Anyone ever heard of this strain?

[michickenwrangler]

While doing some family history research, I came across a 1947 phone book of Arenac county Michigan. A small town called Sterling is renowned for Iva's Chicken Shack--an excellent chicken restaurant still in business. The family who owned the restaurant also owned a hatchery to provide them with broilers and roasters for their establishment. The hatchery had to shut down in the 1960s due to health department regulations (stipulation that a restaurant could not butcher their own meat) but the restaurant continued to thrive. The hatchery was converted into a house.

Anyhoo, the old phone book had an advertisement for the Sterling hatchery that bragged about "Alaskan Strain" chickens. Underneath that, it said that they sold WHite & Barred Rocks, Leghorns and New Hampshires.

Does anyone know what exactly an Alaskan Strain is? Our old family farm a few towns over had some sort of dark colored chicken. I don't need the info for family research (they bred their own clucks on the farm), but I was just curious about it.

Thanks,

 

[silkiechicken]

Never heard of it myself, but many hatcheries have their own strains of production birds.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I was just wondering why a hatchery in Michigan would have a strain called "Alaskan." Maybe they were cold hardy, again, I was just curious about the strain

 

[pdsavage]

It could be the times in the 40's people thought of Alaska as this harsh place that only the strong survived.So saying you have Alaskan Strain chickens means they are strong and hardy.People where still getting over the depression also,they wanted birds that would survive anything.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Ironically, Arenac County did pretty well for itself during the Depression. It was an agrarian economy and with the Great Lakes, didn't experience the extreme weather of the Plains. The hatchery and Iva's Chicken Shack was/is located, both went INTO business during the 1930s. I used to rent a house within sight of the hatchery that was built in the 1930s because the town was booming. My great-aunt said that it wasn't really much of a depression because they had everything they needed on the farm.

I know I'm getting off topic, but I just think it's great that such a tragedy didn't affect people who were self-reliant.

 

[SoleProvider]

Cool Michigan information. Hmm I wonder what the Alaskan strain was... Somebody has to know-or remember. Although that was a few years ago.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Since we have some more Michigan members now, I'm bumping this thread to see if anyone had more info.

 

[pips&peeps]

Maybe they were just huge, like the misquitos up there.....