hatching eggs

Our Poultry Courses are Your Shortcut to chicken Enlightenment

We have been running Chicken Keeping Courses for over 10 years now and we are now expanding into other kinds of related poultry courses. Our courses are designed to offer the sort of information that we were looking to find when we first started keeping chickens. We found that even though we bought many many books on the subject, they still left gaping holes in what we wanted (or ought) to know. Most of our questions went unanswered, even questions we didn’t have a clue that we SHOULD be asking. This page is somewhat of an introduction for what we are now doing.

Why do you need to take a course?

Well quite simply – you don’t. Your alternative is to scavenge loads of information from Google, Facebook, websites, blog posts, videos, Youtube and even good old books. If you have already started on this alternative plan, however, you will, no doubt, be wading through mountains of dead ends, and piecemeal information. Then you will find that you need to collate it into some sort of reference. All well and good.

However, you will have gathered that there are loads of armchair experts on these various channels – so who do you believe? Who or what is the best source of information – and by that we mean – correct information? Facebook forums often find these helpful individuals saying, “I heard that someone else suggested this course of action”. What!!! they didn’t even have first hand experience of the issue? How do you know which information is dangerous, expensive, or even a total waste of time? Our courses have cut through all the dross, misinformation and plain lunacy so that you can start your new venture from a position of power. Knowledge is power as they say.

Our Poultry courses are now online

Our poultry courses are online offerings. We have sourced a professional learning management system such as they use in schools, universities and colleges. This powers our courses so they run brilliantly and efficiently and therefore gives our students a great learning experience.

Great content

We have crammed masses of information into our poultry courses so that no stone is unturned. Our message has no guff and no fluff – no frustration and no hassle. The content is clear and concise and very easily understood. Our poultry keeping courses are broken down into nice bite size chunks and each lesson is followed by a quiz to test your increasing knowledge. Each self-contained lesson can be studied over a very leisurely cup of coffee.

Benefits to you

You get access to convenient and accurate information. Time is precious, so why waste it going round in circles? Getting the equipment right first time is a game changer because it won’t hurt your pocket as much as failing to understand the needs of your chickens. Getting it right means you spend less time trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

Benefits to your chickens

Your chickens will be happier, healthier and safer.

Foundation Chicken Keeping Course – Online

Cost: £45

Aimed at beginners but also those who want to get more involved and knowledgeable with their chickens.

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You Will Learn:

• What sort of coop is beneficial to both you and your chickens.
• What kinds of runs are good buys and those that are definitely not.
• What equipment you absolutely need.
• What equipment is ill advised.
• What equipment will save you time and money in the long run.
• Cleaning – when, and how often.
• Disinfecting.
• Pest control and predator avoidance.
• Which products you need and also what you don’t.
• Maintaining good health and high welfare of your birds.
• How to spot illnesses.
• Chicken first aid.
• Avoiding vets bills, but know when and why you need to call a vet.
• How to spot a cockerel so you don’t get scammed by unscrupulous sellers.
• What to feed and how and why.
• The law on chickens.
• The rules on egg sales.
• Chicken breeds and who lays what.
• Chicken behaviour – good and bad.
• The pecking order – yes it’s a thing!
• Avian influenza precautions and legal obligations
• This is just a very small snapshot of what we cover

Click to learn more on our Chicken Keeping Courses Page

Incubation and Chick rearing Course – Online

Cost: £45

Aimed at those who would like to know how to incubate your own chicks. Includes guidance in how to raise chicks correctly and successfully.

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You Will Learn:

• How to use different methods such as natural or artificial incubation.
• How to select your hatching eggs
• How to prepare your fertile eggs for incubation.
• The various types of incubators – the good and the bad.
• How to run your incubator and what the settings need to be.
• How to manage your incubator for each stage of incubation and hatching.
• How to monitor your eggs during the incubation phase.
• What to expect on hatching day.
• Incubator and brooder electrical safety.
• How to deal with a broody hen and what sort of conditions suit her and the chicks best.
• How to provide the correct conditions to ensure the survival of your delicate chicks
• How to ensure that they come to no harm
• What they need as food and how to provide the basics for a good start in life
• How to spot abnormalities in chicks and how to successfully fix the most common types.
• Ongoing chick care up to the age of 2 weeks and beyond.
• How to tell the difference between hens and cockerels.

Click to visit our shop to learn more about this course

Face to Face chicken Keeping Course

Cost: £45 per student or £85 for 2 students as you can share notes

Aimed at beginners and those who want to expand their knowledge of chickens and their needs

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You Will Learn:

• Please note: We are not currently doing any face-to-face courses due to the higher biosecurity requirements of the current Avian Influenza rules
• The syllabus is broadly similar to the online version, but due to time constraints we cannot do the course in as great a depth as the online version.
• We do have a section whereby we have a very hands-on session with chickens
• How to assess the health of a chicken based on what you can see, hear and smell.
• The course has the added advantage of light refreshments included.
• Our face to face course is more interactive as questions can be asked immediately.
• We plan for it to last for 3 and a half hours but we generally overrun.
• The social aspect makes this version of our course very enjoyable for both us and you.
• After things calm down in terms of Avian Influenza then we will be starting the face-to-face courses back up again.

Reviews

We have been privileged to receive the comments below from our students