Ben Lomond Conservation Camp’s steady supply of eggs can be attributed to staff who partnered with the community to raise chickens.
Did you know? Every year, National Egg Month is observed in May while June 3 is National Egg Day.
To help offset the cost of feeding incarcerated crews at Ben Lomond Conservation Camp No. 45 in Santa Cruz, staff got creative.
>> Learn more about the camp on the website.
“Our budget for the camp system (is) about $4.20 per day per (incarcerated person),” said Sgt. J. Craven. “We had an idea to build the chicken farm. (The project) took a lieutenant getting here (who) wanted to support it, Lt. Hernandez, which was huge.”
According to Craven, the savings have been significant.
“We were spending about $25,000 a year on eggs, and now we spend no money on eggs,” he said. “(The farm) was a huge cost benefit to us.”
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Community, camp partnership creates chicken farm
To build their chicken farm, staff turned to the community.
“We originally rescued a bunch of chickens from different shelters and nonprofit groups that that rescue farm chickens,” he explained. “Then we decided we wanted more chickens, so we purchased them ourselves with staff’s personal money to get them going.”
To protect the chickens from predators, Ben Lomond staff once again turned to the community.
“(At) the rescue in Watsonville, there was a Great Pyrenees, which is a livestock-protecting dog,” Craven said. “He’s a couple of years old. (Since) we do have a lot of predators (near camp), we rescued Bear.”
The animal shelter then asked for some help of their own
“They have trouble getting rid of ducks as well,” he explained. “They (asked if we were) willing to you take six ducks.”
Staff adopted the male and female ducks. Those six soon became 30.
“We breed them. We have their eggs in the incubator (purchased) by (me) and the lieutenant,” he said. “(The incubator) used to be in my office (but it) smelled too much like a farm so we moved them.”
At Ben Lomond Camp, meet ‘Chicken Man’
The incarcerated population have gotten into care for the ducks and chickens, especially Santiago Ferreira.
“I am Chicken Man,” he proudly proclaimed. “I take care of these chickens from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. My job is to make sure they have food and water every day. (I also) pick up eggs.”
Ferreira said on a good day, he’ll gather 60 to 80 eggs.
“My job is just to make sure the farm is clean (and) these animals are well taken care of,” he said. “The whole key is just to show them love and they show their appreciation by giving you eggs.”
Craven acknowledges taking care of the animals is hard work.
“We just couldn’t do it if we didn’t have (someone) like Ferreira up here to put in the hard work for us,” Craven said.
Another benefit of fresh eggs is using them in baking, according to incarcerated camp participant Johnathon Zaragoza.
“I’m the (evening) baker,” he explained. “Everybody seems to love my baking, so I’m pretty proud of myself. Today we’re making bread and cookies. We use chicken eggs. They taste great (and are) a little better than the ones y’all buy from the store.”
Natural ingredients make everything a little bit better, Craven explained.
“Everything’s very natural, especially in California, like (the) farm-to-table aspect. (Our crew) gets that better product,” he said. “When you save money with the farm, you’re able to spend money on better meat products (and) other stuff to help boost (nutrition).
Video by Bernadette Durley, TV Specialist
Story by Don Chaddock, Inside CDCR editor
Office of Public and Employee Communications
Chicken farm in photos
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