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Origin: Since the middle of the 1860s Bearded Hens have been bred out of breeds of country hens in the Appenzell Forecountry. Out of this came a powerful hen which with its relatively small rosecomb and throat and ear lobes protected by its beard offered little surface area for the cold to attack. The breed occurred in two colors, in black and partridge. Out of a cross with Andalusians developed finally a blue color in addition.

Characteristics: This light, temperamental hen with a proud posture is equipped with all advantages for a rough mountain climate. The beard covers the sensitive spots of the hen. The mid-high positioning and the powerful wings make it possible for the hen to seek out its own food for the most part. Hens weigh 1.6 to 1.8 kg, roosters 2.0 to 2.3 kg. Bearded hens lay approx. 150 white-shelled eggs in the first year, each weighing approx. 55g. The brooding instinct is only moderately developed.

Breeding Organization: In the early summer 1985/86 Pro Specie Rara was made aware of the disappearance of the partridge-colored Appenzeller Bearded Hen. Only nine mutually related breeding groups were present at six breeders. In cooperation with the Appenzeller Hen Club an emergency program was set up. In the meantime the stock has recovered somewhat, but as in other cases evidences of inbreeding have occurred in this color hen. The black bearded hens are not in danger.

Reference:
Endangered Domestic Animal Breeds 1995, Pro Specie Rara, Engelgasse 12a, CH-9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland, Telefon 071/222 74 20, Fax 071/223 74 01. German Translation provided by John te Velde, Associate Professor of German, Oklahoma State University
Photographs:
Endangered Domestic Animal Breeds 1995, Pro Specie Rara, Engelgasse 12a, CH-9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland, Telefon 071/222 74 20, Fax 071/223 74 01. German Translation provided by John te Velde, Associate Professor of German, Oklahoma State University

Egg Shell Color: White.

Use: An ornamental fowl with fairly good egg production potential.

Origin: Developed initially in Spain, the breed has undergone considerable development in England and the United States.

Characteristics: Andalusians are small, active, closely feathered birds that tend to be noisy and rarely go broody. Andalusians are a typical example of the unstable blue color we see in the poultry industry. It is the result of a cross of black and white. When two blues are mated, they produce offspring in the ratio of one black, two blues and one white. These whites and blacks when mated together will produce mainly blues. Andalusians are beautiful when good, but the percentage of really good ones runs low in many flocks because of this color segregation. Hence, they are not widely bred and never in large numbers.

Reference:
Chicken Breeds and Varieties (A2880), John L. Skinner, University of Wisconsin-Madison 

The Ancona originated near the city of Ancona, Italy, from early Leghorns and other breeds. Its mixed ancestry gives it extreme hardiness and prolificacy. Anconas were originally known as Black Leghorns because of their color, which is black with evenly white-tipped feathers. As with Leghorns, Anconas are known primarily for egg-laying and produce large numbers of white eggs. They were once one of the prime egg-producing breeds in Europe, and joined American farm flocks in the 19th century. Active and busy birds, they are good foragers and said to be indifferent to climate.

Varieties: Single Comb, Rose Comb.

Standard Weights: Cock-6 pounds; hen-4-1/2 pounds; cockerel 5 pounds; pullet-4 pounds.

Use: A small fowl that lays a fair number of rather small eggs.

Status: Rare. The Ancona is quite unusual in the U.S. as a production breed.

AMBERGIS CAYE, Belize – A weak tropical storm formed Saturday off the Yucatan Peninsula and quickly made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border, dumping rain and kicking up surf.

The first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Arthur was moving northwest across the Yucatan with maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (64 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm formed one day before the official start of the season June 1, hitting land near the Mexican port city of Chetumal and Belize’s Corozal city. It dumped rain as far south as Belize City and kicked up strong surf on the popular tourist island of Ambergis Caye.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for Belize and Mexico’s Caribbean coastline.

In the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which includes the popular resort of Cancun, ports were closed and all water sports were banned. Residents and tourists were encouraged to take precautions in coastal areas, said state Civil Protection Director Carlos Rodriguez Hoy.

Ports were also closed on the islands of Cozumel and Isla Mujeres and in Chetumal.

Authorities expected rains of up to a little more than 1 inch (30 millimeters) due to the passing remnants of Arthur, Rodriguez said.

In northern Belize, the National Emergency Management Organization expected about 4 inches (102 millimeters) of rain and warned of possible flooding around the Azul Hondo River.

Rain and rough seas ruined vacations for tourists in Ambergis Caye.

“I just came to lay in the sun and get a nice tan, but so far there hasn’t been any sunshine,” said Debbie Fountaineau, a police officer from Lake Charles, Louisiana, who arrived on the island Thursday.

The storm was projected to weaken as it crosses the Yucatan before moving out into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical depression early Sunday.

There was chance it could strengthen back into a tropical storm before hitting Mexico again south of Veracruz on Wednesday, said Jamie Rhome, a meteorologist with the Hurricane Center. It was not expected to become a hurricane.

At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), the center of the storm was located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Belize City, and about 195 miles (314 kilometers) southwest of Cozumel, Mexico. It was moving to the west-northwest near 7 mph (11 kph).

The storm was expected to stay well away from the U.S. Gulf Coast
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BAKER, La. – Cleveland Stampley grinned as he locked the door to his FEMA trailer one last time. Out front, a case worker’s pickup truck waited to take him to his new home at a nearby apartment complex.

“Hope I ain’t got to come back here for nothing else,” the 59-year-old said as he carried one last load of belongings to the truck.

Stampley was among the last Louisiana residents displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 being moved from the state’s remaining six trailer parks managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA planned to close all six by Sunday – the official start of hurricane season – but said it would take a few more days to move everyone into apartments or motels.

The last FEMA-managed trailer park in Mississippi closed in May, but by Saturday, the state still had eight group sites for mobile homes open.

More than 800 families have come through Renaissance Village, where Stampley was living, since it opened in October 2005. By Saturday, only about 40 of the 575 units were occupied, and more than 20 of those households already have apartments to move into in the coming days, FEMA spokesman Manuel Broussard said.

Broussard said FEMA is working to find proper housing for the remaining households. That hasn’t been easy since Katrina wiped out much of the region’s affordable housing and sent rents soaring in greater New Orleans.

As of Saturday, only about 350 of the state’s 15,912 FEMA trailers or mobile homes were in trailer parks, said spokesman Andrew Thomas. Thousands of people still live in trailers on private property, generally in front of hurricane-damaged homes they’re fixing up or on lots they’re rebuilding. In those cases, FEMA is helping municipalities in their efforts to get rid of the trailers.

There’s a sense of urgency, underscored by Saturday’s FEMA deadline for its parks. One reason is that tests of hundreds of trailers found high levels of formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in building materials that can cause breathing problems and is classified as a carcinogen.

Stampley blames formaldehyde for aggravating his asthma and bronchitis.

“The symptoms got worse after I moved here,” he said.

Most of the families leaving the trailer parks are eligible for government-subsidized housing until March 2009. Those who can’t prove where they were living when the hurricanes struck, or who are ineligible for other reasons, get one more month in an apartment or motel room paid for by FEMA.

Many park residents, like Sharon Barthelemy, said they felt conflicted about leaving the FEMA parks.

“It’s sad in a way. Everybody here became friends and neighbors. Everyone could sit down and talk to each other,” said Barthelemy, who was moving with her husband from the Renaissance Village park into a one-bedroom apartment in Baker on Saturday.

Freddie King, who owns a home across the street from the fenced-in trailer park, said he was happy to see his hometown help storm victims, most of whom hailed from New Orleans.

“A lot of neighbors didn’t feel the same,” the 68-year-old said. “They didn’t want to see them there.”
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MIANYANG, China – Chinese authorities prepared on Saturday to drain a swelling lake formed by a devastating earthquake, completing work on a drainage channel to divert water that threatens hundreds of thousands downstream.

Officials are expected to discharge flood water from the lake into the channel between Sunday and Tuesday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, quoting Yue Xi, deputy chief of the water and electricity section of the People’s Armed Police.

The lake, called Tangjiashan, formed above Beichuan town in the Mianyang region of Sichuan province when a hillside plunged into a river valley during the May 12 quake.

Chinese authorities had evacuated nearly 200,000 people by early Saturday and warned more than 1 million others to be ready to leave quickly if the lake floods.

The confirmed death toll from China’s worst quake in three decades was raised Saturday to 68,977, an increase of about 120 people from a day earlier. Another 17,974 people were still missing, the State Council, or Cabinet, said. The daily increase was the smallest since the government started announcing death tolls shortly after the quake hit.

Xinhua said “a total of 197,477 people were evacuated to safe ground as of 8 a.m. Saturday.” It did not say how the number was determined. Some of the people may have been in the path of the planned runoff.

State television showed bulldozers and other heavy earth-moving equipment working on the water diversion channel. It did not show how far up the landslide the channel had been carved.

Xinhua said Tan Li, the Communist Party chief of Mianyang, had issued another order for all 1.3 million people in the area to be evacuated if “the barrier of the quake lake fully opens” and floods the area.

There was no sign that the banks of the lake were about to burst. Troops have sealed off Beichuan to the public.

Tangjiashan is the largest of more than 30 lakes that have formed behind landslides caused by the quake, which also weakened man-made dams in the mountainous parts of the disaster zone.

Millions of people in Sichuan are already living in tent camps and prefabricated housing, which have taken on the tone of new villages.

In Mianyang, about 200 families left their camps in flood-prone areas of the city and moved to higher ground in a wooded park on Fule Mountain. Most had camping tents and shelters made of tarps pitched under trees amid ornate gazebos and tea houses with traditional sloping yellow-tiled roofs. Red signs on the buildings said, “Dangerous building, don’t come near.”

One woman who only gave her surname, Wang, said life was uncomfortable but fine under the circumstances.

“We’ve got all the basics. Those who are out of work are being given food, but my company is taking care of me,” said Wang, who was living in a camouflaged tent set above the ground on wood planks.

One man, who also gave only his surname, Zhang, said he has been unhappy since moving to the camp two days ago.

“We were living near the river and the Mianyang officials got on TV and said the area was dangerous because of possible flooding and we were ordered to move here. They promised they’d take care of us, but we’ve been given no food, no tents,” he said, pointing to the simple structure of tarps his family of three was living under. “I had to rig this up myself. We’ve just been eating instant noodles and bread that we brought ourselves.”

Nearby, a woman selling tomatoes, green peppers and eggplants along the narrow park road was loading the vegetables back on her three-wheel motorcycle cart. “I’m packing things up because no one is buying,” she said. “They have no pots or pans. No way to cook the food.”

Meanwhile, the military lost contact Saturday with a helicopter flying earthquake relief missions in Sichuan province, Xinhua said.

The agency’s brief reports didn’t say how many people were aboard the aircraft. A government-ordered search was under way, it said.

Xinhua also reported that President Hu Jintao arrived Saturday to check on relief efforts in Shaanxi province. He was shown on state TV at a shelter talking to children who had been left homeless by the earthquake.

Just to the north of Sichuan, Shaanxi also suffered damage in the earthquake.

Another province hit by the earthquake, Gansu, plans to complete its rebuilding by the end of 2010, the governor said Saturday.

The rebuilding will include homes, schools and hospitals and the restoration of infrastructure such as telecommunications, power supply and transport, Xu Shousheng was quoted as saying by Xinhua. The earthquake killed more than 360 people in Gansu.

Numerous fundraising events have been held around China, with the latest planned for Tuesday when Chinese pianist Lang Lang and the Philadelphia Orchestra are to play a nationally televised charity concert in Beijing to support the earthquake relief effort.

The orchestra is in China to commemorate the 35th anniversary of a 1973 trip it made as the Cold War between China and the United States began to thaw.

Source

ABERDEEN, S.D. – Barack Obama said Saturday he has resigned his 20-year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago “with some sadness” in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and more recent fiery remarks at the church by a visiting priest.

“This is not a decision I come to lightly … and it is one I make with some sadness,” Obama said at a news conference after campaign officials released a letter of resignation he sent to the church on Friday.

“I’m not denouncing the church and I’m not interested in people who want me to denounce the church,” he said, adding that the new pastor at Trinity and “the church have been suffering from the attention my campaign has focused on them.”

Obama said he and his wife have been discussing the issue since Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club in Washington last month, which reignited the furor over remarks Wright had made in various sermons at the church.

“I suspect we’ll find another church home for our family,” Obama said.

“It’s clear that now that I’m a candidate for president, every time something is said in the church by anyone associated with Trinity, including guest pastors, the remarks will imputed to me even if they totally conflict with my long-held views, statements and principles,” he said.

“I have no idea how it will impact my presidential campaign but I know it was the right thing to do for me and my family,” he said.

“This was a pretty personal decision and I was not trying to make political theater out of it,” he added.

For months, Obama has been hamstrung by the rhetoric of Wright, whose sermons blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks and calls of “God damn America” for its racism became fixtures on the Internet and cable news networks.

Initially, Obama said he disagreed with Wright but portrayed him as a family member he couldn’t disown. The preacher had officiated at Obama’s wedding, baptized his two daughters and been his spiritual mentor for some 20 years.

But six weeks after Obama’s well-received speech on race, Wright claimed at the Press Club appearance that the U.S. government was capable of planting AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested that Obama was acting like a politician by putting his pastor at arm’s length while privately agreeing with him.

The next day, Obama denounced Wright’s comments as “divisive and destructive.”

Remarks by Wright inflamed racial tensions and posed an unwanted problem for Obama, front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, as he sought to wrap up the party’s nod.

More recently, racially charged remarks from the same pulpit by another pastor, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, kept the controversy alive and proved the latest thorn in Obama’s side. As a guest speaker at Obama’s church, Pfleger mocked Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Although Obama condemned comments by both Wright and Pfleger, the controversy persisted.

Obama made clear he wasn’t happy with Pfleger’s comments – in which the Catholic priest pretended he was Clinton crying over “a black man stealing my show” – and said he was “deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger’s divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn’t reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause.”

Pfleger issued an apology, saying he was sorry if his comments offended Clinton or anyone else.

The timing of Obama’s decision broke late Saturday, while most of the political attention was focused on the Democratic National Committee’s struggle to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan.

Republican John McCain also has had his woes with religious leaders.

Earlier this month, McCain rejected endorsements from two influential but controversial televangelists, saying there is no place for their incendiary criticisms of other faiths.

McCain spurned the months-old endorsement of Texas preacher John Hagee after an audio recording surfaced in which the preacher said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land. McCain called the comment “crazy and unacceptable.”

He later repudiated the support of Rod Parsley, an Ohio preacher who has sharply criticized Islam and called the religion inherently violent.

“This was one I didn’t see coming,” Obama said Saturday when he asked if he had anticipated the firestorm that would erupt over his relationship with Wright.

Source

WASHINGTON - Democratic Party leaders agreed Saturday to seat Michigan and Florida delegates with half-votes at this summer’s convention with a compromise that left Barack Obama on the verge of the nomination but riled Hillary Rodham Clinton backers who threatened to fight to the August convention.

“Hijacking four delegates is not a good way to start down the path of party unity,” said adviser Harold Ickes.

Clinton’s camp maintains she was entitled to four additional Michigan delegates.

The decision by the party’s Rules Committee raised slightly the total delegates Obama needs to clinch the nomination. Clinton advisers conceded privately he will likely hit the magic number after the final primaries are held Tuesday night, but said the ruling threatened to dash any hopes of a unified party.

“Mrs. Clinton has told me to reserve her right to take this to the Credentials Committee” at the convention, said Ickes, who is a member of the Rules Committee that voted Saturday.

The resolution increased the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination to 2,118, leaving Obama just 66 delegates away from the majority needed to secure the nomination.

“Our main goal is to get this resolved so we can focus on winning Michigan and Florida,” Obama said while campaigning in South Dakota. “There were compromises. … I’m glad the DNC worked it through and I hope we can start focusing on substance as opposed to process.”

The deal was reached after committee members deliberated for nine hours, including three where they met privately and argued fiercely over their eventual deal, according to several people inside. They voted in front of a raucous hotel ballroom that frequently interrupted proceedings and reflected deep divisions within the party.

“How can you call yourselves Democrats if you don’t count the vote?” one of the many hecklers in the audience yelled loudly and repeatedly before being escorted out by security. “This is not the Democratic Party!”

A senior Clinton adviser, speaking on a condition of anonymity about internal campaign decisions, said the decision could be used to help her raise campaign donations for a scaled-down campaign that might focus on a signature issue – such as health care reform – rather than a traditional fight for the nomination.

The advisers said no decisions had been made, and it was still possible that Clinton would bow out once Obama goes over the top.

Clinton and her supporters wanted the Michigan and Florida delegations fully restored, according to January primaries that she won. But those contests were not recognized by the party because they were held too early, and both candidates agreed at the time they would not count.

But as Clinton tried to catch up to Obama’s delegate lead, she has argued that the votes of the 2.3 million people who participated in the elections must be recognized.

Obama supporters argued that they did compromise by allowing her to take the majority of delegates in two contests where he didn’t campaign.

The sticking point was Michigan, where Obama’s name was not on the ballot.

Clinton’s camp insisted Obama shouldn’t get any pledged delegates in Michigan since he chose not to put his name on the ballot, and she should get 73 pledged delegates with 55 uncommitted. Obama’s team insisted the only fair solution was to split the pledged delegates in half between the two campaigns, with 64 each.

The committee agreed on a compromise offered by the Michigan Democratic Party that would split the difference, allowing Clinton to take 69 delegates and Obama 59. Each delegate would get half a vote at the convention, according to the deal.

The deal passed 19-8. Thirteen members of the committee had endorsed Clinton for president, so she wasn’t even able to keep her supporters together.

Allan Katz, a Rules Committee member and Obama supporter, said the Obama campaign had enough votes on the committee to support the campaign’s proposal to split the delegates 50-50 in Michigan. Ultimately, the campaign agreed instead to support the compromise negotiated by the Michigan Democratic Party as a way to resolve the matter.

“The ironic thing is Obama had the majority of that committee,” Katz said. “The Obama campaign wants to move on and compromise. We did not muscle our way through it. It was a wise decision from a well run and wise campaign that will reverberate.”

But the irate reaction from Clinton’s campaign and her supporters in the sharply divided audience shows Obama will have a long way to go to bring the party together after a long and divisive primary.

“We just blew the election!” a woman in the audience shouted. The crowd was divided between cheering Obama supporters and booing Clinton supporters.

“This isn’t unity! Count all the votes!” another audience member yelled.

Jim Roosevelt, co-chair of the committee, tried repeatedly to gavel it to order. “You are dishonoring your candidate when you disrupt the speakers,” he chided.

There are three primaries left in the contest – Puerto Rico on Sunday and Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday. Obama should get at least 30 delegates in the remaining primaries, meaning he has to pick up no more than about 30 more superdelegates even if he loses Puerto Rico and South Dakota.

He will not clinch the nomination this weekend, barring a barrage of superdelegates Sunday.

The committee also unanimously agreed to seat the Florida delegation based on the outcome of the January primary, with 105 pledged delegates for Clinton and 67 for Obama, but with each delegate getting half a vote as a penalty.

Proponents of full seating continuously interrupted the committee members as they explained their support of the compromise, then supporters of the deal shouted back.

“Shut up!” one woman shouted at another.

“You shut up!” the second woman shouted back.

Obama picked up a total of 32 delegates in Michigan, including superdelegates who have already committed, and 36 in Florida. Clinton picked up 38 in Michigan, including superdelegates, and 56.5 in Florida. Obama’s total increased to 2,052, and Clinton had 1,877.5.

A proposal favored by Clinton that would have fully seated the Florida delegation fully in accordance with the January primary went down with 12 votes in support and 15 against.

Tina Flournoy, who led Clinton’s efforts to seat both states’ delegations with full voting power, said she was disappointed by the outcome but knew the Clinton position had “no chance” of passing the committee.

“I understand the rules. … I can tell you one thing that has driven these rules was being a party of inclusion,” Flournoy said. “I wish my colleagues will vote differently.”

Alice Huffman, a Clinton supporter on the committee, explained that the compromise giving delegates half votes was the next best thing to full seating.

“We will leave here more united than we came,” she said.

Some audience members heckled her in response. “Lipstick on a pig!” one shouted
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Essential Water Solutions has launched Essentialyte, water dispersible nutritional supplement that maintains fluid electrolytes and stabilizes mineral metabolism in livestock for hydration and nutrient transfer.

The ions in Essentialyte are balanced ratios of potassium to sodium and magnesium based on several thousand water analyses throughout a large geographical area. According to the company, Essentialyte sustains hydration at the cellular level. All animals perform better when their electrolytes (potassium, sodium, magnesium and chlorides) are balanced at the cellular level, which in turn eliminates dehydration and other health-related problems. The company advises to avoid over-the-counter electrolyte products that usually contain high levels of chlorides. High levels of chlorides increase sodium absorption ratios, which, in turn, can lead to displaced potassium, thus causing dehydration., visit  Source

The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a final rule that changes the exotic Newcastle disease (END) domestic quarantine regulations.

These changes include harmonising foreign and domestic regulations regarding the movement of dressed carcasses of dead birds and dead poultry; adding restrictions on the interstate movement of ratites out of quarantined areas; adding an option for the movement of pet birds; providing for the use of alternative procedures for treating manure and litter for composting; and adding an additional surveillance period prior to removing quarantine restrictions. APHIS has determined that these changes are necessary based on experiences during the eradication programmes for the outbreaks of END in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas in 2002 and 2003. This final rule will help ensure that if an END outbreak occurs again, the disease can be eradicated within future quarantine areas and disease spread can be prevented. APHIS says that END is a highly contagious and fatal viral disease that affects all species of birds, affecting the respiratory, nervous and digestive systems of birds, and many birds die before demonstrating any clinical signs of the disease.    Source