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My father started breeding Rhode Island Red and light Sussex poultry in the 1930’s. Over his life time he improved the breeds significantly. His stock was in demand both nationally and internationally, we even exported hatching eggs to Africa and America (The home of the Rhode Island Red).
We had between 10 and twenty thousand, all free range and they were in pens of 100 birds 20 feet x 10 feet so that’s only 2sq feet per bird. A third of the pen was weld mesh over a pit to hold the droppings which lasted 12 months before filling up. There was an additional laying parlour 10ftx6ft with nests accessed through a pop hole and with only a small window to keep it relatively dark.
They were let out at 7:30 every morning and penned up at dusk every day (my job as a lad). Each pen had a food hopper on a stand inside (outside we had nothing but sparrows stealing the food) and they had water inside and out (Piped to a container with ball valve, the inside water had an overflow to the outside. Each pen had a half bucket of mixed corn spread onto the grass every afternoon. The runs were big 300yards x100 yards and we used 7ft netting dug into the ground 1 ft to deter foxes. The whole lot covered 25 acres and we employed 7 staff (2 in the hatchery). We introduced winter morning and evening lighting in the pens to improve production.
The government at the time (50's to 60's) held national egg laying trials. The ministry of agriculture used to come and select at random 50 hatching eggs which they took away and hatched, raised the birds and recorded their egg production. We won it outright 3 years in a row with average egg production of 280 pr bird. My father won a solid gold tray (to keep for a year) which I could not pick up it was so heavy, He kept it under the bed! I remember our annual trips to the laying trials, one in Godalming Surrey and one at Goosnargh in Lancashire, It meant a day off school for me.
The special breeding hens all had trap nests so the hen was held in the nest until released, her leg band number was written on each egg and her eggs hatched out in a cotton bag. After hatching each chick had a wing tag with its number on. This way the blood line of each chick was recorded and this enabled thirty years of selective breeding. I still have many of the cups he won (Offered by the daily express at the time).
Each week in the hatching season we had a Japanese sexer come to sex the chicks (The Japanese had a particular skill at this and a company called the Midland hatcheries brought them over to England. We also produced the Rhode x Sussex cross breed which interestingly were sex linked, the pullets were light brown and the cocks were white, this saved sexing costs.
During the 60’s the Americans brought in their Leghorn hybrids which laid white eggs, this coincided with the battery system of production and they had a distinct commercial advantage over our breeds because they were small and you could fit five birds into a cage but only 3 Rhodes or Sussex. The British house wife seemed to have no preference for brown eggs or even care about them being free range, how times have changed.
Our sales dropped off and to add insult to injury the American birds brought with them devastating diseases that our birds had no resistance to. Foul pest, Infectious bronchitis and Mareks disease, there were no vaccines at the time and our flocks were devastated. I burnt thousands of beautiful point of lay pullets. A very sad end for my father’s career.
However his stock still lives on, many hybrid poultry were created using his stock cockerels in their heritage.
We then went into general farming and had a herd of jersey cows and 400 breeding ewes.
We had between 10 and twenty thousand, all free range and they were in pens of 100 birds 20 feet x 10 feet so that’s only 2sq feet per bird. A third of the pen was weld mesh over a pit to hold the droppings which lasted 12 months before filling up. There was an additional laying parlour 10ftx6ft with nests accessed through a pop hole and with only a small window to keep it relatively dark.
They were let out at 7:30 every morning and penned up at dusk every day (my job as a lad). Each pen had a food hopper on a stand inside (outside we had nothing but sparrows stealing the food) and they had water inside and out (Piped to a container with ball valve, the inside water had an overflow to the outside. Each pen had a half bucket of mixed corn spread onto the grass every afternoon. The runs were big 300yards x100 yards and we used 7ft netting dug into the ground 1 ft to deter foxes. The whole lot covered 25 acres and we employed 7 staff (2 in the hatchery). We introduced winter morning and evening lighting in the pens to improve production.
The government at the time (50's to 60's) held national egg laying trials. The ministry of agriculture used to come and select at random 50 hatching eggs which they took away and hatched, raised the birds and recorded their egg production. We won it outright 3 years in a row with average egg production of 280 pr bird. My father won a solid gold tray (to keep for a year) which I could not pick up it was so heavy, He kept it under the bed! I remember our annual trips to the laying trials, one in Godalming Surrey and one at Goosnargh in Lancashire, It meant a day off school for me.
The special breeding hens all had trap nests so the hen was held in the nest until released, her leg band number was written on each egg and her eggs hatched out in a cotton bag. After hatching each chick had a wing tag with its number on. This way the blood line of each chick was recorded and this enabled thirty years of selective breeding. I still have many of the cups he won (Offered by the daily express at the time).
Each week in the hatching season we had a Japanese sexer come to sex the chicks (The Japanese had a particular skill at this and a company called the Midland hatcheries brought them over to England. We also produced the Rhode x Sussex cross breed which interestingly were sex linked, the pullets were light brown and the cocks were white, this saved sexing costs.
During the 60’s the Americans brought in their Leghorn hybrids which laid white eggs, this coincided with the battery system of production and they had a distinct commercial advantage over our breeds because they were small and you could fit five birds into a cage but only 3 Rhodes or Sussex. The British house wife seemed to have no preference for brown eggs or even care about them being free range, how times have changed.
Our sales dropped off and to add insult to injury the American birds brought with them devastating diseases that our birds had no resistance to. Foul pest, Infectious bronchitis and Mareks disease, there were no vaccines at the time and our flocks were devastated. I burnt thousands of beautiful point of lay pullets. A very sad end for my father’s career.
However his stock still lives on, many hybrid poultry were created using his stock cockerels in their heritage.
We then went into general farming and had a herd of jersey cows and 400 breeding ewes.
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