This past Tuesday PMSS Grow Appalachia hosted a wonderful workshop led by Will Bowling of Old Homeplace farm. Will drew upon his years of experience in raising laying hens and meat chickens on his family’s farm in Clay County Kentucky and brought lots of new information about home chicken care to our participants.
Many of our participants have chickens already and fall into the category of being old hands at the game, having owned chickens for years, or being relative newbies to chicken care that have only had chickens since we held our chicken tractor workshop last spring. However, I think that no matter the level of experience of each individual, all of our participants learned something new, and really benefited from the opportunity to talk with Will about best practices for chicken care. For those of us who don’t have chickens, myself included, there was lots of great information to save for that someday and even more inspiration to get chickens, or at least support those who do have them by buying local eggs from pastured chickens. There were lots of great questions and interesting conversations with topics ranging from where to order baby chicks to what the best method of egg washing is and what the color of an egg yolk can tell you about the chicken it came from.
With a case of perfect timing Gary, a Grow Appalachia program assistant and participant, happened to have 15 chickens to give away, so two of our families went home with baby chicks following the workshop!
Adi was more than excited for the chicks that got to ride home next to her in the backseat of the car
After the workshop we had our early season plant pickup. Participants were able to get their cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower plants, as well as seed potatoes, and onion sets. What with 80 degree temps and sunny skies everyone was happy to receive their supplies and eager to get to work in the garden. Needless to say we were happy to be rid of the over 3,000 lbs of potatoes that had been crowding our storage area!
Valerie Osborne ready to go with her plants
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