Meetings

Vivien started her business, based in Downton, 15 years ago and it has grown massively over this time with many designs of hats and head pieces.  A lot of Vivien’s design inspiration involves feathers including pheasant and peacock.  Vivien brought along examples of her masterpieces and we had a chance to examine them and the intricate details of these lovely works of art.  These hats are worn all over the world at weddings and racing events including in the USA and Australia.

Jim Butt, our chairman brought along some of his poultry and gave us a talk about them, sharing his knowledge and experience gained over many years.

We all had a good chat with fabulous food and did our best to complete the chocolate quiz.

The talk this month was by one of our club members, David Jackson, who gave us an insight into his life of showing different animals.  It all started when he was a young boy when he won first prize in a pet show with a goldfish in a jam jar.  When he was older he moved onto breeding fish and showing them all over the country.  Guinea pig breeding and showing followed next and then there was Bonsai tree showing.  David gradually got into bigger things when he starting breeding and showing Shetland ponies.  Finally came the poultry interest and David breeds and shows Sebrights and Rosecombs and has won many prizes including best in show at the Bath and West.  David told us about how he does line breeding with the Sebrights to get the best birds.

The October meeting was the annual member’s box show which was judged by Mr Mike Hatcher.

This year a lot of birds have been moulting late so they are not ready for shows.  All birds were inspected prior to the show to make sure they were healthy by David Parsons, our poultry vet.

There were 16 entries in the box show including a chocolate Pekin, Barnevelder, Saxony duck, Maran, Brahma, Muscovy duck, Serama, Chinese goose, Cream Legbar, Belgian d’Uccle, Buff Orpington, Gold Sebright, Salmon Faverolle, Appenzeller Spitzhauben, Arucana and a turkey.

The winner was the Gold Sebright entered by Club Secretary, Hazel.

Brenda Waterman of Heritage Turkeys in Dorset brought along a selection of turkeys and told us about the many myths that people believe about these prestigious birds.  Turkeys are not hard to keep and can be kept with other poultry with the right care and husbandry.  The old fashioned pure breed turkeys are in decline and there are very low numbers for some breeds.  We were all encouraged to consider helping maintain the pure breed numbers if able.  A turkey if attacked can loose its complete snood and a scab will form over the whole face for a temporary period while it heals.

David Parsons, poultry vet, set us a quiz of poultry questions of varying difficulty to test our knowledge.  It was very informative as we discussed the answers and everyone learnt a lot about poultry physiology and how eggs are produced.

Jim gave us a talk about his life in poultry right from his first purchase of young chickens (many of which turned out to be cockerels!) through to the present day with his many assorted breeds.  It is always a pleasure to listen to Jim’s adventures and experience gained over many years.

We had lovely weather for a most enjoyable evening of a delicious supper and a chance for a good natter!