What drew you into agriculture and a BSc at the U of A? What is it about chickens?
“I grew up in a small town, lots of my family were farmers,” explained Nadeau. “I always loved birds, we used to hatch chickens and ducks in our house when I was really small and then take them out to my aunt’s farm after a few days.”
Despite being attacked by her grandfather’s ornery chicken as a small child, her love of birds endured.
“I had several pet birds as a kid. Like so many people that are agriculture students I wanted to be a veterinarian, but it didn’t work out, so I finished my degree in Animal Science. I worked the first summer after convocation at the Poultry Unit, and at the end of the summer Dr. Doug Korver was looking for an animal technician, so I stayed and worked for him for the next 17.5 years.”
In 2017, Nadeau became the U of A Poultry Unit Supervisor/Manager. As she explained in a recent U of A Quad article, she was lucky to go to work using the same 17 year muscle memory as her desk only moved 8 feet from the previous location!
What does your job entail on a daily basis?
“There is a whole variety of different things, including egg orders and invoicing, animal ordering, budgeting, purchasing equipment and supplies, organizing repairs, monitoring flock health including vaccine scheduling and monitoring, antibody and Salmonella testing, facility monitoring and staff management.”
Nadeau also handles animal care documentation, for both researchers and the flocks housed at the unit, food safety and animal care program programs for the different commodity groups as well as CFIA for the hatchery and processing building. Each group has their own rules and requirements for documentation and monitoring, and each have different auditing or inspection requirements as well as quotas and exemptions.
“I also write and maintain SOP’s and other documentation for operation and safety of the unit and the species-specific training for the Animal Care requirements of the university Animal Use Committee. This training covers the different procedures that people will need to perform during regular bird care and research.”
You are juggling an incredible number of responsibilities in this position. How much do you interact with the poultry community at large? Research, industry, students?
“With regard to research, I am involved in the Animal Use Protocol Approval process, and as the facility manager I have to read and assess any animal use that is going to happen at the facility. I have to assess if the research will affect any of the food safety programs and be allowed to operate under normal conditions or if any food products have to be diverted out of the normal stream because of novel feed ingredients or similar that are not allowed in animals used for human consumption.”
“With industry, we do ship eggs to the regular commodity stream, so I deal with the same groups of people that the regular farmers do, however as we are a special situation where we have small numbers, sometimes the details are harder to fit into the same procedures, so I work with the boards, hatcheries, egg graders etc. to try and make it work.”
The lunchroom at the Poultry Unit is a fun place to be, full of the regular animal technicians and unit staff and an ever-revolving cast of students. The students, who are often international, come to the farm to work, do their research trials and learn exactly what it takes to run a poultry facility.
“Students are a large part of the unit day to day,” said Nadeau. “They interact with us for all research projects, and they usually have limited or no experience in poultry production or research. They require a lot of mentoring to make sure that they know how to take care of their birds and learn how to complete different research procedures.”
Nadeau is a great mentor to the students, with a wacky sense of humour and a calm and expert approach to teaching them the skills needed to keep themselves and the birds healthy and safe.
Nadeau has faced multiple challenges in the last few years, with Covid-19 restrictions and increased administration requirements that enlarge and complicate the scope of her position. A highlight of her day is always when she can spend time with the birds. Her work with the HCP also allows interaction with the heritage birds and provides an outlet for her artistic talents, creativity, and imagination.
The HCP
The U of A Heritage Chicken Program came about in 2013 to help the Poultry Research Centre cover the costs of a Rare Poultry Conservancy Program established in 1991. Housing the rare breeds is critical as commercial farming has made these strains extremely rare and could potentially lead to their extinction without the program.
Dr Frank Robinson was instrumental in obtaining the heritage birds for the U of A and he describes the rare breeds as “living museums” in a CBC interview here.
The heritage chickens include 10 breeds: Light Sussex, Dark Brown Leghorn, New Hampshire, White Leghorn, Saskatchewan Barred Rock, Shaver Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, 1957 Random Bred, 1978 male line Random Bred, 1978 female line Random Bred.
“These breeds are unselected, so the daily care is more extensive than what commercial birds require,” said Nadeau. “They eat more feed and lay on a more spread-out schedule. They are hand fed and eggs are hand picked so takes longer than an average commercial type of farm.”
“The birds cost more than regular flock of chickens, and they provide less income. In order to keep the birds, we needed to find a way to make more money so that they are as close to self sustaining as possible.”
In 2013, The Adopt-A-Chicken Program was born! The public was invited to “adopt-a-chicken” with a one-time registration fee. In return, they would come to the farm and collect a dozen eggs every two weeks. The program includes educational and fundraising events, courses, family-themed activities, newsletters, videos and pictures of the birds and lots of opportunities to learn about the life cycle of a chicken, agriculture and the poultry industry in general.
The HCP has grown over the years from 175 to 500 supporters who can pick up 20 dozen eggs over nine months, from January till September. There are options to buy a ‘mini-subscription’ as well, for 10 dozen eggs over the nine months and many choose to give the mini subscription as a gift.
HCP Coordinator Taresa Chieng, who took over the position in January 2022, is the face of the program. Her duties include grading all the eggs that supporters will enjoy, greeting supporters and handing out the eggs every two weeks, planning fundraisers and events, helping to organize the U of A Small Flock Poultry Short Course and the Heritage Chick Program, in conjunction with Peavey Mart.
Peavey Mart has been an important partner to the HCP, particularly around the annual chick hatch. Chicks are delivered to Peavey Mart stores all over the province for customers to pick up and they make a sizeable donation to the HCP every year as part of the chick program. In addition, they help promote the HCP and donate frequently to fundraising projects. Students of Frank Robinson made a series of videos about the heritage chickens in partnership with Peavey Mart and they cover basic chick care as well as featuring each of the breeds. You can enjoy those videos here.
Despite your complicated and busy position managing the Poultry Unit, you are also heavily involved in the Heritage Chicken Program. What do you do?
“I do most of the administration tasks–printing and maintaining datasheets and the food safety programs that apply to them. Quota exemptions must be applied for and reporting the eggs produced. Hatchery planning and operation–egg collection scheduling, flock salmonella testing, egg incubation, chick hatching, vaccinations, deliveries, supply ordering etc. Small flock workshops, website management, chick orders, egg customers.”
Nadeau often shows up to help with egg handouts and has made strong connections with many of the supporters, who enjoy her sense of humour and vast knowledge about anything related to poultry. Nadeau and HCP Coordinator Chieng have created a welcoming, fun, educational space for the supporters when they collect their eggs and featured cooking classes and paintings that were made by the chicks themselves in the 2022 season along with ongoing fundraisers like the Heritage Chicken Charms.
Favourite memories of the HCP program?
“This season we were able to have a live chick display at the handout and that was good, the kids loved to see them. Also meeting the puppies of the supporters.
