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You’ve likely heard of heirloom tomatoes, but have you heard about heirloom birds? It’s a similar concept – older and often less commercially popular breeds that are vanishing because they’ve been largely left behind by industrial agriculture.
KLCC reporter Jes Burns went to Creswell, Oregon and met a pair of young farmers who are making it their business to breed and promote a rare heritage variety of duck.
Thirty-year-old Evan Gregoire stands in a garage on Boondockers Farm in Creswell. In front of him is his new prize possession: a massive mid-century incubator – taller than the average refrigerator and twice as deep.
Evan Gregoire: “We’re kind of putting the final finishing touches on all the installation. There’s water, power coming in from the top. There are different drainage pans, so we can do our own stock in the Willamette Valley here for different rare breeds.”
This old Jamesway incubator can hold and hatch 2,000 duck eggs at a time. In many ways, it will allow Evan and his partner Rachel Kornstein to help keep one rare breed of duck – the ancona – from disappearing.
Ancona ducks were first developed in Great Britain in the early 19th century. They’re only about 6 lbs full-grown. The ducks have orange and black feet. Their base layer is white, but it’s the other coloration that makes the breed, say the two farmers.
Rachel Kornstein: “They’re the only breed that has the random markings.”
Evan Gregoire: “Like a pinto horse.”
This mottled plumage in black, silver, blue, lavender or chocolate has been a factor in the breed not being recognized by the American Poultry Association.
Evan Gregoire: “To do that we would need to show 300 birds that looked identical. We can’t show you two that have identical markings.”
Nonetheless, the farmers are making a go at rearing ancona ducks as a significant part of their livelihood – selling their blue and cream colored eggs, the chicks and the male ducks for meat. Sitting on about four acres of converted hay field, Boondockers Farm has a flock of about 60 ancona with 40 laying hens protected by two Great Pyrenees dogs.
Sound: dogs barking.
This seemingly small number of ducks makes up a significant percentage of the total remaining in North America. In the latest count in 2000, there were only 128 breeding Ancona – meaning their health was in critical condition.
But “critical” status is still much more promising than “extinct.” That’s what it appeared the ancona duck was in 1980. It is Corvallis farmer David Holderread who can be credited with saving it from being lost forever.
David Holderread: “I mean, we found a pair originally. And every ancona in this country goes back to that pair.”
Holderread is probably the foremost authority on heritage ducks and geese in the country. In Evan Gregoire’s words, he’s a “Rock Star.” He owns Holderread Waterfowl Farm and Preservation Center, which sits on a semi-rural road near Corvallis. His work with the ancona began 30 years ago.
David Holderread: “Normally, you would think that a breed could not be brought back from a single pair plus an outcross to one other single bird. They were extremely genetically clean. We have not yet found a deleterious gene in them. It’s probably the only line of birds I’ve ever worked with where that’s true.”
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