Chickens to the Rescue

Have you all seen gas prices lately? They are getting crazy as we see oil demands continue to rise and the political unrest across the world. One of the better investments I have made lately is buying an oil Exchange Traded Fund in my sons Education Savings Account last summer. That investment is up 45% since July. Unfortunately while his account is growing, my discretionary spending is going down since more and more of my hard earned money goes to paying for gas. Luckily, chickens (and scientists) have come to the rescue with a way to reduce some of our dependency on oil.

According to an article on physorg.com scientists have figured out a way to take chicken feathers and make them into plastic. "To make the new plastic, the researchers started with chicken and turkey feathers that had been cleaned and pulverized into a fine dust. They then added chemicals that made the keratin molecules join together to form long chains -- a process called polymerization."

Most plastics are petroleum based and require the use of fossil fuels. Chicken feathers are essentially a waste product right now. If we are able to make chicken feathers into plastics, we are using waste to create another source for the plastics that we use. Another benefit of the plastics made with chicken feathers is that they can be recycled, melted down, and reused.

Let's hear it for chickens! This is just another reason that they are one of my favorite animals. Leave a comment on what you love about your chickens We have have a lot of chickenless readers whom we are trying to convert into raising chickens and your comment might influence them to start.

 ~Michael~