Breeding Chickens For The Show Ring

What started out as a hobby for Helene Roodt six years ago has since turned into a full-time and surprisingly intricate and successful show chicken breeding business. Annelie Coleman visited Roodt to find out more about her enterprise.

- Annelie Coleman

FAST FACTS

• Top-quality show chickens are quite expensive, and currently trade for between R700 and R1 200.
• Roodt’s favourite chicken breed is the medium-sized Wyandotte.

Nobody could ever accuse Helene Roodt, owner of the Royal Feathers show chicken flock in the Vredefort district, of not properly caring for her chickens and other poultry.

“I’m besotted with my poultry. If I didn’t have an individual relationship with each one, it would be difficult to perform well in the show ring. Some people’s opinions of chickens are that they’re dim-witted, but I believe they’re intelligent and sensitive animals that know exactly what is expected of them in a show,” she says.

Following the termination of her dog-breeding business about six years ago, Roodt considered a number of new options, but settled on breeding show chickens because, as she puts it, she wanted to farm something that she could cuddle and hug. And what was initially just a hobby for her has since become a full-time job.

A SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT