Chicke Breeds

This time I'm going to be talking about the different types of chickens. One or two from each letter of the Alphabet! 

A - Appenzell Pointed Hood Hen: This Hen has been in the Alps for many centuries. It was supposedly said to be bred in the 15th  century. They are adapted to the mountain conditions are able to walk on rocky ground and fly very well. They spend their nights in trees and in snow.  They have "narrow, forward-inclining hood feathers on the head". 

B-Brahma:  Brahmas are light, dark, and buff.  They have yellow skin and lay a brown egg. They are used for production of heavy roasters and are fairly decent egg layers.  The ancestry of this chicken traces all the way back to China! 

C-Cornish: They can be dark, white, white laced red, or buff. Cornish also have yellow skin and lay brown eggs. They are used a meat bird. Cornish chickens have broad muscled bodies.  They have short feathers that are pretty close to their bodies and sometimes they have areas of exposed skin.“Cornish were developed in the shire (county) of Cornwall, England where they were known as “Indian Games”. They show the obvious influence of Malay and other oriental blood. They were prized for their large proportion of white meat and its fine texture.”

D-Dorking: The Dorkings have white skin and lay a white egg. They are used for meat and eggs. They are developed for their fine quality meat.  It’s been believed that they originated in Italy, but have been introduced in Great Britain.  Dorkings have a rectangular body and very short legs.

H- Houdan: Have a white skin color and lay white eggs.  They are good egg producers and produced fairly well meat.  Orginated in France, and are high class table fowl.

J- Jersey Giant: Have yellow skin and lay brown eggs.   They are a cross between Orpingtons, Javas, and Langshans. They are becoming the largest chickens developed in America. Developed in New Jersey.

L-Langshan: have white skin and lay brown eggs. They are use for meat and eggs.  Originated in China and are still considered one of the older breeds.

M-Malay: have yellow skin and lay brown eggs. They are strictly ornamental fowl. This breed is very old from Asia.  They have projecting eyebrows which make them seem tall and appear bold.

Beef Identification

To make the pictures larger, click on the picture and it will appear bigger. 

Try to identify all the parts and cuts of beef cattle first before you you look at the answer key.

Word Bank: 

shank face brisket knee shank

hock flank crest shoulder-point

poll dew-lap chest-floor underline

dewclaw chuck quarter stifle rump loin

hooks pin-bones loin  ribs twist

rump tailhead cod round pastern 

shank brisket plate flank back muzzle

rib crop ear heart-girth rump shoulder  

pin bones

Beef Parts:

1.  Crest
2. Poll
3. Face
4. Muzzle
5. Dewlap
6. Shoulderpoint
7. Brisket
8. Chest floor
9. Forearm
10. knee
11. shank
12. pastern
13. underline
14. dew claw
15. hock
16. flank
17. stifle
18. quarter
19. pin bone
20. tail head
21. rump
22. loin
23. back
24. crop
25. topline
26. ribs
27. hooks
28. heart girth
29. shoulder
30. ear
31. rumo
32. cod
33. twist
34. pin bones

Cuts of Beef:
A. Loin
B. Rib
C. Rump
D. Round
E. Chuck
F. Plate
G. Flank
H. Brisket
I. Shank

Can Pets Predict the Weather, Among Other Things?

It has been said that animals have a sixth sense where they can predict the weather…  Do they really have a sixth sense? I’ve found a research that has been conducted about the sixth sense, and I’ve decided to share some things that I’ve found.  

            “According to a survey by the Associated Press and Petside.com, more than two-thirds of dog and cat owners say they’ve received weather warnings from their pets. Even more surprisingly, almost half report they’ve been alerted to bad news by their animals.”
 “It’s not that they have a sixth sense but that their senses are much more acute than those of humans,” says Dr. Nicholas Dodman, professor of animal behavior at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.
“For example, a dog’s most highly developed sense is its ability to smell,” he explains. “We humans have something like 12 million olfactory receptors in our noses. Dogs can have up to 4 billion. So, it’s hardly surprising that they have an incredible ability to detect trace amounts of odors.”
“So, let’s suppose a storm is miles and miles away and lightning flashes. That may generate ozone molecules that travel in the breeze ahead of the storm. Your dog smells those and becomes agitated and starts to shake.”
“Then, when the storm hits, you think, ‘Oh, my goodness, my dog has a sixth sense!’”
“Storms are also preceded by pressure changes in the air,” says Dr. Ben Hart, a veterinarian at the University of California, Davis who has studied animal behavior for almost 50 years. “It’s possible that dogs and cats can pick up on these changes.”
Hart says animals that have been frightened by thunderstorms in the past will be especially attuned to all the stimuli that accompany them.
Static electricity might also play a role in an animal’s ability to “predict” the weather.
“People have reported getting shocks off their dogs during storms,” says Dodman. “That’s not unusual, considering that dogs are running around on insulated foot pads wearing the equivalent of a big furry angora sweater. They’re perfectly designed to acquire a static charge. So, when they touch their nose to something, they are shocked and will remember that painful experience.”
How do these scientists explain a dog or cat’s reported ability to foretell bad news?
“We tend to remember those things that impress us the most,” says Hart. “So, if our dog appears to warn us and something bad happens afterward, we’ll remember that. But we’ll forget the other hundred or thousand times he acted that way and we didn’t get bad news.”

Dodman calls this “superstitious learning.”

He likens it to a baseball player who discovers a hole in his sock on the day of a big game. He hits a home run and wears a sock with a hole in it for the rest of his career.

“The sock didn’t cause the home run,” Dodman says. “It’s just that humans often make the wrong connection.”

If it’s any consolation, however, he says that dogs and cats make wrong connections, too.

“Your pet may be frightened by the smell of lamb cooking. That’s maybe because he once burned his nose on the stove and he associates that painful experience with the smell, not the hot burner.

“It’s easy for us to misinterpret what’s really going on,” Dodman adds. “Like when you’ve had a bad day at the office and come home and your dog puts his head on your lap. Your response is, ‘My dog knew I had a bad day at work.’ He didn’t. He just knew when you walked in the door that your posture was different and you looked sad. It’s your body language. Dogs can read you like a book.”

“It’s natural to assume more understanding and human sense than there is,” says Hart. “But when you say that to people like my sister, she’ll tell me, ‘No, Ben, you’re wrong. I know my dog really understands what I’m going through or what happened.’”

“You just can’t argue with that.”

How Do Pets Warn of Impending Danger?

• 64% hide in a safe place
• 56% cry
• 52% become hyperactive
• 36% bark or meow persistently

Source: AP-Petside.com survey of pet owners who believe their animals can predict bad things happening.

This article originally appeared in PetsMatter May / June 2011, published by the American Animal Hospital Association. Copyright © 2011 AAHA. 

So maybe animals don't have a sixth sense, but it's a work in progress, and we probably won't know more about it for a while. We have to wait for more researches to be done.