by Wickhambrook Horticultural Society
Mr Nigel Start was our speaker for the March monthly meeting and his subject was “Keeping chickens on a small scale”. It was again wonderful to see a good number of people in the hall. Nigel told us that his reason for keeping chickens originally was to help him with clearing a densely overgrown, hugely neglected garden over forty years ago. The chickens made such a good job of this he had kept them ever since, so he had had plenty of experience. Nigel talked first of all about the history of domestic chickens which went back as far as Roman times. He had some lovely slides of the different breeds of chickens, many of them beautifully coloured. Nigel explained that they were relatively easy to look after and, providing you looked after them ,and followed a few basic rules, and also of course fed them well, they would not only help to clean you ground and fertilise it, but they would provide you with eggs so tasty and fresh, that you would never ever want to have to purchase eggs from the supermarket again. Nigel was warmly thanked by both Philip and Dorothy.
Our next monthly meeting is on the 24th April and is a talk entitled THE CHINESE GOOSEBERRY MAN – a period costume talk by Geoff Hales on the Travels in China of E H Wilson, Plant Collector. Our meetings are held in the W.I.Hall and begin at 7.30 pm. Members £1 and non-members £2 and all are very welcome.
Then on the 15th May we have our ANNUAL COFFEE EVENING with GRAND PLANT SALE. Many, many bargains and free entrance. Please bring along any cuttings, seedlings, etc etc surplus to your own requirements. Coffee or tea and biscuits provided and there will also be a raffle.