Digby Chicken or Digby Chicks
An Old Postcard Showing Digby Chicken, in Digby, Nova Scotia
Digby Chicken – I tried looking this term up in Wikipedia but came up with nothing. The only dictionary definition I could find was that it was a term for dried herring and had originated between 1915 and 1920 and was named after a town, Digby in NS. Well this is mostly true, Digby Chicken, or Digby Chicks as it is better known in the Maritimes is dried herring and it did come from Digby, NS. But this term came about much earlier than 1915 – 1920. Way back in 1783 ships sailed in through the Digby Gut and entered the Annapolis Basin. They were carrying 1500 United Empire Loyalist from the New England colonies under the leadership of Sir Robert Digby. The Loyalist had left their homes after the defeat of the British in the American Revolution. Some left because the British offered them free land, but most left because they were unhappy with the republican ideals of the American Revolution. So they came looking to settle on new lands. Right after they entered the bay they choose the land that they planned to settle on and named it Digby, after Sir Robert Digby. It was in the late fall by the time they entered the Annapolis Basin and the winter decided to settle in early this year. Many of the settlers had no chance to build shelters for their families. So they stayed on the ships for the winter, which were anchored just off shore.
They had not brought enough food to last them for the winter and supplies soon were getting low. They soon found out that the herring were plentiful in this bay and it became the main meal every day. By Christmastime the spirits on the ships were getting very low. It was hard living on the ship and everyone longing for some poultry for their Christmas Dinner. But there was no hope of finding a chicken or turkey for the special meal, only more herring. So someone had the idea to start calling the herring “Digby Chicken” trying to lighten the mood. The name caught on and it is still used by people in Digby today, although it has been shorten to Digby Chicks.
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