Australian Poultry Standard
Encyclopedia
The Australian Poultry Standard is the official breed standard
Breed standard
A breed standard in animal fancy and animal husbandry is a set of guidelines which is used to ensure that the animals produced by a breeder or breeding facility conform to the specifics of the breed....

 for poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...

 fancy
Animal fancy
Animal fancy is a hobby involving the appreciation, promotion, or breeding of pet or domestic animals.Fancy may include ownership, showing, trialling and other competitions, breeding and judging. Hobbyists may simply collect specimens of the animal in appropriate enclosures, such as aquaria and...

 in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is the official standard of perfection from which all poultry in Australia is supposed to be judged when exhibited at Poultry Show’s.

Published by the Victorian Poultry Association, the first edition of the Australian Poultry Standard was published in 1998 and is at the current time, the only edition.

Compiled by consulting all major state poultry clubs and all Australian poultry breed
Breed
A breed is a group of domestic animals or plants with a homogeneous appearance, behavior, and other characteristics that distinguish it from other animals or plants of the same species. Despite the centrality of the idea of "breeds" to animal husbandry, there is no scientifically accepted...

 clubs over the course of several decades, the standard was finally published in 1998, after almost 30 years of delay. The second edition of the standard is due to be published in December 2011.

As of the beginning of 2010, the 1st Edition of the Australian Poultry Standard has been out of print.

Classification of breeds

The Australian Poultry Standard classifies all chicken breeds as either Hard Feather or Soft Feather, and then further divides them in to the bantam
Bantam
Bantam may refer to:* Bantam , a small variety of poultry* Bantamweight, a weight class in boxing-Places:* Bantam , a city and former sultanate on Java island, in Indonesia...

 or standard size. Breeds which have less under fluff and feathers which are closer to the body fall under hard feather, such as the Old English Game
Old English Game
The Old English Game Fowl is a breed of chicken. Pure English Game Fowls are prized among Poultry breeders and thus fetch a high sale price. One of the types called standard Old Englishes are larger than the bantams and were originally bred for cockfighting...

 and Asil
Asil
The word "Aseel" Is an Arabic Name and adjective that means: Original, Authentic, Genuine, Pure, Origin, Root, Unique.The word "asil" is Arabic in origin and means "pure"...

. Breeds with more under fluff and softer feathers, such as the Silkie
Silkie
The Silkie is a breed of chicken named for its atypically fluffy plumage, which is said to feel like silk. The breed has several other unusual qualities, such as dark blue flesh and bones, blue earlobes, and five toes on each foot...

, Australorp
Australorp
The Australorp is an Australian chicken breed.It is a large, soft-feathered bird which has two recognised colours according to the Australian Poultry Standard; black and blue. A third colour, white, is recognised by the Australorp Club of Australia but not the Australian Poultry Standard, as of the...

 and Leghorn, are classed as soft feather.

Ducks are divided in to two classes, bantam or standard size, and all turkey's, geese and guinea fowl have only one class each.
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