Perry Schofield

The Schofield Quail

Growing up on a dairy farm in Nova Scotia for the first 20 years of my life, I spent a lot of time with the farm animals. Not being mechanically inclined like my brother, I loved the livestock side. My favourites were the farm chickens who provided our eggs.

My first hobby, when I was ten years old, was showing purebred heritage poultry at the local country fairs. During the summer there was a fair every week for 10 weeks culminating in the provincial show. Along with these, there were several poultry club events. Wednesday night was wash-the-chickens night. There were three tubs of water: one soapy water, one rinse water, and a third tub with blueing in it (to make the white birds look even whiter). Friday and Saturdays were the show days. The first prize was $4, the second prize was $3, the third prize was $2, the fourth to seventh prizes were $1, with Best of Breed being $5. I often made $50 a weekend in prize money. This was much more than the 50 cents an hour I made working 40 hours a week weeding at the local orchard farm.

My love for birds and small animals continued after I left the farm to teach at my first job in Sept Isles, Quebec. During my three years there, I raised hamsters, guinea pigs and gerbils. When I moved to Alberta to teach, I was once again able to keep birds. During my years in Alberta, I have kept and raised over 28 types of pheasants, 8 types of partridges, 12 types of quail, in addition to black swans, several varieties of turkeys and peacocks, and about 30 varieties of Heritage Poultry. Also, during this time, I had my fling at raising chinchillas and several varieties of rabbits and guinea pigs. I also developed several new colour poultry lines, a time-consuming undertaking as it takes anywhere from 5 to 10 years to get a new colour to breed true to type.

My 15 minutes of fame came about by accident. In 1986, I ordered several colours of Coturnix quail eggs from the University of British Columbia Quail Facility as a classroom project. In this group were eggs for a colour called Silver, a grey coloured bird, and the gene for blue eggs called Celedon. I have kept these two lines continuously since that day. About 8 years ago, I was approached by a major breeder from Louisiana. He had been searching for this silver colour for years and the only place he could find it was a university in Paris, a university in Japan, and me. I was the only breeder in North America. After much hard work, we arranged a legal exchange of breeding eggs. Part of the arrangement was that he had to give me credit for developing it. After a year, he began selling the eggs as a special collection on eBay under the name the “Schofield Silver Collection”. My line has now spread worldwide and can be found in mainly European, Scandinavian, and South American countries. During that time, it was shortened by many and is now called the SSC line. In that export was also the gene for the blue egg, called Celadon. Facebook sites dealing with hobbyists raising birds laying Celadon eggs can be found in England, Germany, Sweden, and South America. All of this happened from my little hobby in DeBolt, Alberta.

Today I am retired and living in Grande Prairie, AB. I continue to work as a substitute teacher at several local high schools. After a year away from my bird hobby, following knee surgery, I have been able to get back into it.  I have been lucky enough to make new friends and partner with them in raising quail and heritage poultry. The birds are kept at their acreage in Wembley, Alberta.