Rare Poultry Breed Update
Kenny Coogan: [00:00:00] One of the interesting facts about the history of that breed is that the US Department of Agriculture Research Center at Beltsville, Maryland developed that breed over seven years, and then they started promoting it, and they started in 1934, according to your website. Would the Department of Agriculture ever be able to accomplish a goal like this today of creating a new breed? And I don’t know if The Livestock Conservancy would want a new breed as we’re having trouble with the heritage breeds.
Jeanette Beranger: I don’t think the government does that kind of work anymore. They’re very concentrated on, commercial poultry and working to solve problems within commercial strains of poultry. So I don’t think the government would ever take on a project like that again. And really the creation of new breeds is falling largely on hatcheries and private individuals.
But it’s [00:01:00] it can also be problematic as I’ve discussed in the past that there are a lot of hybrid breeds that are popping up and taking market share away from the old breeds, and it’s giving a new threat to the existence of these longstanding breeds because these hybrids are, colored egg layers with fancy names and, for the backyarders they have a ready market for colored eggs ’cause they just, love ’em. But it’s. It’s only color, it’s the, it has nothing to do with taste or quality or anything, but people go crazy for ’em. And so you’ve got all these new hybrids popping up and the brown egg layers and the white egg layers, especially the white egg layers are really suffering because people are just fixated on colored egg varieties. And most of them aren’t even, a [00:02:00] real breed. They’re, a modern hybrid animal.
Josh Wilder: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News, for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources in this podcast we host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.
Jessica Mitchell: We’d like to thank our sponsor for this episode, Brinsea. That’s B R I N S E A, chick incubation specialists. They’ve been focusing on egg incubator design continuously since 1976, resulting in egg incubators, chick brooders, and incubation accessories. They offer unparalleled practicality, reliability, superior hatch rates, and healthy [00:03:00] chicks. Innovation you can trust.
Kenny Coogan: Good day everyone. I am Kenny Coogan, and joining us today is Jeanette Beranger, the senior program Manager for The Livestock Conservancy. Jeanette has been with the Livestock Conservancy since 2005 and uses her knowledge to plan and implement conservation programs, conduct field research. And advise farmers in their endeavors with rare breeds.
She is the co-author of the bestselling book An Introduction to Heritage Breeds. At Home, she maintains a heritage breeds farm with a focus on rare breed chickens. Today’s episode is our yearly checkup with the Livestock Conservancy on poultry breeds and their conservation status. Welcome back to the podcast, Jeanette.
Jeanette Beranger: Thanks for having me. It’s always a pleasure.
Beltsville Small White Turkey Makes a Comeback!
Kenny Coogan: Last year in episode 223 of Mother Earth News and Friends [00:04:00] podcast, we talked quite a bit about turkeys and their future, and if you miss that episode, we encourage you to pause this episode and go to motherearthnews.com/podcast to listen to that one first.
And you can also go wherever you listen to your podcast to listen to that episode for the 2024 Heritage Poultry Breed Recap, and then come back to this episode because since last year I have heard that the Beltsville Small White Turkey breeds are coming back. Jeanette, how was that accomplished?
Jeanette Beranger: That is, one breed I’m particularly pleased about. And it was largely thanks to our collaborating with hatcheries and, the flock that we were originally getting hatching eggs from were at a facility, a USDA facility in Georgia and they’d maintained the flock [00:05:00] for a really long time and they actually didn’t know it was a rare breed.
They’ve just always had ’em since the eighties. And when they found out they were rare, they wanted to try and get some of the genetics into other hands. And I reached out to my friends at different hatcheries and actually Hoover’s hatchery were really interested in them and actually came and got hatching eggs and then afterwards live birds for their program.
And then I also arranged for hatching eggs to go to Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch. And I’m really pleased Hoovers has been reproducing them like crazy and, they’ve got flock of, hundreds of birds now and offering the Beltsville to the public, and they are the real deal. We can verify that. And it’s been a real success story partnering with [00:06:00] folks that can really get it done because, conserving rare breeds is all about the numbers. It’s a numbers game and, if you can get them into hands of people that can raise large numbers. A breed can recover fairly quickly.
It doesn’t happen in one year, it takes several years, but through really good selection you can get the breed back and have it do very well. I think there’s a real market for the Beltsville because a lot of people during the holidays now want a smaller table bird and the beltsville fit that bill really well.
And unfortunately for the Beltsville when they were first created, they thought there was a market for a smaller table bird, but it never materialized and that’s why it stayed small and lo and behold, now that market’s materialized and thankfully we had enough birds left to be able to start hitting that niche market.
The interesting part of the story is had we not [00:07:00] intervened the flock in Georgia was put out of use and is no longer there. They decided that they needed to be working with more commercial strains of turkeys and not a small heritage breed. And so even though they had ’em until the eighties that flock was wiped out.
And thankfully a bunch of birds were able to get to the hatchery rather than just be, euthanized on site. So if we hadn’t have done anything, that would be it for the Beltsville. I’m pretty pleased with how that worked out. And with university flocks and with government flocks, their future is never really certain and projects always come to an end.
Or you have a new leadership within the program that maybe doesn’t like that particular animal, and you hear the story over and over again. I’m glad we were able to get to these in time. So that’s good news.
Kenny Coogan: One of the interesting [00:08:00] facts about the history of that breed is that the US Department of Agriculture Research Center at Beltsville, Maryland developed that breed over seven years, and then they started promoting it, and they started in 1934, according to your website. Would the Department of Agriculture ever be able to accomplish a goal like this today of creating a new breed? And I don’t know if The Livestock Conservancy would want a new breed as we’re having trouble with the heritage breeds.
Jeanette Beranger: I don’t think the government does that kind of work anymore. They’re very concentrated on, commercial poultry and working to solve problems within commercial strains of poultry. So I don’t think the government would ever take on a project like that again. And really the creation of new breeds is falling largely on hatcheries and private individuals.
But it’s it can also be [00:09:00] problematic as I’ve discussed in the past that there are a lot of hybrid breeds that are popping up and taking market share away from the old breeds, and it’s giving a new threat to the existence of these longstanding breeds because these hybrids are, colored egg layers with fancy names and, for the backyarders they have a ready market for colored eggs ’cause they just, love ’em. But it’s. It’s only color, it’s the, it has nothing to do with taste or quality or anything, but people go crazy for ’em. And so you’ve got all these new hybrids popping up and the brown egg layers and the white egg layers, especially the white egg layers are really suffering because people are just fixated on colored egg varieties. And most of them aren’t even, a real breed. They’re, a [00:10:00] modern hybrid animal. So that’s a little something that I worry about a bit, which is why we do poultry censuses every five years, and the next one’s coming up next year.
Hopefully by 2027 we will have data in on what’s out there and, are the trends pointing towards diminishing populations and, do these hybrids play into that? Yeah, I’m excited to get working on the next poultry census. As you can imagine it’s a very complicated process because there are no registries for poultry and poultry clubs typically don’t count their birds, and so it’s a game of.
Getting individuals to report on their flock numbers and then good educated guesses from the people that are around the birds and it’s gonna be a big undertaking next year.
Biodiversity and Rare Breeds
Kenny Coogan: You were mentioning that you don’t [00:11:00] wanna see, people getting these hybrids or these no named breeds just have colorful as in quote, “just colorful eggs” because you’re saying the heritage breeds that also have colorful eggs they might be heat resistant or pest resistant, or they might have better food to meat ratios.
Jeanette Beranger: I come at it from a biodiversity point of view and some of the original breed I’ll give you the Americana who just recently came on our conservation priority list. Because when we started counting numbers of pure Americana the numbers weren’t all that great. And it sorry, Araucana. Sorry, Araucana, which is, the original Easter egger. Americana are related to them, but the Araucana are actually in deep trouble and because of the [00:12:00] populations in Latin America are not that, stable anymore that makes the population up here in, in North America more important. And Araucana came onto our list this year and and they lay beautiful blue eggs and they’re, a little more challenging to breed because of the genes involved with their ear toughs and there’s a lethal gene involved. So it’s a little tricky breeding them. Once you understand the basics, it’s not tricky. If you wanna really simple beginner’s chicken, that might not be the one for you. Unless you want a challenge. And the great thing is they have an excellent breed club and people are more than happy to share information on what to do with the birds. And so I’m excited they’ve come onto the list.
White Egg Layers in Trouble
Jeanette Beranger: The white egg layers are the ones that are hurting the worst ’cause nobody wants white eggs. Yep. It’s [00:13:00] like they’re still edible. Some of the best egg layers are white egg layers, but people wanna have those terracotta or blue or green
Kenny Coogan: I know we’re still recovering from the avian influenza. But at the local farmer’s market, just this past weekend a dozen brown eggs, $9.
Jeanette Beranger: Oh yeah. Now that my breeding season’s done, all my eggs are going to the food bank and it’s like delivering sheets of gold. They just, they love it and we we actually cut ’em down into, half dozen boxes so more families can get the eggs. But the birds are still laying like crazy and if you have excess eggs I strongly suggest checking with the local food bank to see if they accept farm eggs. ’cause mine does, so long as they’re in a box and they’ve been washed. And little elbow grease and people really appreciate the [00:14:00] eggs.
2025 APA Annual Meet, Fayetteville, Arkansas
Kenny Coogan: Let’s circle back to the turkeys. And although the Beltsville Small White are doing better, there is still a push for cultivating new Turkey breeders. There is going to be a huge show organized for turkeys and poultry or just turkeys?
Jeanette Beranger: Turkeys and poultry. What’s gonna be special about this show is they’re gonna have up to a hundred turkeys there, and that is unheard of in a poultry show. Hasn’t been a big turkey show like that in many decades.
It’s really exciting. The American Turkey Association has been working really hard to cultivate new members and they wanna continue doing workshops for new breeders. And we just had a workshop in December over at the, Dixie Classic Poultry Show in Tennessee and we had, maybe about [00:15:00] 30 turkeys at that show, which was a lot for a typical poultry show.
And everybody got so excited about turkeys that the president he decided, we’re gonna go big next year. And, he was able to find a venue and the cages, ’cause that’s the other challenge with turkey shows is having enough cages that are turkey sized. Not a lot of clubs can afford that, but he’s been able, between their club, the poultry show, and then personal cages they’re able to get the a hundred cages they need for the show.
Keep an eye out for that once we’ve got details on it, we’re gonna be posting it online and I, I’ll share it with you so you have it. But yeah even if you’re not gonna show turkeys, it’s gonna be quite a sight to, to go there and see ’em. We’re really excited about it.
Kenny Coogan: Will you or the Livestock Conservancy be at that show?
Jeanette Beranger: I am planning to, yeah. I’ve got a a per person [00:16:00] here in the Durham area that actually rescued a flock of bronze turkeys last year. There was a breeder here that was gonna be, dispersing the flock and it was a very high quality flock of bronze turkeys. I mean it, if you know anything about a good looking turkey, you knew right away these birds were beautiful and she was able to get about 25 of ’em to start a breeding flock over.
She’s wanting to show a few. So I think she and I are gonna hit the road and go to Fayetteville and attend the show. I’m looking forward to that. It could be a long car ride, but it’d be fun.
Kenny Coogan: Gonna take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsor, and when we return, we’ll be focusing on large waterfall and booted bantams.
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Kenny Coogan: We are back with Jeanette Beranger, the senior program manager for The Livestock Conservancy. So Jeanette, let’s switch over to large waterfowl. The Alsbury Duck and other large waterfowl breeds still need new stewards. And I know last year and maybe even the year before, we mentioned that large animals eat a lot of food. So what’s going on with the large waterfowl at, the [00:18:00] aerial view?
Aylesburg Ducks and Cotton Patch Geese
Jeanette Beranger: A lot of them we still struggle to get enough people raised in Aylesbury. I have noticed at the shows that there were a few more this past season than there have been in other seasons. Some looking forward to the census to see if we have gotten more breeders, but it seems lately waterfall have been picking up an interest overall especially for egg production. The downside about the big breeds is they’re not really great egg layers, so they’re not the egg breeds that are doing well. But the Aylesbury I have been noticing more of them out there. They’re delightful ducks and and I know if you’ve ever, read Beatrix Potter and Jemima Puddle Duck, but she was a Aylesbury duck. And it I’ve raised a few and they are delightful. Just like in the story and a lot of fun to, to keep around. They’re very curious and fo around. And whereas some of the [00:19:00] egg laying ducks are, flighty, and they’re just like, run away. And the Aylesbury will follow you and, wanna know what’s going on. And so they’re fun.
And then geese we had a a very pleasant surprise in that the Cotton Patch Goose is doing really well. There are a lot of people that are interested in that breed and they’re a little more challenging than some of the others ’cause they get really aggressive during breeding season. And even with each other and, pairs will attack other pairs’ nests or babies and so they’re a little more challenging to manage during breeding season.
But there are enough people that just really like them. They like the size, they’re not huge, and and they’re really self-sufficient. And they have a little bit of ability for limited flight. So if they need to get away from a predator, they can.
Climate Smart Livestockz
Jeanette Beranger: Another interesting thing that I found out I was doing an [00:20:00] article I for Mother Earth News on climate smart animals and I was interviewing a Cotton Patch breeder and she said she uses them to eradicate kudzu. Apparently they have quite a taste for kudzu and she had a fence line filled with kudzu, and she noticed over a short period of time that it was disappearing.
And then she finally caught her gander that was munching away on it, and all the others joined in and it, they weren’t just eating the leaves, they were eating the seed pots and the flowers. And if you’ve got a kudzu problem Cotton Patch case will do a really good job on it. So I thought that was really cool.
And there was another goose breed, the Chinese goose, which isn’t as in trouble as some of the others. But I ran into an interesting study about the Chinese goose being used to eradicate water hyacinths. [00:21:00] And if you’re in Florida or Hawaii you know the water hyacinth very well ’cause it’s an incredibly invasive species of plant.
And there was a, actually a government study that was done and it found that Chinese geese can be very effective in eradicating water, hyacinth in smaller bodies of water, like they couldn’t tackle a whole lake. But if you’ve got a farm pond or you’ve got a ditch or what have you they’re very effective at clearing it.
And hyacinth causes all kinds of problems. It drops a lot of organic matter into the water. It can cause a lot of methane. Development and it’s a real problem. But, you could put geese to work and maybe solve that problem.
Kenny Coogan: I wrote an article for a Backyard poultry magazine on the Cotton Patch goose that we encourage listeners to check out and I know that the African geese are similar to the [00:22:00] Chinese geese. Is there a white African goose
Jeanette Beranger: or not? I believe there is a white color variety. I believe so.
Kenny Coogan: I saw one on Instagram and it was the most beautiful goose I’ve ever seen.
Jeanette Beranger: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if it’s an APA standard color. I’d have to think about it, but but yeah they can be out there. I didn’t know if it was like a one and done.
Kenny Coogan: Yeah. I didn’t know if it was like a rare genetic occurrence or if they’re commonly sold as all white.
Jeanette Beranger: Yeah. I don’t see a lot of ’em. I’m still trying to remember if I’ve ever seen them at shows, but I imagine they could be sports that’s not impossible.
Booted Bantams Listed As Critical This Year
Kenny Coogan: Some of the oldest and most common chickens described in history were often feather footed. The booted Bantam was added to the conservation priority list and listed as critical this [00:23:00] year. The breed was admitted to the APA standard of perfection in 1879. I can understand why some homesteaders and farmers wouldn’t want to get involved with the large turkeys or the large waterfowl like I was mentioning, due to their food intake and their food to meet ratios. But the booted bantams, they are so tiny and adorable. But they’re the among the rarest breeds on your list. Why is that happening and how can listeners help?
Jeanette Beranger: Oh gosh. I actually went into a real rabbit hole with these and found ’em really fascinating. I’ve only seen them once at a show and I was at the big show in Ohio this past year, and there was not a single one there. And they’re a very old breed from the Netherlands where they were perfected in the Netherlands. And and I think the reason they are as rare as they are is because it takes a lot [00:24:00] to have one in good condition for show. And these are strictly ornamental birds. You’re not gonna fry ’em up or they’re not gonna lay a ton of eggs. But they’re beautiful little birds, and they’re they’re vulture hawked they have these really long feathers on their feet that stretches out and they’re just really beautiful. And to keep the feathers around their feet in good condition, you have to have larger than normal doors in the coop for them to come in and out because they’re gonna, break erect feathers going in and out of a small hole. And then you’ve gotta have special perches so that they’re not gonna damage their feathers in that way. And then even special substrate. And then you don’t wanna have muddy pens ’cause that’ll wreck the feathers. And so to have a perfect looking booted bantam you gotta put a lot of work into [00:25:00] it to get it. And they can be a real challenge for people. And a lot more people will do, like the D’Uccles, the Belgian D’Uccles they’re not as heavily feathered on the feet so they’re a little bit easier to keep. But the booted bantams are really quite challenging. And there, very easygoing. The males might fight with each other, but as far as people go they’re actually pretty friendly little birds and can be really docile just like the D’Uccles can be.
And, they will if you think about putting ’em in the garden, I think they do a great job, after show season going into the garden and scratching around and, getting pests and things. They’re they’re best raised in a grassy run. And for people that have chickens, a grassy run is typically a pipe dream.
Yes, very short lived. You’ve gotta have places to shift them and be able to keep them clean and, in the coop, [00:26:00] the, it’s best that they have loose straw versus shavings. The straw seems to work best to keep their feathers in good shape and the purchase need to be really low to the ground so that when they jump off, they’re not wrecking feathers and it’s all about the feathers.
But they’re delightful little birds. And they used to have a, a a huge following of people and and they just seem to be declining both here and in Europe. So this is one we’re really keeping an eye on. And I. I’m trying to look for numbers. The last number we got the total population in private hands right now is 160 birds.
That ain’t a lot hopefully things will improve for it. But there, our new conservation priority list is just coming out this month hopefully it brings some much needed attention to that breed. [00:27:00]
Kenny Coogan: And if listeners want to get hooked up with breeders of the booted bantams or turkey breeds or any livestock, they can go to your website. And then there’s the Breeds directory.
Jeanette Beranger: Yeah and also the Facebook groups out there, you’ve got some really active Facebook groups. That can be really helpful too.
Poultry Census Volunteers Needed
Kenny Coogan: Do you have any closing remarks, Jeanette? For our yearly poultry recap. Are we feeling positive or are we still hesitant?
Jeanette Beranger: I’m feeling largely positive. Certainly the egg shortages has been a boon for chickens. But again, like COVID people get in at chickens and then get out when they’re, things are back to normal. And you’re certainly not saving money, getting your own chickens, but you can assure that your supply will be stable with the chickens, at least during [00:28:00] laying season.
And, I am looking for folks that are, I’m developing a core of volunteers to help with the census. In particular, I’m looking for people that are have been working with a particular breed or class of poultry for a while and might know, the main players within that that circle of people, i’ve got some people lined up to help with the English class and the AO class and the game class and waterfowl, and I’ve got a few more classes and as a team, we’re gonna spread out and try and reach as many people as possible. But if there’s anyone that’s seriously interested in participating in the poultry census, and if not, and you do have poultry, please keep your eyes out.
For the survey that will be coming out in 2026 and be part of the census by sharing your [00:29:00] numbers of breeding birds with us so they can be counted in the census.
Kenny Coogan: And if listeners have, let’s say six breeding birds of one breed, that’s a good number. Or they need to have 10 and 25 and 50.
Jeanette Beranger: They can have as many as they want. If you’ve got a small flock of six it still counts. And if they’re booted bantams, then that’s really great. But yeah, we count small flocks and big flocks. We count hatchery flocks, university flocks. Everything counts. It helps to guide the work for the future and bring to light populations that might need more attention than others, and that really helps guide our work in conserving rare breeds.
Kenny Coogan: Thank you, Jeanette, for a great conversation as always, and I really enjoy learning about your rare poultry breeds and their conservation.
Jeanette Beranger: Great. Thanks for having me [00:30:00] again.
Jessica Anderson: Thanks again to Brinsea, our sponsor for this Mother Earth News and Friends podcast episode. You too can experience the Brinsea difference and maximize your hatch rates with Brinsea incubators that monitor temperature and humidity and are made of antimicrobial materials.
Brinsea ships worldwide and provides stellar customer support to answer all your questions. Hatch your chicks with Brinsea, the leader in innovative incubation research. Learn more at Brinsea.com. Again, that’s www.Brinsea.com
Josh Wilder: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.motherearthnews.com/podcast. You can also email us at Podcast@OgdenPubs.com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production [00:31:00] team includes Kenny Coogan, Alyssa Warner, and myself, Josh Wilder.
Music for this episode is the song Hustle by Kevin MacLeod. The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications.
Jessica Anderson: Until next time, don’t forget to love your Mother.
