Summit Hill Poultry

07/09/2026

Poultry producers, especially free-range farmers, fear what will ha...

31/08/2026

The nuggets on legs are growing daily! 😀it’s grass time yay

25/08/2026

Chicken nuggets on legs! This is called living - living their best life before becoming roasts, butter chicken and nuggets😀

18/08/2026

😔 WARNING — DISTRESSING CONTENT 😔

Sorry to bring the mood down this early in the morning, I cried my way through this video. It is absolutely heartbreaking to watch.

Sadly, there is so little we can do other than protect our own birds as best we can, ride this wave and hope that it runs its course quickly without devastating too many of our beautiful bird species.

I’m desperately hoping the weather warms up soon and helps slow the spread. The alternative — widespread losses across both our poultry and native bird and potentially mammal populations — is something I don’t even want to contemplate.

For those of us who love, breed and care for birds, this is incredibly difficult to watch. All we can do is remain vigilant, practise the best biosecurity we can, follow the factual updates and hope for the best. 🙏🏼

Please be aware that the video below may be upsetting to watch.

14/08/2026

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Warning: This story contains vision that some viewers may find dist...

03/08/2026

My second new breed to join Summit Hill Poultry… the striking, rare Derbyshire Redcaps!

Like my La Flèche, these beauties have been nurtured from posted fertile eggs, and what a journey it has been. It took eggs sourced from 2 different breeders and three dozen eggs to finally give me 2 cockerels and 4 pullets. They certainly tested my patience! These delicate little darlings can be quite fickle during the brooding stage, so getting them safely to this point feels like a real achievement.

They’re a few months younger than the La Flèche, so they’re not laying just yet—but good things really do come to those who wait.

As with my La Flèche, this season’s eggs will be for the kitchen only. I don’t hatch from pullet eggs, so breeding will have to wait until next season. Hopefully, home-grown eggs from well-settled birds will prove a little easier to hatch and raise.

Rare breed conservation is definitely a labour of love… but seeing these beautiful birds thriving at Summit Hill Poultry makes every setback worthwhile. And right beside them is our old Mother Hen White Sussex, she is the nanny that raised them for me and taught them to be chickens!

03/08/2026

There’s something pretty special about watching a new flock I have nurtured from posted eggs develop.

The La Flèche chicken is a very rare old French breed, listed with critical conservation status and known distinctively by its V-shaped "devil's horn" comb and white earlobes.

My little flock is looking absolutely magnificent! I wasn’t completely sure about this breed when I first got them, but they have well and truly won me over. Their striking looks and unique personalities make them such a joy to watch.

They’re still a little flighty, but I think that’s simply part of the breed’s nature, and every day they’re becoming slightly more settled.

Now comes the hardest part… the waiting! They’ll need time to fully mature before I even think about breeding them. Until then, all those beautiful eggs are heading straight to the kitchen—I never hatch from pullet eggs. Good things are worth waiting for!

01/08/2026

I honestly do hope this is a storm in a tea cup and it goes away, but sadly it’s starting to shape up to be of some concern. Hoping the warmer weather coming helps halt transmission between the unwell migrating birds and local native and domestic kept poultry! Keeping my fingers crossed that’s for sure!

Where H5N1 bird flu is being detected in Australia, mapped and listed with sources. The official national count is shown beside the mapped total. Risk to human health is currently assessed as low.

22/06/2026

In light of this virus being found only 600km from our farm, I’ve decided it’s time to step up our biosecurity measures. 😔🐔

We’ve now doubled up the bird mesh on all of our pens (ouch… my wallet definitely felt that one 💸), and over the coming weeks I’ll be making some tough decisions by culling older birds and keeping the younger, stronger stock. I’ll also be increasing vitamin supplementation and introducing probiotics to help support their immune systems and overall health.

As an additional precaution, Summit Hill Poultry will now be a closed flock until further notice. This means there will be no birds or chicks available for sale, and I won’t be allowing visitors access to the poultry areas of the farm. While I love sharing my birds with fellow poultry enthusiasts, protecting the health and wellbeing of my flock has to come first as I have 4 very rare breeds. ❤️

I know there are no guarantees if this disease will reach our area, but I want to give my precious birds the very best chance possible of staying healthy and protected just in case. I’ve been watching this avian flu since 2021, wondering when it might hit our shores and it has saddened me greatly to see the devastation it has caused overseas and the amount of unnecessary culling of domestic birds and poultry governments has done in these affected countries.. it will tip me over the edge if they come for my chickens!

I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to this and that the outbreak can be contained in the Great Southern before it spreads any further. But as a poultry breeder, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. 😭😭

For now, we’ll keep doing everything we can, stay vigilant, and continue practising strict biosecurity measures.

🐔 Fingers crossed for all poultry keepers, large and small. Let’s all do our part to protect our birds and each other. 🤞❤️