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“selected” to have various characteristics, according to trends of the
day — for example, preferences for more breast meat or larger eggs.
“Most chickens now, for meat, are white-feathered chickens,
because people sort of get turned off if they see little pinpoint black
marks on their chicken, which would be normal for a bird that had
black feathers — it leaves a little bit of colour behind in the feather
follicles,” says Nadeau.
But selecting for ostensibly more desirable characteristics can
have consequences — another reason maintaining the genetic
diversity of heritage breeds is important, Nadeau adds.
“There’s some interesting things that happen when you select
birds for different traits,” she says. “Like, if you’re selecting for egg
size and you always pick the birds that lay the biggest eggs, you
may find that you’re selecting out — this is just a random example
— resistance to disease or any number of things,” she says.
“So if you end up with a selection of birds where, after you
select them over many generations, you find out
the birds really aren’t very good at dealing with any
of the diseases you might find in the environment,
you can go back and look at heritage breeds and
try to breed that hardiness into the flock.”
Genetic selection in chickens is a bit different
than in cows, for example, Nadeau says, because
chickens go from one generation to the next in a
much shorter time — a chicken can have its first
chicks at five months old.
The chickens at the Poultry Research Centre
are rare breeds and random bred strains, partly
obtained from Dr. Roy Crawford’s research flocks
at the University of Saskatchewan. Crawford kept
the breeds as an unselected population — often
used as a reference group for comparison in
genetic studies — since 1965. When he retired,
they were given a new home at the U of A’s
poultry centre.
The crucial need to protect the genetics
contained in the flock is one of the reasons
program subscribers don’t actually get to meet
their adopted birds, Nadeau says.
Maintaining the integrity of poultry flocks by
guarding against infection or other contaminants is
an imperative element of food security.
“If the birds got sick and died, there’s nowhere
to get new ones from. They would just be gone. So
we have to be pretty careful. We do a lot of things
to try and reduce the risks, so we keep out people
that don’t really need to be on site.”
The chickens, which live in a free-run
environment with wood shavings to use as
bedding material, can also get stressed by changes
in their space. “Sort of as a general rule, they don’t
like strangers,” says Nadeau.
Foster was first captivated by chickens while
living in the Cayman Islands, where feral chickens
roam at will.
“I just thought they were charming, and they
always looked so soft,” she says, adding the Adopt-
a-Heritage-Chicken program is a great way to
satisfy her chicken interest without raising them in
her backyard.
Foster’s first “adopted” hen was a Rhode
Island Red she named Yolk-abel. Over the years,
she’s adopted a chicken from each of the different
breeds raised at the poultry centre.
Though she doesn’t get to hang out with the
chickens like she did in the Cayman Islands, she
still feels a connection with them.
“I know my chickens, I know where my
eggs are coming from,” she says. “I can talk to
the people in the program and say, ‘How are the
chickens doing?’ And I know I’m supporting this
worthwhile program.”
Find out more at heritagechickens.ualberta.ca.
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