BBC Gardeners' World Live 2015

I'm back at BBC Gardeners' World Live and BBC Good Food Show at the NEC this year with PoultryTalk.com and it's been a great week. 

I've been attending the show for the last 5 years and still find new and exciting things to see each year; this year was definitely the year of Salted Caramel and I paid several visits to The Brownie Bar and the Little Round Cake Company...

We're basically there to promote back garden poultry keeping, giving advice and answering any questions people may have.

I'm obviously a little biased but really believe chickens are great garden pets and can help gardens become more productive and people become more sustainable; not only with the fresh eggs daily but also manure as fertiliser, weed and pest control.

There have been a few upgrades to the stand this year with a 50" Plasma screen and a wireless PA system for giving talks and presentations.

We held 6 talks on the stand each day on "Set-up & caring for chickens" and "Choosing your chickens"

The talks were really well attended and we had lots of people asking questions after each talk, coming to meet Tallulah and to buy our new Poultry Handbook.

I also did a few talks in the VIP Lounge which had a more relaxed environment where people were I was able to walk around the room letting people hold the chickens, advise on where they can get chickens and answer specific questions.

Tallulah the Frizzle Poland was the star of the show as always and she was great with the visitors, letting them stroke her and posing for photos.

She even had a visit from celebrity Skinny Jean Gardener Dale from CBBC's Blue Peter!

It was really nice to catch up and spend a week with friends Jamie, Wendy, Paco and Jenna.

BBC Gardeners' World Live 2014

I've attended BBC Gardeners' World Live this week at the NEC with PoultryTalk and had a great show.

We were there to educate the public about pure breeds of poultry, the massive variation in size, shape and colour, as well as promoting chicken keeping in the back garden enviroment.

There are many advantages to having chickens in the garden such as free manure for vegetables and the compost heap, fresh eggs every morning, a free weeding and slug control service and most of all, they make great pets with massive personalities.

The main feature of our stand was ChickenWall, a giant display showing photographs of 60 Pure Breed Chickens in the UK.

We also took along some day old chicks and a selection of adult birds to show the variation of breeds and to allow people to interact with them.

So many people came over to the stand throughout the week to say they didn't realise chickens were so big or that they thought chickens only came in the bog standard red hybrid variety people associate with battery hens.

It was also lovely to hear the older generations come over to the stand to tell us about how they used to keep a flock of Rhode Island Reds or Light Sussex when they were growing up.

The PoultryTalk.com team have spent the last few months working hard to publish a new book, The Poultry Handbook and after launching at the start of the week we had copies of the book at the show for people to see in the flesh; and it had an amazing response.

I gave a few talks throughout the week in the VIP Lounge followed by a Q&A session.

I took along a few Belgian Bantams with me who stole the show and were definitely centre of attention!

He even got to meet Monty Don and Carol Klein...

Looking forward to next year already!

BBC Gardeners' World Live 2013

I've been at BBC Gardeners' World Live and Good Food Show at the NEC this week with PoultryTalk and had a great time!

Pure breed eggs on display from The Rainbow Egg Company

We set up the day before the show, planted all our new raised beds and came in on the first day to find a leak but the staff were great, sorted us all out and managed to move our stand to a new site in less than half an hour, other than that we've had a great week.

I did four Chicken Keeping for Beginners talks on the stand everyday which were really well attended, as well as a few talks in the VIP area.

I took Mabel and Doris the Pekins the Pekin Bantams with me and we had a table full of chicks for people to touch and see; I think we were the most photographed stand at the whole of the show!

We also revealed #ChickenWall at the show - a 4 x 2 metre long display with 60 photos of pure breed poultry in the UK!

It was great to be able to show people the variation in size, breeds and the different uses for poultry!

We had a PetzPodz animal house on display to show people different types of housing available

...as well as a more traditional wooden ark (with Mabel + Doris on top) and an Omlet Eglu in the background!

We've loved chatting chickens to people all week and think we've definitely encouraged people to think about keeping chickens in their backgarden.

BBC Gardeners' World 2010

Second day at the Omlet stand at BBC Gardeners World and Good Food Show today :)
Up early and got to the NEC for about half 8 - I already had my ID pass so could just walk in and set up the stand.

Today I was working with George from Omlet who delivers their housing all over the UK, Sarah (who I already know) and Karen who I've spoken to on the forum.

Between us we sold two Cubes, a Classic and a Go - mine were the pink Classic and green Go so was happy with that.

We saw some other friends off the forum there too; DebC, Emma and Cheryl!
Then Louise from the turkey farm's sister came and asked about fitting turkeys in an eglu - I think George was a bit shocked but then realised I knew them!

BBC Gardeners' World Live 2010

I was contacted by Omlet a few weeks ago about working on their exhibition stand and today is my first day!
We were at BBC Gardeners World Live and the Good Food Show, at the NEC in Birmingham. I arrived at 8:30 and met Clare from Omlet to collect my security pass and find the stand.
Diane was there too, who I already 'know' from the forum, so it was good to finally meet her and we met someone else off the forum called Redbug, who just came to have a look at the stand :)

We had a huge stand on a big astroturfed pitch, with the products already set up when I arrived: an Eglu Classic, Eglu Go, a Cube and a Beehaus.

It was good to have a proper look at the Beehaus too - I'd seen it before when we went to Grand Designs last year and James (one of the designers from Omlet) demo'd it to me, if anyone knows about the product its him!

I've been doing some reading on their website and forum so I knew enough about the product to explain it to people and we have brochures to hand out with all the info in too. Any specific questions we refer them to the website or they can call Omlet for a chat.

Adam Henson from Adam's Farm on Countryfile was also at the show, he was walking past the stand and came over to say Hi! :)

Andi Peters off the telly was there too presenting the Good Food Show bits, Quin off the stand is a big fan so ran over and had his photo taken with him yesterday! haha
Was a good day - we sold 5 Cubes between us - I took the orders for 2 and practically sold another but didn't take the order.

I had to convince two little girls parent's that a Go with two ducks in would be a good idea and I think a did a good job as they ended up buying them one!