From 20 chickens as a homeschooling project at the age of 8 to a million dollar business with 5000 chickens, certified organic.

As the brains and the brawn behind Madelaine's Eggs, the broad strokes of Madelaine Scott’s story are well known to Australians.

She burst into the public eye as a 19-year-old launching a crowdfunding campaign that raised 60 thousand dollars in 60 days to purchase an egg-grading machine.

In this conversation, now 31, Madelaine opens up about the day-to-day realities of running a free-range, organic operation including:

— The financial realities and how much she pockets in profit, relative to turnover

— How to care for chickens without worming and spraying them with chemicals

— Exactly what feed and which supplements she gives her flock

— The daily workload involved in running her free-range operation

— How many staff she now has and her role these days

— The organic certification process

— The prospect of H5N1 bird flu arriving in Australia and what it would mean for her operation

— Vaccines for chickens

— The phasing out of caged eggs in Australia

— Diversifying into meat (turkeys, "spent" hens) as well as eggs

— Plans for a micro-abattoir at Hollyburton Farm

— The homesteader lifestyle

You can check out Madelaine’s own chicken soup recipe in the Spring 2025 issue of Chook Journal, our fully digital, immersive magazine available now via the website chookjournal.com.au

Alf Woods is a singular figure within the Australian poultry community and someone who, in show circles, truly needs no introduction. He went to his first show at the age of 7 and, now 98, he’s been a fixture at the Melbourne Royal ever since. Having spent 9 decades in poultry, participating at just about every level of the fancy, it was a priceless opportunity to sit down with Alf and pick his brain. This conversation is jam packed with not only instruction in how to breed but anecdotes from a lifetime spent around chooks and chicken people.

Alf discusses:

— His method of single mating all his birds

— The importance of ruthless culling to eliminate faults

— His poultry "bible" aka stud book

— How he feeds his birds

— Some of the best reads from his enviable library of chicken books

— The unique Japanese fowl known as the Onagadori

— How he's never wormed a bird

— His daily routine with his birds, at 98

— His advice to new breeders starting out

— The perils of buying birds online

— Eating chicken soup every night

— Brother-sister matings

— The longest he's kept a line pure without outside blood

— Why you should not have a feed hopper in your chook pen

— Whether you should outcross to a male or female bird

— Beetle green sheen versus purple

— The fine line between show preparation and faking

— Whether he's ever bred himself into a corner and had to abandon a line

— How he trims rooster spurs

— Memorable adventures from a lifetime in chickens

As I was researching the cover story for the debut issue of Chook Journal, I kept uncovering question after question. It wasn’t until I met Paul Rodgers that the answers started to really flow. Paul knows probably more than most people about the history of Marans in Australia.

When he saw his first Marans, he says it was love. He went on to cofound the short-lived Australian Marans Club. Paul remains passionate about Marans but does worry that careless breeding or a failure to maintain the egg colour that defines the breed, could threaten its future in Australia.

Just a heads up - you’ll notice a discussion about beetle green sheen. Please note that subsequent to this conversation I got in touch with the Marans Club in France, for clarification. To see the French response to the beetle green sheen confusion, check out the cover story on Black Copper Marans in the September 2025 issue of Chook Journal, a fully digital, immersive magazine, available now at chookjournal.com.au Long story short, Paul is on the money.