Chicken Care Courses...

[Aileen]

Hey,
Overthe past 7 hours I have read so much about chooks, all posts from u lovely chicken lovers and am feeling a tad ignorant.
I have found a course (£300!!) on keeping poultry ,covering topics from amateur breeder right up to keeping a poultry farm, marketing etc etc... anyone been on it?
All I want is a bird first aid course/ailments course... is there such a thing? I will quite happily do the above having lost one of my baby pekin's today and am taking it a bit badly...

 

[Anonymous]

so sorry to hear you have lost one of your babies ,do you know what she died of?) The course you describe seems too involved I think(and expensive). I think keeping chickens is more involved than I believed when we started about a one and a half years ago, but you learn as you go along. Having said that I think it would be good to go on a basic chicken course. Are there any poultry breeders near you because sometimes they offer good starting courses? Have a look on the internet for breeders/smallholdings near you.

 

[victorias poultry]

Alot of the poultry keeping courses just cover the bare basics of keeping chickens i.e. what to feed them, what to use for mites etc... £300 for a course also seems to be very steep. Where are you based, perhaps there is a poultry breeder near to yourself that would be willing to give you help and advice.

 

[Aileen]

Hey,
Thanks for replies...! I have had hybrid birds before and they were super healthy never had any issues but that was a few years ago... I had a bit of a sabbatical (2 sons later!) came back to my birdies but went down the pure breed route this time and used a different breeder, who admittedly was lovely but I am beginning to think that they were just keen amateurs as all the birds I have bought seem to be "sneezy" and a lot less robust??
Anyhoo, enough of the waffle, I live in East Kilbride and am struggling to find anything this neck of the woods at all, breeders seem to be few and far between.
Have a nice weekend, it's nearly wine o'clock - yippee!!! 08 :lol:

 

[elmwood]

Hi Aileen,

I am sorry to read about your Pekin- Its bad enough when they are ill, all we want to do is the very best for them. My chicken knowledge was zero back in feb.

Whilst a course sounds a great idea, I think all that info could be overwhelming and we really only ever need to know how to deal with things as they come up. Which is exactly what happens on this fabulous site. I have learnt so much from here.

My worst case scenario, (rejected 5 day old chick by its broody mama- all the others died) was eased by the help and support from this site- & all the extremely knowledgeable keepers on here with oodles of experience.

I reckon we can now cope with most things, having gone through so much in our first year. However, I had no idea how consuming it would all be. No joke, I have every potion going for our 5 girls, BUT I would never ever be without chickens. They are my darlings and bring so much joy to each one of us.

As for £300, I would put that to better use, funding your chickens with good quality products.
As other say, it sounds very expensive, and a breeder in Cheshire now runs chicken courses- having just looked the site up am amazed its £20pp. Whilst it is not viable for you, (she is in Cheshire), Bev is lovely, has a fab set up, had some great wins at the Federation in Stafford recently and we had a rather gorgeous sablepoot from her.

All the best Aileen, Spring will soon be here with our hens in full swing!

http://rarebreedpoultry.webs.com/bevspoultrycourse.htm
X

 

[Lucylou]

Hi Aileen,

When I first got my chooks it was a very nervy few months, every day something seemed wrong. At that time I would gladly have enrolled on a course if there had been one but not at £300, it is too much I think.

Is there a member of the Poultry Club near you or similar? They would probably give advice, but the good advice from everyone on this forum will get you through most problems. There are some very experienced keepers on here who know about most things & the treatment.

It has been said before on here, good food, water, clean, draught free, well ventilated living conditions & that'll stand you in good stead.

I agree with you about breeders though, I had some from one breeder & the girls I had just seemed more fragile & susceptible.

 

[ncotb]

Ditto what everyone else has said.

If you have a problem or question, just ask

 

[Tim]

I would consider spending £30 on a couple of good books - like Laurence Beekens Chicken Manual and Victoria Roberts Diseases of Free Range Poultry and then about £40 on diatom, for mites lice etc. poultryshield for red mite, cleaning etc, a multivitamin drink for times of stress and some flubenvet for worming twice per year.

There is of course lots of information on the web too:

Keeping Chickens: A beginners guide is one site covering the basics and of course our own poultrykeeper site has a beginners guide to keeping chickens as well.

Good luck!

Tim