Kuujjuaq chicken farmers welcome 120 birds

The hunters and trappers organization in Kuujjuaq, Que., has brought in 120 chickens and hopes to start producing local eggs as soon as next week.

"We've been working on it since last year," says Thomas Shea, who's with the committee. "We had to get training first on how to farm chickens. And we also have to build a chicken coop."

• Kuujjuaq hunters and trappers build chicken coop

The plan is to sell the eggs in the community for a reasonable price in the near future.

Elder Sammy Arnatuk, also know as "Chicken Sam," was on hand for the official opening of the hen house Thursday. 

Arnatuk was a hen handler in the 1950s in Old Fort Chimo, the original settlement of Kuujjuaq, then known as Fort Chimo. That's when the Federal government first experimented with raising chickens. ​

Kuujjuaq is the administrative centre for Nunavik, the homeland of Quebec's Inuit. The community of about 2,300 lies just below the tree line. 

This time round, they're calling the project "Mannitaarvik," which, in Inuktitut, means "a place to get eggs."