Fred Hams

The beginning of another new poultry year

Continuing with my theme about In truth the exhibition scene has Practical Poultry readers will identify the development of utility poultry added so much to my life’s experience with this! This somehow led first, to the breeding and their visual and that I feel a twinge of guilt for either late Cap Duckworth’s and returning handling assessment, as it happens developments during last couple of months have had me having to reassess just where I stand and how I cope with today’s competing demands of the occasionally rather isolationist aspects of utility ‘sensible?’ poultry keeping and the far more social and ‘fun’ aspects of breeding and showing exhibition poultry.

First, news that that the Poultry Club, that I have been a member of for what, close on fifty years?, (long before it adopted the title of Great Britain), has recently decided to grant/ offer me Honorary Life Membership. There have been those kind enough to suggest ‘Not before time, long overdue etc., as I see it quite to the contrary ,the surprise is when the thinking back to the line that I have felt obliged to take, is that they have been kind enough put up with be as an ordinary member these last many years!

In truth the exhibition scene has added so much to my life’s experience that I feel a twinge of guilt for either highlighting the pit-falls of the exhibition scene or even questioning the direction that exhibition poultry keeping can take a poultry keeper, or more important,the poultry or strains of poultry, that find themselves within our safekeeping. Here one has to remember that when I first joined the ‘fancier/ conservationist’ poultry breeder it was back in the very early 1970s and I was as a 'refugee' from the ranks of commercial poultry. Even then I was reeling from what I thought to be the over commercialised exploitation of hybrid breeding, battery and broiler systems.