has laid an egg double the normal size.

Jeremy Power, from Cheltenham, said his hen Rainbow produced the egg on Saturday.

"Sadly it's not a world record, ours comes in at about 130g (4.6oz) whereas there are eggs on record of 160g (5.6oz), " he said.

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Chicken Myth #3 ~ It is cheaper to buy eggs in the store than raise your own.

Chicken Myth #3 ~ It is cheaper to buy eggs in the store than raise your own.

Wrong. Having a few hens for eggs can save you a little bit of money. However it is true that for the average family it will not save you a great deal of money. If the only reason you are thinking about getting a few chickens is to save money on eggs then it is probably not worth it. However their are lots of other great reasons for raising chickens.

Antibiotics in poultry and eggs a bad idea?

Antibiotics injected into poultry and eggs to reduce the spread of infection may be making people less susceptible to important antibiotic treatment, says the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The agency says Health Canada should ban the use of cephalosporins in agriculture because — although the drugs are effective in reducing the spread of illness in animals — they were not intended to be used in farming, and the effects of eating animals treated with the antibiotics are unknown.



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Regina City Council bans the raising of livestock unless the animals are pets

The City Council of Regina Canada passed a bylaw banning the raising of LIVESTOCK like chickens, cows, pigs and rabbits within the city limits.

So if you're raising chickens as pets in your backyard, that's just fine. But if you are going to eat them, you can't.

It is not clear if you are allowed to eat the eggs that your pets may lay.

Chicken or Black Tit?

In England in 1946, egg taste-testers were used to test The Palatability of Eggs and Birds. In a six-year study with the Cambridge Egg Panel, one of many similar bodies formed during second world war to help regulate the nation's food supply. Participants tasted the eggs of 212 bird species. This resulted in a 129-page report called The Palatability of Eggs and Birds: For the egg panellists, "samples were tested in the form of a scramble, prepared over a steam-bath, without any addition of fat or condiment". Each taster assessed each sample on a scale dropping from "ideal" way down to "repulsive and inedible".

The paper concludes with a list of the different egg types "in descending order of acceptability". Keep in mind that these are the aggregate preferences; individual tastes may vary. Most acceptable: chicken, then emu, coot and black-backed gull. The eggs of last resort, as rated by official British egg-tasting persons: green woodpecker, Verreaux's eagle owl, wren, speckled mousebird and, dead last, black tit.

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Little Lil

A pet chicken called Little Lil that belongs to children at a school in Gloucester England has laid an egg which measures 10cm long and 7cm wide. According to the Guinness Book Of World Records, the largest egg ever was laid by a Black Minorca hen in England in 1896 and weighed nearly 12oz. A normal egg would measure about 4.5cm by 7.5cm. The staff at the School have been unable to measure the weight of the egg because the eggs scale they have will not handle eggs that heavy.

Little Lil, is a six months old Columbian blacktailed cross. She began laying eggs last October. It is common for young hens to lay large eggs but 10cm is unusually large.

Small Cages Or Big?

The move to outlaw the keeping of hens in small wire cages in California, has farmers saying it could put them out of business.

A vote in November on whether to give more space to breeding pigs and calves raised for veal could also make California the first US state to ban the housing of egg-laying hens in small wire cages.

Eggs & Cholesterol

Dieticians agree that eggs are a nutritous food and an important part of a healthy diet. Two eggs are considered a serving and Meat and Alternatives according to Canada's Food Guide.

Avoiding nutritious foods such as eggs can do more harm than good. Eggs contain FOURTEEN essential nutrients that your body needs for good health. This includes Vitamins A, D, E and B12.

Recent studies indicate that lack of Vitamin D may play a significant role in Juvenile Diabetes especially in Canada where lack of sun is a problem.

Lizard found inside chicken egg

A man in Austraila found a lizard inside chicken egg, when he cracked an egg while preparing a meal. Dr Peter Beaumont was bewildered to see the gecko when he broke an egg while preparing his dinner.

Dr Beaumont is convinced that the lizard did not creep into the shell when he threw it off, as the reptile was trapped between the inner shell and the egg's membrane.

He thinks that the gecko could have crawled into the chicken to eat the embryo and got stuck accidentally. And later the egg was formed around it.

Price Of Eggs Up 23 Percent

The average price of eggs rose 23 percent in some parts of the U.S. The rise in price is the result of higher costs that farmers must pay for the grains make chicken feed.

Federal policies designed to encourage ethanol production have caused two separate shifts. Corn farmers have been selling more of their harvest to be processed into fuels, and that has driven up the cost of the part of the crop that goes into various animal feeds.

The lure of the ethanol market also has caused many farmers to replant what normally would be soybean acres into corn, Sumner said. The resulting drop in soybean acreage has boosted prices for that versatile crop, which is the other key constituent of henhouse cuisine.