Former fire chief smitten with poultry

In almost 23 years as a firefighter - including three as chief of the Portales Fire Department - Steve Beaty never saved the life of a chicken.

"I saved a dog, some cats ... a few people," he said.

But chickens? Nope. Not from fires anyway.

But from other causes? Undoubtedly.

In fact, the first day I talked with Beaty, he had just done blood tests on 150 chickens to screen for pullorum (a Salmonella-related disease that causes high mortality in poultry) and had swabbed the throats of 30 of those as a flock check for avian influenza.

Whether you label it a hobby, a passion, or an avocation, Beaty has been smitten with poultry for most of his life.

"I first had poultry when I was 13 or 14," Beaty said. "I judged poultry in FFA. We only did capons back then."

Beaty came to New Mexico from Virginia with his father and brother in 1973 after his mother had died.

"Dad was retired from the Navy, and he wanted a fresh start," Beaty said. "We visited and looked around New Mexico. Dad decided he liked Roswell."

Beaty enrolled as a sophomore at Goddard High School and graduated from there, and later from Eastern New Mexico University.

He first worked for the State Engineer's Office, but his father-in-law at the time was a firefighter and he encouraged Beaty to give that profession a try.

"I joined the Roswell Fire Department in 1981," Beaty said. He served 19 years with the RFD, before moving to Portales in 2001 to be the new chief of that department. He retired in 2004.

Even though he was never called upon to pluck poultry out of an inferno, getting back to his feathery hobby was always in the back of his mind.

"I kept and showed chickens until I had my children," Beaty said, "then the chickens went on the back burner." (Metaphorically speaking, of course ... no chickens were injured.)

"I got back into it in 2001," he said, and he has raised and shown his own poultry since then. While he keeps a variety of breeds, his specialties are black Rosecomb bantams, white Leghorn standard single combs, and Crested ducks. (Go ahead and Google them ... you know you want to.)

He became a licensed judge 10 years ago for both the American Bantam Association and the American Poultry Association. Judging has taken him to almost every state in the nation, and several countries including Canada and the Philippines.

Beaty was slated to work at competitions in Australia and Bermuda last year, but those were waylaid by COVID-19. Action has picked back up of late.

"I judged at the state fairs in Illinois, Kentucky, and Oregon in August," he ticks off, "and I'll be judging at the Oklahoma State Fair in Tulsa in October. I'm doing a junior show in Florida in November."

He's also one of 12 judges scheduled for the American Poultry Association Nationals in Fayetteville, Ark., in November, a competition that is "limited" to 4,500 birds, he said.

After all these years, "I know pretty much everyone in the industry," Beaty said, "so it's like a family gathering."

But he's also passionate about poultry for another reason: It's a great project for kids.

"Poultry is one of the few things that kids can show that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get involved," Beaty said. "A lot of shows and fairs are trying to phase out rabbits and poultry, some of the only projects that kids can still do. Fairs don't get that."

He pointed out that many livestock projects involve significant upfront investments to purchase the animals, as well as the need for land to house and feed the animals.

Poultry and rabbits, on the other hand (or claw or paw ...), can work well in even urban settings.

"It's a good hobby," Beaty said, "and it can keep kids out of trouble."

Another plus? All eggs one might want.

"I eat 'em every morning," Beaty said with a grin.

Betty Williamson found Beaty's chickens enchanting and his ducks delightful. Reach her at:

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