Nearly 120 people indulged their passions and curiosities last week during the 49th annual Hort Week at Olds College, including 13 people who attended one of the new and more unique programs offered this year on urban chicken keeping.
The seminar included topics such as chicken behaviour, health, food requirements and shelter.
Anthony Murdoch, a marketing coordinator for continuing education at the college, said there were 22 classes, plus tours of the botanical gardens and wetlands, offered during Hort Week. Murdoch said the idea is to expose people to different types of programs the college offers, plus provide information about interests people have in the broader community. The chicken-keeping course and a bark carving course were additions this year that were out of the ordinary.
“It's connecting people to the environment. It's not about intensive learning, it's more about kind of piquing people's interest. I think moving forward that's something we're going to look into is (providing) what people are looking for,” Murdoch said.
Charity Briere, one of the instructors of the chicken-keeping program, who has been keeping chickens for just under a year, said the interest in keeping the birds is growing. Earlier this spring, she led a similar program in Red Deer in which 25 people attended to find out more about how to safely care for chickens.
“I think more people are educating themselves about food and what is out there and maybe they're not happy with the system,” she said.
Shirley Wagner, a Water Valley resident, said she was interested in chicken keeping because she wants to start raising chickens for the eggs. She said she was surprised by the number of illnesses that can make chickens produce eggs that aren't suitable for human consumption. The instructors, she added, had a lot of useful information.
“I'm really impressed with the instructors, because they've done it, they know their stuff and just the information about the food and the illnesses and what to expect has been informative,” she said.
Jennifer Bommarito came to the chicken-keeping seminar because she, too, is interested in keeping chickens to have fresh eggs. The Didsbury resident said she didn't have any knowledge about chickens.
“I really want to have chickens at my house, but I have no idea how to do that, so I figured this would be the best way to (find out),” she said. “Supplying eggs to my own family, I think, would be both fun and just kind of important to make sure that my chickens are eating healthy and providing healthy eggs.”
