Two Interesting Resources

There's a lot of poultry news out there. Top stories that may interest you poultry folk include a group of Columbia residents pushing the city to loosen its rules on raising chickens, and SUCCESS! Buffalo's city council has OK'd raising chickens. That's a cause for celebration everywhere. :)

Now, this may seem weird, but we think you may want to know more about fading skin spots. Does that seem vain of us, or slightly presumptuous? Perhaps. But if you are like us, you spend a lot of time outdoors taking care of your chickens and poultry. All that time outside can lead to a lot of ultraviolet exposure, which can cause skin spots, brown spots and age spots. We may be chicken farmers, but we also want to look good. Are you feeling us? Skin spots can make you look a lot older than you really are. That's why we had a lot of fun reading all about how to fade skin spots. It's quite comprehensive, and pretty interesting learning.

Quail are saving the world of science!

Did you know this? According to Texas A&M: "In the past decade, Japanese Quail, or coturnix, have become important experimental animals for scientific research in universities, federal and state laboratories, private industry and individual investigations."

I mean, we always knew that quail were a great poultry species to raise. But we never knew that, you know, quail were THAT important! Fascinating reading, really. Texas A&M goes on to say that "Coturnix are used extensively in genetics, nutrition, toxicology,
embryology, physiology, endocrinology and pathology."

That's crazy stuff. Who ever though that quail could be so important in the realm of science? Backyard quail are definitely on the rise in terms of backyard popularity. And that's music to our ears.

Texas A&M acknowledges the popularity of quail among backyard hobbyists, going on to say: "At the same time, many fanciers and hobbyists have become interested in raising these quail. Science classes and 4-H clubs find them excellent subjects for projects.
Sportsmen find them desirable for use in training hunting dogs because of their habit of sitting very tight until flushed. Gourmets enjoy Japanese quail eggs and meat—hard-boiled, pickled quail eggs are popular as hors d'oeuvres, and barbecued or charcoal-broiled quail are a delicious treat." That's even MORE great reasons to start raising quail, to say nothing about how cute the quail are!

Did anyone go to this city chicken workshop?

Out of curiosity, did anyone go to the NMSU Extension workshop that taught about raising chickens and building mobile coop? “Chickens are an easy animal to raise,” said Del Jimenez, an expert poultry, farming and agriculture specialist at New Mexico State University’s (NMSU) Cooperative Extension Service. In the workshop, Mr. Jimenez taught attendees all they needed to know about raising backyard chickens and building a mobile chicken coop, colloquially known as the famous chicken tractors, on June 30th at NMSU’s Sustainable Agriculture Science Center in Alcalde. The cool thing? This educational community program only cost $10 and included some yummy snacks and lunch. If you went, what did you think about this urban chicken workshop? Chickens have definitely taken off in popularity!

Raising Peacocks

I'm not going to lie - raising chickens is my main hobby when it comes to raising poultry. However, like many backyard hobbyists, I've wondered what it would be like to raise peafowl. Peafowl are a little more complicated to raise compared to other bird species, simply because there is not as many informational resources and supplies out there for this type of poultry. You can't just go to the store and by peacock feed like you could for chickens. However, raising peafowl has its own group of enthusiasts and they can definitely make an exciting and very beautiful addition to your poultry yard! Oh, and did you know they are related to pheasants?

Raising Guineafowl at Home

By some conservative estimates, there are over three million guinea fowl being raised commercially and domestically in the United States alone. This puts the guinea fowl hobby at a significantly smaller population than that of chickens, ducks, geese and even other gamebirds such as quail. However, raising guineafowl is an incredibly fascinating hobby. Guineas are unique and absolutely interesting. Some individuals use them as pseudo-watchdogs due to their protective, territorial nature and loud bird call. They are definitely an interesting addition to any backyard poultry flock. Do you raise guineas? Why do you raise them, and if you don't - tell us why you don't raise guineas!