The chicken care course was a great day out. After the icebreaker, where we all stood round a chicken coop going aah!, everyone was talking. There was lots of really useful stuff on houses, food, breeds and the various fell diseases that can wreck your flock (in my case two hens). There was a fantastic set of informative handouts to act as a chicken encyclopedia for the future and special moments holding the very pretty bantams brought for practice.
There were thirteen people three men and ten women – you got it – middle class and middle aged. Between us we had an extraordinary variety of reasons for keeping hens so even hearing about every person’s particular passion one by one wasn’t boring.
We had one delicate moment when it became clear that one man was keen to have chickens to EAT but this was dealt with by offering an optional session for the cold hearted on HOW TO CULL (everyone stayed). The demonstration using Chicken Run toys of both the stretching and broomstick methods was accompanied by tales of flying heads and bloodspattered personnel. However, with vets bills at £40 a pop for this service you could feel people bracing themselves for the moment.
There was a degree of dissatisfaction with the facilities, a rather scruffy classroom where the kids’ equipment hadn’t been tidied away so books, videos and more personal items were on every available surface. Coffee facilities were grubby and several people complained of being cold all day. As the course was held at a top public school this was a surprise – I had looked for bone china and shortbread biscuits – but I think it indicated that in the school pecking order the summer school and adults come pretty low. The staff were pleasant but didn’t look up to taking on the forces of darkness.
The group didn’t end up best mates or swapping telephone numbers but even the silent lady warmed up and was chatting merrily at the chicken holding part and people were able to get their individual questions answered by the usual sidling up to the tutor at the end technique. Lots of Q and A in the sessions too.
Scoring where 5 is first class and 1 is frightful was:-
2 for pre course stuff, 2 for ambience, 3 for teaching methods 3 for making the group jel and 4 for content. The jury is out on value for money as comparisons are needed.
frightful news on the shortbread and bone china.
have a delightful image of the cast of chicken run being dismembered by the WI in my head.
some chicken sandwiches would no-doubt have tested the metal of the wrinkly hen-bothers.
good blogging
look forward to reading more.
superfly fisher
did they cover chicken seasoning? lemon and thyme or peri peri?