Poultry Club & Show Information

Author: Aussie Chook Supplies  

There are groups of poultry lovers all around Australia who share a passion for one (or more) breeds of chickens, ducks and all manner of other poultry.

A lot of them have formed specific clubs to get together and share information, breeding tips, compete against each other to reach ‘The Standard’ (the benchmark of how this particular chicken breed is meant to look) and more importantly, keep the passion alive. 

All recognised poultry breeds have a set of ‘standards’ that are adhered to by show breeders, which means that birds that, from a young age, look like they have the potential to meet the standards are kept and ‘growth through’, ones that are not are ‘culled’. Some of the reasons that a chicken may get culled include:

  • wrong coloured eyes/legs
  • uneven coloured feathers
  • uneven/crooked combs
  • wrong number of toes
  • stance
  • body shape
  • neck length

A show breeder might hatch fifty chicks of one breed, and keep fifteen to twenty to grow through (with the remainder culled or sold on). Dependant on the breed, the chicks/pullets/cockerals that aren’t kept and grown through might be for any reasons above, or others that I haven’t mentioned.

Then of those eight to ten that were kept from the first lot, they will then cull/select further and keep 1 -3 for showing. Number four may very well still be a great quality chicken but 1 – 3 are better…

Aussie Chook Supplies came about in 2009 when the first chickens that we bought were ‘cull birds’ from a show breeder. They were beautiful healthy chooks which gave us a lot of joy, and from the perspective of a backyard poultry keeper, nothing wrong with them. As are the majority of chickens that are culled from show breeders…