Articles on Chickens

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‘Chook farms ruin lives!’. Australians consume a lot of cheap chicken, but not all of them appreciate an intensive chicken factory as a neighbour. Marco Amati

Done like a chicken dinner: city fringes locked in battles over broiler farms

As consumption has soared and prices have fallen, the realities of industrial chicken farming often clash with the values of people who live on the urban fringes where broiler farms are sited.
I see numbers! Rosa Rogani, University of Padova

Like most humans, chicks count from left to right

Imagine you are asked to mentally arrange the numbers one to nine. Most people will place the numbers along a horizontal line from left to right, so that one is furthest left and nine is furthest right…
Wild chickens are everywhere in Hawaii but how did they get there? Flickr/jaybergesen

Chickens tell tale of human migration across Pacific

Holiday in Hawaii and one of the birds you’re most likely to encounter is the chicken. You find them everywhere from beaches, to car parks and on walks through the bushland. The locals warn that your chance…
How do you pick a fake among free-range egg producers? OKNOVOKGHT/Flickr

Where’s the freedom to choose free-range?

Consumers are increasingly concerned about how farm animals are kept, raised, transported, and slaughtered. Most people show their concern by buying “ethical” farm products, such as free-range eggs and…
Outbreaks of disease killed thousands of chickens in Sydney and Melbourne between 2008 and 2010. Flickr/Hadleygrass

Vaccines for chickens have created virulent new viruses

Two chicken vaccines have recombined to produce more virulent viruses in Sydney and Melbourne, research has found, prompting…
There are legal limits to how closely chickens can be packed, but is more space all chickens need? Alan Levine

Fewer hens doesn’t always mean happier hens

The Australian egg industry has seen a large shift in the proportion of chicken eggs coming from non-cage systems, especially free range. There is little doubt that some of this has been driven by consumer…
Cute, cuddly and numerically competent. timsackton

Pigeons can count, but chicks are even better

The humble pigeon has been in the scientific spotlight lately since the discovery that the much-maligned species is far smarter than previously thought. A study by psychologist Damian Scarf and colleagues…

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