Wellfleet Chicken Koop: An Egg-cellent Endeavor

On a hot and humid Saturday afternoon, the magnificent ladies of Wellfleet Chick Koop are mostly unbothered by a visitor in their midst, a few rushing the fence to check out the newcomer, while the rest continue scratching around their spacious grounds and squawking amongst themselves. A hard rain the night before left a hollow under the fence and a few of the birds slipped out, but they can't wander too far before proprietor Victoria Pecoraro scoops them up and returns them to the generous confines of their well-landscaped yard.

A professional landscaper since the early 1990s, when she moved to Wellfleet, Pecoraro got her first flock of 12 chickens in 1999 for her son, then in the ninth grade. “What happened was, I fell in love with them,” she says. “I didn’t ever expect to be a chicken lady or have an affinity for birds. They were my great decompressor. I’d get done with work. I’d go and check on the birds. I would just squat there and they would come around and just be amazing. It became a great passion. I really enjoyed being around them. They helped me in a way I never really thought about.”

When the birds started laying eggs Pecoraro gave them away to family and friends. “We were getting a lot of eggs,” she says, emphasis on a LOT.

Her recipients “couldn’t eat them fast enough.” So she started selling them, initially to the former D&D Market in South Wellfleet (now Blackfish Variety). Very quickly, demand grew, and the greater the demand, the more chickens she got.

Today Wellfleet Chick Koop is licensed for 150 chickens, which Pecoraro keeps on her three quarters-acre lot, where she also grows vegetables for sale. The poultry farmer specializes in heritage and endangered species. According to the Livestock Conservancy, in the mid-20th century, when chicken breeding became industrialized, several breeds were sidelined in favor of a small number of fast-growing hybrids. As a result, the populations of those breeds declined, some precipitously. The Conservancy now counts more than three dozen breeds that are in danger of extinction.

To meet the Conservancy definition of Heritage Chicken, the birds’ parents and grandparents must be from breeds that were recognized by the American Poultry Association before the mid-20th century. They also have to be reproduced and genetically maintained through natural mating, and they have to be able to survive in an outdoor pasture-based environment.

Pecoraro, who still maintains her organic landscaping business, learned about poultry farming slowly, through research and experience. Initially she raised Barred Rocks, which are hardy and known to be good layers; and Australorps, another productive breed. Later she started raising endangered birds, “knowing we have to keep a broad gene pool or else we’re done,” she says, underscoring the vicious circle that has led to endangerment. If factory farms only raise two or three breeds, hatcheries will have less incentive to breed the heritage birds that are in lesser demand. “As a consumer, it’s important that we try to counteract that by raising them ourselves. If we up the demand, they’ll [hatcheries] start breeding them more. We have to beef up the numbers so they’re not lost.”

“Lately I’ve been getting into pretty birds,” she continues. “If you don’t have some pretty birds, it becomes a job. I did at one point get hooked on Polish birds with the Phyllis Diller hat,” she confesses. “They don’t give you much egg production, but they’re fun. And you have to have some fun.”

One visit to Pecoraro’s farm and it’s easy to see how addictive the pretty birds can be, from the sleek brown Buckeyes to the splendid Speckled Sussex. But this is a business, and, she says, “I want a mix of really good layers. I want mostly excellent layers, for really good consistency.” She rotates her flock every year. “I may have New Hampshire breed one year, and Buckeyes the next,” she says as an example. The birds give roughly the same production, but the farmer values the diversity in her flock.