{"id":80555,"date":"2026-08-26T04:33:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/80555\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T04:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:33:31","slug":"bird-flu-fears-could-increase-demand-for-backyard-hens-seller-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/80555\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu fears could increase demand for backyard hens, seller says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicken breeders are bracing for a surge in demand for backyard hens amid fears the potential spread of the H5 bird flu could affect supermarket egg supplies.<\/p>\n

The poultry industry has not reported any cases of bird flu in its animals so far, but the federal Agriculture Department has recorded<\/a> more than 300 infection events.<\/p>\n

Australian Eggs managing director Rowan McMonnies said in late July that while the H5 flu had been “very destructive” elsewhere, he believed Australia could “limit the impact here”.<\/p>\n

But he conceded that bird flu would likely stay active in the country “for the medium term”.<\/p>\n

Pandemic-era demand on the cards<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast poultry market founder Kate Grealy saw the enormous demand for laying hens during the COVID lockdown periods.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kate Grealy is expecting demand for backyard chooks to increase. (ABC News: Megan Kinninment)<\/p>\n

She said ongoing discussions about bird flu could spark a spike in hen adoptions, though there had been no effect on local egg production yet.<\/p>\n

“I think there’ll be a surge even greater than the COVID experience,” Ms Grealy said.<\/p>\n

“People were looking at food security and things that they could do on a small scale to be more self-sustainable.”<\/p>\n

\"Chickens<\/p>\n

No poultry farms in Australia have been affected by an H5N1 yet, but people may start adopting hens as a precaution. (ABC News: Megan Kinninment)<\/p>\n

She said backyard hens had become common in some areas since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“One of the really positive outcomes that COVID had was that people were doing a lot of research and a lot of talk within their own community, whether that be online or face to face, about food security,” Ms Grealy said.<\/p>\n

“I think people are aware of the fact [the egg industry] can be just a complete shutdown and the shelves will be empty.<\/p>\n

“That risk of not being able to buy them is real.”\"Multiple<\/p>\n

Shelves in a Darwin supermarket empty of eggs in early 2025 after a previous bird flu strain affected Australian poultry. (ABC Rural: Fiona Broom)<\/p>\n

Australian Eggs estimates that about 7 per cent of egg production was lost to a different strain of avian flu in 2024, from which farms largely recovered early last year.<\/p>\n

Flu worries for backyard chooks<\/p>\n

Although backyard chickens are at some risk of being exposed to H5 avian flu, transmission is rare.<\/p>\n

States and territories have released advice on how to minimise the risk to backyard hens.<\/p>\n

Victoria’s agriculture department<\/a> says the risks for backyard flocks “are low” at the moment, but owners ought to monitor their flocks.<\/p>\n

Nervous wait for H5 bird flu results<\/a><\/p>\n

Nervous times ahead for the NSW poultry industry after a suspected case of H5 bird flu.<\/p>\n

University of Sydney poultry health lecturer Jose Quinteros said owners must keep a close watch on their chickens for any signs of the avian flu, and report any concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“If they don’t notify the authorities, they will keep that virus live or active in their small or medium-sized flocks,” Dr Quinteros said.<\/p>\n

“That might reinfect other wildlife and other birds that might keep spreading the disease even further.”<\/p>\n

Chickens can contract the H5 avian flu through interactions with wild birds from droppings, or sharing their food or water.<\/p>\n

Dr Quinteros said keeping chickens enclosed or even in their coop was the safest option, particularly in areas with the highest number of H5 cases.<\/p>\n

South Australia currently has the highest number of infections, followed by Victoria.<\/p>\n

A second case was confirmed in Queensland<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Risk of rogue roosters<\/p>\n

After COVID-19 laid the groundwork for more people to adopt backyard hens, regional councils started noticing a surprising consequence: the arrival of roosters in public spaces.<\/p>\n

Many hopeful hen raisers would buy baby chicks, which are notoriously hard to sex, then abandon the roosters after a few early-morning crows.<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast Council officer Shanagh Jacobs remembers the era clearly, because her team had to wrangle the rogue roosters.<\/p>\n

“We did have a bit of a problem, believe it or not, with people actually dumping them in cemeteries, which was a real challenge because, obviously, they get in and do damage to people’s burial sites and flowers and things that are left on the site,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The gender of these young chicks is not known yet. (ABC News: Megan Kinninment)<\/p>\n

Capturing the roosters from rural cemeteries eventually prompted the council to allow roosters and poultry to be left at its pound for a small fee.<\/p>\n

They were then rehomed at a no-kill animal centre.<\/p>\n

Different local councils will have different rules regarding the number of chickens or roosters allowed on a property, usually governed by land size and proximity to neighbours.<\/p>\n

Happiness is a laying hen<\/p>\n

Ms Grealy said buying hens from established poultry markets gave people the best chance of avoiding a rude awakening.<\/p>\n

Breeders will sell confirmed hens, though some will also offer younger unsexed chicks for less if buyers wish to take a gamble.<\/p>\n

“A young female chicken is called a pullet. That’s the kind of language you need to be using,” Ms Grealy said.<\/p>\n

She said backyard chickens put you in a good mood, as well as consistently supplying eggs.<\/p>\n

“[They’re] time-wasters in that it’s just so lovely just to sit and watch them,” Ms Grealy said.<\/p>\n

“Their behaviour is beautiful in a little domestic suburban backyard where they feel safe.<\/p>\n

“They are just lovely to have around.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicken breeders are bracing for a surge in demand for backyard hens amid fears the potential spread of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,125949,125950,30140,125951,125953,125952],"class_list":["post-80555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-backyard-chickens","tag-backyard-hens","tag-bird-flu","tag-h5n1-avian-flu","tag-is-it-worth-keeping-chickens","tag-perma-poultry-sunshine-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}