In a world of packaged and fast food, it’s more important than ever that everyone, especially young children, know where their food comes from. That’s why we created an interactive educational tool called Fun Farm, where kids can play games, download projects and learn about how their chicken dinner made it to their plates.

On the Fun Farm, kids can play games like the Matching Mania memory game, test their skills at chicken jig-saw puzzles, or design a virtual T-shirt. There are also interactive games, like Build-a-Barn that gives kids a virtual barn that they have to equip with all the right equipment and supplies necessary to raise healthy chickens.

But fun Farm is about more than just fun – it’s about learning. The site also features a Project Corner with downloadable project ideas and a Teacher's Corner that can be used in the classroom to get kids involved in research projects and tests their skills in science, health, reading, writing, critical thinking, and visual arts.

Teachers can use these lesson plans as part of their curriculum or students can explore them on their own and get their parents involved too. It's a great way to learn and afterwards kids have a better understanding of chickens and farming from the gate to the plate.

Fun Farm is a great virtual place for kids to learn and have fun at the same time. We had a lot of fun building it.

Since 1970, Earth Day has been the focus of millions of people who celebrate the environmental event in many different ways in their own part of the globe. It is expected that this year, more than 6 million Canadians will join 1 billion people in over 170 countries by holding events and activities to celebrate Earth Day and to address local environmental issues.

In some cases, communities take on projects to raise awareness or to do something tangible for the environment such as Victoria’s Earth Walk (5,000 participants), Edmonton’s Earth Day Festival at Hawrelak Park (30,000 participants), and Oakville, Ontario’s Waterways Clean-up (2,000 participants).

With chicken farmers in every province, Canadian chicken is the perfect local source of protein in your diet. Through the implementation of sustainable, good production practices, chicken farmers are committed to leaving the smallest possible imprint on the environment.

CFC also supports the development and implementation of environmental farm plans.

We all have a role to play in ensuring that we are buying food closer to the farm and creating less of an imprint on the environment. Buying Canadian chicken is a smart choice; for your health and for the environment!

Most Canadians eat chicken at least once a week, but what do you REALLY know about chicken?  Here are a few things that might surprise you.

They’re secretly dinosaurs.

Like most birds, chickens share a great deal of DNA with their thunder lizard ancestors, however, according to a July 2010 story in the Times & Transcript, recent DNA analysis shows that T-Rex and chickens are such extremely close cousins biologically that “science has no choice but to acknowledge that birds are, in reality, dinosaurs, not just critters evolved from them.” In fact, these genetic ties are so strong that one scientist (who was also the prime science advisor for the movie Jurassic Park) is currently working to get funding to create a brand new dinosaur, starting from a chicken embryo, that he has dubbed a “chickenosaurus.”

They came before the egg.

Sorry, Eggs.  British scientists, who evidently have far too much time on their hands, used a supercomputer and over 5 million core hours of computer simulations to answer the question.  Studying the proteins only found within a chicken’s ovaries and its effect on creating the hard shell of an egg overnight, they determined that only a chicken could produce a chicken egg, and therefore, it had to have come first.

There are hundreds of breeds of chicken.

In North America, there are only a few breeds raised for food, and a few raised for eggs, but across the world there are hundreds of breeds – some that look very much like the iconic chicken we all know, and some that look like vultures, some that are different colours, and even one called a Silkie, that has dark skin and looks oddly like a poodle.  Then again, chickens probably think humans all look the same, too.

Chickens are omnivores

It’s true that chickens raised in Canada are entirely grain-fed, but it’s also true that while they love their veggies, chickens are meat-eaters as well.  In fact, without proper protein in their diet, chickens will look to supplement their diet wherever they can – even if it means attacking one another.  On the farm, chickens get their protein from their feed either in the form of grain or bone meal, while also snacking on the occasional bug wherever they can find it.

Canadian chickens are not raised with hormones.

Hopefully, if there were any facts here that you already knew, this was the one.  Sadly, this is a question that we still find ourselves answering, even though feeding, injecting or otherwise administering hormones to chickens has been illegal in Canada since the 60s.  So, if you see a label on chicken that reads “Hormone Free,” it doesn’t mean that the others are not.  All chicken in Canada has been raised without added hormones.

If I don’t laugh at least once a day (I’m talking a good hearty laugh) then my day isn’t complete. There’s something about the effects of laughter that just lighten up my mood and release tension and stress much like that feeling you get after a good workout, that endorphin release!

Not only does laughing make you feel better but it’s contagious so by making everyone else around you laugh, you are making their day.

Here are my suggestions to get laughing at least once a day:

• It doesn’t have to be April Fool’s day to play a good prank on one of your co-workers
• Find a humorous video on YouTube and share it with friends
• Call up a friend and when they answer the phone cluck like a chicken. By the way, I work for the Chicken Farmers of Canada so I get calls like this from friends and family on a regular basis......
• Get laughing through Facebook. We ran a contest at Canadian Chicken asking people to take their favourite song title and movie title and replace one of the words with chicken. It was hysterical!
• Watch a funny movie with friends and family
• Share one of your most embarrassing moments with friends and they’ll likely do the same

Need more tips on how to laugh out loud? Visit http://www.humormonth.com/

National Humour Month was founded by Larry Wilde, Director of the Carmel Institute of Humour.

“Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.”

~ Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.

I will be offsite the week of January 23 working with a team of very talented people who will be filming our next series of 15 how-to videos. I love being onsite when the shoots are taking place!  There’s an incredible amount of work that goes into just one video, yet everyone has a great time working together to get it done.

I was lucky to have the same experience last year, which I blogged about back then.

http://chicken.ca/blog/videos/the-filming-of-our-new-how-to-videos/

http://chicken.ca/blog/cooking_tips/how-to-video-shoot-day-21/

http://chicken.ca/blog/cooking_tips/how-to-video-shot-day-3/

So what how-to videos do we have in store for you this year?

1. Chicken Pad Thai
2. Stuffed Peppers
3. Chicken Pot Pie
4. Chicken in Parchment Paper
5. Chicken Meatloaf
6. Fried Chicken
7. Chicken Paella
8. Thai Chicken Burgers
9. Butter Chicken
10. Sloppy Joes
11. Quick Chicken Paprikash
12. Chicken Curry
13. Jambalaya
14. Greek Salad with Chicken
15. Chicken Nori Rolls

We won’t be releasing the videos all at once. Some of these are seasonal so keep your eyes peeled throughout the year as new ones are released.

Have you tried making a recipe that you learned from one of our how-to videos? If so, which one and how did it turn out? We’d love to hear from you.

Welcome back everyone!  2011 was a busy year for us and this year is going to be just as busy.

So what do we have planned?

Over 100 delicious chicken recipes will be added to our web site, including nutritional information. We’ll also be adding 15 more “how-to” videos that will have you cooking like a pro in no time!

On our Facebook page, we’ll continue posting tidbits of industry related information, including some great recipes and don’t forget to “Like” CanadianChicken for your chance to enter weekly contests to win some awesome prizes!

We’ll also continue tweeting which means we’ll be hosting some fun Twitter parties where you’ll be able to ask us any chicken related questions and win more great prizes.

If you follow our blog, then you already know that we’ll be posting interesting articles as well as recipes.

So this year, get your appetites ready for some healthy and tasty Canadian chicken!

Today’s blog is brought to you by Karen Humphrey. Karen is the author of two very well known Canadian food blogs “Notes from the Cookie Jar” and “Chasing Tomatoes”.

I watch my Twitter stream flit by, messages scrolling almost faster than I can keep up. A friend of mine on Vancouver Island is having a coffee. Another in Toronto is baking with her children. Yet another writes about a book she is reading. Many of these women I have met through social media in the last two years, and they all have become what I would call friends.

Those who don’t understand social media don’t quite ‘get’ places like Twitter. “It seems so weird to have people following you, why would they do that? It’s creepy! Why would anyone want to know about my day? Who cares?” To some it’s unchartered territory, to which they are missing the point.   

The point is easy, really. It’s about being social and if you are a business, it can benefit you in ways you can’t even imagine, if you do it correctly. Let me tell you a story.

Years ago, I was loyal to a particular snack product. This chocolate treat was something I had eaten since my childhood, and was practically tradition to have in the house, include in my baking, and to send to friends. I had been loyal to this product for well over 30 years. Unfortunately, the product’s recipe was changed, which changed the taste. As a consumer, I took advantage of social media and the internet to voice my displeasure to the company, hoping that I would have some response or explanation in return. I knew that they wouldn’t change the product back just for me, but that’s something that social media gives us-a vehicle to give immediate feedback. I hated the new product, and I voiced it loudly because I admit, I felt somewhat betrayed that something from my childhood was now ruined.

The company completely ignored me. However, someone else was listening.

The competition.

Immediately, they responded to my tweets in the absence of a response from the company. It started with friendly chat, and somehow, they craftily let me know that they had the same product, a better product, that I may want to try, which I did. However, it doesn’t end there. The same company chatted with me occasionally, commented when I posted photos of things I had baked with their product, and got to know me as their customer. The result?  Now when I think of their product, I think of the conversations I’ve had with them, the friendly chats about cookies and chocolate, and I am now far more loyal to their brand than I ever was to the original one. They took the time to get to know me, to help solve my problem, and I no longer saw them as a faceless company but instead a friendly voice willing to help.

Businesses may not realize this but when they befriend a blogger who loves their products and feels a connection to their company, we can, and we do share. It’s a tricky balance because like all relationships, the give and take must be mutual and bloggers want to be treated with respect as professionals. I will say, however that when I really love a company, and a product, I will talk about it online and off, include links in posts that I write  and in general, recommend it to anyone who will listen. That kind of advertising can’t be bought; rather it’s one that comes only by the genuine relationships you build through social media. There are businesses who do this particularly well, and who I adore working with for that very reason. Social media relationships can lead to business partnerships, opportunities, and PR for companies as well as bloggers which are mutually beneficial. The trick is, I think, reaching outside of ourselves and not thinking only about what we can gain for ourselves through business relationships, but considering the people we are working with and their needs as well. 

When you can nail just the right combination of business and relationships, the rewards are beyond anything you can imagine.

Today’s blog is brought to you by Karen Humphrey. Karen is the author of two very well known Canadian food blogs “Notes from the Cookie Jar” and “Chasing Tomatoes”.

Rays of sun broke through grey clouds as the plane’s wings tipped upon our decent into Toronto, and my heart skipped a beat. After years of reading about conferences and then months of planning my trips to Blissdom Canada, this time it was really happening.

Back in 2010 I was invited to my first blogging and social media conference as a speaker. For me it was shocking, really. I had never expected that my venture into social media would be the introduction to a community of people across the country. At first, I was terrified. What if nobody spoke to me? What if I found myself alone in a corner? It’s easy to be yourself online, in words rather than face to face - you can shut the computer off, you can think and re-word responses, you can carefully calculate what you are going to say. Real life is completely different, and suddenly all these people I had talked to were going to be right there in front of me.

I had gone to Blissdom Canada with no expectations, and there I was, hyperventilating in my hotel room, terrified that I was going to mess up before I took a deep breath and dove in, feet first.

What I found was inspiration from fellow writers, friendships, and a community that I am proud to be part of. Blissdom allows bloggers to teach each other how to hone our craft, support each other, and spend time with each other offline. I can’t even begin to say how valuable it is; there’s something about having met someone personally that solidifies a working relationship with them. There’s also something incredibly inspiring to be with people who actually understand you. They know what it’s like to try to flesh out an article at 1 am, or get your Twitter jokes. You know who you can chat with when you’ve had a bad day, who will encourage you to keep going, and that if you need help, will be there for you. We are all in this together, after all. 

his year, I went back to Blissdom Canada with a wonderful sponsorship from Chicken Farmers of Canada and instead of being terrified, it felt like I was going home to see friends. While I didn’t speak, having the chance to mentor and talk to new bloggers as a Food blogging Tribe leader was an amazing opportunity to give back to the community for the inspiration and support I have received over and over again.

Conferences may be once a year, but the memories and the connections stay with you far beyond the two days you are there. I find that the inspiration and friendships carry me through even the tough times throughout the year when I begin to stumble. Last week, I wandered through a store looking for a gift for a dear friend who is sick, my eyes filling with tears. What do you buy a friend who has cancer?  The strains of Pink’s “Raise Your Glass” from Blissdom’s video began to play, and it was as though the universe was reminding me that things would be okay. 

Keep calm, and carry on. We’ve got your back.

It’s been a busy year for us at CFC and now it’s time for a break so that we can start fresh in the New Year!

We’ll be back with plenty of great blogs and we’ll be keeping you posted with new tidbits of information and contests via Facebook and Twitter.  We’ll also be adding many more scrumptious chicken recipes to our web site so don’t forget to come back and visit us at www.chicken.ca.

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY AND SAFE HOLIDAY SEASON!

By:  Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

 In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.