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The entire month of May is International Respect for Chickens Month! Please do an ACTION for chickens on or around May 4. Ideas include leafleting on a busy street corner, holding an office party or classroom celebration, writing a letter to the editor, doing a radio call-in.... (interrupted by my cackling and chortling)

Many urban homeowners increasingly desire to keep small flocks of chickens in their backyards, and with good cause. There is no reason every family in this country that can run a flock of chickens in their backyard should not. This perfectly logical and reasonable habit—backyard chicken farming—has been buried under a great deal of hipster elitism (from many of the backyard chicken farmers themselves) and sneering derision (from their critics). Please try to ignore these detractors. If you can play host to backyard chickens, you should. It is, in many urban localities, easier said than done. This normal and praiseworthy...

Jeff Roe, Cruz's campaign manager, pulled the exact same dirty trick with another candidate a few years ago. "An e-mail sent to news media outlets and a "tweet" issued by a fake Twitter account announced that Eckersley had suspended his campaign due to personal reasons. Eckersley blames his opponent, Republican Billy Long, for sending out the hoax days before the election, "You know this is dirty politics. This is Jeff Roe style management. That's who Billy's retained. That's who he writes the big checks to," Eckersley tells Missourinet affiliate KTTS. http://www.missourinet.com/2010/10/29/eckersley-calls-e-mail-a-hoax-says-hes-still-in-the-race-audio/

Hillary Clinton faced one of the biggest softballs of the campaign yet on Wednesday night when a questioner at CNN's Democratic Presidential Town Hall wondered about how she will "defend" herself "against right-wing attacks" "once you become the nominee and elected."

Tue Jan 26, 2016 12:30pm EST Iraq says Saudi, Russia change tone on possible oil deal KUWAIT | By Rania El Gamal OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and top non-OPEC producer Russia are showing signs of flexibility about agreeing to tackle an oil glut that has pushed prices to 12-year lows, the oil minister of Iraq said on Tuesday. "We have seen some flexibility from the brothers in Saudi and a change in tone from Russia," Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose country is the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said. His comments, made in Kuwait, boosted Brent...

Scientists discover the birds have developed two mutations in just 50 years Genes of White Plymouth Rock chickens mutated twice in 50 years Scientists previously thought rate of change in mitochondrial genomes was never faster than about two per cent per million years Mutations suggest rate of evolution in the chickens is 15 times faster Study goes against theory evolution can only be seen over long periods

Starbucks will switch to using only eggs laid by cage-free chickens at its North American locations within five years, the company told Reuters on Thursday. The company said it has been steadily working on making the switch since it began buying cage-free eggs in 2008. The pledge follows similar moves by McDonald's Corp, Burger King Corp and food services company Sodexo SA. It is happening as North American egg suppliers are slowly starting to rebuild flocks after the worst bird flu outbreak in U.S. history.

2007—Year of the Lapita? Volume 61 Number 1, January/February 2008 by Mark Rose Polynesian Breakthroughs A Polynesian chicken (Anita Gould) and a Chilean chicken bone (Courtesy Alice Storey) There was no doubt about including in our 2007 Top Ten the discovery that chicken bones from ancient Polynesian sites in Tonga and Samoa and El Arenal, a Chilean site occupied between A.D. 700 and 1390, had identical DNA. The chicken was domesticated in Southeast Asia, but how it arrived in the New World before Europeans arrived was a mystery. Now it seems that Polynesian seafarers brought them, adding to the evidence...

First Chickens in Americas Were Brought From Polynesia By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Why did the chicken cross the Pacific Ocean? To get to the other side, in South America. How? By Polynesian canoes, which apparently arrived at least 100 years before Europeans settled the continent. That is the conclusion of an international research team, which reported yesterday that it had found “the first unequivocal evidence for a pre-European introduction of chickens to South America,” or presumably anywhere in the New World. The researchers said that bones buried on the South American coast were from chickens that lived between 1304 and...

Legends and bits of evidence tell a story of Asians arriving here long, long ago. Part one of two. "Even pale ink is better than memory." -- Chinese proverbAs the tide creeps over the sand flats of Pachena Bay south of Bamfield, it brings ashore the flotsam of the Pacific that -- on occasion -- hints at extraordinary travels and a mystery of historic proportions. Amid the kelp, in decades past, hundreds of green-glass fishing floats would arrive intact on the Vancouver Island coast, having ridden the powerful Japanese Current in year-long transits from Asia. But on rare occasions, entire...

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Origin of Pacific Islanders By Heidi Chang Honolulu, Hawaii 31 March 2008 The origin of Pacific Islanders has been a mystery for years. Now archaeologists believe they have the answer. As Heidi Chang reports, they found it in China. The excavation of the Zishan site (Zhejiang Province) in 1996, where many artifacts from the Hemudu culture have been found China had a sea-faring civilization as long as 7000 years ago. Archaeologist Tianlong Jiao says, one day, these mariners sailed their canoes into the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, and stayed. He points out, "Most scientists, archaeologists,...

JERUSALEM (Reuters Life!) – A ritual sacrifice of chickens that are also twirled about one's head to atone for sins ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday has come under fire in Israel where animal activists want it outlawed. The custom known in Hebrew as "kaparot" is commonly practiced by Ultra Orthodox Jews before the annual Day of Atonement, a 25-hour period of fasting and prayer observed by Jews the world over starting at sunset Friday. In Israel, where a majority of Jews view themselves as secular or non-observant, a small group of Ultra Orthodox has angered the wider public by...

Two Durham University scientists are to play a key part in a 6000km trip following the migration route of ancient Pacific cultures. Drs Keith Dobney and Greger Larson, both from the Department of Archaeology, will be joining the voyage, which will be the first ever expedition to sail in two traditional Polynesian boats -- ethnic double canoes -- which attempts to re-trace the genuine migration route of the ancient Austronesians. The main aim of the voyage is to find out where the ancestors of Polynesian culture originated but the Durham University researchers will also be examining the local wildlife. Dr...

Rent-A-Chicken Scheme Set To Crack Soaring US Egg Price Problem Pennsylvania couple offers solution to cost of eggs which has increased by 85% in a month after a bird flu outbreak Jenn and Phil Tompkins see their business as a way to change how people think about food. 21 July 2015 A Pennsylvania couple has come up with a solution to soaring US egg prices: rental chickens. RentTheChicken.com is the brainchild of Jenn and Phil Tompkins, of Freeport, Pennsylvania, north-east of Pittsburgh. More than just a cost-beater, they see their business as a way to change how people think about...

Performing an important public service. I have to admit. I’ve been caught off guard by this. I had no idea that people were keeping chickens as pets. I get raising chickens for eggs. I understand grilling their tasty meat. I was not, however, aware that people think owning a chicken is a lot like owning a cat. Apparently, I’ve been asleep at the switch. It’s a brave new world and chicken-pets are a part of it. But, if you’re thinking it would be tons of fun to see a rooster curled up in a ball at the foot of your...

<p>In the backyard of a Tudor home on a leafy street in Queens live four tenants who pay their rent in companionship, pest control, and fresh eggs.</p> <p>"Our 9-year-old daughter wanted a dog for her birthday and we surprised her with chickens instead. She was at first disappointed," said Ruth Harrigan. "They're very independent. It's almost like having a cat."</p>

Authorities seized almost 1,200 birds as they broke up an alleged cockfighting ring in western Wisconsin. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals helped authorities remove the birds from four properties in Polk and St. Croix counties. Authorities executed search warrants to seize the birds Tuesday morning. The ASPCA says cockfighting paraphernalia was discovered on the properties, including a fighting pit and gaffs - long, dagger-like attachments used to maximum injury to birds. Tim Rickey, a lead investigator, said, "It's a very lucrative industry, there's a lot of money involved in raising and selling of birds and...

[The following is an excerpt.] Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? Could determined starlings and pigeons be carrying it into poultry houses on their feet? Is it spreading in feed, or being carried on truck tires? Federal agriculture officials are looking everywhere they can think of for H5N2 bird flu, which has spread to poultry flocks in 14 states and killed or forced the slaughter of more than 39 million birds. Highly pathogenic avian influenza has never spread like this before in the United States, and it's flummoxed the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers and...

Many of the largest U.S. sellers of organic eggs boast that their hens are vegetarian, and for an increasingly food-curious public, this may be great advertising. A carton of Eggland’s Best advertises that the company uses “vegetarian fed hens.” Horizon promises that their eggs “come from hens that are fed a 100% organic, vegetarian diet.” Land O Lakes hens have a diet with no animal fat or by-products. Yet for the chickens, who are natural omnivores that readily devour bugs and small animals when they’re available, the forced vegetarianism can be a disaster.

BuzzFeed posted a video about the death of chickens called, "Foodies Kill Their Food For The First Time." In it, several "foodies," or people who like high-quality foods, kill their own chickens for the first time. BuzzFeed posted the video in order to bring attention to where food comes from and wonders aloud if people would be okay with eating meat if they knew where it was coming from. The video begins with the all caps text, "MORE THAN 23 MILLION CHICKENS ARE SLAUGHTERED IN THE UNITED STATES... EVERY DAY." The video then shows people crying over the idea of...