POULTRY auctions return to Wangaratta showgrounds on Saturday after a two-decade absence.
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Metrys Poultry Auctions hold sales throughout the year at Euroa, but storm damage to the Euroa sheds forced the move.
“We’ve dropped about 100 cages, so it will be smaller but we expect plenty of interest,” Braham Metry said.
"We haven't done an auction at Wangaratta for 20-odd years but when we ran them at Euroa we’d get people from as far away as Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and throughout NSW and Victoria.”
Mr Metry, who has been breeding chickens for almost 40 years and is among Australia’s top poultry judges, said he has sent stud birds to all corners of Australia.
He said while the poultry industry has contracted considerably, backyard hobbyists had ensured the heirloom breeding remained vibrant because big hatcheries usually do not deal in small numbers required for backyard chicken coups.
“Poultry is the largest growing animal keeping hobby in Australia,” he said.
The backyarders want ... the old fashioned pretty chooks.
- Braham Metry
“We sell no more birds now then we did 30 years ago but the quantity of birds is different.
“30 years ago I would sell 20 people 20 birds each, now people are coming in and buying four birds each.
“More and more people want chooks for their backyard because they want to use them for recycling their garden waste, household waste. And they want fresh eggs.
“A lot of people are buying birds to kill themselves. They want old fashioned slow growing stuff that grandma used to have.
“A meat chicken you can have off in about 32 to 44 days if the environment is perfect but an old fashioned bird you’re talking six months. It’s a long time between feeds.”
Mr Metry said breeders would pay high prices for quality stock, paying almost $1000 for rare guinea fowl and more than $3300 for a pair of Toulouse geese but backyard buyers preferred looks over breeding quality.
"The backyarders want pretty chooks, they want silver laced Wyandotts, gold laced Wyandotts, the Rhode Island reds – the old fashioned pretty chooks.
“These are the old fashioned heirloom chooks that lay for two to three years.
“Most will pay between $40 and $60 for a pullet, the dealers will pay $50 for the females and take them to Melbourne and re-sell them for a lot more.
"But people who breed and show chooks will go anywhere, and will pay the right money for the right bird."
Saturday’s auction at Wangaratta starts at 11am, while a stud bird auction featuring about 100 pens as part of an estate auction from a farmer master breeder was scheduled for April 17.