Bruce Neibecker

Bruce Neibecker had twenty-five years of experience in the poultry industry before he purchased a farm south of Whitehorse in 1981. He was in Oregon before he spent eleven years on a poultry farm in British Columbia. In 1998, he and Deborah Cassidy owned sixty-five hectares on the Yukon River and were working to raise title on an adjacent parcel of land. Lewes River Eggs was established in October 1983 with an official opening in 1984. The free-range egg-laying farm had about two thousand resident laying hens year-round. They were all Isa Browns with excellent cold tolerance and reliable egg production. The chickens ate two tonnes of seventeen percent layer rations per week, and it was more economical to ship in the feed rather than buy it locally. The hen’s productive life ended after the first molt, so after about eighteen months the hens are sold as stewing meat. The couple experimented with barn construction and found that an earth floor barn worked the best for maintenance and for the health of the birds. The eggs were sold in three Whitehorse grocery stores. Bruce and Deborah donated hundred of dozens of eggs a year to the Salvation Army, Mary House and a school breakfast program. Bruce estimated that they were supplying about fifty percent of the local demand for eggs.¹⁾