Victory Chickens

This morning I awoke to the pleasant sound of clucking chickens. That’s not an especially novel sound to me as Michel-Schlumberger has maintained a happy flock for years. But, alas, I don’t live on the estate. In fact, I live on a very small lot on a very busy street smack dab in the middle of the city of Santa Rosa. That’s right – my neighbor’s birds are city chickens.

And it’s not just poultry that are new to the neighborhood. Suddenly, it seems as if small urban veggie gardens are popping up everywhere. In general, nursery sales to city dwellers in the U.S. are way up these days. This is partly due to the obsessive nature of hard core gardeners as myself, but mostly because Americans are tightening their belts and eschewing daily runs to Safeway and Taco Bell in favor of growing and harvesting food themselves. The growing awareness of environmental issues doesn’t hurt the cause, either.

Whatever the reason, it’s very cool indeed to see more people growing their own food. And it’s remarkable to see chickens roaming freely in a backyard instead of being “mass produced” in enormous warehouses packed with dark, tiny cages. But, really, the most amazing thing is that today’s chicken is probably one of the few examples in the world of an animal species actually increasing in diversity. And why is this?

Well, industrial breeders select from only a very small pool of poultry breeds. These breeds are the ones that fatten up quick and lay the most eggs and suffer confinement well. Fortunately, backyard chicken enthusiasts and small scale farmers have begun to recognize the importance of the heritage breeds, many of which are more flavorful, lay multi-colored eggs and are more attractive than the chickens laying all those eggs that fill the shelves at Safeway.

And with that, I’d like to introduce you to the latest additions to our ever-growing flock of chickens – we received our latest batch of heritage breed newborn chicks just last week.

Dominique

The Dominique, also known as the Dominicker, originated in the United Kingdom. It is considered America’s oldest breed of chicken, having been brought to New England from southern England during colonial times. Sadly, by 1950 the breed was so rare as to be considered nearly extinct. Fortunately, due to a revival of interest in rare breeds, the Dominiques have made a bit of a comeback in the past few years.

Blue Wyandotte

The Wyandotte originated in the United States. The first examples of the breed appeared in 1870s. Wyandottes tend to be quite friendly, and not flighty, and so make good pets for people. They are also very vocal, uttering soft clucks on a regular basis. There are a total of 17 colors within the breed.

Light Brahma

Brahmas are an Asiatic breed of chicken, originating in the Brahmaputra region in India, and are believed to be closely related to the Jungle Fowl (Gallus Gigantus). The first Brahmas were brought to the U.S. from China in 1846. A very beautiful bird.

Black New Jersey Giant

The Black Jersey Giant Chicken breed is largest chicken produced in the US — Cocks are generally 13 pounds, hens are 10 pounds. This heavy fowl was developed between 1870 and 1890 by John and Thomas Black in Burlington County, near the town of Jobstown, New Jersey. Despite its intimidating size, this chicken is known to be quite mellow and friendly.

 

Heritage chickens, English Babydoll sheep, honey bees, barn owls, moon & stars watermelon, mosquitofish… the goodness continues at Michel-Schlumberger. Come on out and check out the life.

Tony

P.S.

Lab results from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) found that the eggs of pastured chickens contained 34% less cholesterol, 10% less fat, 40% more vitamin A, twice as much omega-6 fatty acid, and four times as much omega-3 fatty acid as the USDA egg standard. Anybody shocked?

Tagged as: brahma, chickens, dominique, Dry Creek Valley, gardening, Michel Schlumberger, new jersey black giant, organic, victory garden, wyandotte