chicken

Backyard chickens are really popular this year, in part due to the high cost of eggs. Some people are even renting chickens.

People are flocking to backyard chickens this year, in part due to the sky-high cost of eggs at the grocery store. Some first-timers have turned to chicken rentals to try out ownership for a few months.

There is one economic riddle ahead of Super Bowl Sunday: The egg market has been hit hard by avian flu, but wings are abundant and relatively affordable this year. So what gives?

Concerns about an outbreak of avian influenza have increased nationwide. Two Kansas health experts discuss how to limit its spread, and why public health risk still remains low.

While the snowstorm closed many Kansas City restaurants and kept diners at home, one short-staffed kitchen offered a special soup service after the blizzard. It was up to customers to supply their own noodles.

The legislation allows Missourians with two-tenths of an acre or more to own up to six chickens. Missouri state Rep. Jim Murphy, R-St. Louis County, sponsored the bill — and his grandchildren Josie and Lily testified in front of lawmakers to support it.

Cultivated meat — meat grown from animal cells — is touted as a way to meet growing global demand with far fewer climate impacts. Yet two states banned the sale of cultivated meat earlier this year, and there are proposals in several Midwestern states to do the same.

Conservationists and cattle ranchers are working together to restore grassland for the lesser prairie chicken. The bird used to roam Kansas, but has lost most of its habitat to crop production.

Commercial chicken farmers literally bet the farm, spending millions of dollars on land and enormous chicken houses to raise birds they never own — putting their livelihoods in the hands of a single company that is both their supplier and sole buyer. When Tyson closed a processing plant in southeast Missouri, some farmers facing bankruptcy decided to sue.

Many homeowners associations don’t let people raise chickens in their backyards. But a new Missouri law going into effect this month says HOAs must allow it.

After the success of a two-year pilot program, Overland Park residents will be now allowed to keep backyard chickens on lots greater than .20 acres. Only hens are eligible — no roosters.

Tucked in the hills of the Ozarks near Arkansas and Oklahoma, Noel is a summer tourist destination that spans just two square miles. For three decades, migrants have come to work at the Tyson poultry plant, which offered jobs that didn’t require English proficiency at higher-than-minimum-wage pay — until it closed this month.