Saving Birds with a Noble Past
When P. Allen Smith was 11 years old, he entered his 4-H chickens in the county fair’s poultry show. Along with several ribbons, he won a sizeable chuck of change in prize money. Instead of heading to the store to buy games or candy, he made a beeline for the turkey section in the poultry barn and purchased his first trio of bronze turkeys. “I saw those big beautiful birds, and knew I had to have them,” Smith said.
Since then Smith has become a nationally-recognized garden designer, host of two syndicated television shows, a best-selling author and a regular contributor on the “Today” show, and through it all he has kept his youthful passion for poultry. So it’s no surprise that as soon as he began construction on the Garden Home Retreat near Roland, Ark., Smith starting acquiring all kinds of domesticated fowl, including chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys. From the handful of pint-sized Bantam chickens he kept behind his house in Little Rock, his brood has blossomed into more than a dozen varieties of birds that number in the hundreds. His enthusiasm for his flock seems to grow with every bird that hatches.
Those who come to tour Smith’s gorgeous gardens and energy-efficient Greek Revival-style home are also treated to stop by one of his “poultry palaces,” where he proudly shows off his beautiful birds. Smith is clearly pleased with the reaction from his visitors.
“Because most people have only seen the plain white poultry that commercial breeders produce for meat or egg-laying, they are surprised to discover that there are all these birds that come in an amazing variety of shapes, sizes and colors. People see my poultry and think they are from an exotic aviary or zoo. These are breeds that were once raised on farms throughout the country. They are striking birds with their own personalities.”
Included in his flock are plenty of turkeys. But the birds he has now are a different breed than those he bought years ago. Smith now has a rare heritage breed called Blue Slates, which are part of a special heritage poultry project he’s working on. The Blue Slates are named for their unusual coloration. Their feathers are solid to ashy blue and sometimes sprinkled with black flecks. Smith has two toms, named Frick and Frack that strut majestically about. Their head, throat, and wattles are red to bluish white, and the shanks and toes are pink. “When people see these birds, they are blown away. They can’t believe their eyes!”
By raising these turkeys, Smith has joined the ranks of a small, but growing number of people in the country trying to save Blue Sates from extinction. “I’m on a mission to keep these birds around. Unwittingly, we have all played a part in nearly wiping out the Blue Slates and other heritage breeds of poultry,” Smith said.
Allen explained that it is a part of the way we produce food today. As we gather with our families and friends to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, the symbolic centerpiece of the dinner on the table is usually a commercially-produced, broad-breasted white turkey that can’t live as a normal bird outdoors. After 50 years of specialized breeding, these turkeys have been transformed into a bizarre, ungainly animal that can no longer run, fly or naturally reproduce. This was done to engineer a bird that develops a large amount of white breast meat in the shortest period of time. Allen pointed out that it wasn’t always this way. For most of our history, Americans have dined on turkeys that were raised on nearby farms with a wide variety of breeds available. In 1874, the American Poultry Association published a book called the American Standard of Perfection, defining the qualities of seven breeds of turkeys: Standard Bronze; Bourbon Red; Narragansett; Jersey Buff; Black Spanish; White Holland; and Slate. Later added to the standard were the Royal Palm, White Midget and Beltsville Small White. These birds’ all shared a common ancestor, the wild turkey, which was native to these shores. In fact, turkeys were one of the first animals in the Americas to be domesticated. In North America, tribes like the Navajo had trouble keeping the hungry birds away from their food, so they decided to feed the turkeys and fence them in. No longer pests, they became a controlled source of protein and ornamental feathers, viewed as symbols of friendship and providence. The Aztecs in Mexico considered turkeys so important they dedicated two religious festivals a year to the birds. Early European explorers, such as Christopher Columbus, transported turkeys from Central America to Europe. Then English settlers imported them back to North America as the black Spanish turkey, which was then bred with the wild North American turkey. It was from that heritage, today’s breeds were developed.
Until about 50 years ago, Americans dined on turkeys raised by local farmers. Then, in the 1960s, large corporations took over turkey production and choose the Broad Breasted White turkeys as the breed to be grown quickly for white breast meat. Small farmers couldn’t compete with the mass-produced turkeys, so the heritage breeds were no longer raised. In a recent national census, fewer than 100 Blue Slate hens and 35 toms were found and the condition of those birds was unsound. With so few turkeys available, the birds were interbred and became undersized with deformities. This was happening not only to Blue Slates, but other breeds of poultry as well. That’s when heritage poultry breeders sounded the alarm.
Smith heeded the call and decided he would focus on revitalizing the Blue Slate turkeys.
“I found my toms, Frick and Frack, and some hens from flocks in Missouri and Minnesota. The eggs are incubated, and once they hatch the poults are fed high-protein feed until they are feathered and ready to graze in the pasture. Already I’m seeing an increase in the size of the hens. My goal is to get the hens back to their former breed standard weight of 16 to 18 pounds.”
Smith knows it is not enough for a few poultry fanciers to raise these birds for show, a commercial market needs to be created for them.
“These birds can only exist in numbers large enough to keep the breed healthy if Americans decide to purchase heritage breeds over industrially-raised poultry. These breeds need to find work to prosper as a group, and the best way is to be an everyday part of our diets,” he said. Smith feels that because most Americans aren’t old enough to have eaten the old-fashioned turkey, they have no idea what they are missing. “The rest of us have forgotten over the years, lulled into thinking that new is improved.”
To promote the vitality of the heritage breeds, he has recently established a new national organization, The Heritage Poultry Conservancy, for those who want to support the effort. To that end, Smith established a Web site — heritagepoultry.org — and has found some “winged donors,” who are providing the seed money needed to get the organization going. “I’m thrilled with the response I’ve received so far. Once people understand what is happening and the vital role that poultry play to the health and economy of our family farms, they are onboard to help.”
You, too, can help with the conservation of heritage turkey and poultry breeds, without turning your backyard into a barnyard. Investigate buying from local poultry farmers or consider joining The Heritage Poultry Conservancy.
