Heritage Breeds label

Frank Reese, http://www.reeseturkeys.com/, has been a leader in breeding and raising standard poultry and creating a market for it. This year he plans to breed 15,000 standard turkeys, 40,000 standard bred chickens, 500 ducks and 200 geese. He sells them through a local market, online through Heritage Foods USA, http://www.heritagefoodsusa.com/index.html, and through his site.

This new label has been approved by the USDA, a complicated process. It includes those descriptive words, Heritage and Standard Bred, and specifies that the chickens are not younger than 16 weeks old. Typical industrial chickens are slaughtered before they are seven weeks old.

He breeds Standard Bronze, Bourbon Red, Narragansett, Black and White Holland turkeys. His standard-breed chickens include Cornish and Barred Plymouth Rocks. The ducks are Rouen and Aylesbury and the geese are Dewlap Toulouse and Embdens.

Frank has also championed the cause of Standard-Bred Poultry, creating the Standard Breed Poultry Institute and writing a definition of Heritage Chickens, see the blog post of February 20, 2008. His work has attracted substantial media interest. Thanks for your work, Frank, and for keeping me posted!

Newspapers, radio, Internet

Bill Morem, columnist for the local paper, the San Luis Obispo Tribune, wrote about me in today's edition, http://tinyurl.com/o48tt2. The radio interview with Andy Schneider, the Chicken Whisperer, aired live this morning and will be posted Monday afternoon at http://www.radiosandysprings.com/showpages/backyardpoultry.php. My site is included in this new environmental Web site, http://thephoenixsun.com/sites. Cal Poly Organic Farm, http://www.calpolyorgfarm.com/, featured an article I wrote about keeping chickens in this week's CSA member Newsletter, not yet posted to the site.

It's a lot of attention, but it's the result of a lot of things coming together at the same time. Interest in local food, concern about food safety and security, growing awareness of loss of genetic diversity and just plain chicken attraction all go into the mix. I'm grateful to be in a position to respond to questions people have about chickens and other poultry.

Radio Interview

Andy Schneider, better known as the Chicken Whisperer™, contacted me to be a guest on his radio program May 9. It airs at 9 am Eastern but all shows are later posted to his site.

From his site, http://www.radiosandysprings.com/showpages/backyardpoultry.php: He has become the go-to guy across the nation for anything chickens. Over the years he has helped a countless number of people start their very own backyard flocks. He is not only a national radio personality, but also a special contributor to Mother Earth News Magazine, Grit Magazine, and Farmers Almanac. He is the owner of Atlanta Pet Chickens, Classroom Chickens, and is the Founder/Organizer of the Atlanta Pet Chicken Meetup Group that has quickly grown to over 575 local members! He has been featured on CBS News Atlanta, HD News New York, NPR, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Front Page Story), New Life Journal, and many other local and national publications. He is currently working with CNN and Farmers Almanac TV on stories about keeping backyard poultry. In fact, he is currently working on a "How To" video series called “Backyard Poultry with the Chicken Whisperer™” with Farmers Almanac TV that should be released this spring!

Dorkings in Rome

Dorkings are clearly the breed depicted in Roman mosaics. Five-toed chickens with Dorking plumage are described by Pliny and Columella, Roman writers of the first ce ntury AD. This depiction of Mercury with a Dorking rooster dates to the third century AD. It was unearthed at Carnuntum, which served as the Roman capital of the Pannonian Province on the Danube, in today’s Austria. It is reproduced from Frederick E. Zeuner’s A History of Domesticated Animals. He credits it to Niederosterreichisches Landesmuseum, Vienna.

Other historians set the date of their arrival in England later, to 1066 with the Norman conquest. They take their name from the English market town in Surrey. A breed with such a long history is inevitably of historical interest and discussion. This breed exerts a powerful attraction.

I'm grateful to librarian Karen Dunn of the Steenbock Memorial Library at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for helping me locate this book and remarkable ilustration. We both wished we could see this in color. Perhaps one day we will travel to the museum in Austria and I shall take my own picture!

Brahmas, Campines and Cochins

This illustration is from Dr. J. Batty and Charles Francis' Poultry Colour Guide, 1977 and 1979. A second edition was published in response to demand for the book after it was first published. Dr. Batty wrote the text and Mr. Francis painted the portraits.

The top row shows Dark and Light Brahmas. The center row shows Silver and Gold Campines. The bottom row shows Buff and Partridge Cochins.

The book was part of the collection of Louis Meyi, donated to SPPA in 2008. It includes 25 full page color illustrations, most featuring three breeds. They include ducks, geese and turkeys as well as bantam and large fowl chickens. The book also includes a line diagram of a chicken and drawings of ideal combs.

An SPPA member contacted me today for information about Campines and I was happy to send her text from Harrison Weir's Our Poultry and The Poultry Book along with this illustration. One of the values of this collection to SPPA is that it can help members with their research.

The relatively recent publication of this book may account for its valuation at $30. It's a treasure and a vaulable addition to any collection.

Self-Sufficiency

Our church had a workshop on Self-Sufficiency last weekend. I had a table on Chickens.

Not everyone can keep chickens, but the more people who do, the more local food networks will improve. When more people are growing their own food, the community is safer from food disasters.

A food crisis doesn't necessarily have to invovle food at all. A strike in Southern California a few years back created problems, because the Teamsters Union supported the striking grocery clerks and refused to deliver to supermarkets where workers were on strike. An oil crisis could reduce diesel and gasoline, making it difficult to transport food.

Food itself could be affected. It could be contaminated and unsafe to eat, or simply not in adequate supply.

The best way to protect ourselves against food shortages is to support local food networks. That can mean buying eggs from your local producer if you aren't able to raise your own. If you are able to keep your own chickens and ducks, keep enough to share or sell some of the eggs.

For fruits and vegetables, purchase those you can't grow yourself from local producers. Keeping them in business keeps the community food-secure.

Many people who attended the workshop were very enthusiastic about chickens. Several already had their own and others had ordered some. The comment I heqar most frequently at church is, "I can't have them where I live." So I contacted most of the local government entities and asked them abou regulations on chickens in their communities. They were all helpful and well informed, because they've been getting a lot of inquiries about chickens.

I wrote up a brief summary of local laws to hand out to people. The people who approached me at the workshop didn't much need it, as they were already on board. But I'm sure it will be useful in the future.

NAIS Listening Sessions

have been scheduled, http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/content/2009/04/seclisten.shtml.
Locations and other details are being posted as they are finalized. Stakeholders may pre-register for a session here: NAISSessions@aphis.usda.gov.

Thursday, May 14
Harrisburg, PA
Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center
2300 N Cameron Street
Harrisburg, PA 17110

Monday, May 18:Pasco, WA
Trac Center 6600 Burden Blvd.
Pasco, WA 99301

Wednesday, May 20
Austin, TX
Embassy Suites Hotel Austin Central
5901 N IH-35
Austin, TX 78723

Thursday, May 21
Birmingham, AL
Cahaba Grand Convention Center
3660 Grandview Parkway
Birmingham. AL 35243

Friday, May 22:
Louisville, KY
Crowne Plaza,
Louisville, Airport
830 Phillips Lane
Louisville, KY 40209

Wednesday, May 27
Storrs, CT
University of Connecticut Storrs Campus - Bishop Center
One Bishop Circle
Storrs, CT 06269

Monday, June 1
Loveland, CO - TBD

On-site registration will begin at 8 a.m. on the day of each meeting. All persons attending must register prior to the meetings. Although preregistration is not required, participants are asked to preregister by sending APHIS an e-mail at NAISSessions@aphis.usda.gov or calling 301-734-0799. In the subject line of the e-mail, indicate your name (or organization name) and the location of the meeting you plan to attend. If you wish to present public comments during one of the meetings, please include your name (or organization name) and address in the body of the message. Members of the public who are not able to attend may also submit and view comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at<http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2009-0027>.

For further information contact: Dr. Adam Grow, Director, Surveillance and Identification Programs, National Center for Animal Health Programs, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 200, Riverdale, MD 20737; 301-734-3752.

"APHIS seeks to gather not only producer comments and concerns, but also potential or feasible solutions to create a program producers can feel comfortable supporting. The listening sessions will include information about the current program, as well as an opportunity to give public testimony or ask program-related questions. Discussion sessions related to NAIS’ cost, impact on small farmers, privacy and confidentiality, liability premises registration, animal identification and animal tracing will allow producers to provide their input on ways to make the program into something they can support."

Both are important. This is an opportunity to influence policy. Secretary Vilsack has said that he favors mandatory NAIS, but the force and magnitude of the opposition have clearly influenced him to hold off on requiring all livestock owners to register their premises, tag each animal and report every animal movement.

He asks for suggestions to resolve the opposition. I'd advise simply making it voluntary. Those who wish to participate and see value in it for them, may do so. Those who don't will not be required to. That means not imposing other onerous requirements on those who choose not to participate.

I'm encouraged that this administration is at least willing to hold off on imposing mandatory NAIS. Previously, no consideration of choice was involved.