Farmers have bred chickens to grow bigger and faster in order to feed the growing number of hungry humans. But along with that extra weight comes a tendency for the chickens to overheat. If a chicken gets too hot, it dies. That’s not a problem at the moment because farmers can keep the coops cooled but what happens when climate change makes it harder to cool poultry indoors or to raise them free-range outdoors?
Geneticists are working to solve the problem of over-heating fowls. And what they came up with is a smooth-skinned, totally featherless, bald chicken. Not only does that help cool the chicken but it makes it one step easier to throw the bird in the pot since it doesn’t need to be plucked.
If you want to see what bald chickens look like, watch this short video:
“My concern is feeding nine billion people in 2050,” said geneticist Carl Schmidt, who leads a team at the University of Delaware, in an interview with Modern Farmer. “That’s going to be a challenge. And it’s going to be made worse if the climate does continue to change.”