Simple Living Series - Let's talk chooks, part 3

Chickens were the first pets my sons ever had.  Shane and Kerry were about eight and nine when we bought our first little flock.  The boys helped look after those chooks and it was their responsibility to feed them, give them fresh water every day and to collect the eggs.  They used to walk around with them and take them visiting to various hidden spots in our back garden.  Those chooks taught my sons about death and new life, and the importance of a gentle touch.  They were an important part of their childhood.  Whenever they visit now, they still go out to see the chooks.

At the moment we have our chooks roaming through the dying vegetable patch.  They're scratching around, turning over the compost and eating bugs.   Soon they'll be out of there after a job well done and we'll be planting up again.  Above is Anne Shirley and with Kylie on the compost in the background.

If you have small children you must teach them how to be near chickens.  Chooks will be stressed if they're handled roughly or if children are screaming near them or chasing them.  The same goes for dogs and cats.  Our dogs have always been protective of our chickens but it is in their nature to see chooks as prey.  You have to spend time with them and show them that the chickens are a valued part of the family and should not be chased.  This takes time and patience.  You'll have to pick up the chooks and sit with them.  Call the dog over and let him smell the chicken while you're holding it.  Pat/pet both of them so the dog realises the chicken is a friendly addition to the backyard.  Doing that over and over again will help train the dog.  Still, don't leave the dog alone with the chooks until you're absolutely sure it won't attack the chooks.

If your chooks start scratching and you notice they have lice, this is fairly normal in dry and warm temperatures.  Treat the lice straight away by covering the chook with food grade diatomaceous earth.  You can usually buy it from your local produce/grain store.  Make sure you cover under the wings and tail and around the comb and wattles.  To help prevent this happening again give the chooks an area where they can dust bathe.  It just needs to be a bare patch where they can scratch up the soil and roll in the dry dirt.  This is will help prevent lice.

This is our new feeder.  We wanted a feeder that would keep rats out of the food when it was left overnight.  This feeder closes when there are no chooks around.  When they want to feed, they stand on the steel plate at the front and the hopper opens.  Currently it's in training mode while the chooks learn where the food is and how to get it.

There is still so much to write about keeping chickens but space and time will make this my last post on them for a while.  Please try to buy pure breeds and not the Isa Browns that are available almost everywhere.  You might have to look around a bit but there will be pure breeds available near most capital cities and large towns.  But no matter what breed you buy, all chickens will add to your life.  They'll give you hours of free entertainment with their mad antics as well as the best and freshest eggs available.

Quentin at the feeder with two broodies in the background in the blue nesting boxes.

Karen, you should work on worm prevention.  Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a squeeze of garlic to every 10 litres of the chicken's drinking water.  Keep new chickens from old ones to prevent worms being brought in. Make sure their water is always fresh and clean. Feed them good quality food.  Keep their quarters clean.

Carol, I guess we don't let the chickens reproduce because we don't want to keep roosters and we find it difficult giving them away - you never know if they'll end up in the pot.  When we gave away Seth we offered him with his girlfriend, a silver sussex hen and hoped they'd stay together as a breeding pair.  But you can never be sure.  If we could be guaranteed all girl eggs, we'd do it but the roosters are a real problem for us.  A couple of years ago we threw caution to the wind and had some rare  fertile partridge Wyandotte eggs sent to us which we put under one of our Rhode Island Reds.  They hatched out on Christmas day when we were at the Christmas breakfast, and the first time mother squashed all of them.  What do you do with your roosters?

Kathy, I'd ask your immediate neighbours if they have a problem with you keeping three chickens.  I bet they don't.  Your zoning laws are stupid.  Imagine what our pioneering ancestors would have thought of such nonsense.  Chickens helped them survive through very tough times when there were no supermarkets or corner stores.   Everyone has a right to raise their own food and a few chooks doesn't diminish the neighbourhood, it does the opposite.  Good luck.

Penniless, Polish chooks are not good layers.  Often they don't lay at all.  It's been bred out of them and now they're usually kept as show birds.  Many chooks go off the lay when they're moulting and will restart when they gain their feathers back.  They put their energy into making feathers rather than making eggs.  You could try giving the non-polish chooks a week of high protein feed - just soaking a slice of bread in milk will provide added protein for them.  See if that works.  How old are they? 

Leslie, once chickens know that their own eggs are food, it's difficult to break them of the habit of eating them. And often, if the other chooks see the eggs being eaten, they'll join in.  Leaving eggs in the nests for long periods is a great temptation for chickens.  I doubt there is a cure for this but collecting eggs frequently will take away the temptation.

Jan, snake proofing a chicken coop is quite difficult.  Snakes don't know about fences or doors, they just see everything as another obstacle to overcome.  You'll need to block every  hole, even the very small ones.  We did that with the small hole chicken wire but you could also use shade cloth or fly screen wire.  Pythons are the worst around chooks because they will swallow a chook whole, smaller snakes will look for eggs and swallow them whole.   So get your hammer and nails and go over the chicken coop looking for any hole and block it off.    Good luck.

Pinkandwhitepony, a good sized small flock would be eight chooks, a large one 20.  You should never keep just one chook.  If you want eggs for breakfast and you have a small family, three or five chickens would do.  Speaking about companions, you'll find if you get different breeds, often the same colours will become friends.  Our black chooks rarely hang out with our white and buff coloured chooks.  Heather, our salmon coloured Faverolles, is friends with Martha, a buff Orpington.  The red chooks stick together and the black chooks always wander the backyard in a group, without any other colours.

Annikka, chickens rarely overeat.  They regulate themselves well and that is why most people leave a hopper full of feed in the chook pen so they can eat when they feel like it.  We give out chooks bread almost every day and only the large varieties, like the Orpingtons and Sussex are big girls.

Yvette, your chicken house sounds like a masterpiece of recycling,  Well done!

Becky, I'm no expert on breeding chickens but I would imagine the separation from the main flock would be the most important thing.  Also, make sure your breeding girls are healthy and maybe feed them extra protein to get them through the long days of sitting on eggs.

I hope I have encouraged you to think about chickens if you've never had them before.  Like most other new things, you'll have to learn about your girls and give them good food, love and protection but they will return everything you give to them tenfold.   Dive.