Chicken
Conservation of heritage poultry presents a number of challenges – the most serious being keeping track of breeds and breeders. We receive hundreds of calls and emails from people who are trying to find breeding stock and finding contacts for them is not easy. I urge poultry folks to join RBC and register themselves on the breeders list.

Greg Oakes, Chicken Coordinator
Email: bashcurl@golden.net

Turkey
The number of heritage turkeys in Canada is unknown as there has never been a census and no system of registration exists as there is for sheep or cattle. However, after several years of contact with new and established breeders through RBC and various poultry groups, I can make better guesses of the population size each year. Based on correspondence and my own observations, I can say with some certainty that interest in heritage turkeys is increasing. Many new breeders have established small flocks and sales of breeding stock and meat are brisk.

The American Livestock Breed Conservancy (ALBC) turkey censuses have shown massive increases in the number of breeding birds since 1998, and the Slow Food movement has boosted their popularity as meat. Media coverage all over Canada has raised their profile, to the extent that many would-be breeders are unable to obtain stock of the variety they would like.

This is a serious handicap to anyone who wants to grow turkeys for meat, as they are not easily obtainable in large numbers from Canadian hatcheries. A few US hatcheries will send day-olds to the nearest Post Office on the US side of the border, for pickup and importation by their new owner. This method is expensive and usually involves some losses.

Related Articles:
The Ridley Bronze Turkey Great Escape

Margaret Thomson, Turkey Coordinator
windrush@telus.net