The Edible Garden Show 2014

I've had a great weekend at The Edible Garden Show, with a right Royal visit.

This year the show has moved from Stoneleigh Park to it's new home at Alexandra Palace, so I went down to London on Thursday night to help set up our stand. As usual we were running late so most of it was done on Friday morning but it all came together in the end!

We were at the show to promote the keeping of chickens in the backgarden as well as showcasing some of the pure breeds of poultry.

We took along our signature ChickenWall containing 60 photographs of pure breed chickens in the UK as well as a table of day old chicks I hatched in my antique incubator and some adult birds too.

As we were at Alexandra Palace, HRH Prince Charles and Camilla visited the show on Friday morning and came over to the PoultryTalk stand to meet my Pekin Bantam chicks...

Prince Charles asked Jamie all about what we do, how long the chicks take to hatch and about the incubation process while Camilla held a chick and spoke to the school children on the stand.

The chick she held she also named with the school children; they decided on Rosie!

After that the rest of the weekend seemed to fly by and we had a great response to the stand.

I had a great time walking around the show networking, speaking with other stallholders and befriending celebrity botanist James Wong.

I did a talk in The Experts Theatre on Sunday afternoon with Naomi from British Hen Welfare Trust talking about the basics of how to keep chickens, what they eat and require for housing, where to site them in your garden followed by a Q&A session.

Looking forward to next year already!

For more information visit www.theEdibleGardenShow.co.uk or @EdibleGardenSho on Twitter.

The Edible Garden Show 2012

Had a really good 3 days at The Edible Garden Show this weekend!

I was there on the PoultryTalk stand and took 6 chickens along with me, some for the show cages and others to go in an Ark on the stand.
Doris one of the Pekin Bantams I bred last year sat happily on top of the ark for all 3 days being stroked and picked up by children wanting to take photographs with her.


Never put all your eggs in one basket ...unless its just to show different colours at a show


I did a "Chicken Keeping for Beginners" talk in the Poultry Ring of the Smallholders Marquee which was photographed and I appeared in the Daily Mirror!
The talks went well, hopefully people took bits away from it and that encourages people to look into keeping chickens.

Rupert Stevenson came along to take some photos at the show and sent them to me (Thanks Rupert!) so I actually have some sensible photos for a change!


As well as this one which is currently featured on the Edible Garden Show website.

Jamie and I had a great time on the stand speaking to the public, allowing them to get up close and personal with the chickens and take photographs with them.

There was a great buzz around the show with photographers from the BBC and National Press there taking photos and videos which we were featured in. There was also a piece on the BBC News but I didn't manage to catch it.

I was dressed as a Chicken for most of the show (why not?!) and went to see The Chicken Vet for a quick check-up.

I had a bad case of Northern Fowl Mite but they cleared that up for me...

I wrote a Beginners Chicken Keeping factsheet to go with the talk, Jamie had 800 printed and they all went!
There were 6 different care-sheets in total and think two or three of them went completely, with a chunk of the other ones going too so there was lots of interest in chickens.

Out in the Livestock Marquee I spotted these piglets...

 ...and a cute goat kid!

Overall it was a great show...

Everyone there was really positive, visitors looked like they were having a good time and said they will definitely be coming back next year, it was a credit to the organisers!

The Edible Garden Show 2012

Had a really good 3 days at The Edible Garden Show this weekend!

Was there on the PoultryTalk stand so took 6 of my chickens with me, some for the show cages and others to go in an Ark on the stand.
Doris (newly named!) one of the pekins I bred last year sat on top of the ark for all 3 days being stroked and picked up by kids, was surprised at just how friendly + chilled she was tbh! :))

Never put all your eggs in one basket ...unless its just to show different colours at a show

I did a "Chicken Keeping for Beginners" talk in the Poultry Ring of the Smallholders Marquee ... got in the Daily Mirror because of it and everything too!
Think it went ok, felt more awkward being centre of attention with people all around me rather than just 1-2-1 like on the stand and at work but was fine! Hopefully people took bits away from it + encourages people to get chickens anyway.

Rupert Stevenson took some photos at the show and sent them to me (thanks!)... some sensible photos I actually like for once!

 And this one which is on the homepage of the Edible website and in their news roll ... feel famous :P

Couple more...

There were loads of photographers from the BBC, Daily Mirror etc there taking photos + videos so may have been on a few of those. Know it was on BBC news telly but I didn't see it.

I was dressed as a Chicken for most of the show (why not?!) and went to see The Chicken Vet for a check-up.

I had a bad case of Northern Fowl Mite but they cleared that up for me ;)

Was a great show... Everyone there was really friendly + looked like they were having a good time - credit to the organisers!

I wrote a Beginners Chicken Keeping factsheet to go with the talk, Jamie had 800 printed and they all went! There were 6 different care-sheets in total and think 2 or 3 of them went completely with a chunk of the other ones going too so there was a load of interest in chickens.

Piglets!

 Cute goat kid!

Looking forward to going next year! :)