choosing chicken breeds for your needs

 Greetings all,

I am constantly asked about keeping chickens - how, why, which, what, when & who.  It's quite flattering as while i'm a huge cheerleader for the backyard chicken, we haven't even had them for a year yet.  I do my research & a lot of love, goes a long way to keeping animals alive, happy, fed & flourishing.  Toss in 4 eager pairs of hands to help, you have tame, friendly, healthy & vibrant pets!!  

Today was a scorcher - all around Australia - 40C here in Canberra with a hot wind blowing in your face . . . & we were off to collect a couple of 3 month old Plymouth Rock pullets.  WHEN: we've only had baby chicks in Winter, keeping them alive during -5C nights was quite manageable with their feather coats & older hens' wings to snuggle under.  Of course, as new borns, they were indoors under heat lamps on tiny blankets.  Raising chicks over Summer requires water, shade, cool breezes & more water.  

HOW: our chickens have a coop (bought on line, half the price of pet stores, even with delivery) under waterproof shade cloth, with extra nesting boxes, all elevated on crates - off the ground.  We have extended the chicken wire from the side passage - the full length of the garden, so they have over 40m of wandering, under hedges & shrubs too.  Chickens prefer covered spaces with trees overhead, so don't discount the idea of extending a chicken run around/ including bushes, they'll love you for it.

WHY: we chose Plymouth Rock chickens today, for a few reasons . . . a) it's a breed we haven't tried yet, b) we could purchase some locally, c) they are beyond pretty with amazing feathers, & d) they are both an egg laying & table bird breed, something to consider when we move to a real farm to produce our own 'meat'.

 WHAT: we prefer the slow growing breeds - so their legs can hold their weight.  The average/ inexpensive chicken raised for supermarkets are fast growing (it's all about profit, maximum turn over, mass production) & their legs cannot support the weight of their 'huge breasts' = cruel.     

WHICH: a mix of breeds is fun, interesting, aesthetic & an adventure.  We have Spangled Hamburg, Pekin Bantam, Rhode Island Red, ISA Brown, Wyandotte, Araucana, Silkie, Indian Game, Plymouth Rock & cross breeds.  The Pekin Bantams would be my pick for young families - so friendly, easy to handle & not at all overwhelming, loving a cuddle; the Wyandottes are nortoriously unfriendly, shy, aloof & our Saxophone (white Wynadotte) prefers to stare at a fence than let us love her.  My favourite is the Araucana as they lay coloured eggs (blue, green, lavender, khaki) & they know they are the princesses, soak up the attention, love a little adventure & are so pretty.     

 WHO: this is 'who' humans??  Chickens thrive on a wonderful variety of healthy kitchen scraps, ours adore the animal husbandry & time we put in - cleaning & freshening up food, water, scratch piles & nests.  By extending the run to the back fence, they have a hill to wander, endless places to dig cool dirt nests during the hot days & chat to us through the wire/ windows/ gate all day.  They lay a fantastic amount of eggs & we appreciate it.  One day we will breed a table bird group for eating, but we won't tell them that, just give them the best lifestyle . . . until it's our dinner time.   

I would invest in a couple of books, don't overwhelm yourself with internet searches & information, keep it local, then experiment with different breeds, starting off with ISA Browns is excellent - they are fabulously friendly, inquisitive & produce almost an egg-a-day, however, they are very common.  We use The Contented Chook from the ABC Shop as it's Australian, filled with common sense, ideas, recipes & local know how.  They require simple feed, water, nesting boxes & perches.  

Above all, they make the most lovely pets, with interesting personalities & quirks.  They are fantastic school holiday entertainment . . . teaching children the highs & lows of real life, love & loss.  You have to ensure your chickens are safe, from foxes, hawks & dogs.  Some chicks stop thriving & fade away, but best give them a fighting chance with absolute security.  

I've been tagged on Instagram #5shotinstachallenge theme #chooks, if you want to see more.  Enjoy, love Posie

when i was a little girl, i was a tom boy

Greetings all,

I was a total tom boy growing up, my best friend was the boy one house over & we played for hours in my back garden.  I had huge rocks, climbing trees, a swimming pool & then my dreams came true, my father built me a tree house.  My father was the son of a carpenter & everything he built "would hold the Sydney Harbour Bridge" as he hammered in a zillion nails to all manner of structures.  When my big brothers were little, they had horses, in our back garden, in St Ives!!  Seriously, 4 horses on Sydney's North Shore!!  As a child i played in the barn, clearly zero fear of spiders & let my imagination run wild.  

 Now my tree house looked nothing like these fancy images - the base was the neighbour's old ping pong table - but it had a balcony, ladder, windows & a shingled roof.

 It has a steep stair ladder & was among the Jacaranda trees, you had all manner of exits.  We could reach out & eat Mulberries.  Life was ace.  

 We were even allowed to sleepover in it with friends!!  Bless the 1980's.  My mother would bring midnight snacks & hot chocolates out on a tray like room service!!

 My tree house still lives on, solid as a rock, my children play it when we visit Sydney.  I'm going to be more heart broken than i realise when my parents sell our family home next year.

 One of the best things about planning our own home, is dreaming up things like a tree house for the children or a fancy viewing platform to show off the best views to guests.   

In the latest Smith Journal (Frankie Magazine's brother) they had a great feature on tree houses, ditto google images for tree house eye candy.  When we finally buy land & plan a house, i'm going to do some carpentry courses so i can fiddle around with off cuts & build something amazing.  Don't you love the branchy hand rails??    

I might be lady like now . . . take away the sequins & fluff - give me gum boots & a hand saw - i'm right back to my roots.  I've spent the day gardening (weeding really) & tossing all the off cuts to the chickens & ducks.  I even gave them the leftover roses from our Friday the 13th party, which were gobbled down with gusto.  Can't wait to go out into the chicken run tomorrow & slip over in extremely-organic-poo.  I might sew with precision but i'm very clumsy & a slipper-overer, normally with a public audience.  Have gorgeous weekends everyone.  Love Posie

snap it 'ground'

Greetings all,

Playing Snap It with Faith Hope & a Whole Lotta Love, this week's theme 'ground'. 

Bless our hens, they are not always laying during our sub zero nights, but each afternoon we leave the coop open in case they wish to lay in a nesting box, however, more often than not, we'll find one or two hens have wiggled their bottoms down on the hay & left a surprise for us on the ground.  

Doesn't get fresher than this, or warmer (i remind the children where exactly that warmth is from - chicken's bottom) but they just think laying eggs it's the most clever thing!!  One day i will receive the acclaim i deserve for hatching them!!  From 8 hens, we're down to a couple of eggs a day, which is a steady enough pace for this egg loving family over Winter.  Love Posie

Autumn rustic & feathery goodness

Greetings all,

What a busy wrap up to the week . . . with handsome soldier coming home (flight delayed) so when i saw the lights of his plane coming in, i sat back in the arrivals lounge, closed my eyes, let my head flop back & thought "i've done it, another deployment is over."  I thanked the children, then let them run down the gangway (the QANTAS gate attendant smiled awkwardly at the massive security breech) & i said "he has come from Afghanistan" & she said "oh you're going to me cry" as my husband appeared with 4 children clinging to him.  It solved the questions she must have had with our 8 year old son asking his sisters "is that Dad, is that Daddy??" as he craned his neck to see each man walk off the plane in the dark, like i was meeting a mail-order-father-for-hire!!  

Thank you all for your excitement about my soldier coming home & the i-love-you grocery shop, you are all so sweet.  He appreciated the goodies & will enjoy them for ages + you know he reads every single comment while he's away, this blog & your comments are a happy distraction for both of us.  

Earlier in the week, i had taken receipt of 6 hens (from my now-farmless-friend in the school car park, as you do in our 'bush capital city') & the words 'no more chickens' in my husband's voice ran through my head.  I'm not keeping all of these, some are just being babysat . . . meet the flock.  

 I took time out to photograph & soak up the beauty of the new hens. 

 These chickens all came from the same farm, yet the Hamburgs arrived first & certainly have more confidence - with me, the camera & their new surroundings.  They're sharing the coop, nesting box & living area at night very happily, the Hamburgs tend to stay outside on the perches, like watchful security!!

 This combination Silky is so pretty when the light catches her patterned feathers.

 I encourage anyone with a side passage to consider fencing off one end & creating a chicken run.  Ours is enormous, finally put to wonderful use.  Yes we rent people, anything is possible, even in Army housing!!

 One afternoon we stopped & filled 4 garbage bags with leaves to spread in the chicken run.  In just a couple of days, they were mulching them naturally.  This will be one beautifully fertile strip come Summer, compared to the hard compacted dirt it once was.  We'll do that again, collecting leaves is so much fun & free mulch, yay!!

  Look at the plumage, just stunning in the glorious Autumn sunshine.  I'll get all the breed details from my friend shortly, i find it all so fascinating - learning about their origins, behaviour & broodiness.   

My very patient husband met them all this morning while nursing a heart melting 6 day old chick & said "didn't i say 'no more chickens'??" but smiled, he knows these chickens are making us all very happy, our farm dream is a tiny step closer, a young boy running free & catching his favourite-chicken-of-the-day with our girls stroking the hens gently.  Sure, he's delirious & exhausted from war, just happy to be home . . . talk of which-one-to-eat-first will happen soon enough (these hens are for egg laying thank you.)  I love everything about keeping chickens, from watching them eat our salad scraps & munch away all the weeds, raking up the poo & spreading it over other parts of the garden.  Dare i say i take such good care of the coop, it doesn't even smell bad, just country fresh!!  

Totally loving Autumn, the colours, crunchy leaves, chickens gabbling, frosty mornings, wearing scarves & pristine sunshiny days ending with soul warming dinners, it's a beautiful time of year.  My husband brought home an amazing large Persian rug, in stunning golds, creams & browns - i just mentioned to him how fantastic the chickens would look on it, that was not met with laughter.  Tee hee.  Enjoy & have beautiful weekends folks, love Posie

things i'm loving . . . 'home life'

Greetings all,

So many totally-into-&-loving-things this week with PaisleyJade, starting off a fabulous Beef Ragu recipe from my children's cookbook My Grandma's Kitchen by Louise Fulton Keats (yes, as in the offspring of Margaret Fulton, cooking master) & yes, i cook from children's cookbooks as they are my level of culinary adventure & children LOVE every meal, win win.  

 My new Mac desk top arrived, after i killed my 5th laptop computer - my husband suggested i might be more reliable with a desk top & swears by Mac, so yes folks, i'm never going back!!  I love the multi view - i reckon i could launch a space ship from here!!

 I picked up a copy of the May Home Beautiful with Simone from Beach Vintage blog & Just Plain Gorgeous shop & Fabric Traders on line . . . to read about her fresh & fabulous beachside home.  I studied every image, if i was ever a guest, i'd know where the bathroom was (it was a huge feature) congratulations Simone & family!!

 The children are being thoroughly entertained by the chickens, i love finding shots like this when i download the camera.  This is apparently what alien chickens look like!!

 The chicken coop arrived.  Seeing they are only 10 days old & it's getting to 0C at night here, they are very much indoor-baby-chicks, so i constructed the coop in the lounge room (nothing a vacuum can't fix) & it's basically like having the world's most bizarre lamp!!

 Our German Shepherd is containing himself, he chases birds all day in the garden, so to have chickens is a challenge for him.  He's really being VERY good.  Can you feel the energy in this picture - like he is absolutely ready to pounce at any second.

 It was going to happen sooner than later, the chickens now have a coop & disco!!

 Is it just me or are they lying in the shape of a love heart??  Please be hens!!  Looks like we'll be getting new baby chicks from the next batch of incubated magic in a few weeks, so excited!!

Sorry i'm still a little over the top with chicken fever but they really are just so much fun.  School resumes on Monday so it will be me & the chickens.  My sister recommended ducks, similar to raise but more friendly as they follow you around, like pets.  I agree, they're on the list!!  Love Posie