Police investigating after chickens stolen from Hobart's Claremont College
By Josh Duggan
Topic:Law, Crime and Justice
24m ago24 minutes agoFri 28 Mar 2025 at 12:53am
Flock of chickens in a pen.
Students and staff at the school are hoping the birds are returned alive and well. (Supplied: Anna Branch)
In short:
The egg shortage has been considered a possible motive for the theft of a number of chickens from a flock at a Hobart college.
A teacher at the school says students there are "upset" and hope "nothing untoward has happened with them", with the school urging those who have taken the birds to return them.
What's next?
Tasmania Police are investigating the matter.
A theft of a number of chickens — which may have been driven by rising egg prices — has left staff and students at a Tasmanian college upset.
Claremont College teacher Anna Branch said she noticed the school's flock of ISA brown chickens looked rather sparse on Tuesday.
"I just sort of looked down and went, 'Hmm, that doesn't actually seem to be a huge amount of chooks there',"
she said.
Missing were 15 of what was a 48-strong flock.
Chickens roaming in an area of dirt and grass.
The chickens are ISA browns, which are prolific egg layers. (Facebook: Claremont College)
The news has left staff and students "upset".
"They're upset more to do with what's happened to them, that hopefully nothing untoward has happened with them," Ms Branch said.
"Hopefully, they might have gone to some good homes."
While the brazen act was uncovered on Tuesday, the school is still trying to work out when it happened.
"You don't, sort of actually go out and count them every day. It's a bit hard to count 48 chooks and get them to stand still,"
Ms Branch said.
The ISA brown is a crossbreed species of chicken, known for its ability to lay up to 300 eggs in its first year.
The flock of chickens has resided at Claremont College for eight years, and Ms Branch says this is the first incident of its kind.
A report has been made to Tasmania Police.
Unidentified children look at chickens behind a fence.
The stolen chickens are worth more $500 in total. (Facebook: Claremont College)
While a motive for the alleged theft hasn't been established, Ms Branch has laid out her theory.
"There is an egg shortage — You know, laying chooks are hard to get hold of."
A worldwide egg shortage, fuelled by bird flu outbreaks, is pushing up the price of a poached breakfast.
In the US, the price of eggs has risen by 65 per cent in the past year.
To help ease the crisis, the country is importing millions of eggs from South Korea, Türkiye and Brazil, while there are reports of eggs being smuggled in from Mexico.
In Australia, the cost of a 12 pack has risen from around $4.50 in 2020, to $6.
"If people are really desperate, they're going to do whatever as we know anyway — so hopefully it's just a one-off occurrence, and the rest of our flock will be OK," Ms Branch said.
She has asked for information about the missing chooks, and for their return.
"If anyone knows anything about it, or knows where they are — just pop them back over the fence, even just in with our couple of sheep, Alfie and Bentley."
Posted24m ago24 minutes agoFri 28 Mar 2025 at 12:53am, updated8m ago8 minutes agoFri 28 Mar 2025 at 1:09am
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