Birdy’s Story

Circa 1963 - Birdy was commissioned as Bus #2 of the fleet of Bluebird Body school buses serving the IKM Manning Community School District around Irwin, Iowa. Typical of school buses, after about 7 years of service, she was retired from the fleet.

Although it is not known exactly when, Birdy was purchased by Stover Hatchery, originally a small poultry farm owned by a family named Custer in the early 1970’s.

Birdy began her service to the local community delivering chicken and eggs to local businesses, restaurants, farmers and residents in the town of Stover, Missouri, and its surrounding rural areas, occasionally traveling as far as Loose Creek, Missouri, and even into Arkansas.

Sometime around 1978 it is presumed that either the business model, mechanical issues (or both), resulted in Birdy being annexed to the hatchery under a shed roof. Stover Hatchery had grown and was expanding their operation.

In her new parked location, it is rumored that her interior may have served as a small incubation space for eggs.

The Phillips Family purchased the business in 1983, and the hatchery is still run by Jeremy Phillips of Stover, Missouri. They sell day old Cornish Chicks and Cornish Hatching eggs shipping them to educational programs nationally.

In February of 2018, Birdy was purchased and towed to Lawrence, Kansas. According to registration paper work from Stover, Missouri, her last year of official road service was 1977.

At 55 years of age, it is assumed her engine had not been started for almost 40 years. At the University of Kansas, as part of the CiRCA initiative, Birdy underwent extensive restoration and conversion into her current form.