May 7, 2023 • 37 mins
Chook, chicken, peafowl, hen? What is the deal with birds?
The Feather Club’s Association of Queensland Inc’s Bird (Aviculture) and Poultry Museum is a treasure trove of information about anything to do with birds.
We talk to the manager, David Simons, about all things feathered - from laying hens to messenger pigeons and show birds.
Whether you’re a seasoned poultry fancier or a curious bird-novice, you’re sure to learn something new (although we can’t promise it’ll be useful) or at the very least be entertained in this episode.
Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/roadshow-and-tell/id1666756225
Follow us on Instagram to see photos of stuff mentioned in this episode: @roadshowandtellpodcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kate (00:17):
Welcome to Roadshow and Tell, a podcast for people
hoping to improve their pubtrivia team score.
I'm your host, Kate, and I'llvisit museums so you can learn
things you never knew you wantedto.
In this episode, we're headingto a most eggciting museum in
the Caboolture Historic Village,located 50 minutes northeast of
(00:40):
the Brisbane CBD.
The Caboolture historic villageis made up of 70 buildings that
share the local history of thearea and older days.
And one thing that reallyruffled my feathers about the
village is that it displays theoriginal Brisbane Expo 88 signs.
Yep.
The really bright, colorful KenDone ones that spell out
(01:00):
Australia, and then againstacked as a cube.
Of all places, that's wherethey've gone to live out the
rest of their lives.
The Bird Poultry Museum itselfis a small shack within the
historic village.
It showcases information andexhibits on the keeping,
exhibiting, and promotion ofpure breeds of poultry and other
birds, as well as theirhistorical significance.
(01:23):
I sat down for a chat with themanager, David Simons, about all
things bird and poultry.
I discovered what makes aprize-winning show Bird, why
carrier pigeons were vitalmembers of the Allied Forces
Army in World War II, and how anold-fashioned egg laying
competition would work.
I really hope you enjoylistening to this episode, as
(01:45):
much as I enjoyed creating it,because I can tell you this for
free, it was a real hoot.
I'm with David Simons today.
David, where are we?
David (01:56):
Okay.
We're in Caboolture HistoricalVillage at the moment in
Beerburrum Road, Caboolture.
And the building we're in is theFeather Clubs Association of
Queensland Incs Avicultural, AKABird and Poultry Museum.
Kate (02:09):
Amazing.
And whose land are we on today?
David (02:11):
We're on Gabi Gabi land.
Kate (02:13):
So tell me about this museum.
How did it come to be?
David (02:16):
Uh, The concept of the museum was first established
around about 2001 by BobWhitehouse.
He lives nearby.
It's very much his brainchildand his absolute passion for it.
He came up with the idea, ran itpast the Feather Clubs
Association of Queensland, whichis the state body that looks
after all of the poultry clubsin Queensland.
With the idea of sponsoring amuseum to be established so that
(02:38):
the history of poultry and birdkeeping in general wasn't lost.
Bob then went away, managed toget some more support obtained
some grant funding, and mostimportantly, found a location,
which was an old buildinglocated in the middle of the
historical village here.
It was close and nearby topeople who could actually work
on it, and it was sort ofideally placed.
There's always been a fairly bigpoultry showing connection in
(03:01):
the local region, the MoretonBay region.
Kate (03:04):
Can you tell me about that history and the connection to
poultry in this region?
David (03:08):
Yeah.
We're not that far away from allthe big poultry farms up at
Beerburrum in the Beerwah way.
There's also a number of poultryfarms conducted over the past
many, many decades in theCaboolture Weyermann area.
In terms of poultry showing,there's a lot of poultry
exhibitors from the north ofBrisbane right up to the
Sunshine Coast, many of whom arearound this area.
(03:30):
and a lot of them actually had afairly keen interest in history
as well.
So a lot of work was doneactually converting and
renovating the building, puttingon a new roof, new ceiling,
lighting, putting on displays,new interior walls, all the
cabinets, et cetera.
and it was officially opened inJune, 2003 by the then Minister
(03:53):
for Agriculture, HenryPalusczuk, who's the current
premier's father.
And then since then we've hadseveral more extensions off to
the side to incorporate theincubator room and the wing that
we have our pigeon display in.
Kate (04:05):
What's the most popular part of the museum?
David (04:08):
A lot of the kids are really drawn to the different
eggs that we've got on display.
We've got different sizes fromostrich right down to quail and
even smaller.
We've even got a replica dodoegg and an orc egg, both extinct
birds.
We've also got a replica cassowary egg and whole range of
other unusual bits and pieces.
There's a taxidermied chickenskeleton, a duck skeleton uh,
(04:32):
that always sort of gets a bitof interest.
And our pigeons in warfaredisplay, which we're quite proud
of, gets a lot of interest aswell when people sort of get an
idea of way before the era ofmobile phones, radio
communications and things likethat, pigeons were actually the
main form of communication.
And we've got quite a gooddisplay in there.
And also a number of samples ofthe leg rings that they used to
(04:55):
put the messages in.
We've even got a copy of amessage in there that was sent,
by a tank squad in World War Iseeking help.
So I'll show you that one later.
Kate (05:04):
Why are pure breeds of birds so important?
David (05:07):
I think pure breeds of birds are so important to
maintain genetic diversity.
Most of the commercial birdsthat use commercially now are
all hybrids, whereas up untilprobably the, the first quarter
of the 19 hundreds, mostly theywere pure breeds.
it maintains a heritage of thedifferent breeds that are out
there, and it also means that ifit future down the track from a
(05:28):
commercial perspective, theyneed new blood.
You've got all these heritagebreeds out there that could be
used to recreate meat breeds,layers, and utility birds that
are a mix of both.
Kate (05:40):
So why did they make hybrid breeds in the first
place?
David (05:43):
They made them to get higher production.
So for laying breeds up untilthe early 19 hundreds breeds
like White Leghorns, AustralorpsOrpington's, quite a few others,
very heavy layers Menorcas,,Spanish Anconas used them to
lay, but they found thatparticularly in the battery cage
environment, a, they didn't doas well in confinement and B
(06:06):
they didn't produce as many eggsin a shorter period of time.
So you'll find that the heritagebreeds lay a lot longer, but
they won't lay as many eggs.
You're commercial hybrids layhuge numbers of eggs over a
relatively short period of time,and then they burn out.
So by the time they're about 2.
Kate (06:24):
What happens to them after they burn out?
David (06:25):
They get sold off and I think they have people go and
rescue them from farms andthings like that, whereas the
pure bred stuff, depending onthe breed, some breeds will lay
longer than others.
Many of them are still quiteproductive at 3, 4, 5, 6 years
of age.
And the breeds that don't lay alot of eggs, if they're bread
for other reasons, eitherornamental or game birds, some
(06:48):
of those can live to 15 or 16.
But you usually find that themore eggs a bird churns out the,
probably the shorter thelifespan because so much of
their energy goes into theproduction of eggs.
Kate (06:59):
And so show birds, are they all pure bred?
David (07:01):
Yes.
So some of them have gothistories going back hundreds
and hundreds of years.
Some of the pure breeds that areshown now, their standard may
not have been sort of set inplace or finalized up until say,
40, 50 years ago.
Kate (07:16):
so at a show, what makes a prize-winning bird?
And what what are the thingsthat the birds are judged on?
David (07:21):
Okay, so all birds have got a written standard, which is
an ideal.
It's a written description withaccompanying photographs or
illustration saying, this isdescribing how the ideal bird
should look in terms of itsshape, the head characteristics,
the feather characteristics, thelegs, the size, and the length
of them.
Whether they've got feathers on'em or not are the different
(07:41):
body color.
It varies from bird to bird.
Each breed's got a scale ofpoints going up to a hundred.
And depending on what the breedis, there's emphasis on some
things more than others.
Say if you've got say somethinglike a Polish, which is got a
big crest, there's a lot ofpoints for the crest.
And less points, say for theshape or for the color.
Other breeds that have got veryintricate color patterns,
(08:04):
there's a lot of points forcolour.
But then in the end, type isstill the most important thing
and type is the general shapeand characteristics of the bird.
So even if you say, look at asilhouette, you can look at the
silhouette and say, okay, that'sthat breed.
Cuz every breed's got its ownunique shape or set of
characteristics that go togetherthat make that you that breed
(08:25):
different to the next breed.
Kate (08:27):
So an example standard for the Polish chook from poultry
keeper.com reads (08:31):
crest, 30 points.
The crest should be high, large,full, and circular.
In females, it will be smoothand in males shinier and
thinner.
Head and Wattles, 15 points.
So the wattle is the fleshy bitthat hangs below the head by the
way.
For white crested varieties, thehead should be topped by a bony
(08:52):
knob from where the crestemerges.
Other varieties should alsoinclude muffling, which is
basically fancy feathers.
And no, the muffling should befull and almost hide the face.
Colour 30 points.
Colour should be solid white, nopaling.
Black birds should have a beetlegreen shade.
Laced varieties should beclearly laced or spangled.
(09:16):
And white crested birds shouldbe snowy white with no colored
feathers except for the coloredband at the front.
Type, five points.
The bird should look long andsturdy.
Remember that the bird should bealert and lively.
A sick or lethargic bird will bedisqualified.
Size 10 points.
(09:36):
There are a range of differentweights for different bird
sizes.
And lastly, condition 10 points.
Here the judges look for health,freedom from parasites, and
absence of genetic faults andcage fatigue- a term meaning
over showing of the bird.
What's your favorite breed?
David (09:55):
Anconas.
Kate (09:55):
Why?
David (09:56):
I've had them since I was probably 14 or 15, which was a
long time ago.
And I've had a number ofdifferent breeds over the past,
but I've always kept Aconas.
I think I just like thetemperament of them.
They're quite a good layer, goodlayer of white eggs.
We don't keep them for the eggs,just like them for the show.
Beetle green plumage with whitetips on the end of each feather.
(10:18):
And the white tips verychallenging to get and it's
just, I suppose it's the breed.
Everyone has certain breeds theylike for different reasons, now
this the same as dogs.
Kate (10:28):
What's your background in relation to birds and poultry?
David (10:31):
I first started with poultry from my grandma.
Grandfather sent me some bigSussex in 1979.
Showed them at the local agshow, got some Rhode Islands and
sort of started to get theshowing bug.
And then once I got some,Anconas started showing quite a
few shows a year and I've sortof had them ever since.
So I would go to probably six orseven shows a year as an
(10:52):
exhibitor.
I also judge poultry, so I'dusually judge three or four
shows as well.
Kate (10:57):
Do you know how many shows you've been to in your life so
far?
David (11:00):
That's a lot, given that I really started seriously
showing in the mid eighties...
probably 300, 400.
Kate (11:09):
Wow.
That's a lot of shows.
David (11:10):
Yeah.
And I've judged about 160, 170.
Kate (11:16):
How many prizes have your birds won?
David (11:18):
A lot.
I've got boxes and boxes full ofprize cards and ribbons.
Kate (11:22):
What's generally the prize that you win?
Is it money, or do you getchicken feed or something?
David (11:26):
Uh, Some shows the major awards will be like a bag of
chook feed.
Agricultural shows, there'susually some money, there's
sashes or rosettes or trophies.
A lot of it is just trying tocompete against other exhibitors
to see how you're going in termsof improving your quality, which
is why breed club shows arereally good for that.
So for the Anconas, we getbetween a hundred and 150
(11:48):
Anconas at our annual show eachyear in Rosewood.
And so the thing to aim forthere is to A, win a class and
then b, try and win one of themajor awards.
But the competition is thatstrong there.
Even to get a third or a fourthin some classes is a good thing.
Kate (12:05):
What's the most prestigious show award you can
get in queensland,
David (12:10):
most prestigious one?
It depends on, I suppose, yourperspective.
Obviously the grand champion atBrisbane Royal,
Kate (12:18):
the eKKA?
David (12:19):
The EKKA, would certainly be up there.
I've never won that The showsyou've get like, well,
agricultural shows, then you getpoultry club shows then you'll
get breed club shows.
And then it really depends onwhat you've got and what your
aim is some people like to go toall the ag shows where you get a
little bit of prize money,others focus more on breed club
and regional club shows.
Kate (12:40):
And what's the vibe at the shows?
Is it really collegiate, likeeveryone's curious and happy for
each other when they win?
Or is it very competitive andserious?
David (12:48):
It depends on the breed and the show.
Kate (12:50):
Can it get nasty?
David (12:51):
Not overly nasty, but some people are more competitive
than others.
There's a lot of shows around.
There's a lot of people.
So I suppose the thing would beto find a show or a club or an
area where people are generallya bit more friendly towards you
and they'd be the ones you clickin, but different personality
styles as well too.
Yeah, there is a lot ofcompetition.
(13:11):
They're probably not quite tothe extent of what there is in
some other animal species.
But yeah, it's still definitelythere.
Kate (13:18):
Okay, so while it doesn't get nasty, I discovered the
annual general meeting minutesof the Feather Club's
Association of Queensland, Inc.
are available online for yourperusal.
In the 2019 AGM, LloydStoltenberg asked quote"what the
F C A Q are going to do aboutthe city slickers and do-gooders
(13:39):
that complain about birds nothaving water in their show pens
when they are being judged"unquote..
It was suggested that the clubsput up signs saying that the
birds will be watered oncompletion of judging.
That will give the public a k acity slickers and do-gooders a
better understanding of whathappens at a poultry show.
How many avicultural or poultryclubs are there in Queensland?
David (14:01):
There used to be about 60.
I think it's down to about 50now.
Cause over time we find a lot ofthe poultry exhibitors are
getting older.
They're getting less support.
So some of the clubs havefolded.
Kate (14:11):
You might be confused about the different bird terms
used so far.
An A aviculturalist or Aviculturalist is someone who
breeds and keeps birds.
A poultry fancier is someone whokeeps rare or distinctive breeds
for showing.
David (14:26):
And there's a whole heap of terms out there.
Even there's some people don'tlike using the word chook.
Others don't like using chickenbecause they think it's too
American.
And it's a generational thing aswell.
I tend to use chook a lot of thetime.
Other people who, especiallysome of the older ones, will say
fowls.
Kate (14:43):
That sounds like something from a Roald Dahl book, a fowl.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what do you think aboutchook as a term of endearment?
David (14:49):
Oh yes.
I'm fine with it.
I use it most of the time.
Kate (14:52):
David, do you eat chicken?
David (14:53):
Yes.
Kate (14:55):
and all types other types of poultry as well?
David (14:58):
Yes.
Chicken's the favorite onethough.
Chicken.
Kate (15:00):
Why should people visit the Bird and poultry Museum?
David (15:03):
It's got a lot of very interesting things in there, and
I think because the CabooltureHistorical Village has got 70
buildings on 12 acres, there isa lot here for everyone to be
interested in, to have a lookat.
So regardless of what yourinterest is, you'll find it in
here.
But the Bird and Poultry Museumitself are people who have,
(15:24):
maybe as kids if they're,they're older generations and
they remember, back before inthe, the war years and earlier,
most people had chooks orchickens in their backyard,
whereas they, they don't tend tonow people's lifestyles changes
and you've got councilregulations and things like
that.
We get a lot, there's a lot ofschool kids come through for the
historical village as part ofthe school's program.
(15:46):
So there's things in here thatkids will find from an
educational perspective, andthere's other things in here
that if you are a poultryfancier or you've got a relative
who was, you'll come in here andyou'll see, ah, my uncle or my
grandfather used to have eitherthis particular breed or had
these sashes, or there'ssomething in here that twigs a
memory of what they used to seewhen they were younger as a kid.
(16:10):
And I think that's sort of animportant thing.
If you didn't have a museum likethis, that older history would
be, tend to be lost or you mightjust find it looking on some
social media, old websites, butyou can't actually get up and
close to some of the, the quirkymore interesting things that
we've got here.
And we're always on the lookoutfor sort of new and unusual
things, so it's not just amuseum full of prize cards and
(16:31):
trophies and sashes..
Kate (16:33):
Now, David and I take a tour of the museum starting from
their front entrance.
David (16:40):
Okay.
So the front of our building'sgot a an artistic display out
the front with a pair of metalcassowary sculptures and model
cassowary eggs.
Kate (16:48):
Oh, those eggs are huge.
David (16:50):
And they also green in amongst some artificial foliage
here, which is low maintenancecuz we just hosed it off
yesterday.
So that makes it good.
But put it here as a, somethinga little bit attractive to catch
people's eyes as they walk pastit.
Behind it, there's a bark wall.
And that bark actually came fromsome old poultry sheds in the,
the locality.
So that's got a connection to,to poultry keeping.
(17:11):
On the left hand side of thedoor is a mural of a gentleman
who went to a poultry show inthe 1930s down in Victoria with
a duck in a cage on awheelbarrow,
Kate (17:22):
So Jack Waters was a man who lived in Woori Yallock in
rural Victoria during thedepression of the 1930s.
He heard that the RoyalMelbourne Agricultural Show
Society was offering one poundas a prize for the champion duck
of the show.
Jack Waters had a duck, which hethought was quote a pretty good
duck unquote, and reckoned he'dhave a go.
(17:45):
So as the story goes, he put theduck named Persil Benny in his
old wheelbarrow, and walked justover a week to Melbourne to
enter.
Lucky for Jack, his duck won andhe was awarded the one pound
prize.
And even luckier still, becausehis duck was named Persil benny,
the Persil detergent companydecided to give him another
(18:07):
pound!
David (18:09):
So that's an example of a very keen poultry, fancier,
probably keener than what mostof us would be.
Certainly nowadays.
We've got a bird migration chartthere that shows the migration
routes for the short tailedshearwater, the Eastern Curlew
Eastern Broad Billed Roller, andthe Spangled Drongo, and some of
them are go quite away,especially the short tailed
(18:31):
Shearwater, which sort of startsoff in Southern Victoria and
goes around Tasmania, goes uptowards Alaska.
Past Japan and then sort ofloops back around again.
Kate (18:41):
Is that what they do every year?
David (18:43):
Yes.
So pretty good migratorypatterns.
Kate (18:46):
And this is an egg laying competition trophy.
Yes.
So how do you have a competitionfor egg laying?
David (18:51):
Egg laying competitions were really big, especially in
the 1920s and thirties and eventhe forties.
And this was before I supposethe invention of all the
commercial hybrids they havenow.
This is where people would haveflocks of white leghorns,
Australorps, Langshans,Orpingtons Wyandottes, all those
sorts of breeds, which arelargely more kept for exhibition
(19:12):
only now used to be keptcommercially and sub
commercially.
So you'd have people with flocksof a hundred, 200 white leg
horns or Australorps and theywould make a living out of that.
Some of them are obviouslybigger than they'd be in the
thousands and the earlier cagebirds were are actually hybrids
of those breeds.
And to run an egg show, whatthey would do is they'd put in a
(19:33):
pen of, say, six females orwhatever, and they would count
the number of eggs that that penlaid over a certain period of
time, whether it was six months,twelve months, or a shorter
period.
And the teams would be competingagainst each other.
And the pen, that laid the mosteggs over that time period would
be the one that won.
Kate (19:51):
that seems like a very long competition and one that
would be tedious to judge
David (19:56):
it would be but a a lot of the breeders and suppliers
relied very heavily the eggcompetition results to boost to
their own sales.
So particularly when peoplestill had the pure bread ones in
the twenties and thirties andforties, if you had say like a
strain of white leghorns, thatwas consistently winning the egg
competition, everyone would cometo you for stock.
(20:18):
Whereas if you weren't doingparticularly well or your breed
wasn't, you'd be further down inthe results list and it'd wane
off.
Kate (20:25):
So this particular trophy on display was won at the
Darling Downs egg layingCompetition, 1935 6 by R.T.
Green.
The winning fowl was a whiteleghorn that laid 243 eggs in
313 days with three more weeksto go in the test.
David (20:43):
The next display case, we've got a number of ribbons
from the EKKA show and sometrophies that have been donated
over the years.
So this is probably one of thejewels that we've got the pigeon
and warfare display.
So I suppose starting off withhere, you've got a duplicate of
the message that was sent from atank in 1916.
(21:03):
The tank was being attacked.
They needed some help from theheadquarters area.
So they did the message up, putthe message into a little pigeon
ring, and the tanks would allhold metal containers that they
carried that messenger pigeonsin.
So if they had to get a messageback, come help us or some
intelligence information, writethe message on.
It's a very thin paper, so it'squite light.
(21:25):
Roll up really tight, put it inthe little capsule and then send
the pigeon off and it would gowhere it was supposed to.
There was a unit set up in thesecond World War in New Guinea
which was pigeon unit, and theywere a group of, most of them
were former pigeon fanciers thatwhen they enlisted, they put
them all together and their jobwas to maintain the pigeons for
(21:47):
the communication system there.
We've had displays here wherepeople have brought pigeons up,
they let them out and it mightbe like Burpengary, Morayfield,,
which is 15, 20 minutes, half anhour away.
They beat their owners home.
They're fast.
So, and there's a, in the pigeonracing field, they have a lot of
endurance races, which go formany hundreds of kilometers.
And they travel very, very,quickly.
Kate (22:11):
Pigeons in the wars were used because of their homing
instincts, not their speed, andthey could carry messages in war
zones when all other forms ofcommunication were cut off.
The normal range of flight for apigeon is 120 miles or nearly
200 kilometers.
The Royal Australian Mint issueda stamp with a blue chequer cock
that honored, a pigeon known asDD.43.Q.879, or Q for short.
(22:38):
Q was awarded the Dicken medalfor conspicuous gallantry and
devotion to duty, unquote.
Of all the 54 Dicken medalspresented in World War ii, which
honor acts of devotion to dutyby animals, more than half were
awarded to pigeons.
There's more photos from thepigeons of warfare exhibit on
our Instagram.
(22:58):
At Roadshow and Tell Podcast,
David (23:00):
This here is a pigeon carrying crate, which
parachuters, paratroopers coulduse.
It's got a leather case on it,and it's a wicker basket with a
strap, but each of thesecompartments is lined with fiber
and the pigeons slot safely oneither end.
There's a little door there sothey can put them in there, and
then when they, they're jumpingout and moving around, the
(23:21):
pigeon won't get damaged.
And then wrapped around thiscompartment is this little
exercise yard.
So that all comes apart.
It's got four walls.
It's got a little fence over thetop mesh so they can feed and
water them.
Pigeon then goes back in hereand they fold the collapsible
pen, back round it and put thecase over it and then strap it
over them and off they go.
Kate (23:43):
That's...
Not how I thought they'dtransport pigeons, but I guess
you gotta do it somehow.
David (23:47):
Yep.
There's a whole range ofdifferent ways.
Now this one here is a metalpigeon carrier for a tank.
Kate (23:53):
So the pigeon is bulletproof?
David (23:56):
Well, I suppose so, but I suppose cuz the tanks,
especially the ones from thatera, if you've been to the
memorial around Canberra,there's not a lot of room in
them.
So they'd have to be verycareful with space.
And something that wasn'tflammable.
So yeah, it's a metal box with aset of breathing holes on the
side of it, like a colander andthe pigeons would go in there.
And then if they needed help orthey needed to get some
(24:18):
intelligence across, out wouldcome the pigeon, put the note on
it.
Put the ring on, off it'd to go.
Um, In terms of racing pigeons,we've got a, a timing clock down
there, down the bottom.
Kate (24:29):
After the pigeons in warfare display, we walk around
the museum and I'm not surewhere to look because everywhere
I look, all I can see is birdparaphernalia.
Anything to do with thebreeding, showing, laying and
keeping of birds that you canthink of, it's here in this
museum.
David (24:46):
Hats made outta feathers.
Gotta display of all thedifferent pigeon breeds.
There's some different eggscales down the bottom This here
is a pigeon carrying crate achicken skeleton and a duck
skeleton This is a egg washingmachine, postage stamps We've
got a machine down there thatmakes egg cartons heap of sashes
and trophies here from a wholerange of different shows, Got an
(25:07):
honor board from IpswitchPoultry Club.
there's a game here, it's calledChook Chook a plucking machine
Kate (25:13):
The museum also has a range of different types of
incubators designed for,
David (25:18):
Hatching eggs.
Kate (25:19):
and if you're like me, you're thinking, but why do we
need an incubator?
Wouldn't it just be better ifthe laying hen sits on her own
eggs?
David (25:28):
It would, but they don't always sit and not all breeds
sit.
And they don't always sit at theright time, so you gotta wait
for the birds to go broody, andchickens love to go broody
around here, at least anyway,October to December, which is
too late for your show seasonnext winter.
So most of the time they don'tgo broody when you want them to.
And then you'll have some breedsthat are just terrible mothers.
(25:50):
They kick and scratch the eggs,they break them, they, or when
they get'em out, they just dunnowhat they're doing, whereas
other breeds, natural mothersand they do a really, really
good job.
So having an incubator is a wayof getting around the bad
mothering skills and also meansyou can hatch a lot more out.
Whereas under a clucky hen, youare looking just depending on
the size of the hen, six to 12eggs.
(26:10):
Whereas an incubator, dependingon how big you get you can hatch
anything up to thousands at atime.
Wow.
Kate (26:16):
So incubators are also accelerators.
Maybe that's why the techindustry has hijacked the word
incubator, to use it forcompanies that act as
springboards for early stagestartup.
In egg hatching incubators areused because they can control
the humidity, temperature, andturning frequency better than
the broody hens could, and itoften results in a greater
(26:38):
percentage of eggs hatching intochicks.
David shows me different typesof incubators from the early 19
hundreds.
There is a kerosene one, whichwas used before electricity was
widely available.
David (26:51):
so you've got put the hot water up in there, kerosene
lighter there.
And the eggs are down in here.
Okay, so this big one is LanyonMan, Mammoth incubator, and it's
a kerosene one.
And you see this trays there.
You can imagine how many eggsyou could fit in that.
And then to turn them, you'veactually gotta turn the eggs
(27:14):
manually.
And you can either do it thatway if it's one of these flat
type ones and other ones havetrays, and you tilt the handle
and whole tray goes 45 degreesthe other way.
We've got this one, which is anAustralian one.
There's is American one there.
We've got, Buckeye is anotherAmerican one down there, so
that's obviously a much smallerone, but it does the same job.
(27:36):
It's kerosene heated on theside.
And then this one here, there'sa big Rotary one.
A rotary one.
Yeah.
We can get some very, very bigunits in these that will hold
thousands and thousands of eggs.
I've got another biggerincubator.
Oh, this one's huge.
This is another multiplier one.
Kate (27:55):
How much do they sell for now?
David (27:57):
A brand new multiplay, depending on whether you want it
fully automated.
So if it's got a digital turnand automatic turner and that
for 12 dozen eggs is about 2000.
and then you get littleincubators like this little
metal up there, nice andcompact.
That's a little compact one,which is more like little
plastic homestyle ones you getnow for chickens that hold 20-30
(28:19):
eggs.
Kate (28:20):
And get this, you can get a fully automatic home incubator
for 36 eggs for just$129 fromamazon.com.
David (28:29):
This is a egg washing machine, so these coils would've
been wet.
and you turn the handle and theeggs go down, work their way
around, and they come out there.
The one that's down there is abrush version of it.
Although when they came out,you'd have to be careful if they
didn't hit the end, so they'dbreak, I'm not sure how it
actually works without breakingthe eggs,
Kate (28:48):
There are so many eggs scales on show.
Egg scales are used to separateeggs into predetermined grades
like medium, large, and extralarge for consumers..
David (28:58):
They're, some of them were quite inventive and cuz
they all had patents, they wouldall come up with all these
slightly different ideas onbasically the same principle.
Kate (29:06):
Interestingly, vintage egg scales seem to be quite a
collector's item too, and arefetching between 80 and$200 on
Etsy.
and also bird skeletons!
David (29:18):
This is something that really interests the kids when
they come in a chicken skeletonand a duck skeleton.
And also we've got a littlemodel of a human skeleton in
there, which is only about 30,40 centimeters high, just to
sort of show the difference inthe number of bones.
So in there it says the duckshave got 122 bones, chickens
have a 120, and and human adultshave 206, but babies have about
(29:42):
300.
And obviously there's babieshave more cuz they fuse as they
develop in age.
In the next shelf down we've gotpainting of a Auk egg, which is
an extinct bird, as well as areplica of the Egg, which is the
one here on the end with thespots.
Kate (29:56):
Okay, so the auk- spelled A U K was kind of similar to
penguins.
they're also black and whiteupright seabirds that dived for
their food.
They were found in the coldNorth Atlantic waters until 1844
when they went extinct, mostlyfrom human hunting for feathers,
meat, fat, and oil.
David (30:15):
Dodo egg replica.
Cassowary egg replica.
We've got the replica therebecause the real Cassowary eggs
are restricted items here need aspecial permit to keep them.
Replica Rhea egg
Kate (30:26):
A Rhea is a small version of an ostrich from South
America.
The egg is perfectly ovular andabout 13 centimeters long.
On the other side of the room,there are three dioramas on
display.
The first diorama shows thefirst instance of imported birds
in Australia.
David (30:42):
We've got first fleet diorama there.
That's where they bring onboardsome geese.
And in the first fleet therewere 18 turkeys, 29 geese, 35
ducks, 122 fowls, and 87chickens.
Kate (30:55):
The next diorama is on migrant birds.
David (30:58):
So I suppose what you call pest species introduced
species
Kate (31:01):
That includes birds like the Common Myna, House Sparrow,
Spotted Turtle-Dove, and CommonStarling.
Ah, yes.
The common miner or the Indianminer.
The absolute Karen.
of introduced species.
David (31:20):
And then a mockup of a poultry show.
Kate (31:23):
Oh, yep.
I can see the judge givingprizes
David (31:25):
to the Western Western show.
A couple of taxidermied oldEnglish game fowl.
Kate (31:29):
Would these actually be prize winning game fowl?
Yes.
Oh,
David (31:32):
yes.
Okay.
Yeah, they originally they werebred by Athel Pengelly in
Central New South Wales, and heused to win a lot.
That's sort of like a stylizedversion of what a poultry show
looks like, only much bigger ofcourse.
Kate (31:43):
I wanna go to a poultry show now.
And so what happens to thepoultry after they're no longer
good for shows?
Do they just get sold to farms,like you said before?
David (31:52):
Yeah.
And and quite often forbreeding?
So when birds judge, the judgewill go up and down in front of
the cages, have a look at themand then they'll take each one
out, handle it, look at theunder the wings, the tail, feel
the body of it.
Kate (32:05):
Do they do a little catwalk like in the dog shows?
David (32:07):
No?
No, Showing poultry is easierthan showing dogs.
Kate (32:10):
Yep.
Just look and feel.
David (32:11):
Yes.
Look and feel.
You've gotta get them quietenough so when the judge goes to
approach them in the cage, theydon't go crazy and hit the roof.
But it's not like a dog whereyou have to train them to go at
the right pace, then train themto stand while the judge looks
over them and not move and thendo everything exactly right.
Dog showing's a lot harder.
I'm a very, very much a novicedog show.
Kate (32:32):
Oh, you show dogs as well?
David (32:33):
It's just started.
I'm much better at doing chooksand dogs.
Kate (32:36):
What's your favorite egg to eat?
David (32:37):
It'd be a chicken.
Chicken, egg.
Chicken, egg.
I don't like duck eggs much.
They're a bit too rich.
But people apparently who do alot of baking, find that duck
eggs are really good for makingcakes.
Especially sponges.
Kate (32:48):
Really?
David (32:48):
Yeah.
Kate (32:49):
Why is that?
Do you know?
David (32:50):
Dunno, it must be something to do with the texture
when you break them open,they're a thicker consistency, a
bit goer, so obviously it mustwork better with the cake
batter.
Kate (32:58):
Now we go outside to try and spot the resident chooks of
the historical village.
David (33:03):
it.
I'll show you the chooks.
Yeah, sounds good.
See, I just instinctively callit chooks.
I'm in my fifties.
Whereas you get someone that'solder, or especially some of the
really, really serious poultryexhibitors, they, they call them
fowls.
Kate (33:18):
How many chooks are there?
David (33:19):
Oh, I'd have to count them now.
I think it's about nine or 10.
And they are all hiding...
No.
There's two Orpingtons.
There's two Malay games.
There's a couple of RhodeIslands and there's some big and
banner
Kate (33:35):
mankins.
Oh, they are beautiful.
You
David (33:37):
can see why I like them.
Kate (33:38):
So the anconas are quite impressive.
They are like reversedalmatians, totally black, but
speckled with small white spots.
David (33:47):
Yeah.
The caretakers let the chooksout, so we'll have to find
ourselves.
They usually hang out cause it'shot at the moment.
They would be somewhere shade inthe shade.
So I can't actually show you thebirds themselves.
They're all hiding, somewherecool.
Cool.
There's Rhode island and sunbaking.
The others would've more senseand they'd be underneath the
(34:08):
house there in the dust whereit's cooler.
Kate (34:11):
What's the dumbest bird in your opinion?
David (34:13):
Silkies aren't very smart.
Yeah.
In terms of intelligence, ducksare probably smarter than all
the chicken breeds and geese areby far the smartest.
Kate (34:27):
The village offers accessible parking and
accessible toilets.
Walking frames and wheelchairsare also available to borrow
from the village free of charge.
The Bird and Poultry Museumitself is on one level, and
wheelchair and frame friendly,although there is one minor
slope in the floor.
Caboolture Historical Village isopen from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
every day, except publicholidays.
(34:49):
The cost of admission is$15 foradults,$11 for concessions, and
$7 50 for children under 12.
David (34:56):
But for that price, you can basically fill in the whole
day wandering around all thevillage and hopefully also the
Bird and Poultry Museum, whichis located almost in the center
is definitely well worth a look.
It's quite quirk and interestinginside, I said, it's like a bit
of a tardus.
Kate (35:12):
it's your entry to over 70 buildings and 12 acres of
beautifully maintained grounds.
It could be a really fun day outfor your family.
There's lots of other specialinterest groups represented
here, such as the AntiqueMachinery and Restoration Club,
Caboolture and DistrictWoodcrafters, Caboolture Gem
Club, homestead Country MusicClub, and a pottery club.
(35:35):
Plus other museums such as apolice station and prisons
museum, two railway stationmuseums, a transport museum,
military museum, and maritimemuseum.
Well, I can say without a doubtthat my knowledge of aviculture
and poultry has increasedtenfold after my visit to this
(35:56):
museum.
And if you were like me, you arethinking while listening that it
would be so awesome to see abird exhibitor's version of
Dance Moms that followspassionate bird exhibitors
around to different shows andcaptures the high octane drama
of bird fancying.
Well, you are in luck becauseDavid let me know that there are
two documentaries that do justthis, and I immediately watch
(36:19):
them both and they're brilliant.
They are Chicken People from2016, which is on SBS, and a
2017 New Zealand one calledPecking Order, or should I say
Picking Order which is availableon Binge.
And while you watch these shows,remember you can see images of
all the birds and thingsdiscussed on this episode on our
(36:39):
Instagram at Roadshow and TellPodcast.
Thanks for listening to Roadshowand Tell.
If you enjoyed this deep diveinto a specialty museum, make
sure you subscribe so you don'tmiss an episode.
We're a new podcast.
So if you wanna help support us,please share it with a friend
and leave a rating and review.
(37:00):
If you are involved with or knowof a regional or specialty
museum that should be featured,please get in touch at
roadshowandtell@gmail.com.
I'm your host, Kate.
Roadshow and Tell was edited andproduced on the lands of the
Gadigal people.
I acknowledge the TraditionalCustodians of the various lands
(37:22):
on which you may be listeningfrom, and the lands that the
museums featured in this podcastreside on.
I also acknowledge anyAboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander people listening tothis podcast.
I pay my respects to elderspast, present, and emerging, and
celebrate the diversity ofAboriginal peoples and their
ongoing cultures and connectionsto the lands and waters of
(37:44):
Australia.
Welcome to Roadshow and Tell, a podcast for people
hoping to improve their pubtrivia team score.
I'm your host, Kate, and I'llvisit museums so you can learn
things you never knew you wantedto.
In this episode, we're headingto a most eggciting museum in
the Caboolture Historic Village,located 50 minutes northeast of
(00:40):
the Brisbane CBD.
The Caboolture historic villageis made up of 70 buildings that
share the local history of thearea and older days.
And one thing that reallyruffled my feathers about the
village is that it displays theoriginal Brisbane Expo 88 signs.
Yep.
The really bright, colorful KenDone ones that spell out
(01:00):
Australia, and then againstacked as a cube.
Of all places, that's wherethey've gone to live out the
rest of their lives.
The Bird Poultry Museum itselfis a small shack within the
historic village.
It showcases information andexhibits on the keeping,
exhibiting, and promotion ofpure breeds of poultry and other
birds, as well as theirhistorical significance.
(01:23):
I sat down for a chat with themanager, David Simons, about all
things bird and poultry.
I discovered what makes aprize-winning show Bird, why
carrier pigeons were vitalmembers of the Allied Forces
Army in World War II, and how anold-fashioned egg laying
competition would work.
I really hope you enjoylistening to this episode, as
(01:45):
much as I enjoyed creating it,because I can tell you this for
free, it was a real hoot.
I'm with David Simons today.
David, where are we?
David (01:56):
Okay.
We're in Caboolture HistoricalVillage at the moment in
Beerburrum Road, Caboolture.
And the building we're in is theFeather Clubs Association of
Queensland Incs Avicultural, AKABird and Poultry Museum.
Kate (02:09):
Amazing.
And whose land are we on today?
David (02:11):
We're on Gabi Gabi land.
Kate (02:13):
So tell me about this museum.
How did it come to be?
David (02:16):
Uh, The concept of the museum was first established
around about 2001 by BobWhitehouse.
He lives nearby.
It's very much his brainchildand his absolute passion for it.
He came up with the idea, ran itpast the Feather Clubs
Association of Queensland, whichis the state body that looks
after all of the poultry clubsin Queensland.
With the idea of sponsoring amuseum to be established so that
(02:38):
the history of poultry and birdkeeping in general wasn't lost.
Bob then went away, managed toget some more support obtained
some grant funding, and mostimportantly, found a location,
which was an old buildinglocated in the middle of the
historical village here.
It was close and nearby topeople who could actually work
on it, and it was sort ofideally placed.
There's always been a fairly bigpoultry showing connection in
(03:01):
the local region, the MoretonBay region.
Kate (03:04):
Can you tell me about that history and the connection to
poultry in this region?
David (03:08):
Yeah.
We're not that far away from allthe big poultry farms up at
Beerburrum in the Beerwah way.
There's also a number of poultryfarms conducted over the past
many, many decades in theCaboolture Weyermann area.
In terms of poultry showing,there's a lot of poultry
exhibitors from the north ofBrisbane right up to the
Sunshine Coast, many of whom arearound this area.
(03:30):
and a lot of them actually had afairly keen interest in history
as well.
So a lot of work was doneactually converting and
renovating the building, puttingon a new roof, new ceiling,
lighting, putting on displays,new interior walls, all the
cabinets, et cetera.
and it was officially opened inJune, 2003 by the then Minister
(03:53):
for Agriculture, HenryPalusczuk, who's the current
premier's father.
And then since then we've hadseveral more extensions off to
the side to incorporate theincubator room and the wing that
we have our pigeon display in.
Kate (04:05):
What's the most popular part of the museum?
David (04:08):
A lot of the kids are really drawn to the different
eggs that we've got on display.
We've got different sizes fromostrich right down to quail and
even smaller.
We've even got a replica dodoegg and an orc egg, both extinct
birds.
We've also got a replica cassowary egg and whole range of
other unusual bits and pieces.
There's a taxidermied chickenskeleton, a duck skeleton uh,
(04:32):
that always sort of gets a bitof interest.
And our pigeons in warfaredisplay, which we're quite proud
of, gets a lot of interest aswell when people sort of get an
idea of way before the era ofmobile phones, radio
communications and things likethat, pigeons were actually the
main form of communication.
And we've got quite a gooddisplay in there.
And also a number of samples ofthe leg rings that they used to
(04:55):
put the messages in.
We've even got a copy of amessage in there that was sent,
by a tank squad in World War Iseeking help.
So I'll show you that one later.
Kate (05:04):
Why are pure breeds of birds so important?
David (05:07):
I think pure breeds of birds are so important to
maintain genetic diversity.
Most of the commercial birdsthat use commercially now are
all hybrids, whereas up untilprobably the, the first quarter
of the 19 hundreds, mostly theywere pure breeds.
it maintains a heritage of thedifferent breeds that are out
there, and it also means that ifit future down the track from a
(05:28):
commercial perspective, theyneed new blood.
You've got all these heritagebreeds out there that could be
used to recreate meat breeds,layers, and utility birds that
are a mix of both.
Kate (05:40):
So why did they make hybrid breeds in the first
place?
David (05:43):
They made them to get higher production.
So for laying breeds up untilthe early 19 hundreds breeds
like White Leghorns, AustralorpsOrpington's, quite a few others,
very heavy layers Menorcas,,Spanish Anconas used them to
lay, but they found thatparticularly in the battery cage
environment, a, they didn't doas well in confinement and B
(06:06):
they didn't produce as many eggsin a shorter period of time.
So you'll find that the heritagebreeds lay a lot longer, but
they won't lay as many eggs.
You're commercial hybrids layhuge numbers of eggs over a
relatively short period of time,and then they burn out.
So by the time they're about 2.
Kate (06:24):
What happens to them after they burn out?
David (06:25):
They get sold off and I think they have people go and
rescue them from farms andthings like that, whereas the
pure bred stuff, depending onthe breed, some breeds will lay
longer than others.
Many of them are still quiteproductive at 3, 4, 5, 6 years
of age.
And the breeds that don't lay alot of eggs, if they're bread
for other reasons, eitherornamental or game birds, some
(06:48):
of those can live to 15 or 16.
But you usually find that themore eggs a bird churns out the,
probably the shorter thelifespan because so much of
their energy goes into theproduction of eggs.
Kate (06:59):
And so show birds, are they all pure bred?
David (07:01):
Yes.
So some of them have gothistories going back hundreds
and hundreds of years.
Some of the pure breeds that areshown now, their standard may
not have been sort of set inplace or finalized up until say,
40, 50 years ago.
Kate (07:16):
so at a show, what makes a prize-winning bird?
And what what are the thingsthat the birds are judged on?
David (07:21):
Okay, so all birds have got a written standard, which is
an ideal.
It's a written description withaccompanying photographs or
illustration saying, this isdescribing how the ideal bird
should look in terms of itsshape, the head characteristics,
the feather characteristics, thelegs, the size, and the length
of them.
Whether they've got feathers on'em or not are the different
(07:41):
body color.
It varies from bird to bird.
Each breed's got a scale ofpoints going up to a hundred.
And depending on what the breedis, there's emphasis on some
things more than others.
Say if you've got say somethinglike a Polish, which is got a
big crest, there's a lot ofpoints for the crest.
And less points, say for theshape or for the color.
Other breeds that have got veryintricate color patterns,
(08:04):
there's a lot of points forcolour.
But then in the end, type isstill the most important thing
and type is the general shapeand characteristics of the bird.
So even if you say, look at asilhouette, you can look at the
silhouette and say, okay, that'sthat breed.
Cuz every breed's got its ownunique shape or set of
characteristics that go togetherthat make that you that breed
(08:25):
different to the next breed.
Kate (08:27):
So an example standard for the Polish chook from poultry
keeper.com reads (08:31):
crest, 30 points.
The crest should be high, large,full, and circular.
In females, it will be smoothand in males shinier and
thinner.
Head and Wattles, 15 points.
So the wattle is the fleshy bitthat hangs below the head by the
way.
For white crested varieties, thehead should be topped by a bony
(08:52):
knob from where the crestemerges.
Other varieties should alsoinclude muffling, which is
basically fancy feathers.
And no, the muffling should befull and almost hide the face.
Colour 30 points.
Colour should be solid white, nopaling.
Black birds should have a beetlegreen shade.
Laced varieties should beclearly laced or spangled.
(09:16):
And white crested birds shouldbe snowy white with no colored
feathers except for the coloredband at the front.
Type, five points.
The bird should look long andsturdy.
Remember that the bird should bealert and lively.
A sick or lethargic bird will bedisqualified.
Size 10 points.
(09:36):
There are a range of differentweights for different bird
sizes.
And lastly, condition 10 points.
Here the judges look for health,freedom from parasites, and
absence of genetic faults andcage fatigue- a term meaning
over showing of the bird.
What's your favorite breed?
David (09:55):
Anconas.
Kate (09:55):
Why?
David (09:56):
I've had them since I was probably 14 or 15, which was a
long time ago.
And I've had a number ofdifferent breeds over the past,
but I've always kept Aconas.
I think I just like thetemperament of them.
They're quite a good layer, goodlayer of white eggs.
We don't keep them for the eggs,just like them for the show.
Beetle green plumage with whitetips on the end of each feather.
(10:18):
And the white tips verychallenging to get and it's
just, I suppose it's the breed.
Everyone has certain breeds theylike for different reasons, now
this the same as dogs.
Kate (10:28):
What's your background in relation to birds and poultry?
David (10:31):
I first started with poultry from my grandma.
Grandfather sent me some bigSussex in 1979.
Showed them at the local agshow, got some Rhode Islands and
sort of started to get theshowing bug.
And then once I got some,Anconas started showing quite a
few shows a year and I've sortof had them ever since.
So I would go to probably six orseven shows a year as an
(10:52):
exhibitor.
I also judge poultry, so I'dusually judge three or four
shows as well.
Kate (10:57):
Do you know how many shows you've been to in your life so
far?
David (11:00):
That's a lot, given that I really started seriously
showing in the mid eighties...
probably 300, 400.
Kate (11:09):
Wow.
That's a lot of shows.
David (11:10):
Yeah.
And I've judged about 160, 170.
Kate (11:16):
How many prizes have your birds won?
David (11:18):
A lot.
I've got boxes and boxes full ofprize cards and ribbons.
Kate (11:22):
What's generally the prize that you win?
Is it money, or do you getchicken feed or something?
David (11:26):
Uh, Some shows the major awards will be like a bag of
chook feed.
Agricultural shows, there'susually some money, there's
sashes or rosettes or trophies.
A lot of it is just trying tocompete against other exhibitors
to see how you're going in termsof improving your quality, which
is why breed club shows arereally good for that.
So for the Anconas, we getbetween a hundred and 150
(11:48):
Anconas at our annual show eachyear in Rosewood.
And so the thing to aim forthere is to A, win a class and
then b, try and win one of themajor awards.
But the competition is thatstrong there.
Even to get a third or a fourthin some classes is a good thing.
Kate (12:05):
What's the most prestigious show award you can
get in queensland,
David (12:10):
most prestigious one?
It depends on, I suppose, yourperspective.
Obviously the grand champion atBrisbane Royal,
Kate (12:18):
the eKKA?
David (12:19):
The EKKA, would certainly be up there.
I've never won that The showsyou've get like, well,
agricultural shows, then you getpoultry club shows then you'll
get breed club shows.
And then it really depends onwhat you've got and what your
aim is some people like to go toall the ag shows where you get a
little bit of prize money,others focus more on breed club
and regional club shows.
Kate (12:40):
And what's the vibe at the shows?
Is it really collegiate, likeeveryone's curious and happy for
each other when they win?
Or is it very competitive andserious?
David (12:48):
It depends on the breed and the show.
Kate (12:50):
Can it get nasty?
David (12:51):
Not overly nasty, but some people are more competitive
than others.
There's a lot of shows around.
There's a lot of people.
So I suppose the thing would beto find a show or a club or an
area where people are generallya bit more friendly towards you
and they'd be the ones you clickin, but different personality
styles as well too.
Yeah, there is a lot ofcompetition.
(13:11):
They're probably not quite tothe extent of what there is in
some other animal species.
But yeah, it's still definitelythere.
Kate (13:18):
Okay, so while it doesn't get nasty, I discovered the
annual general meeting minutesof the Feather Club's
Association of Queensland, Inc.
are available online for yourperusal.
In the 2019 AGM, LloydStoltenberg asked quote"what the
F C A Q are going to do aboutthe city slickers and do-gooders
(13:39):
that complain about birds nothaving water in their show pens
when they are being judged"unquote..
It was suggested that the clubsput up signs saying that the
birds will be watered oncompletion of judging.
That will give the public a k acity slickers and do-gooders a
better understanding of whathappens at a poultry show.
How many avicultural or poultryclubs are there in Queensland?
David (14:01):
There used to be about 60.
I think it's down to about 50now.
Cause over time we find a lot ofthe poultry exhibitors are
getting older.
They're getting less support.
So some of the clubs havefolded.
Kate (14:11):
You might be confused about the different bird terms
used so far.
An A aviculturalist or Aviculturalist is someone who
breeds and keeps birds.
A poultry fancier is someone whokeeps rare or distinctive breeds
for showing.
David (14:26):
And there's a whole heap of terms out there.
Even there's some people don'tlike using the word chook.
Others don't like using chickenbecause they think it's too
American.
And it's a generational thing aswell.
I tend to use chook a lot of thetime.
Other people who, especiallysome of the older ones, will say
fowls.
Kate (14:43):
That sounds like something from a Roald Dahl book, a fowl.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what do you think aboutchook as a term of endearment?
David (14:49):
Oh yes.
I'm fine with it.
I use it most of the time.
Kate (14:52):
David, do you eat chicken?
David (14:53):
Yes.
Kate (14:55):
and all types other types of poultry as well?
David (14:58):
Yes.
Chicken's the favorite onethough.
Chicken.
Kate (15:00):
Why should people visit the Bird and poultry Museum?
David (15:03):
It's got a lot of very interesting things in there, and
I think because the CabooltureHistorical Village has got 70
buildings on 12 acres, there isa lot here for everyone to be
interested in, to have a lookat.
So regardless of what yourinterest is, you'll find it in
here.
But the Bird and Poultry Museumitself are people who have,
(15:24):
maybe as kids if they're,they're older generations and
they remember, back before inthe, the war years and earlier,
most people had chooks orchickens in their backyard,
whereas they, they don't tend tonow people's lifestyles changes
and you've got councilregulations and things like
that.
We get a lot, there's a lot ofschool kids come through for the
historical village as part ofthe school's program.
(15:46):
So there's things in here thatkids will find from an
educational perspective, andthere's other things in here
that if you are a poultryfancier or you've got a relative
who was, you'll come in here andyou'll see, ah, my uncle or my
grandfather used to have eitherthis particular breed or had
these sashes, or there'ssomething in here that twigs a
memory of what they used to seewhen they were younger as a kid.
(16:10):
And I think that's sort of animportant thing.
If you didn't have a museum likethis, that older history would
be, tend to be lost or you mightjust find it looking on some
social media, old websites, butyou can't actually get up and
close to some of the, the quirkymore interesting things that
we've got here.
And we're always on the lookoutfor sort of new and unusual
things, so it's not just amuseum full of prize cards and
(16:31):
trophies and sashes..
Kate (16:33):
Now, David and I take a tour of the museum starting from
their front entrance.
David (16:40):
Okay.
So the front of our building'sgot a an artistic display out
the front with a pair of metalcassowary sculptures and model
cassowary eggs.
Kate (16:48):
Oh, those eggs are huge.
David (16:50):
And they also green in amongst some artificial foliage
here, which is low maintenancecuz we just hosed it off
yesterday.
So that makes it good.
But put it here as a, somethinga little bit attractive to catch
people's eyes as they walk pastit.
Behind it, there's a bark wall.
And that bark actually came fromsome old poultry sheds in the,
the locality.
So that's got a connection to,to poultry keeping.
(17:11):
On the left hand side of thedoor is a mural of a gentleman
who went to a poultry show inthe 1930s down in Victoria with
a duck in a cage on awheelbarrow,
Kate (17:22):
So Jack Waters was a man who lived in Woori Yallock in
rural Victoria during thedepression of the 1930s.
He heard that the RoyalMelbourne Agricultural Show
Society was offering one poundas a prize for the champion duck
of the show.
Jack Waters had a duck, which hethought was quote a pretty good
duck unquote, and reckoned he'dhave a go.
(17:45):
So as the story goes, he put theduck named Persil Benny in his
old wheelbarrow, and walked justover a week to Melbourne to
enter.
Lucky for Jack, his duck won andhe was awarded the one pound
prize.
And even luckier still, becausehis duck was named Persil benny,
the Persil detergent companydecided to give him another
(18:07):
pound!
David (18:09):
So that's an example of a very keen poultry, fancier,
probably keener than what mostof us would be.
Certainly nowadays.
We've got a bird migration chartthere that shows the migration
routes for the short tailedshearwater, the Eastern Curlew
Eastern Broad Billed Roller, andthe Spangled Drongo, and some of
them are go quite away,especially the short tailed
(18:31):
Shearwater, which sort of startsoff in Southern Victoria and
goes around Tasmania, goes uptowards Alaska.
Past Japan and then sort ofloops back around again.
Kate (18:41):
Is that what they do every year?
David (18:43):
Yes.
So pretty good migratorypatterns.
Kate (18:46):
And this is an egg laying competition trophy.
Yes.
So how do you have a competitionfor egg laying?
David (18:51):
Egg laying competitions were really big, especially in
the 1920s and thirties and eventhe forties.
And this was before I supposethe invention of all the
commercial hybrids they havenow.
This is where people would haveflocks of white leghorns,
Australorps, Langshans,Orpingtons Wyandottes, all those
sorts of breeds, which arelargely more kept for exhibition
(19:12):
only now used to be keptcommercially and sub
commercially.
So you'd have people with flocksof a hundred, 200 white leg
horns or Australorps and theywould make a living out of that.
Some of them are obviouslybigger than they'd be in the
thousands and the earlier cagebirds were are actually hybrids
of those breeds.
And to run an egg show, whatthey would do is they'd put in a
(19:33):
pen of, say, six females orwhatever, and they would count
the number of eggs that that penlaid over a certain period of
time, whether it was six months,twelve months, or a shorter
period.
And the teams would be competingagainst each other.
And the pen, that laid the mosteggs over that time period would
be the one that won.
Kate (19:51):
that seems like a very long competition and one that
would be tedious to judge
David (19:56):
it would be but a a lot of the breeders and suppliers
relied very heavily the eggcompetition results to boost to
their own sales.
So particularly when peoplestill had the pure bread ones in
the twenties and thirties andforties, if you had say like a
strain of white leghorns, thatwas consistently winning the egg
competition, everyone would cometo you for stock.
(20:18):
Whereas if you weren't doingparticularly well or your breed
wasn't, you'd be further down inthe results list and it'd wane
off.
Kate (20:25):
So this particular trophy on display was won at the
Darling Downs egg layingCompetition, 1935 6 by R.T.
Green.
The winning fowl was a whiteleghorn that laid 243 eggs in
313 days with three more weeksto go in the test.
David (20:43):
The next display case, we've got a number of ribbons
from the EKKA show and sometrophies that have been donated
over the years.
So this is probably one of thejewels that we've got the pigeon
and warfare display.
So I suppose starting off withhere, you've got a duplicate of
the message that was sent from atank in 1916.
(21:03):
The tank was being attacked.
They needed some help from theheadquarters area.
So they did the message up, putthe message into a little pigeon
ring, and the tanks would allhold metal containers that they
carried that messenger pigeonsin.
So if they had to get a messageback, come help us or some
intelligence information, writethe message on.
It's a very thin paper, so it'squite light.
(21:25):
Roll up really tight, put it inthe little capsule and then send
the pigeon off and it would gowhere it was supposed to.
There was a unit set up in thesecond World War in New Guinea
which was pigeon unit, and theywere a group of, most of them
were former pigeon fanciers thatwhen they enlisted, they put
them all together and their jobwas to maintain the pigeons for
(21:47):
the communication system there.
We've had displays here wherepeople have brought pigeons up,
they let them out and it mightbe like Burpengary, Morayfield,,
which is 15, 20 minutes, half anhour away.
They beat their owners home.
They're fast.
So, and there's a, in the pigeonracing field, they have a lot of
endurance races, which go formany hundreds of kilometers.
And they travel very, very,quickly.
Kate (22:11):
Pigeons in the wars were used because of their homing
instincts, not their speed, andthey could carry messages in war
zones when all other forms ofcommunication were cut off.
The normal range of flight for apigeon is 120 miles or nearly
200 kilometers.
The Royal Australian Mint issueda stamp with a blue chequer cock
that honored, a pigeon known asDD.43.Q.879, or Q for short.
(22:38):
Q was awarded the Dicken medalfor conspicuous gallantry and
devotion to duty, unquote.
Of all the 54 Dicken medalspresented in World War ii, which
honor acts of devotion to dutyby animals, more than half were
awarded to pigeons.
There's more photos from thepigeons of warfare exhibit on
our Instagram.
(22:58):
At Roadshow and Tell Podcast,
David (23:00):
This here is a pigeon carrying crate, which
parachuters, paratroopers coulduse.
It's got a leather case on it,and it's a wicker basket with a
strap, but each of thesecompartments is lined with fiber
and the pigeons slot safely oneither end.
There's a little door there sothey can put them in there, and
then when they, they're jumpingout and moving around, the
(23:21):
pigeon won't get damaged.
And then wrapped around thiscompartment is this little
exercise yard.
So that all comes apart.
It's got four walls.
It's got a little fence over thetop mesh so they can feed and
water them.
Pigeon then goes back in hereand they fold the collapsible
pen, back round it and put thecase over it and then strap it
over them and off they go.
Kate (23:43):
That's...
Not how I thought they'dtransport pigeons, but I guess
you gotta do it somehow.
David (23:47):
Yep.
There's a whole range ofdifferent ways.
Now this one here is a metalpigeon carrier for a tank.
Kate (23:53):
So the pigeon is bulletproof?
David (23:56):
Well, I suppose so, but I suppose cuz the tanks,
especially the ones from thatera, if you've been to the
memorial around Canberra,there's not a lot of room in
them.
So they'd have to be verycareful with space.
And something that wasn'tflammable.
So yeah, it's a metal box with aset of breathing holes on the
side of it, like a colander andthe pigeons would go in there.
And then if they needed help orthey needed to get some
(24:18):
intelligence across, out wouldcome the pigeon, put the note on
it.
Put the ring on, off it'd to go.
Um, In terms of racing pigeons,we've got a, a timing clock down
there, down the bottom.
Kate (24:29):
After the pigeons in warfare display, we walk around
the museum and I'm not surewhere to look because everywhere
I look, all I can see is birdparaphernalia.
Anything to do with thebreeding, showing, laying and
keeping of birds that you canthink of, it's here in this
museum.
David (24:46):
Hats made outta feathers.
Gotta display of all thedifferent pigeon breeds.
There's some different eggscales down the bottom This here
is a pigeon carrying crate achicken skeleton and a duck
skeleton This is a egg washingmachine, postage stamps We've
got a machine down there thatmakes egg cartons heap of sashes
and trophies here from a wholerange of different shows, Got an
(25:07):
honor board from IpswitchPoultry Club.
there's a game here, it's calledChook Chook a plucking machine
Kate (25:13):
The museum also has a range of different types of
incubators designed for,
David (25:18):
Hatching eggs.
Kate (25:19):
and if you're like me, you're thinking, but why do we
need an incubator?
Wouldn't it just be better ifthe laying hen sits on her own
eggs?
David (25:28):
It would, but they don't always sit and not all breeds
sit.
And they don't always sit at theright time, so you gotta wait
for the birds to go broody, andchickens love to go broody
around here, at least anyway,October to December, which is
too late for your show seasonnext winter.
So most of the time they don'tgo broody when you want them to.
And then you'll have some breedsthat are just terrible mothers.
(25:50):
They kick and scratch the eggs,they break them, they, or when
they get'em out, they just dunnowhat they're doing, whereas
other breeds, natural mothersand they do a really, really
good job.
So having an incubator is a wayof getting around the bad
mothering skills and also meansyou can hatch a lot more out.
Whereas under a clucky hen, youare looking just depending on
the size of the hen, six to 12eggs.
(26:10):
Whereas an incubator, dependingon how big you get you can hatch
anything up to thousands at atime.
Wow.
Kate (26:16):
So incubators are also accelerators.
Maybe that's why the techindustry has hijacked the word
incubator, to use it forcompanies that act as
springboards for early stagestartup.
In egg hatching incubators areused because they can control
the humidity, temperature, andturning frequency better than
the broody hens could, and itoften results in a greater
(26:38):
percentage of eggs hatching intochicks.
David shows me different typesof incubators from the early 19
hundreds.
There is a kerosene one, whichwas used before electricity was
widely available.
David (26:51):
so you've got put the hot water up in there, kerosene
lighter there.
And the eggs are down in here.
Okay, so this big one is LanyonMan, Mammoth incubator, and it's
a kerosene one.
And you see this trays there.
You can imagine how many eggsyou could fit in that.
And then to turn them, you'veactually gotta turn the eggs
(27:14):
manually.
And you can either do it thatway if it's one of these flat
type ones and other ones havetrays, and you tilt the handle
and whole tray goes 45 degreesthe other way.
We've got this one, which is anAustralian one.
There's is American one there.
We've got, Buckeye is anotherAmerican one down there, so
that's obviously a much smallerone, but it does the same job.
(27:36):
It's kerosene heated on theside.
And then this one here, there'sa big Rotary one.
A rotary one.
Yeah.
We can get some very, very bigunits in these that will hold
thousands and thousands of eggs.
I've got another biggerincubator.
Oh, this one's huge.
This is another multiplier one.
Kate (27:55):
How much do they sell for now?
David (27:57):
A brand new multiplay, depending on whether you want it
fully automated.
So if it's got a digital turnand automatic turner and that
for 12 dozen eggs is about 2000.
and then you get littleincubators like this little
metal up there, nice andcompact.
That's a little compact one,which is more like little
plastic homestyle ones you getnow for chickens that hold 20-30
(28:19):
eggs.
Kate (28:20):
And get this, you can get a fully automatic home incubator
for 36 eggs for just$129 fromamazon.com.
David (28:29):
This is a egg washing machine, so these coils would've
been wet.
and you turn the handle and theeggs go down, work their way
around, and they come out there.
The one that's down there is abrush version of it.
Although when they came out,you'd have to be careful if they
didn't hit the end, so they'dbreak, I'm not sure how it
actually works without breakingthe eggs,
Kate (28:48):
There are so many eggs scales on show.
Egg scales are used to separateeggs into predetermined grades
like medium, large, and extralarge for consumers..
David (28:58):
They're, some of them were quite inventive and cuz
they all had patents, they wouldall come up with all these
slightly different ideas onbasically the same principle.
Kate (29:06):
Interestingly, vintage egg scales seem to be quite a
collector's item too, and arefetching between 80 and$200 on
Etsy.
and also bird skeletons!
David (29:18):
This is something that really interests the kids when
they come in a chicken skeletonand a duck skeleton.
And also we've got a littlemodel of a human skeleton in
there, which is only about 30,40 centimeters high, just to
sort of show the difference inthe number of bones.
So in there it says the duckshave got 122 bones, chickens
have a 120, and and human adultshave 206, but babies have about
(29:42):
300.
And obviously there's babieshave more cuz they fuse as they
develop in age.
In the next shelf down we've gotpainting of a Auk egg, which is
an extinct bird, as well as areplica of the Egg, which is the
one here on the end with thespots.
Kate (29:56):
Okay, so the auk- spelled A U K was kind of similar to
penguins.
they're also black and whiteupright seabirds that dived for
their food.
They were found in the coldNorth Atlantic waters until 1844
when they went extinct, mostlyfrom human hunting for feathers,
meat, fat, and oil.
David (30:15):
Dodo egg replica.
Cassowary egg replica.
We've got the replica therebecause the real Cassowary eggs
are restricted items here need aspecial permit to keep them.
Replica Rhea egg
Kate (30:26):
A Rhea is a small version of an ostrich from South
America.
The egg is perfectly ovular andabout 13 centimeters long.
On the other side of the room,there are three dioramas on
display.
The first diorama shows thefirst instance of imported birds
in Australia.
David (30:42):
We've got first fleet diorama there.
That's where they bring onboardsome geese.
And in the first fleet therewere 18 turkeys, 29 geese, 35
ducks, 122 fowls, and 87chickens.
Kate (30:55):
The next diorama is on migrant birds.
David (30:58):
So I suppose what you call pest species introduced
species
Kate (31:01):
That includes birds like the Common Myna, House Sparrow,
Spotted Turtle-Dove, and CommonStarling.
Ah, yes.
The common miner or the Indianminer.
The absolute Karen.
of introduced species.
David (31:20):
And then a mockup of a poultry show.
Kate (31:23):
Oh, yep.
I can see the judge givingprizes
David (31:25):
to the Western Western show.
A couple of taxidermied oldEnglish game fowl.
Kate (31:29):
Would these actually be prize winning game fowl?
Yes.
Oh,
David (31:32):
yes.
Okay.
Yeah, they originally they werebred by Athel Pengelly in
Central New South Wales, and heused to win a lot.
That's sort of like a stylizedversion of what a poultry show
looks like, only much bigger ofcourse.
Kate (31:43):
I wanna go to a poultry show now.
And so what happens to thepoultry after they're no longer
good for shows?
Do they just get sold to farms,like you said before?
David (31:52):
Yeah.
And and quite often forbreeding?
So when birds judge, the judgewill go up and down in front of
the cages, have a look at themand then they'll take each one
out, handle it, look at theunder the wings, the tail, feel
the body of it.
Kate (32:05):
Do they do a little catwalk like in the dog shows?
David (32:07):
No?
No, Showing poultry is easierthan showing dogs.
Kate (32:10):
Yep.
Just look and feel.
David (32:11):
Yes.
Look and feel.
You've gotta get them quietenough so when the judge goes to
approach them in the cage, theydon't go crazy and hit the roof.
But it's not like a dog whereyou have to train them to go at
the right pace, then train themto stand while the judge looks
over them and not move and thendo everything exactly right.
Dog showing's a lot harder.
I'm a very, very much a novicedog show.
Kate (32:32):
Oh, you show dogs as well?
David (32:33):
It's just started.
I'm much better at doing chooksand dogs.
Kate (32:36):
What's your favorite egg to eat?
David (32:37):
It'd be a chicken.
Chicken, egg.
Chicken, egg.
I don't like duck eggs much.
They're a bit too rich.
But people apparently who do alot of baking, find that duck
eggs are really good for makingcakes.
Especially sponges.
Kate (32:48):
Really?
David (32:48):
Yeah.
Kate (32:49):
Why is that?
Do you know?
David (32:50):
Dunno, it must be something to do with the texture
when you break them open,they're a thicker consistency, a
bit goer, so obviously it mustwork better with the cake
batter.
Kate (32:58):
Now we go outside to try and spot the resident chooks of
the historical village.
David (33:03):
it.
I'll show you the chooks.
Yeah, sounds good.
See, I just instinctively callit chooks.
I'm in my fifties.
Whereas you get someone that'solder, or especially some of the
really, really serious poultryexhibitors, they, they call them
fowls.
Kate (33:18):
How many chooks are there?
David (33:19):
Oh, I'd have to count them now.
I think it's about nine or 10.
And they are all hiding...
No.
There's two Orpingtons.
There's two Malay games.
There's a couple of RhodeIslands and there's some big and
banner
Kate (33:35):
mankins.
Oh, they are beautiful.
You
David (33:37):
can see why I like them.
Kate (33:38):
So the anconas are quite impressive.
They are like reversedalmatians, totally black, but
speckled with small white spots.
David (33:47):
Yeah.
The caretakers let the chooksout, so we'll have to find
ourselves.
They usually hang out cause it'shot at the moment.
They would be somewhere shade inthe shade.
So I can't actually show you thebirds themselves.
They're all hiding, somewherecool.
Cool.
There's Rhode island and sunbaking.
The others would've more senseand they'd be underneath the
(34:08):
house there in the dust whereit's cooler.
Kate (34:11):
What's the dumbest bird in your opinion?
David (34:13):
Silkies aren't very smart.
Yeah.
In terms of intelligence, ducksare probably smarter than all
the chicken breeds and geese areby far the smartest.
Kate (34:27):
The village offers accessible parking and
accessible toilets.
Walking frames and wheelchairsare also available to borrow
from the village free of charge.
The Bird and Poultry Museumitself is on one level, and
wheelchair and frame friendly,although there is one minor
slope in the floor.
Caboolture Historical Village isopen from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
every day, except publicholidays.
(34:49):
The cost of admission is$15 foradults,$11 for concessions, and
$7 50 for children under 12.
David (34:56):
But for that price, you can basically fill in the whole
day wandering around all thevillage and hopefully also the
Bird and Poultry Museum, whichis located almost in the center
is definitely well worth a look.
It's quite quirk and interestinginside, I said, it's like a bit
of a tardus.
Kate (35:12):
it's your entry to over 70 buildings and 12 acres of
beautifully maintained grounds.
It could be a really fun day outfor your family.
There's lots of other specialinterest groups represented
here, such as the AntiqueMachinery and Restoration Club,
Caboolture and DistrictWoodcrafters, Caboolture Gem
Club, homestead Country MusicClub, and a pottery club.
(35:35):
Plus other museums such as apolice station and prisons
museum, two railway stationmuseums, a transport museum,
military museum, and maritimemuseum.
Well, I can say without a doubtthat my knowledge of aviculture
and poultry has increasedtenfold after my visit to this
(35:56):
museum.
And if you were like me, you arethinking while listening that it
would be so awesome to see abird exhibitor's version of
Dance Moms that followspassionate bird exhibitors
around to different shows andcaptures the high octane drama
of bird fancying.
Well, you are in luck becauseDavid let me know that there are
two documentaries that do justthis, and I immediately watch
(36:19):
them both and they're brilliant.
They are Chicken People from2016, which is on SBS, and a
2017 New Zealand one calledPecking Order, or should I say
Picking Order which is availableon Binge.
And while you watch these shows,remember you can see images of
all the birds and thingsdiscussed on this episode on our
(36:39):
Instagram at Roadshow and TellPodcast.
Thanks for listening to Roadshowand Tell.
If you enjoyed this deep diveinto a specialty museum, make
sure you subscribe so you don'tmiss an episode.
We're a new podcast.
So if you wanna help support us,please share it with a friend
and leave a rating and review.
(37:00):
If you are involved with or knowof a regional or specialty
museum that should be featured,please get in touch at
roadshowandtell@gmail.com.
I'm your host, Kate.
Roadshow and Tell was edited andproduced on the lands of the
Gadigal people.
I acknowledge the TraditionalCustodians of the various lands
(37:22):
on which you may be listeningfrom, and the lands that the
museums featured in this podcastreside on.
I also acknowledge anyAboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander people listening tothis podcast.
I pay my respects to elderspast, present, and emerging, and
celebrate the diversity ofAboriginal peoples and their
ongoing cultures and connectionsto the lands and waters of
(37:44):
Australia.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.