The Moose Creek Organic Farm north of Oxbow doesn’t have a lot of livestock, but those that hang out around JoAnne Cushon’s chicken coop aren’t your everyday bunch of hens.
There are the white Canadian Chanticleers; but there are also big Buff Orpingtons, a lovely warm gold colour. The Danish Brown Leghorns have white cheeks and golden stripes on their necks. The Dark Brahmas have feathers on their feet and sort of heart-shaped foreheads. The Barred Plymouth are black and white striped, the Red Rock Cross are mostly black, the Rhode Island Reds are as you’d expect and the Ameraucanas have glorious markings rather like sharp-tailed grouse -- and they lay pale blue green eggs.
The rooster is a perfect picture of what a rooster’s supposed to look like. He came from a neighbour’s flock. He’s no favourite though; he picks on the hens and there are some bare backs in the flock to prove it.
Ask the sometime provincial biologist JoAnne, 'Why chickens?’ and the short answer is “I just like birds!”. The longer answer is that her grandfather was an ornithologist and director of the Delta Waterfowl Station in Manitoba. One of JoAnne’s favourite hangouts as a youngster was with her grandad at the duckling hatchery. She says it “just gives me a warm feeling to have my own chickens out here.”
Meat birds will be arriving soon. They’re destined for the freezer come fall, but the hens “get to live out their natural life spans”. She thinks the eldest is seven years old (a little younger than son Liam). She’s had other exotics including a pair of guinea fowl that she gave away when they became so territorial in spring they’d chase the rest away from the coop. The flock is free to range around the big farm yard, sometimes hanging out in flower beds, garden and orchard. “Chickens are good cultivators and they eat a lot of grasshoppers and other bugs” JoAnne says. If they gobble up the odd bit of lettuce in the garden, it’s worth it.
The most recent batch came as hatchlings by Canada Post from Alberta. They can handle the trip in a box without food or water, she says, because they hatch with a yolk sac which feeds them for up to three days. You have to order a minimum number though, enough to keep each other warm on the trip.
