Glamour girls

EVERYONE LOVES A HARDWORKING ISA BROWN BUT GET A LOAD OF THESE CHIC CHICKENS AND FEATHERED FASHIONISTAS

- Megg Miller

Chooks are no longer birds that eke out a living up the back in a bare yard. We’ve realised that while they are small their personalities are huge. Besides laying eggs and producing fertiliser, fowls can be rewarding pets as well.

Perhaps the biggest shift has been in appreciation of their appearance. In the past, hens were largely black, red or white, but today we see many birds with sensational feather patterns and quirky features like beards, muffs and crests. Forget drab — we’ve entered an era of glamour.

A range of novel-looking breeds has become available over the past few years. This is due to the dedicated work of AvGen, who sourced breeding stock in the UK to supply fertile eggs, paid breeding quarantine costs and had fertile eggs flown to a special hatching facility in Australia.

It’s taken a few years for the imported breeds to become established in such numbers that offspring no longer cost an arm and leg. Fowls whose appearance is completely new can be purchased now.

Not all these new breeds have adapted speedily to Aussie management. It’s easy to overlook the importance of adaptation but there have been lots of challenges: brighter light and longer day length, reversal of seasons, feed components grown under different environmental conditions, disease variants and more.

Even now, some breeds remain in low numbers while breeders work hard to discover the best management regime to support them.

There is an important backstory, too, that needs to be appreciated.

EXTINCTION THREATS