Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Chickens in the News! #3

I'm not sure exactly how this is news, but it was in the news.
Blessed chick: Hen that lays green eggs
Associated Press
Wednesday, January,30 2008 (Mexico city):

Ordinary-looking hen with brown feathers has become a celebrity in Cuautitlan, a small village north of Mexico City, because every day she lays an egg with a green shell.

At first glance, Rabanita looks no different from the other chickens in the yard.

"Since the December 5 she has been laying green eggs," said her owner, Elvira Romero.

Romero is a housewife who got the hen as part of a government aid package to help villagers.

"Well, my children say 'Oh Mummy, God looks favourably on you so that you were given as a prize a chicken that lays green eggs'," said Romero with a smile.

So far, there is no explanation for the colour of the eggs.

Romero says that Rabanita does not have a special diet different from the rest of the chickens, just the usual corn, tortillas and chicken feed.

Scientists believe that shell colour - which does not affect the colour or flavour of the yolk or white - is determined by the genes, and say blue or green shells are frequently found in the Araucana chicken strain.

Green egg layers attract a premium in some parts of South America, where poultry breeders aim to produce chickens, which lay nothing else.




Honestly, this is ridiculous. As if this is some sort of new discovery...Reuters obviously is not reading Chicken Diction!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

almost as amazing as the discovery that vegetables grow on plants and that meat comes from dead animals.... AMAZING!