I love chooks. I think it's almost pure madness, if you have the space (and if necessary your landlord's permission) NOT to have have chooks. Don't get me wrong, I have the same Hitchcock-based aversion to birds as the next person, you don't want to stare into their eyes for too long, they'll give you the creeps, they pretty much always look angry. Just think of them like hardworking businesswomen, who don't have time for any crap, and you'll get along fine!
If you even need to be talked into the idea, here's why I love them: Minimum input, maximum result. Chooks require next-to-nothing in the way of maintenance beyond feeding, watering, maybe wing-clipping. You don't have to train them, you don't have to walk them, and they give you FREE eggs, and of course free entertainment!
When choosing your chooks, consider what you really want out of the experience. If it's eggs then Isa Browns are easy to come by (check with your nearest ag supplies place, they'll usually know where to get them, if not order them in for you) and once they start they pretty much lay an egg a day til they're soup. If you want a better looking bunch to complement your garden aesthetic, that's fine, you'll probably want twice as many birds to get the same amount of eggs. (If you want to raise them specifically for meat you'll have to do your own research.) Isa Browns probably have less personality than other breeds and might not always engage in normal chook behaviours because of being intensively bred for laying, they're not great eating, and they have NO maternal instincts... But they pop out eggs like one of those automatic tennis ball serving machines so we can forgive them all the rest!
When buying your chooks you're looking for "pullets" or "point of lay" hens. Pullets are cheaper, but they're a couple of months off laying. Point of lay hens are more expensive but they're ready to start pumping out the eggs straight away. You're pretty much just paying for a couple of months of chook food in that difference in price.
Once you know what sort of chooks you want and how many, it's time to consider where they'll live. I like those mobile homes for chooks that roll around your garden. No need to wear out one patch, fertiliser/aeration for the lawn, no need to decide on a definite spot for them, no need to diy it yourself... These typically have a mesh floor (or at least an option for one) to keep the foxes and things away. Take this option, even if you live in the very centre of town, you've never heard of urban foxes?? However a mesh floor means it would be kind to let your chooks out for a forage now and then as chooks love to scratch, and bathe in dust, which is hard to do with mesh under your feet. (Bathing in dust also helps keeps mites and other nasties at bay.)
If you do decide to build a little chook mansion of your own, you want to peg down the fences (some say to dig trenches and sink the mesh in so anything that tries to dig under is thwarted) and keep them at least waist height, if not higher. Also you want your fences to be a little shaky and dodgy looking. A fox will confidently scale a nice firm fence, but won't risk his neck on an unreliable one.
For the chook house itself a few perches, nice big branches or sticks, set at different heights are needed. Chooks are hierarchical so they maintain a pecking order, literally. The boss chook gets the highest perch, and so on. The chook house should also be pretty dark, the nesting boxes especially need to be dark. Asking a chook to lay in a nice airy light henhouse, though seemingly a pleasant idea, is like asking you or I to take a dump in the middle of the MCG just before the Boxing Day Test. Some clean straw every few weeks will keep them cosy and happy, and when cleared out will be effective fertiliser for your garden. Chooks I tell ya, they just keep on giving!
Then it's just plenty of clean water, table scraps and some sort of layer pellets, and they're happy as can be! I used to feed mine the "Red Hen" mix, but I found they would only eat the pellets and leave all the seeds and grains behind. Which is fine if you don't mind feeding mice and sparrows and every other scavenger bird in the neighbourhood. On which point, don't leave a heap of food lying around. Try to give them just a bit at a time and replenish it regularly, rather than providing a smorgasbord for all the local wildlife. Also on the subject of table scraps, they can eat just about anything. Dont give them citrus or onion, but anything else feel free to try them on it. The more variety they get, the better your eggs.
A final note: wing-clipping. If your chooks are constantly flying out of their pen, or into the neighbours yard, you can clip their wings. This is not cruel, no crueller than a haircut, and far less cruel then letting next door's dog savage them. You just clip the wing feathers short on one wing, which makes them fly wonky. Chooks are terrible flyers anyway, but clip their wings and they're pretty much only good to flap up onto their perch at night. Take a sharp pair of secateurs, have someone hold the chook by the feet while you stretch out the wing. Now feel the wing for where the warm part ends, you don't want to clip too close and injure them, or clip through their flesh, you're just trimming the feathers back as short as you can without doing that. NB. Do the same wing on every chook, so you don't have to worry about missing one, or doing one twice.
Questions? Fire away! 🐔🐔🐔
A final note: wing-clipping. If your chooks are constantly flying out of their pen, or into the neighbours yard, you can clip their wings. This is not cruel, no crueller than a haircut, and far less cruel then letting next door's dog savage them. You just clip the wing feathers short on one wing, which makes them fly wonky. Chooks are terrible flyers anyway, but clip their wings and they're pretty much only good to flap up onto their perch at night. Take a sharp pair of secateurs, have someone hold the chook by the feet while you stretch out the wing. Now feel the wing for where the warm part ends, you don't want to clip too close and injure them, or clip through their flesh, you're just trimming the feathers back as short as you can without doing that. NB. Do the same wing on every chook, so you don't have to worry about missing one, or doing one twice.
Questions? Fire away! 🐔🐔🐔
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