Funky chickens at Seed Savers in Decorah

Seeds Savers Exchange is a gardening oasis in the hillsides north of Decorah, Iowa. Photographer Julie Koehn and I made the 2 hour, 30 minute drive from Cedar Rapids last week for the heritage poultry that Seed Savers has kept for the second year in an educational display on its Heritage Farm. They're funky chickens with great names like Sicilian Buttercup and Blue Jersey Giants.

 While you can't help but smile at the chickens and other poultry on the farm, the reason they're there is serious business. Just as some of the seed varieties preserved and sold by Seed Savers could otherwise be lost forever, the poultry breeds, too, could face extinction without such preservation efforts. For example, less than 1,000 breeding pairs of Narragansett turkeys are in the United States. The turkeys are among the poultry kept this season at Heritage Farm, courtesy of Sand Hill Preservation Center, in rural Calamus, east of Cedar Rapids.

 Sand Hill co-owner Linda Drowns told me that you won't find photos of their 200-plus breeds of heritage poultry at their Web site: www.sandhillpreservation.com

Don't expect to order online, either. She and her husband, Glenn, aren't in a large-scale, high production mode. The chickens mate naturally and are slow-growing, hallmarks of the heritage breeds they are trying to preserve. Sand Hill doesn't offer tours of their site, but you can find examples at Seed Savers. Poultry caretaker Corey Cordell and John Torgrimson, editor of Seed Savers' publications, told me that Sand Hill could offer different breeds of poultry for 20 years before having to duplicate. So you have plenty of chances to see a great example of living preservation efforts the next time your travels take you to northeast Iowa. Read more about heritage poultry in the Sunday, May 30, 2010, edition of The Gazette. (See article below the photos.)

  Here is a blog that John provided on raising poultry: http://blog.seedsavers.org/post/Raise-your-own-poultry.aspx

 And photos from our Seed Savers excursion:

Here is the article from Sunday's Gazette:

AT THE TOP of the COOP Heritage chickens riding wave of popularity

Byline: By Cindy Hadish

Source: The Gazette

DECORAH -- They're the rock stars of the poultry world.

Not only do some breeds look like they could go onstage with the likes of Motley Crue or other "big hair" bands, but heritage chickens are making a name for themselves with their star qualities.

The backyard chicken phenomenon is fueling the fire.

"In the last two to three years, we've seen a very large interest in heritage poultry," said Linda Drowns, co-owner of Sand Hill Preservation Center in rural Calamus, about 50 miles east of Cedar Rapids.

Cedar Rapids could soon allow up to six chickens at each of 50 homes in a one-year trial. Palo recently passed its own backyard chicken ordinance, allowing four chickens per household.

Heritage chickens' disease-resistance and hardiness make them ideal for urban living, said Corey Cordell, poultry caretaker at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah.

Since last year, Seed Savers has kept heritage chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys on its Heritage Farm, near the visitors center.

Cordell said visitors who raise backyard chickens are especially interested in the farm's mobile hen house, or chicken tractor, that allows the birds to forage on bugs, grass and weeds and can be moved around a yard.

By definition, heritage chickens are naturally mated, as opposed to artificial breeding common for commercial chickens.

They are also slow growing, with a long outdoor life.

"These take a good six months to develop," Cordell said. That compares to just weeks for commercial operations that breed chickens for meat.

Cordell said commercially bred chickens are short-lived, with weak skeletal structures, compared with the robust heritage poultry.

The heritage poultry are loaned to Seed Savers from Sand Hill Preservation Center, where more than 200 breeds -- about 3,000 birds -- are kept on 40 acres.

Co-owner Glenn Drowns, a longtime Seed Savers member, started his business more than 20 years ago. The non-profit Seed Savers is in its 35th year.

Both have the same goal: preserving heritage varieties to maintain genetic diversity and reduce the odds of extinction.

Spokesman John Torgrimson said heritage poultry are a natural extension of Seed Savers' work in heirloom plants.

"This is an opportunity for us to highlight the genetic diversity of poultry that most Americans are unaware of," he said.

Most people are familiar with white Leghorn chickens, the common commercial breed that produce white eggs, but not with the heritage varieties showcased by Seed Savers, Torgrimson said.

Since 1987, Heritage Farm also has been home to a breeding program of ancient white park cattle, a striking breed with black noses and lyre-shaped horns.

Pairs were brought to North America from England during World War II to preserve the breed.

Torgrimson noted that heirloom seeds preserved by Seed Savers have similar stories of interest.

So, too, do the poultry that make their home at Heritage Farm this year.

The Narragansett turkey, for example, played an important role in early colonists' diets. Its conservation status is threatened, with fewer than 1,000 breeding in the United States.

Cayuga ducks are one of the few poultry species native to the United States. It, too, has a threatened status.

Graceful Chinese geese also are showcased at Seed Savers this year, along with three varieties of chickens.

Sicilian Buttercup chickens are said to have been found in Sicily in the early 19th century. Blue Jersey Giants originated in Kansas and White Crested Black Polish chickens, with distinctive feather plumes spouting from its head, were depicted in paintings from Holland in the 1400s.

The poultry spend their days outdoors at Heritage Farm and nights together in a red coop.

Cordell said eggs are few because the young chickens are kept at the farm for just one season before returning to Sand Hill.

Heritage breeds' egg color -- browns, blues, greens and white -- have no effect on the taste, Linda Drowns said.

"The (taste) difference is dependent on what you feed them," she said, noting that free-range chickens produce eggs with darker yolks. "Free-range eggs do taste better."

FYI: 

The heritage poultry exhibit can be observed for free -- none are sold -- at Seed Savers' Heritage Farm, about 10 miles north of Decorah, 3094 N. Winn Rd. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call (563) 382-5990.

A workshop on heritage poultry will be presented during Seed Savers' annual conference, July 16 to 18. Cost for the weekend conference is $85 for Seed Savers members; $110 for non-members.