Some 40 top show and breeding stock were stolen from Gilmore’s Poultry farm on Friday, December 9 sometime between 9pm to 6am.
Gilmore’s Poultry, a small family farm in Headford which breeds show stock like silkie hens and call ducks as well as heavy Christmas turkeys, has been devastated by the robbery. Michael Gilmore, a 16-year-old bird connoisseur who is responsible for the breeding and show stock in the farm says that he is now left with two options, sell up or spend thousands of euros to try and recover the loss and potentially be hit by the same culprits in the future.
“You can’t just buy the quality we had on the farm; it takes years of careful breeding and now that is the last three years effectively down the drain. It’s not as if I can buy it all back as it is more about the time and effort gone into breeding them and taking care of them. It has been expensive too; I have imported birds from England and Poland which can cost up to €1000 to import.
“At the moment, I’m stuck between thinking ‘is this the end’, or reinvesting the money and potentially being hit again. I’ve been speaking with other breeders who have said it’s common for thieves to come back if they know you have started breeding and buying again.”
There is also evidence, Gilmore says, that the thieves were also bird connoisseurs, as the stock taken requires a keen eye and knowledge of prize-winning stock.
“All of the birds taken were show quality. To get a good quality of bird, you won’t breed two top quality birds together, you would breed one bad bird with one good. The person or people who took the birds knew what they were looking for as we would have the two birds in a cage and they took the best bird from each cage, but left the bad one.
“Some of the breeds of birds and ducks I have here require a skilled eye to notice which one is the better one.”
For Gilmore, his love for birds began in July 2019 with his first clutch of eggs. The eggs coincidentally hatched on the day his grandmother passed away from Alzheimer’s Disease and the addiction for breeding birds began.
He has since poured hours of his time and hard-earned money in housing and caring for the birds. Gilmore, a young man with a keen eye for business, has been running a pumpkin patch on the family farm since 2020, using the profits from the patch to invest in the birds and donating some to charitable organisations like Alzheimer’s Ireland and the Jack and Jill Foundation.
The Gardaí are investigating the robbery, and while he is hopeful there might be some news of his birds, Gilmore says that recovery of the birds will likely be complicated.
“The fact that they were so skilled with picking out the birds means that there’s a strong chance they will probably breed them and use their offspring to sell and show. If they were to sell them on, they would have to sell to other poultry connoisseurs which means that if I keep buying birds, I might accidentally buy my own line back again.”
Aside from the loss of his beloved birds, the robbery of the farms heavy turkeys means that the Gilmore family will have to purchase turkeys at a time when they are at a premium and disregard the monetary loss of the stolen stock.
When it comes to recovering the birds, Gilmore has appealed for fellow bird connoisseurs to keep an eye out for some of the stock which include; various colours of polands, modern game chickens, call ducks, silkie hens, muscovy ducks and heavy turkeys. Gilmore has asked that anyone who has spotted the birds or has any information, to notify the family or the Gardaí. More information regarding the robbery and pictures of the stolen stock is available on the farm’s Facebook page under the name ‘Gilmore’s Poultry’.
