CHICKEN SEXERS NEED QUICK HANDS AND EYES

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27376, 15 June 1954, Page 10

CHICKEN SEXERS NEED QUICK HANDS AND EYES

Although he spends his working day handling chickens—as many as 5000 a day—Mr R. W. Halpin, of New South Wales, has not lost his liking for chicken as an item on the menu. His liking for the bird is understandable, for it has given him a job he finds lucrative and interesting—chicken sex-, ing. Mr Halpin is on his fifth visit to Christchurch, and before he leaves about the end of October, he will have sexed about 300.000 chickens—“not a job you learn out of a textbook or off a blackboard.” he says. While he is. in Christchurch he will work with another young Australian, Miss June Clarke, who has just turned 19. but is on her second - visit to Christchurch. She will arrive next week.

Chicken sexing was only about 20 years old in Australia and New Zealand, said Mr Halpin yesterday. When he was a youngster he was employed on a poultry farm and determined then to learn the Japanese craft of chicken sexing. It-' took him three years and 100.000 chickens before he felt competent to sit the examination set bv the Australian Department of Agriculture, which required 95 per cent, accuracy and no injury to a chicken.

The job needs concentration, good eyesight, and supple fingers, Mr HalP”? says, and the working life of a chicken sexer is only about 15 years, bexore the hands begin to stiffen and the eyesight to fail. When working he wears glasses, but in this respect he , says he is the exception to the rule Practice is needed to attain the necessaiy speed, for there are many thousands of chickens to be sexed in a comparatively short season. Mr Halpin himself puts through about 500 an u At a standar d rate of 8s p**r th< i effort seems well worth while. The farm being built at Bromley to US tt 2 . 4,000 fowJ s was mentioned to Mr Halpin, who said that by any standards it. was a good size. The biggest one he knew was at Werrabee, near Melbourne. The farm was a major industry in itself, with 150,000 layers on the premises. , During the off season, Mr Halpin used to drive a bus, but now he does casual work in the building trade But here is one casual carpenter who it may safely be assumed, never makes mistake that might bring with it injury to his hands, to Mr,Halpin as worthy of insurance as a pianist s hands or a ballerina’s legs.