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.

Jeff Mattocks deserves an award for services to the poultry community, worldwide. He's so much more than a poultry nutritionist. In this conversation, he describes the brooder trick the world’s best poultry keepers use to raise healthy chicks, explains why he can’t recommend any store-bought chook feed and shares his go-to response at the first sign of illness in a flock.

US-based Black Copper Marans breeder Shane Hardy has been breeding the variety for ten years and what he knows is a mixture of experience and education — he’s been mentored by some of the best. You only have to look at his birds to realise he knows what he’s doing. He’s also had success using a stacking technique to darken eggshell colour in his line. To see Shane appraise a Black Copper Marans cockerel, check out the Spring 2025 issue of Chook Journal which is live now at chookjournal.com.au

What makes a good egg and how to get your hens to produce their best work is a major preoccupation for most of us chicken keepers. Peter Tisdell is one of Australia’s leading egg judges. We get down in the weeds a bit in this conversation— Pete knows a lot. But from egg faults and their causes to what kind of nesting box is best, Pete’s is a useful perspective not only if you’re showing your eggs or preparing to do so for the first time, but more importantly — what Pete shares here sheds light on how egg quality affects the results you get when you incubate. After all, the criteria used to judge eggs at a show are derived from the features that make an egg a) edible and b) hatchable — which are often one and the same. What Pete says about nutrition for optimal egg production, and his view on whether free range or penning your birds is better, may surprise you.

Fiona Barca is a recognised name in the Australian Marans community and a bit of a rare commodity. She’s one of the few people exclusively breeding not just a single breed of chicken, but a single variety: black and blue copper Marans. Fiona was lucky enough to obtain some birds from Avgen, the company that imported copper Marans and other rare breeds from the UK. In this interview Fiona shares:

• How she breeds them, as four families
• How she’s dealt with faults like bent toes and mossiness
• She also gives some sage advice on how to navigate the many and varied opinions you’ve probably received if you’ve ever posted a picture of one of your birds online for critique
• Fiona shares some home truths about egg colour too and what to expect when buying Marans eggs to hatch

Fiona was generous enough to open her coop doors to Chook Journal and take us on a tour of her breeding pens. If you’d like to see inside her enviable coop set up, check out the Spring 2025 issue of Chook Journal, our magazine, which is entirely digital and available now on our website chookjournal.com.au

Jeff is a poultry nutritionist who’s spent three decades working with pastured poultry producers. He’s done more than anyone else to raise awareness about the need to feed your chickens digestive grit. Digestive grit is very different to shell grit. To see pictures of the kind of stones he’s talking about, check out his article in the September 2025 issue of Chook Journal, a fully digital experience available now on our website chookjournal.com.au

In this conversation Jeff explains:

* How digestive grit (insoluble for mechanical digestion in the gizzard) is completely different to shell grit/oyster shell (soluble source of calcium)

* That most soil types do not contain enough rocks and stones to supply chickens with the amount of right-size grit they need to consume every month

* His lightbulb moment when he discovered the importance of digestive grit

* The mechanism by which rocks and stones benefit chickens (and all poultry)

* How digestive grit protects against intestinal worms

* Why some worms are normal and actually healthy in chickens (as is some coccidiosis)

* What types of stones you can use to DIY digestive grit since there's no ready-made product sold in Australia

* What size grit for what age chicken

* How to start baby chicks on grit