Chicken

More than 17 million US households now have chickens. The world's first smart Coop, which is an ideal gateway to help novices raise chooks, has now rolled out Cluck Talk, which can tell you just what your chatty birds are saying to each other and to you.

There are now several devices that help you keep food waste out of landfills by converting it to compost … but what if you don't have a garden? Well, the Mill converts such waste into dried grounds which are sent off to feed chickens.

You might think that the ol' wood-and-wire chicken coop is one thing that's ineligible for a high-tech makeover. The designers of a camera- and alarm-equipped chicken home known as The Coop, however, would be inclined to disagree.

The FDA has given California company Upside Foods the green light for its lab-grown chicken, paving the way for it to reach market shelves next year, and making the US the second country in the world to allow legal sales of lab-grown meat products.

Even when they're allowed to roam, chickens are still susceptible to infestations of blood-sucking mites. It now turns out that a backpack-like device could let farmers know when those mites are biting, so treatment could begin as soon as possible.

When it comes to farm animals being raised in subpar conditions, chickens often have it particularly rough. A new system that analyzes chick vocalizations, however, could help alert farmers (or authorities) when things really need to change.

Pulling chicken breasts off the bone can be a fiddly process, and often results in flesh being wasted by getting left behind. In a factory setting, that means slower processing times, and less meat to sell. That's why the Norwegian CYCLE project is developing an industrial robot to do the job.

Battery hens live pretty grim lives – but can that be improved with the use of virtual reality? Second Livestock envisions caged hens being fitted with VR goggles and movement sensors to give them the impression that they're out in the barnyard doing ... whatever it is chickens prefer to do all day.

Roboticists at Gerogia Tech develop a robot that can debone a chicken automatically.

Having chickens and vegetables in your backyard is a great for self-sustainability, but what if I want both in a small yard?