ABN 74 704 324 198
"Hitoshi Miyata, Directory of the Zen Nippon Chick Sexing Association, predicts a continued future for the profession..."
"the book is a fascinating history of chick sexing from its early development..."
"book covers the technical aspects of both vent and machine sexing in detail...also the sexing of turkeys, ducks, game birds, ostriches, emus and even parrots."
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'Volume 6 No.2 Aug./Sep 1995
Book Review
By Bill Stanhope
A book on chick sexing - not exactly your first choice for bedtime reading! Surely it would he a rather narrow subject even for poultry keepers and breeders? While this might be your initial reaction you would be completely wrong.
Firstly, the book is a fascinating history of chick sexing from its early development in Japan in the 1920s, its spread throughout the world in the 1930s via Japanese sexers, the challenge to vent sexing in the 1960s by the new chick sexing machine, to the even greater challenge of today by company geneticists with their sex-linked crosses.
The history is even more readable in that it contains delightful pen pictures of the men and women who took on this unusual occupation, and of the early hatcherymen. The book is sprinkled with personal histories and many amusing anecdotes. Some stories like the leg-less chick sexer, already married, who arranged for his two other "wives" to he married as a man and woman - an exercise which landed him in jail - made headlines in the tabloid press of the day. The many photographs complement these stories.
Obviously the book covers the technical aspects of both vent and machine sexing in detail, with excellent illustrations and instructions. It also covers the sexing schools in Japan, England and other countries. The book also covers the sexing of other avian species such as turkeys, ducks, game birds, ostriches, emus and even parrots.
The book presents a complete worldview of chick sexing and concludes with the future prospects of chick sexing into the next century.
The Specialist Chick Sexer is a highly readable, professionally written history book. The reason is that the author R.D.- (Bob) Martin is a professional writer of magazine articles, short stories, essays and editorials.
The book is well researched. The author interviewed dozens of Australian sexers, contacted chick sexing associations, commercial sexing services and university authorities in Japan, China, Korea, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. He researched old poultry magazines back to the 1930s, stored at the public library in Melbourne.
A forward by Hitoshi Miyata, Executive Director of the Zen-Nippon Chick Sexing Association, who predicts a continued future for the profession of specialist chick sexing.
Bob Martin is to he congratulated for his hard work in documenting this fascinating story from the poultry industry. It will be a valuable historical record. The book can be confidently recommended to this magazines readers, and is a 'must" for the serious collector of poultry books and for libraries.
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