I’ve been having a right Royal time of it recently and have been lucky enough to attend three of this years Royal Agricultural Shows.
NFU Countryside magazine invited me and a few of my chickens along to join them at the Royal Bath & West show at the very beginning of the month after we’d had such a successful Edible Garden Show working together and the event was excellent fun.
Next they teamed up with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and I was invited along (again with chickens) to the newly appointed “Royal”, the Royal Three Counties. Another fantastic event and it was brilliant to be surrounded by a number of Britains rarest breeds of livestock. It was also an honour to be involved withĀ such an important agricultural & conservationĀ charity, founded byĀ Joe Henson and now heavily involvingĀ his son Adam (probably better known for being a presenter on BBC Countryfile), as it began celebrating its 40th Aniversary
It was a particular honour too to have the opportunity to spend a few minutes talking to the Countess Of Darnley JP who was this years Show President. HerĀ interest in understandingĀ the importance of utility breeds and the value they have to the small scale keeper provided us both with plenty to talk about, in particular the value of the Sussex and Ixworth.
Next up came the Royal Norfolk. Now it’s quite a drive from North Shropshire to Norwich but after being invited once again to join the RBST on their stand (along with the NFU Countryside crew) andĀ being toldĀ that this particular time the stand would have 40Ā examples ofĀ rare livestock breeds of cattle, horse, goat, sheep, pigs and poultryĀ currentlyĀ under threat, the distance was no obstacle at all!
It was not only a fantastic opportunity to see such an excellent collection of beasts (all kindly donated for the duration of the show by RBST members around the country) but also a superb chance to be part of the celebration of some the best things about our heritage livestock breeds (and natter on about chickens to anyone wanting to listen).
The RBST Facebook page has a ruck of photos on it if you want to have a closer look
Finally to cap off what has been a fantastic month talking about & promoting British rare breed poultry for me, along came BBC Countryfile who shoved a camera in my face (actually they politely asked) giving me the chance to put them squarely in your living room…. so look out, one Sunday evening you might end up getting close up & personal with an Ixworth pullet!
ChickenStreet 
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