Entrants up | Association plans to expand next year
RED DEER — Allan Lakusta calls himself a poultry groomer.
He lived up to that name in late December during the second annual Canadian Heritage Breeds poultry and pigeon show, washing birds’ feet and legs, wiping their combs with a special brightening solution and rubbing their feathers with a silk cloth to smooth them.
“It’s just like a horse groom. It’s grooming. We’re just weird because we like chickens,” said Lakusta.
Lakusta had already finished cleaning his birds and was now cleaning birds owned by show organizer Liz Munro, who was looking after last minute details.
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It’s that friendship and camaraderie with other poultry breeders that brought Lakusta 400 kilometres to the show, which featured more than 700 head of poultry, more than 1,000 pigeons and a few rabbits and other animals.
“It camaraderie, but it also gives me something to do besides watching TV,” Lakusta said as he wiped down the feathers of Munro’s Chantecler chickens, one of the few breeds of chicken originating from Canada.
The hardy bird, developed by a monk in Oka, Que., in the early 20th century, is one of the most cold- hardy chicken breeds.
Lakusta believes it’s important to support the poultry shows and help keep rare breeds such as the Chantecler chickens alive.
“Not enough people are keeping the species up. This breed was just about dead,” he said.
Rico Sebastian, president of Canadian Heritage Breeds, said the association gains two or three members a show and holds two or three shows a year.
“It’s important to let people know what’s going on,” he said.
The poultry, pigeon and rabbit show used to be one of the highlights of Farmfair in Edmonton. It was cancelled in 2005 because of concerns about avian influenza.
Shannon De Bruin, vice-president of Canadian Heritage Breeds, said interest in provincial shows is in-creasing dramatically as knowledge grows about the disease and interest revives in backyard birds.
“There is more information about avian influenza and the panic over it has faded,” De Bruin said. “People are not so worried about having groups of birds together.”
The number of entrants at the 2011 show was up over last year and the organizing committee plans to double the space from 40,000 to 80,000 sq. feet next year to include rare goats, sheep, swine, cattle and horses.
De Bruin said interest is increasing in rare and heritage breeds. Shows like this are a good way to attract people, he added.
“It spreads the word, educates the public and gets more people involved,” said De Bruin, who coloured some of her white Silkie chickens as part of the show’s bedazzled class. “It’s a fun class. It helps break up a little tension of these big competitions.”
Casey Vandermeer of Sherwood Park, Alta., hopes to double the size of next year’s pigeon show.
“People are coming out of the woodwork now that we’re here,” said Vandermeer, who has been showing pigeons for 55 years.
“That’s my hobby and my father’s before that. I just kept on.”
