Fauna and flora quick clicks: Meet the 'inflation chicken' and the fast-spreading nine-banded armadillo

A chicken breeding farm in Missouri.
(Photo by Neeta Satam, The New York Times)

Exhausted by the search for affordable eggs, some Americans have decided raising their own chickens is a more productive pursuit. Dubbed the 'inflation chicken,' we can learn how much it costs to raise an egg-laying chicken and what egg prices say about our economy.

This is chicken that isn't exactly chicken. It's lab-grown from cultured chicken cells. The Food and Drug Administration gave its first approval to a slaughter-free company, Upside Foods. The product is known as "cultivated meat," or by other names, as it evolves.

Pigs, swine, hogs, boars. Wild, feral, invasive, non-native. Whatever words you use, these tusked omnivores are destroying crops and preying on endangered species. But the most serious threat they pose is to humans.

The nine-banded armadillo is expanding northward.
(Photo by Jay Butifiloski)

Attracted by the promise of a temperate and warming climate, vast tracts of diggable land, room to expand, and a nearly endless supply of fire ants − armadillos are moving into states like North Carolina.

Slated to be completed in 2025, some might enjoy viewing progress at the US 101 freeway wildlife crossing near Agoura Hill, Calif.  The overpass will connect the Santa Monica Mountains to the Simi Hills over 10 lanes of highway and will allow the animals to mix with other, unrelated mountain lions. When completed, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will be the largest in the world.

More ways to make way for wildlife: As spring migration begins it bears repeating that more than 600,000 miles of fences criss-cross the American West, blocking animal migration. Outside Yellowstone National Park, volunteers dismantled a few. 

Are you kidding? What the best cheese from 2022? Goat's cheese from Port Washington, Wisconsin, pop. 13,000. Founded in 2020, Blakesville Creamery makes all its cheeses from its herd of 900 goats, comprised largely of Saanens.

It's not too late for a Zoom training on winter blooms. Feb. 14: A Valentine's Day webinar will covers all aspects of cut-flower production.