The owners of a Cowichan farm had an egg-citing film opportunity recently.
The multi-coloured eggs at Nicole Gierc’s Hillpoint Estate Farm led to the farm having more than 15 minutes of fame with CBC’s Nature of Things and the episode Cluck! Chickens Exposed which airs on CBC and CBC Gem on Jan. 29 at 9 p.m.
“We are really looking forward to watching the Cluck! Chickens Exposed tomorrow and seeing our farm in it’s TV debut,” said Gierc.
Nicole was born and raised in Cobble Hill, while her husband Braden grew up in Duncan. They bought a property and started Hillpoint Estate Farm in May of 2023. While Gierc said their primary product is hay, they also produce turkeys, roasting chickens, as well as beef and free-range eggs that they sell direct to customers. They also have a market garden that supplies their farm stand with produce and flowers throughout the spring, summer, and fall. It was quite the surprise when their farm fell into the opportunity to be on TV.
“It’s a neat story,” said Gierc. “One of members of the gym my mom and I go to who bought our eggs happens to be friends with the agent for CBC’s Nature of Things host Sarika Suzuki.”
The agent, who happen to be visiting the area, stopped in at the farm, which has between 50 and 60 chickens and fell in love with the farm’s rainbow egg range.
“We have hens who lay green, blue, dark brown, white, and light brown eggs,” said Gierc. “She knew of the production company who was making this documentary on chickens, connected us, and it just rolled on from there. The film producers had pitched the story to the CBC with the idea of a small-scale bucolic family farm in mind — and we turned out to be exactly what they pitched.”
The Cluck! Chickens Exposed episode focuses on expanding people’s knowledge and understanding of chickens, particularly their intelligence, and social structure. The aim is to expand the human understanding of common animals so people can learn to appreciate the animals that surround us.
Gierc said their farm is the home base for the story, as their chickens who are featured heavily get up cluck and personal with the camera. The documentary focuses on aspects of behaviour, social interaction, as well as other cool observances of Gierc’s chickens. It will also feature an expert explaining these aspects from a scientific perspective.
“We are so excited to see the farm on TV, it’s beyond our wildest dreams,” said Gierc. “It is such a privilege to have this opportunity. I was interviewed by the host, Sarika Cullis-Suzuki, and we shot some b-roll footage in our market garden of us setting up our farm stand.”
Gierc said she had so much fun watching the filming process and all the factors that go into making a documentary like this including: the several hours of footage, the different cameras and lenses used, the props and set design and all the other little details that go into making a 40-plus minute documentary.
“It was fascinating,” said Gierc. “It was also amazing to work with the film crew, they were just the nicest people and so easy to work with. We really enjoyed having them on our farm especially at our end of the week happy hour after they were finished filming.”
Through this episode Gierc hopes that viewers will see that chickens are so much more than just a bird, that they are actually quite social and bring joy to both farm owners and farm visitors alike. She hopes that it shines a positive light on farming, especially small-scale farming and that people as a whole see all the work that goes into not only producing good-quality food but also how they look to reduce the impact on the world by having a circular system.
“We have chickens who lay us eggs as a reward for our care, but our chickens also eat waste products such as garden clippings, weeds, kitchen scraps, and reward us with manure, which then goes back into the garden to support our farm so nothing goes to waste,” said Gierc. “We hope that the footage they shot on our farm makes the Cowichan Valley look like a wonderful place to visit for viewers not only across the country, but also when it airs in Europe. We love our home and living in the Cowichan Valley and we hope that viewers who witness it on TV will want to come and visit to see just how beautiful our home is in person.”
