Rosie, the weather forecasting chook

I hate The Daily Mail with a vengeance. There, said it. Feel better already.

But I could not help myself from reading this article, describing the “egg-credible” (oh, please!) feats of Rosie, the weather forecasting chicken.

rosie.jpeg.bmpAmazingly, (shouldn’t that be egg-mazingly?), her eggs’ shell colour can predict what the weather is going to do.

Eggs with orange spots are portents for sunshine, white speckled eggs speak of snows to come, while pale eggs mean clear skies are in the offing.

Call me an old cynic, but my instinctive reaction was that Rosie was probably suffering from some nasty gut disorder that was leading to such inconsistent egg production.

This is partly born out in this article from one of my favourite sites, The Poultry Pages, which list genetics, stress, diet, age and parasites as the main causes of inconsistent and pale eggs.

To my annoyance, however, it also confirms there can be a link to strong sunshine and high temperatures – so there may be a grain of truth in The Daily Mail’s story (for once).