Fair Feathered Friends
Some people raise chickens as a hobby; some raise them for food. Paul Bradshaw raises chickens to champion conservation. Or as he puts it, “to protect poultry genetics as a critical hedge against rapid environmental change.” As a result, his hundred-acre farm in Gadsden County, Florida, thirteen miles from Tallahassee, now hosts the most diverse—possibly the most important—collection of rare chicken genes on God’s green earth. Black-copper Marans, prize-winning French birds that lay dark mahogany eggs, strut around next to Ayam Cemanis, an Indonesian variety with iridescent black feathers and
