Charlotte Carnegie has built a thriving poultry business in Wiltshire, and has even featured on TV.
Charlotte’s Poultry is located on a green hill far away in rural Wilt shire, and owner Charlotte Carnegie herself has to make a 45-minute drive each day (and back) to visit her chickens. If renting a remote one-acre field seems anything to lament, cut to the Hairy Bikers, who fell so head over heels for Charlotte and her set-up last year that they featured her in the first episode of their incomparable BBC 2 TV series Chicken & Egg.
Meeting another amusing and gutsy person would’ve been right up their street, and the rapport between the three is quite apparent. Still, the modest star did agree to an interview, and told me her hobby turned into a business four years ago.
Charlotte has had chickens since she was four when she was introduced to Brown Leghorns. “I have fond memories of my first hen Beauty, whom I was determined to teach to talk,” she says. “Unfortunately Beauty never did speak, but it was tending to her and her friends that sparked my passion for poultry.”
A visiting fox led to a change to Pekin bantams, and when asked what she wanted for her birthday there was little hesitation: ‘Chickens!’ Poring over the book Bantams in Colour with her mum, Charlotte went for Partridge Wyandotte bantams, a breed she has been fond of ever since. Her dad bought her first incubator at 11, which yielded only three chicks from 12 eggs. “We purchased an auto-turn cradle and soon we were overrun,” she said. “Within a year we were getting a 100% hatch rate and that little machine served me well right up until recently!
Denne historien er fra March 2017-utgaven av Your Chickens.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra March 2017-utgaven av Your Chickens.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
The Egg Man's got it cracked
David Herbert, nicknamed The Egg Man, tells you all you need to know about showing eggs
Slasher Battles On
Slasher the ancient Araucana is looking good, but looks can be deceptive
Flock Dynamics: A Guide To Social Hierarchy
Julie Moore takes a look at how the pecking order is established
In Harmony With Nature
Susie Kearley talks to Anya Lautenbach whose home shows her love of gardening and chickens
Then There Were None...
The Mystery of the Phantom Egg Eater
Off To Market
The French love buying chickens at local markets.
Early Learning
How chickens adapt, despite lessons from early llife
Poultry Providers
Kim Stoddart explains the benefits of buying in stock from one of the bigger, national suppliers…
Drop In Egg Production
Drop In Egg Production
Ideal Broody Time
Ideal Broody Time