Myee Poultry Yards

Cover of Manasseh Ward's poultry
catalogue from 1902. Only the cover
has survived.

Manasseh Ward was a noted poultry breeder of his time. He had extensive poultry runs on his Gosford property and had many breeds of chickens. He was particularly known for the multi-purpose breeds which were suited to both meat and egg production. These would have been most suitable for small scale and backyard situations. He was an enthusiastic displayer of his birds at the Gosford Show where he took many championship ribbons over the years.

The Gosford correspondent for the Maitland Mercury wrote about visiting Myee in 1897:

Tired of keeping poultry for months without any return I determined to visit the Myee poultry farm and learn how the proprietor managed to have eggs and chickens whilst his neighbours have none. Mr. Ward was at home, and took me round all his numerous pens. His Plymouth Rock are really magnificent birds, weighing at least ten pounds. It is a pleasure to look at his Indian game, a mixture of Penders and Cadell's strain. After viewing his Minorcas, Orpingtons, Leghorns, Dorkings, and Golden Wyandottes, all of the purest breeds, the visitor is puzzled which class to choose to improve his poultry yard with, but in my opinion his black Minorcas and Golden Wyandottes are most suitable for the ordinary settler, because both are good table birds, and above all winter layers. Mr. Ward assures me poultry can be made to pay : he can scarcely meet the demand for eggs and as he disapproves of the incubator finds it difficult to obtain broody hens during the winter months. With the view of improving the class of district poultry, Mr. Ward says he will show his fowls and give advice to visitors, buyers or not. (Maitland Daily Mercury, 10 August 1897, page 4).

The winter egg-laying ability of Manasseh's hens was put to the test a few years later when the Hawkesbury Agricultural College held its first egg-laying competition. Competitors sent a team of six pullets to the College. The pullets were meant to be on the point of lay. They were housed in identical conditions and the eggs counted and weighed each day. The initial competition held in 1901 was intended to judge winter egg-laying, but was extended to a full year midway through the test. Manasseh had intended to enter a team of Wyandottes, but the final birds were Black Orpingtons. His birds were slow to start laying and at the end of the first month, his team were middle of the field. But by three months he was among the leaders. Manasseh was a clear winner of both the number of eggs and the average egg weight at the end of the intended six months. He was a close third at the end of 12 months, but was declared the overall winner on the basis of prize money earned.

The success of the first competition led to its becoming an annual fixture for many years. It was quickly recognised and by the third year, had to be limited to 100 entrants. Manasseh continued to enter for the next few years, but was never able to replicate his first success (interstate and international breeders flocked to the competition in the following years and competition was fierce). From the second year, he was involved in the organising committee. [Personal note: The laying competition was still running when I was a student at the College in the early 1970s.]

As in other walks of life, Manasseh was very well respected in the poultry world. His advice was quoted as far afield as Western Australia and he regularly exported birds to New Zealand. His faith in Black Orpingtons was shared by many other Australian breeders. In the 1920s the Australian strains of Black Orpingtons were recognised as a new breed, the Australorp. For many years, an Australorp hen held the world record for laying 364 eggs in 365 days, without the assistance of extended lighting practiced by many commercial farmers today.