Many times I have been asked what I thought is the difference between the Clay barkers of Len Broad and the John Misfud barkers, well as far as I can ascertain hardly anything, the difference is in what has happened to the birds in the lofts of fanciers that had purchased the birds from either of the two fanciers, by that I mean how straight the family has been kept and the crosses brought in to those family’s, the birds of the Barker strain purchased by John Misfud were mainly from the loft of John Edmondsons Strinesdale lofts in England most of the birds of Len Broads were also purchased from Edmondson although he also purchased birds in the late twenties from Chas Threlfall and Dauber bros these gentlemen being well known English pigeon fanciers ,  I do not at this stage know much about Len Broads performances but what I do know is that it was his birds that were in the breeding of the better known Misfud Barkers, Broad gifted a bird to John Misfud it was a beautiful black check cock ring no S.A.A.42 8186, this bird proved a goldmine for John Misfud it went on to breed him four of his better known pigeons it was the sire of   Expected , Harden Queen and two other birds that went on to win good prizes the dam to these birds was of the Hansenne Brain-pan strain , another of Misfuds top breeders his dominant stock cock V.H.A.53 14737 which he named Len no1 this was bred from another of Broads cock birds,   from Len no1  Len no2 was bred this bird won two fed positions in the one year he was then mated to Expected, from this mating a lot of Misfuds top pigeons evolved they were the g/parents of Evening Mist which was 1st national for John Misfud, another of Broads birds a nest mate to  8186 bred a bird for Bert Olivier from Perth Western Australia this bird won at Forrest 750 miles Bert Olivier later named his bird lady Forrest . I will be doing a history of the clay barkers at a later date as there are many lofts in Australia that have the original strain of the Clays through their birds, the old 89 imported by Spencer Evans many years ago was a son of the brown c 26 who was a full brother to the old clay hen this is just one of the many birds that made up the Australian breed of pigeons.

I thought the first part of the article would shed some light on the source of the Barkers in Australia. Spare a thought for our feathered friends as in Australia we race in the winter that is why Australian birds are so hardy