Let’s face it, life in Canada isn’t always easy for farmers. Canadian farmers are faced with long winters, short summers, humidity that can make you feel like you’re suffocating, and either too much rain or not enough. Our climate is unique, so it makes sense to choose livestock breeds that have been bred specifically to cope with the conditions found here.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many Canadian breeds out there, something Canadian poultry pioneers have been working to rectify for nearly a hundred years. Those pioneers were faced with a challenging task: Create a breed that’s hardy, resilient, fast-growing, able to withstand the long and arduous Canadian winters, and prolific when it comes to egg laying.
Sounds like a pretty tall order, doesn’t it?
The uphill battle that Canadian poultry breeding pioneers have trekked gives us all the more reason to celebrate Canadian breeds—and their breeders—for their efforts. Here’s a rundown of Canadian poultry breeds, breeders, their stories, and status in the agricultural world today. It’s a great year to be Canadian!
Canada’s poultry mascot—the Chantecler
If there was a mascot for Canadian poultry, it would be hands-down the Chantecler. The white Chantecler is universally accepted as the Canadian heritage breed, one that’s recognized by the American Poultry Association (APA).
The distinctive, large, white bird was created in the early 1900s by Brother Wilfrid Chatelaine, a monk from Oka, Quebec. Wilfrid came to the realization there was no Canadian breed of poultry, and spent more than a decade creating a hardy bird that would be suited for a Canadian climate, with a small comb to prevent freezing, plentiful flesh, and prolific egg production, particularly during the winter months.
To create his ideal breed, Chatelaine turned to other dual-purpose poultry breeds and hand-picked those he felt presented the characteristics he was looking for in a Canadian bird. Some breeds considered to have been incorporated into the Chantecler include the Dark Cornish, White Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, White Wyandotte, and White Plymouth Rock.
Chatelaine’s creation of a large, hardy, dual-purpose breed was a resounding success, and in 1921 the Chantecler breed was accepted in the APA’s Standard of Perfection. To conform to that standard, white Chanteclers must have white feathers, yellow beak, yellow feet and skin, small wattles, and weigh in about 8.5 lbs for a cock and 6.5 lbs for a hen.
In the early 1980s it was rumoured the Chantecler had become extinct, but in fact the breed was alive and well in rural locations in both Ontario and Quebec. Today, the Chantecler breed is on RBC’s endangered list, and those who breed it struggle to keep it viable.
Chantecler breeder, JoAnn McCall, of Cirrus Hill Farm, has been raising Chanteclers for more than 12 years, and her description of Chanteclers is almost poetic: McCall calls the breed fast, even tempered, healthy, gentle, productive, and able to look after itself on pasture. They don’t wear red or blue tights, but McCall jokingly described them as being able “to leap tall buildings in a single bound.”
“They’re productive, healthy, pleasant, tough, and don’t need a lot of mollycoddling,” McCall said, adding that the Chantecler is the perfect choice for someone looking to raise poultry the traditional way, for local markets and family use, using the fewest resources, a lifestyle commercial hybrids and exhibition breeds often have difficulties with.
“Modern birds can’t handle it, they’ve become hothouse flowers.”
A Chantecler by any other name
The Chantecler breed is not without controversy—the introduction of the Partridge Chantecler and the Buff Chantecler, introduced debate among breeders about whether or not the newer breeds should be called Chantecler.
The Patridge Chantecler was introduced a few years after the white Chantecler and originated from a breeder in Edmonton, Alberta named Dr. J. E. Wilkinson. Originally called the Albertan, the Patridge Chantecler was accepted by the APA in 1935, has a smaller comb like the white Chantecler, and was created by crossing many of the same breeds as the white Chantecler.
The Partridge Chantecler has colouring suitable for a partridge breed, with a dark beak, yellow feet, and a red head with a black and red lacing across the back of the neck and red and greenish-black feathering.
The buff-coloured breed was developed in the early 1980s by Walter Franklin from the United States; there is no concrete relationship to the white Chantecler and it isn’t recognized by the APA.
Ridley Bronze turkey
The Ridley Bronze Turkey is a breed that, as with the Chantecler, was developed specifically for the Canadian climate. This is truly the super bird of the often-fragile turkey breeds: Hardy, tough, and bred to survive a Canadian winter.
Developed in the 1960s, Ridley Bronze turkeys were donated to the University of Saskatchewan where they lived in isolation for almost 30 years until the university was forced to send them out into the commercial world to fare as they would. Today there are only a handful of breeders currently breeding this hardy Canadian breed, and they are listed as critical by RBC, with less than 100 breeders in the world.
Eat them to save them: Canadian breeds moving forward
Anyone breeding true Canadian heritage livestock and poultry faces some tough challenges, including working with a limited genetic pool, and a general lack of availability. Some breeders won’t sell stock to small farmers who intend to use the birds for consumption, believing that in order to preserve the breed they should be kept for breeding only.
McCall, on the other hand, has a different perspective and is a strong supporter of the ideology “eat them to save them,” believing that in order for heritage breeds like the Chantecler to stave off extinction they need to be incorporated into today’s expanding local food production system.
As McCall explained, a breed like the Chantecler can’t be kept only in the show world, it needs to earn its keep, noting that in the real world, farmers won’t produce a breed unless they can bring a profit. “Unfortunately, it’s not reasonable to think people will be able to support rare breeds indefinitely on their own dime,” McCall stressed, “The rare breeds have to be raised in sufficient numbers to re-enter the market, pay their own way, and prove they’re worth preserving.”
Rare Breeds Canada Director, Elwood Quinn, agrees with McCall on a number of points. Quinn has been farming for much of his life, and agrees it is a death knell for a breed if it’s known only in the show world, and not incorporated into food production. Quinn feels that moving into increased production of heritage Canadian breeds is the only way to preserve them, and that doing so is not taking a step backwards.
“We don’t build cars in backyards anymore,” Quinn said, “it’s the same with food production, we’re not going to go back to the horse and buggy. If you’re going to do that you’re a minority.
Canadian poultry pioneer: Donald Shaver
If you haven’t heard of either Donald Shaver or the Shaver breed, you’re among a minority. Donald Shaver is a Canadian pioneer in the poultry industry, and founder of the commercial poultry breeding company Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms that at one time held 20 per cent of the world market for commercial poultry breeding stock.
After experimenting for several years in the early 1950s, Donald created two strains of Shaver poultry: the Starcross Shaver (bred for egg production) and the Scarborough Shaver, (bred for meat production). While creating these breeds, Shaver kept an eye on his end goal, namely increasing vigour, feed efficiency, and hardiness.
“I was breeding to provide a high-quality food for the world’s growing population,” Donald explained, “They had to be hardy with a low mortality rate.”
Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms was eventually assimilated by one of the three largest breeders in the world, but Donald is remembered to this day as an important Canadian contributor to the poultry industry worldwide. Don was awarded the Ontario Poultry Council’s Award of Merit in 1969, and was admitted as a member in the Order of Canada in 1978, and an officer in 1990.
Other Canadian breeds and their numbers
Cattle
Lynch Lineback - Critical (1-25)
Hays Converter - Endangered (26-75)
Horses/Ponies
Lac La Croix Indian Pony - Critical (1-15)
Newfoundland Pony - Critical (1-15)
Alberta Wild Horse - Endangered (16-50)
Nemaiah Valley Horse - Endangered (16-50)
Sheep
Newfoundland-Outaouais Arcott - Critical (1-30)
Canadian Arcott - Vulnerable (101-300)
Goats
Jedediah Island - Critical (1-35)
- Amy Hogue