Pecking order needs preserving
They squawk and peck and, undoubtedly, they smell.
But hundreds of “heritage chickens” at the Poultry Research Centre have been adopted by Edmontonians participating in a unique plan that swaps fresh eggs for the chance to preserve chicken history.
Almost 1,500 birds fill two long walls of coops at the centre on the University of Alberta’s south campus.
You wouldn’t find birds like these in a commercial chicken operation, as they are from five breeds that have been preserved since before intensive selection processes became popular in the mid- 1950s. That’s when researchers started selecting birds that grew the fastest, the biggest, and laid the most eggs to breed for commercial purposes.
“These are valuable animals for understanding what has actually happened in terms of genetic selection and what genes have been maintained and what genes might have been lost,” said Martin Zuidhof, the academic lead for the Poultry Research Centre, which is a joint partnership between the university, Alberta Agriculture and the poultry industry.
But keeping the heritage breeds is expensive: The poultry centre spends about $75,000 annually. So, the centre decided to launch an adopt-aheritage-chicken program this year.
For $75, Edmontonians could “adopt” a chicken and, in return, get a dozen eggs from heritage chickens every two weeks for five months. The program is currently maxed out at 200 participants, but the centre plans to expand to include hundreds of more people in November.
“I’m excited not only to save the birds, but to have people learn more about where their food is coming from. I think they’re a great opportunity to understand the genetic contributions to growth and how much improvement in our efficient systems is due to genetics. We can answer all sorts of neat questions with these birds,” Zuidhof said.
Scientists also think the heritage breeds may have immune responses that could have been inadvertently diminished in current-day commercial birds through selection processes.
Visitors to the centre need to sign a biosecurity questionnaire, answering whether they’ve had recent contact with other birds and whether they’ve had recent-flu like symptoms. The next step is to don coveralls, hair nets and onsite boots before heading to the coops.
Inside, the chickens are loud and curious about visitors. There’s the Dark Brown Leghorn breed, with long, almost majestic pink combs, contrasted against brown feathers. There’s the Barred Plymouth Rock breed, with black and white banded feathers that meld into a grey colour.
The other heritage breeds are the Light Sussex, White Leghorn and New Hampshire.
Eggs from the chickens are gathered each day and passed through a grader that helps detect imperfections and sorts the eggs by size.
Dozens of eggs are currently being stored in a cold room, soon ready to be packaged for the first adopt-a-chicken egg pickup on March 28 at the Poultry Research Centre.
Interest in the adoption program ramped up even before the program was approved, when a small article appeared in the local food magazine, The Tomato, said Agnes Kulinski, the centre’s business director.
The research centre placed a small advertisement in the magazine a few months later and by the time an article appeared in a University of Alberta publication earlier this week, the program had maxed out at 200 participants.
Kulinski said she had “no idea” the program would receive such interest. It will run for five months and operations will be fine-tuned before the expansion this fall.
There are plans to set up webcams in the coops. Participants will be able to name their chickens and pick their favourite breed.
Since chickens breed quickly and reach maturity in a short time, they’ve been a key animal for research in selection processes. Zuidhof knows breeding programs have critics, but notes the research has largely been driven by consumers’ desire for cheap food.
Breeding programs aren’t “inherently evil,” he said. Growing efficient chickens can reduce environmental emissions, the amount of energy needed to cultivate food and the cost of food, he said.
“It’s true if we wouldn’t have been selecting for more efficient animals, we wouldn’t have this situation, but we’d also have different problems.”
The Poultry Research Centre plans to have a heritage chickens website running next week.