Resources

Resources

PoultryHub supports teachers and students at primary and secondary schools by providing information on education opportunities, as well as resources to assist in learning.

Videos

• Keeping Poultry in Schools – a series of videos describing the fundamentals of keeping chickens in schools.

Books

• Building the Poultry Penthouse – a guide to building a poultry penthouse (housing 12-25 hens), including a materials list and step-by-step construction method.
• Commercial Layer Management – the Health and Welfare series has a corresponding set of texts that have been written for the Layer series.
• Commercial Meat Chicken Management Books – The Poultry CRC has produced a new series of books on Commercial Meat Chicken Management. These books, which focus on bird health,  are suitable for a variety of training programs, one of which is the recently endorsed Certificate III in Poultry Production, but are also an interesting read for anyone wanting to learn more about broiler production in Australia.
• Commercial Poultry Nutrition and Environment – Two new textbooks, “Feeding Commercial Poultry” and “The Poultry Growing Environment”, have recently been produced by the Poultry CRC. These volumes have been written as reference texts to the Certificate III in Poultry Production course and are freely available to any CRC Participants who wish to use them.
• Getting started in free range poultry –  includes both meat and egg production, breeds, rearing, health, housing and nutrition (176 full colour A4 pages).
• Keeping Chickens – An Australian Guide is a comprehensive guide to keeping chickens in the backyard. The book provides information on choosing which breed is best for you, information on how to construct or purchase poultry housing, how to care for your chickens and a section on how to successfully breed chickens.
• Poultry Agskills – a basic guide to some of the skills and practices of poultry production, including step-by-step instructions, diagrams and full-colour pictures.
• The Story of Chicken – takes children onto Australian meat chicken farms where they will discover how meat chickens are raised, chicken meat is processed and packaged, and how a wide range of chicken products are made available for them to enjoy every day.
• The Story of Eggs – takes you onto Australian egg farms where you can discover how eggs are produced, processed and packaged. Includes the Egg Resource Kit featuring ready-to-use lesson notes, activity pages and resource sheets written by teachers using practical information from teachers, industry groups and education consultants across Australia.

DVDs

• It all starts with an Egg (primary school and general audience versions) – Join the egg family on their journey from the farm to the dinner table. Learn all about where Australian eggs come from – meet the hens, their farmers, the little baby chicks and even the guard dog! Features free range, cage and barn systems.
• Eat this chicken: the truth about hormones and much more! – A fast-paced and funny presentation of some surprising facts about chicken.
• From Hatchery to Home (primary and secondary school versions) – Australian schools now have access to an up-to-date resource offering a real insight into the chicken meat industry, supported with a full range of classroom support material at chicken.org.au.
• Post-mortem of a chicken – This DVD, produced by the Poultry CRC, offers a step-by-step guide to conducting an on-farm flock inspection, followed by bird selection and detailed post-mortem of a chicken.

Posters

• The Surprising Chicken educational poster showing the chicken anatomy
• The Surprising Egg educational poster showing the egg anatomy
• Egg Candling Training Materials poster. Please contact Australian Eggs on (02) 9409 6999 or email contacts@australianeggs.org.au
• Chick Embryo Development poster – suitable for printing in colour on A3 paper, this poster shows each of the 21 days of an embryo’s development
• How is Meat Chicken Produced in Australia – written from a child’s perspective, this poster answers four commonly asked questions about the how chicken is produced in Australia.
• Chicken Breeds in Australia – full colour photos showing a male and female of over 40 of the most common breeds currently available in Australia. Birds are grouped by Show Class, assisting children interested in getting into showing poultry.

Worksheets

• Secondary School Teachers worksheets
• Primary School Teachers worksheets

The Teacher’s Resource Kit is no longer available in hard copy form, elements of the Kit remain available through this website.

Online Resources

There are many wonderful resources available freely online, covering a range of poultry-related topics. Some of these are provided here on Poultry Hub. Links are also provided to online resources that are hosted elsewhere.

Within Poultry Hub

Anatomy of the Chicken Learning Resource – free interactive educational tool providing basic information on chicken anatomy for school students, university students and industry personnel.

A Simple Guide to Managing Village Poultry in South Africa – free guide designed to increase the productivity of indigenous (local) chickens who are scavenging (finding their own food) and mostly caring for themselves, by introducing basic, simple approaches and very small inputs that will not be costly.

Family Poultry Training Course – includes the free Scavenging Chickens Training Handbook which caters specifically to backyard/village production suitable for school-based poultry keeping.

Show Poultry Handbook – free handbook developed by Year 6 & 7 students from Tintinara Area School (South Australia) for the 2008 WPSA Schools Poultry Education Competition.

Sustainable Village Chicken Keeping for Pacific Island Communities – (Book / CD / Web) Developed by Russell Parker, this training manual is now available in hardcopy, CD ROM and online through the nine Distance Learning Centres (DLC) of the Solomon Islands Schoolnet program.

Hosted externally

Eat this Chicken – the truth about hormones and much more! This is a fast-paced and funny presentation of some surprising facts about chickens.  (YouTube)

Virtual Chicken – is a 3D animation of the reproductive system of a hen, showing the formation of an egg as it passes through the oviduct. Viewers will see and explore the oviduct and follow the path of the egg.

Utilising Camera Systems to Monitor Animals – see how chickens behave when no one is looking and when there is a solar eclipse.

These links have been provided for viewing purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement or approval by Poultry Hub Australia. Poultry Hub Australia does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the content, the external site or any subsequent links.