Rosie aims to hatch a new plan for success

A young Yorkshire woman is swiftly making a name for herself in the competitive poultry world. Chris Berry reports.

Rosie Preston’s bantams have more than a fighting chance when they enter the show ring. She prepares them almost as if they were catwalk models.

“It’s not unknown for me to have a few chicks in my bedroom,” she says. “When you’re going to a show you want them to look just right.

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“It takes time. I wash the chickens in the kitchen sink. I bathe and blow-dry them. You have to get the colours to the right shades.

“You can’t keep the white ones outside because the sun bleaches their feathers. I know there are people who think I’m a bit crazy really, even in my own family, but I’ve always loved animals. They’ve always come first for me.”

At 21 years of age, Rosie Preston of Newton Kyme, near Boston Spa, isn’t out on the town on a weekend. Instead she’s ruffling the feathers amongst the elite in the poultry world and is one of the most up and coming breeders in the UK, under the name Yorkshire Bantams.

She is currently preparing for the Northern Poultry Club Show next weekend at Hipperholme Grammar School and she makes every effort to ensure her rare breed chickens are in cracking form.

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Rosie’s success at local and national shows in the three years since she started competing bears out her commitment. But her love of chickens started when she was just four years old.

“My parents bought four chickens for me and my brother Ben. We had two lavender Pekins and two black Pekins, and I used to keep them in my Wendy House. Mum wouldn’t let me have a cockerel at first because she thought the neighbours might complain. By the time I was 14 I was selling anything I bred at the rare breeds sales at York Livestock Centre.

“I like the chickens I keep because they are different. People tend to think that all chickens are brown. Some might have heard of breeds like the Light Sussex and Rhode Island Red, which as a hybrid make up the farmyard hen. But we have a lot with unusual colourings and markings.”

Rosie studied animal management at Askham Bryan College and sheep management at Kirkley Hall College in Northumberland. She worked on farms, assisting with lambing until a slipped disc cut short her shepherding career.

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Ruby, the sheepdog she trained while at Kirkley Hall, is now at her home, which she shares with her partner Andrew Harvey. They met whilst Rosie was in the North East. Once she had completed her studies Rosie decided she wanted to compete with her birds.

“I’ve always had an interest in showing. My grandparents have bred Shetland ponies for many years and I have gone to breed shows with them. We have even been over to Shetland to show and I go carriage driving using them too. They’re just as fast as anything else.

“When I met Andrew he became interested in the chickens as well and we decided to give it a go. We won at Huby and Sutton Show last year in our class for Best True Bantam and we’ve had a number of firsts, seconds and thirds at a lot of the local shows in Yorkshire, as well as seconds and thirds at the National Poultry Club Show at Stoneleigh.

“After the Northern Poultry Club Show next weekend we’re going to the Scottish National championship where we also did well last year.

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“Most of the people are very welcoming to new competitors, but there are those who are not happy when yours is placed above theirs when they have been doing it for over 30 years.” Until now Rosie has considered her chickens to be little more than a hobby. But it seems as though her recent success has raised her ambitions.

“I’ve had quite a few people contact me about having a few chickens of their own, either to provide them with their own supply of eggs or simply because they like the type of chickens I have.

“People like having hens in their gardens in the same way as they like to grow vegetables. And fresh eggs taste better than shop-bought too. Their yolks are a vibrant yellow.

“Because of this interest I think there may be a gap in the market and I’m looking at the possibility of opening up a business this year supplying chickens from our own breeds, as well as selling poultry houses and accessories.

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“For every chicken that ends up being a show bantam there are another 30 that don’t make it, so we should have a good supply.”

Having recently purchased a new incubator, where at any one time there are 90 eggs to hatch on a “trickle hatching” method, it appears the commercial world is only a short step away.

Bantams are not the only livestock in Rosie’s expanding menagerie. She also has ducks, quail, tortoises, guinea pigs and rabbits. Pigs will be the latest addition at the end of this month when she takes delivery of her first Kune Kunes. Turkeys will follow.

“I would like to go into schools to educate children about animals. Last year we put together a display of Shetland ponies for a local school. Some children don’t even know that chickens come from eggs and have never seen a chicken in their lives.”

THE BANTAM CONTENDERS

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The Northern Poultry Club Show is next Sunday, 15 January at Hipperholme Grammar School, off the A644 just east of Halifax.

Bantam eggs are usually between one-half to on-third the size of regular eggs.

Most regular chicken breeds also have a bantam variation.

The name Bantam is derived from a seaport of Indonesia.

At shows bantams are expected to exhibit all standard breed characteristics of the regular-sized breed they may represent.

Some of the most popular Bantam breeds are Sebright, Pekin and Dutch.

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