More than 150 people came out yesterday to the Westford Farmer’s Market Backyard Chicken Program. This is a good-sized crowd by any measure, but even more so considering that it was a gorgeous sunny above-freezing day, the sort of afternoon meant for walks and outdoor chores, not being cooped up in a church hall (pun unintended but noted.) But, there they were, people of all ages, interested in keeping poultry.
I’d be delighted to bring my presentation to your town. Email me at terry@terrygolson.com for details.
Great presentation Terry and the slides made it enjoyable. Maybe a couple showing your compost area in the run would be informative. I personally love that idea! I used to do vermicomposting and I plan to start up again because I read about how the redworms make good food for the hens!
There was a lot of good information presented by the other groups represented as well. I was very impressed with the young 4H speaker. Having one around that age myself made me appreciate his ability to stand up and speak. I also thought that little bantam rooster he held was gorgeous!! What a beautiful specimen!
Thanks!
Thanks, Sharon. Yes, it was great to have Seth, from Westford 4-H show off his bantam Old English Game rooster, a beautiful bird, obviously well-handled and conditioned. If you have 4-H in your community, support it! And use it as a resource – those kids know a lot. We also had Tom Dougherty, a poultry dealer, who talked about chick care. People should make use of local breeders! We were also fortunate to have Martha Callahan from the USDA talk about biosecurity.
It’s amazing how backyard poultry has taken off. There was another article in the St Louis Post Dispatch yesterday on the subject. This is two in the last 9 months or so and I actually was featured in a story in the Suburban Journels a few years back when the backyard poultry thing start gathering momentum.
In the article yesterday the Farm Sanctuary folks are trying to throw a wet blanket on the movement. Per the article they are actually trying to convince city councils to ban backyard poultry. Of course their motives speak for themselves as they live vegan lifestyles.
It’s telling that although Farm Sanctuary has “farm” in their name, that their ultimate goal is to ban all animal farming. They use the same underhanded PR that PETA uses. They get followers on their dramatic factory farm footage, as if that’s all that they care about, but their real goals are the extreme banning of all domestic farm animals, even well-cared for chickens in our backyards.
I wish I lived closer so that I could have gone to the program. It sounds like it was nice and very informative.