Quamby Hollows

Quamby Hollows

Our Quamby journey with a few stories about Dr Gil Stokes the creator of the Quamby and our experiences breeding them over the past few years.

So it does appear that now the Quamby's are on You tube and across many other platforms we have had alot of interest from across Australia and around the world for Quamby's so here is our story 

Let's start with Gil 

Gil Stokes has a strong academic background in Ag science consisting of B.Agr.Sc., M.Sc.Agr., PhD, so it no wonder the Quamby is much sort after here in Australia with homesteading enthusiasts.

I heard about the Quamby's on a zoom call about natural poultry raising, searched and found Dr Stokes number and gave him a call, he graciously invited me over and gave me a tour of his beautiful property and poultry set up for his Quamby's, that was it, I was hooked. A few months later he supplied several dozen eggs to us and off we went on the Quamby adventure. Dr Stokes was chuffed to know that his beloved Quamby's would one day live on our property at the foot of Quamby Bluff in Tasmania.

The first time my hubby and I took a tour of Gil and Diana's property we were completely taken back with what an incredible wealth of knowledge Gil has and the tireless work he and his beautiful wife Diana did for over 7 years, trap nesting and documenting every egg the girls laid, an incredible labour of love.

Dr Gil Stokes told us "the modern poultry industry over the past 50 years has hybridised chickens, developing them separately for their eggs and meat. As a result, the productive traits of these birds have wasted away,"

So in a nutshell homesteaders and fanciers have been left with heritage breeds, focused on creating the perfect looking bird for shows and more recently as seen on social media focusing on the perfect egg shell colour for looks.

Gil wanted to tap into the old breeds which were robust, the hens laid eggs for several years and the roosters were great eating.

We find the rooster meat is dark and very tasty and great made into meat pies.

Gil mentioned that several chefs in Tasmania preferred his Quamby rooster meat to regular commercial chicken meat.

When Gil retired recently he gave us all his documentation as well as a lifetime of scientific poultry books dating back decades, the amount of research he has done is mind blowing and undeniably impressive.

I thought I'd share a few things I have experienced breeding the Quamby's for the last few years since Gil retired and left his Quamby's in the hands of us and a few Breeders around Australia.

Dr Stokes recomends raising Quamby's on a deep litter system of sawdust, he said it helps build resilience and that's what we do.

Dr Stokes told us "The chicks don't get any antibiotics, they don't get any vaccinations, so if they don't have a good immune system they don't make it," we follow those principles too and may loose a few chicks early on after hatching, but after that the birds are very robust and never seem to get sick, we have only had one that died as an adult in several years.

Gil wouldn't breed with any Roosters that were aggressive and has asked that others do the same, so we follow that advice religiously and haven't had an aggressive rooster in years.

We have only had a couple of hens go broody over the years but that's rare with the Quamby's, which is perfect when what we are really wanting is eggs all year round. So you will need an incubator if you want to breed your own.

Our girls lay large light to dark brown eggs sometimes with a lovely speckled pattern on the shell, weighing on average 57-72 grams.

With Gil's continuous trap nesting for years he documented that the hens laid on average around 300 a year and we have consistently found them laying throughout the year with a slight drop off in the cooler Tasmanian winter.

Visitors to our property often comment how large, fluffy and healthy our birds look, they are definitely a joy to watch walking around outside enjoying the Tasmanian countryside.

Quamby's are fantastic at foraging for seeds and insects on our land and often prefer to do that than eating the grains we supply, oh and they love smoothies and particularly enjoy eating fermented grain too.

They are happily living alongside cattle and sheep here on our property and do a great job of cleaning up after the neighbours cows have come through.

We have had great success shipping fertile eggs, thousands of kilometres around Australia to W.A, SA, QLD, NSW, Vic and Tassie with great hatch rates, please read our testimonials on facebook.

All in all we are very happy to be continuing Dr Stokes legacy with his incredible Quamby's here in Tasmania, the greatest place in the world.

 

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