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You can now have both the chicken and the egg
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by Amy Judd | August 27, 2008 at 03:32 pm
1702 views | 15 Recommendations | 26 comments
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You no longer have to worry about what came first - the chicken or the egg... now you can have both.
The naturally bred Giri Raja chicken offers many benefits to farmers.
They are the best of both worlds.
Now scientists have turned back the tide and developed a new variety which will produce both eggs and meat.
Animal welfare experts claim the Giri Raja – Forest King – chickens will have huge benefits. Less intensive breeding means they will not have health problems because they are not forced to grow fast and disproportionately. And because they produce both eggs and meat billions of male laying birds will not have to be slaughtered at birth each year.
Scientists at Bangalore's Veterinary College in India developed the new chicken from a traditional breed using natural breeding techniques. They hope the dual-purpose chickens will help independent and subsistence farmers, especially in the developing world, because the birds will be better able to survive outside specialist factory farms.
Joyce D'Silva, ambassador for the charity Compassion in World Farming, said the new brown-feathered chickens looked at first glance like most of the world's more than 50bn intensively-farmed birds – until you see them walk.
"The average battery chicken walks in a very ungainly way, they kind of lurch from side to side when they walk; this chicken looks a lot more agile and healthy," she said.
As well as avoiding the pain of fast-growing bodies on immature legs and skeletons, the Forest King chickens need few drugs, can live a more "free range" life, and does not need to be fed soy protein which has been linked to mass forest clearance in South America, said D'Silva.
The hope is that the new breed of chicken will be readily available to millions of farmers to help them keep food costs down.
However the National Farmers Union said even if the breed could survive in the UK it would only ever be in a small minority.
Sam Hawkes, the NFU poultry advisor, said: "It's down to the economics. A fast-growing breed costs less to produce and therefore costs less to the retailer.
"It's all being driven by what the consumer wants, and farmers and companies have been driven to produce that."
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Recommendations (15)
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (26)
at 16:21 on August 27th, 2008
amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. We have available a wide variety of heritage breeds of chickens that are dual purpose now. The consumer has to be willing to pay more for better quality meat and eggs. The factory farms won't produce like they do if people refused to buy.
at 07:25 on August 28th, 2008
amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.
I am glad they used natural breeding techniques and not GMO.
In those countries with Quota this will how ever cause a lot of trouble.
at 10:57 on August 28th, 2008
kawaii has contributed a photo to this story.
at 11:59 on August 28th, 2008
But these are not those chickens in the article! There are happy organic, free-range laying hens from www.AwesomeFarmNY.com
AbiTapia has contributed a photo to this story.
at 12:02 on August 28th, 2008
Want to know more about my pet chickens? (Those are my eggs!) Here and here.
giori has contributed a photo to this story.
at 12:42 on August 28th, 2008
I took this show at our local farmers market. I love the color of the eggs... they were delicious too.
jenna nelson photography has contributed a photo to this story.
at 12:53 on August 28th, 2008
Photo Courtesy of: Academy St. Photography, Carrie E. Cox
Funky Mama Taney has contributed a photo to this story.
at 13:25 on August 28th, 2008
The chicken in my photo is from a certified organic farm in Campbellville, Ontario called Greenfields Farm. This chicken is 'free run'. What we all need to focus on is the welfare of the animals we consume and eliminate the need for the huge mega-factory farms. It is great that this new breed of chicken has been developed to help the farmers in the 'Third World'.
A really good program that describes in detail how to aid in chicken welfare in the west is from Chicken Out in the UK. Here is a link http://www.chickenout.tv/
at 13:51 on August 28th, 2008
This Cornish hen insists that the chicken came first, but what she doesn't realize is that she didn't exist before she was an egg. But then, how did the egg that produced HER come to be?
dances.withcats has contributed a photo to this story.
at 13:58 on August 28th, 2008
Hi, I have supplied the '2 mother hens' photo. Just want to say this is a great storyand I really hope this happens with the new breed of chicken. I personally don't eat meat,for my love of animals and if anyone else wants to look into how they are treated before the slaughter, check out - www.goveg.com this is a fantastic website and people need to be aware. Enjoy!! Sandy www.flickr.com/photos/sandyc
at 14:10 on August 28th, 2008
Good stuff. Sorry no chicken photo. I buy free range stuff hopefully free range producers will adopt this healthyer breed
at 14:32 on August 28th, 2008
These gals live in our backyard. Our backyard chicken coop design is making it's way across WMASS and some of VT. For more info on the Urban Chicken Coop, visit www.artisandesignsdtb.blogspot.com
Artisan Designs has contributed a photo to this story.
at 17:18 on August 28th, 2008
Eggs from chickens raised by our grandson, Patrick Sean
SamH one has contributed a photo to this story.
at 19:02 on August 28th, 2008
I can't think of a more naturally-bred chicken than this - I took this in ultra-rural Honduras, a full day's ride down the river by dugout to the nearest road or airstrip.
airbreather has contributed a photo to this story.
at 20:38 on August 28th, 2008
Eggs from my backyard hens
portmanteaus has contributed a photo to this story.
at 22:19 on August 28th, 2008
amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 00:22 on August 29th, 2008
This was taken in Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay. Saw this tray of eggs (taken from free range chickens) on the breakfast table.
rmgonzales has contributed a photo to this story.
at 04:38 on August 29th, 2008
Lilly looking pretty. She is a wonderful pet, should also soon produce eggs and provides pesticide free bug control. Before we brought her and her siblings home our lawn would "move" as you walked through it because of the amount of spiders. We are now spider free!
smr_mosaic has contributed a photo to this story.
at 07:29 on August 29th, 2008
Greetings from Germany. Great Story. I like chicken. Good stuff.
at 08:20 on August 29th, 2008
2 americauna hens (my pets) about 14 weeks old. They have recently (August) begun laying eggs which are the same color as their greenish legs.
eelboy99 has contributed a photo to this story.
at 09:04 on August 29th, 2008
New life :-) only a couple of hours old.
Miss Chien has contributed a photo to this story.
at 17:48 on August 29th, 2008
Hey thats my chicken! Hehehe..... I am glad you liked my picture.
at 03:58 on August 31st, 2008
BORN TO EAT AND GET FAT
Chickens raised outdoors (they say) but inside there are chickens that never come to see the sun and are awake all day long to eat in a very small space. Do not let me photograph hens sad that there are many more. Many suffer stress by poor living conditions and become aggressive and have to cut off the tip of the peak.
Marcela Miramendi has contributed a photo to this story.
at 21:51 on September 2nd, 2008
Took this down at my mums alotment. They are rescued battery hens, very friendly, now live free range and lay delicious eggs
M D Burns has contributed a photo to this story.
at 10:38 on September 3rd, 2008
This is a Welsummer egg.We have about 22 hens and a rooster.They lay really good and they are mild and not real aggressive chickens.
whippet123 has contributed a photo to this story.
at 11:02 on September 6th, 2008
We have an assortment of laying hens, which produce a variety of colored eggs. This particular day, had a nice rainbow of color. The dark eggs come from a gold sexlink/bardrock mix.
The tan eggs come from black sexkink/bardrock mix.
The tan/pink eggs come from rhode island reds.
The light blue eggs come from aracanas.
The light green egg is an aracana/bardrock mix.
The small white egg is from our wild hen (bred for fighting cocks).
natureboy_1958 has contributed a photo to this story.