P r e f a c e

My aim here is to present a website that will be of interest to those who keep small flocks of birds, poultry fanciers and those that keep a few hens in their back garden for eggs or pleasure, and maybe sometimes for the young for school projects. Also I hope to learn something about poultry fanciers in other countries.

From time to time Bernal Publishing get enquiries from all over the world about different aspects of poultry keeping and chickens generally. We have had enquiries such as: how do we colour newly hatched chickens, where do you buy a few fertile eggs, about artificial insemination of hens, and the old question of can you sex day old chickens by holding a wedding ring on a peace of cotton over the chicken or some other such ‘magic’ method of sexing day old chickens. Some of these questions and other, which crop up  over time we will attempt to answer individually or on this web page. For those we do not know the answers to we will direct your queries to to those who know something about the particular area you wish to know more about.

My own experience in the poultry industry has been as a boy with a few hens and roosters in my parent’s back garden in Melbourne and before that on my grandparent’s farm at Ampitheartre in Central Victoria.

At sixteen I learnt chick sexing and became a commercial chick sexer and teacher of the skill to others for twenty years. I went on to become a poultry breeder supplying hatching eggs and day old chicks to hatcheries and small poultry keepers. When I say ‘poultry breeder’ it would more accurate to call myself a ‘multiplier’, as I did not carry out any breeding program, but bought in day old stock from other breeders and winners of egg laying competitions, which were held regularly in most States of Australia up to about the mid 1970’s.

Any experience I claim to have with poultry farming has been with a managing a deep litter birds, mated to produce high fertility and healthy chickens. With some culling of non-layers along the way. The biggest change I have seen in commercial farms has been in bird numbers per square metre of floor space and improvements in disease control and of course the overall number of eggs per bird in a large flock. Everything has been an increase in numbers, flock numbers and number of chicks hatched, now counted in millions not thousands, all made possible by advances in technology.

The one constant seems to have been poultry fanciers who have continued to breed for type and showing their birds…to be dramatic…’they have kept the faith’…some former commercial breeds would have been lost if it wasn’t for the interest and effort of these small breeders. Just as the developers of broiler breeders depended on poultry fanciers for their original stock, it is these same poultry fanciers who keep the breeds going and so give pleasure to so many people including a new generation. My own long experience here in Australia with these breeders and show people, first as a boy and now as what is generally consider ‘an old man’, these poultry people seems to be unchanging, there still as nice as ever. I would like to know more about them, not only in Australia, but throughout the world.

Poultry Fanciers:

Poultry farmers and ‘chook’ people are a loving bunch to be with, my young enthusiastic son complained that I spent too much time talking to people rather than selling books.

Early in 2002 Bernal Publishing will produce a book: ‘Poultry Essays’, which will include most of the following essays, most with more illustrations and photos, as well as other articles not included on this site, but more of this later.

We welcome any comments or suggestions and perhaps even some of your thoughts or writings on poultry, either current stuff or photos etc from past generations. Hope you enjoy the following pages, we will add to them every three weeks.

Kindest regards,

Bob Martin
Managing Editor
Bernal Publishing.