Thursday 17 January 2013

A to Z of poultry keeping

Last night I ran a poultry keeping course for West Highland College in Ullapool, " A to Z of Poultry Keeping", for a mixed group of experienced and novice hen keepers.  It wasn't too difficult to come up with twenty six different topics; the most difficult was Q. I could only think of quacking and quills. Quacking as a way of sexing ducklings at about a month old because the males have a deeper, hoarser quack, like a cartoon duck. Quills because my god daughter's sister, an artist, uses them to paint, a useful by-product of the goose enterprise .Everyone said that they'd learned something and enjoyed it so it was a success.
Sub-arctic Ross-shire in January




However, it meant two days on the road on buses to get there and back. The van was parked overnight in the long stay car park in Ft. William and when I do this I'm always a bit surprised to find it there in one piece when I get back. There had been some interest in it; a line of footprints up the bonnet ( hood for readers in N. America) and on over the roof. The footprints were too small for a drunk so it must have been a child without a computer in his room.


Just in case I'm asked to do this again I'd welcome any suggestions for Q related poultry topics. No prizes though.



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