Funky Friday: Strange Farm Facts

I can tell if the barnyard is home to pigs, chickens, cows, sheep, or horses - from the smell alone.

Honeybees smell, actually they stink. In the spring on the farm we would have several hundred pounds of them in a heated garage - you buy worker bees by the pound. 

Pigs and chickens are omnivores, they will eat anything, including each other. 

Cows are vegetarians by nature, but indiscriminate eaters - they sometimes swallow wire, nails, and screws. You then feed them a magnet to gather the metal. Commercial cattle feed often has byproduct meal, in other words dried and ground-up cow bits in it to increase the protein content.  

Horses are fussy eaters and will spit out anything that feels wrong, but are unable to vomit. Their teeth grow continuously through their lifespan. When a horses's teeth stop growing they don't have long left to live. 

Most grain crops are grown from hybrid seed. Planting the resulting grain is often prohibited as a patent violation, and will often result in a plant that is unlike the parent. The seed companies have a near monopoly on the grain that is grown. 

Most seed corn is covered in a toxic coating. Animals and humans have died from eating it.