High Points of the History of Bellsouth written in 2010 

Since starting the business in 1980, one of my great pleasures has been the opportunities for learning and research. As a young man starting a business because people liked my backyard chook shed, I was was interested to visit a number of local poultry farms and ask to see what they did.
I enjoyed asking lots of questions about how and why things were done, and spent a lot of time reading about the industry.
I received calls from farmers saying "Come over and have a look, we have a new batch of chickens in" and "What do you think of these"".
My reply was "Why ask me, I am wet behind the ears and don't know anything".
One  farmer said "But you ask questions we can't answer and make us think". and later the service man from a large company told me not to visit. "They keep asking me questions I cant answer, because you asked them the questions first".

So the learning curve for me was a lot of curiosity and a lot of reading, but then a lot of experimenting.

Five major projects stand out as turning points in that learning, and show how it changed from learning to application.

First was seeking new incubators for the Australian market. The few products on offer were either frightfully expensive, antique technology, or terrible in performance. But some ideas out of Europe were good and we looked at importing them.
Trials were good, but the expense of containers of incubators was a challenge. A friend suggested we make them in Australia, and at first I scoffed at the idea.

But I decided if we were serious, maybe we should try this. If we were to grow in the Australian market, then perhaps I would need to learn how to become a manufacturer. We calculated what was needed to buy in Europe, or to make them here. We decided to give it a go, took out a mortgage on the house and started the Bellsouth 100 project.
Needless to say it has been a great success.

An interesting quirk of history was the time line for the importation.
If we had proceeded to import, I would have been called to pay for the shipment the week of the famous Banana Republic Speech of Paul Keating, when the dollar crashed from 85 cents to 48 cents in a few days. We would have lost our house as well as the business.

Now 24 years on and near 17000 incubators later, I think we made the right decision, to manufacture in Australia.

Then there was visiting New Zealand, speaking at all the poultry clubs. I was suprised to find that the Kiwi (as like the flightless bird not the rugby player) was not able to be incubated artificially.
I found that in artificial incubation, the kiwi egg was not being turned because the eggs were supposedly not turned in the nest. The egg structure looked similar so I asked why not. The nest burrows are full of leaf litter.

But one zoo keeper told me about the life cycle and breeding cycle of the kiwi, and mentioned that the kiwi cleaned out the burrow just before the egg was laid, and after a few weeks slowly allowed the leaf litter to build up around the egg until it was covered by about half incubation time.
The kiwi egg incubation time is listed as 72-80 days. But the first half of the chicken egg incubation time is the only time that turning is crucial, so I suggested the clean burrow was allowing the kiwi to turn the egg for the first half of incubation.

First time this was tried at Rainbow Springs, in an extended height Bellsouth 100, and the first chicks were hatched. A great pleasure of applying the principles I had learned.

Later, The ostrich industry was promoted in Australia, and the beginnings of an industry were discussed. But incubation is the key and the results were very poor with very little success. Back to first principles and I proposed the best experimental way to incubate and discover the right temperature and incubation time was to mimic the broody bird, that is, use bird body temperature on top of the egg.

In June 1988, we modified another Bellsouth 100, used first principles and set to 103 F on top of the egg and away we went. 42 days later and our first 2 eggs hatched right on time, and the healthy chicks caused a real stir in our shop in Belgrave South. The local paper caught the story, then the next lot hatched and the Sun Pictorial (before it was the Herald Sun) (reproduced below) and a week later, Channel 9 news wanted a feature. But we declined the TV interview because one of the chicks died and we were faced with the next research project, working out how to keep them alive.
Its interesting that I was the only incubation company in the same ownership before the boom, through the boom, and still there, though a dozen others jumped up during the boom, claiming to have been around forever, but all of them have gone.

Soon after the fourth big project which defined our future, the Disease Free Poultry Project in Beijing. Disease free eggs are known as SPF eggs, an essential feature for production of human vaccines. Vaccines are vital for health especially in developing economies. China was a very different place in 1990, with no capacity in this technology area. To have the privilege of heading off there to install the incubation and management systems was a dream. I often think of that challenge of taking my 3 girls aged 5, 7, and 9 years old to travel independently in China, to a place when there was no internet, no forward accommodation, barely any telephone communication. I sometimes say to myself, "Were you nuts?"
But it sure changed my view of the world, and I guess as I spent the next 6 years in and out of China I must have thought it was worth it, but like many I lost money doing it! But China is a different place today, and I am pleased to have had a tiny part in the transformation process.

As many of you know about the China work as it features often in my chook washing demonstrations.
This was probably the most high profile of the opportunities that have occured over the 30 years.
I hated standing at the Royal Shows across the country, seeing many people drift pass and repeating the same pieces of information, many many times.

One time at Adelaide, I decided that a recorded tour of the pavillion might be a great idea. I had a lot of odd looks as I tried to record a tape, "Now these are the Australorps they look like this and do that etc. Now turn off the tape and move to the next breed marker"and then a description of that breed." I stole the idea from Peter Ustinov and the tours of the Forbidden City in China, and it turned out I was no Peter Ustinov.

But after spruiking the idea of public talks at Sydney in the new Poultry Pavilion after the Olympics, and the wasted space, I managed to pull off a little of a coup.

The management left a portable PA system and microphone in the corner of the pavillion. I surreptitiously collected all the chairs from around the pavillion and placed them not far from my stand. When people came and sat down for a rest, I would bowl up and get the microphone, and start something like this "Welcome to the 10.30 talk of chook management" and I would tell of basic management for a while. I started to get really good questions from the captives who didn't think they could walk away, and again I learnt more from them than anywhere else, as knowing their questions meant that I was learning what they wanted to know and so answers that were needed.

I kept spruiking the show management, telling I thought there were lots of great ideas of what could be done to get people sitting down so we could tell about the joys of poultry. One idea was chook washing, an idea to use the theatre of the washing as a method of drawing the crowds so we could in effect tell of the virtues of keeping chickens.

The next year I arrived to find a display for chook washing. Interesting idea I thought, I wonder who will do this. Half an hour before the first advertised show, I am approached to see if I can do the commentary for Brian Weiss who was going to wash the chickens. I asked Brian what he was going to do, and he replied suds them in that one, rinse them in that one, and dry them over there. I though this might be a lead balloon, we had no time to work out some banter and stuff, no time to develop the theatre part. Next I am told "By the way, all three TV stations are sending film crew". I sense a disaster and my great idea was going to be a one hit wonder. I stood for a while watching the large crowd take seats and the fear in my heart was growing. But in the front row was three young ladies all obviously having a good time at the show. I sensed the girl in the middle was getting ribbed by her friends, so the idea arrives that she might be an ideal candidate as an assistant from the audience.
Down the back was a display pen with a great big Australian Game male, so I asked one of the young stewards to take him out of the pen and keep him behind the stage. We were going to wash Silkies, and all was prepared. I started with a little preamble, then suggested I would need an assistant and I would like a volunteer from the audience. In the next breath I pointed the the middle of the three and said "I think you will do great." As I expected her friends pushed her forward. I asked her name, it escapes me now and asked her to show me how she would hold the silkie. She wouldn't touch it at first, and finally I convinced her to try. With a little assistance she got the idea and picked the bird up. I said that's great, what say we try another, "Bring in the other bird." She shrieked when the big Australian Game was bought out, the audience roared, we had the camera and the audience and we were away.

The press were great, and before long, part of the show made the news on every station. But the best was a few mornings later, in the motel foyer having breakfast and the show briefs come on the morning show. "There's lots going on at the show the horses, cattle, the side shows, and the monster trucks in the area. It justs goes to show there is more at the Royal than just chook washing"  We were overjoyed.

We knew we had the formula, and over the next 5 or 6 years, thousands of people sat down at the Royals around the country so see the chook washing and to hear our views on why chickens were important to our society, in fact important to everyone was listening.

And it refined my abilities to speak to an audience and to think on my feet. A great joy.

Alas some of the "Committees"and enlightened individuals think this sort of populist promotion of poultry shouldn't happen, and yet others claim ownership of the ideas and want to control them, and all that are involved. Never let bean counters get hold of great ideas. They have no vision except for dollars.

Jim Finger 2010