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

the Posie Poultry Report

Greetings Poultry Lovers,

Strike up the banjoes . . . it's a chicken & duck update.  Thanks to chicken loving families at school, i've spread more hens i inherited from a friend around.  My husband came home from Afghanistan to find a flock of 16 chickens & 3 ducks living down our side passage, it had to be thinned out & naturally that happened as cute chicks grew into Roosters, like Viola/ Violo, who is now living on a farm with 13 hens, hello ladies!!

Our beautiful, friendly, tame, raised-from-eggs Khaki Campbell ducks grew a little too noisey for suburbia & our very patient/ tolerant/ deaf neighbours never complained, however, they are moving soon & we can't trust the next family will be so nice . . . so when my sister said she'd LOVE our ducks to join her flock on her property in Bowral, we said our goodbyes this morning & farewelled Calliope . . . 

 Bongo . . . 

 & Bugle (the drake) who we can visit in the school holidays.  My sister hadn't told her 3 duck loving children they were picking them up (on their way home from the snow) so they almost burst when she said they were coming home.  They will be loved & we will take them or their offspring to our farm in the future.

 As we continue our faux farming journey, we're experimenting with new chicken breeds to see which ones we want on the farm.  On the weekend we picked up Saxophone the American Wyandotte from the Farmer's Market, she likes to nest up on the hay in the cool . . .  

& Harp the Araucana, known as the 'Easter Chicken' from Chile - as they lay coloured eggs.  I can't help but admit, i wanted her for her blue, green & lavender eggs, i'm shallow.  She has the most amazing emerald feathers when the sunlight hits them.  They are both 30 weeks old & ready to lay.

So that is where we're at, confident we have another rooster in Piccolo, sob, & we've ordered two ISA Brown chickens (excellent layers) as the decline in eggs with hens leaving, isn't enough for our family & i refuse to buy eggs.  Chickens have just been the most fun & success - consider keeping them in your backyard.  Fear not, our German Shepherd is still walked daily & loved to pieces too.  I don't think we'll do any more chicks until the farm, too heart breaking when they grow into roosters, crowing is not allowed in suburbia.  Yeehaw, love Posie

my creative space . . . 'road-side-find to roof-top-garden'

 Greetings all,

Last week i drove past this cabinet on the side of the road (for extra degree of difficulty it was  dumped at a round about) & on closer inspection it had a broken up marble top . . . i wonder if it was a homemade basin??  Thrilled to discover it's made from packing crates, incredibly sturdy, painted in the perfect 1950's vintage green one side, yellow the other & the chickens love their new day house.  

 My end goal was to take advantage of the height & create a full sun roof top garden.  

 Our chickens & ducks LOVE lettuce, so i planted a couple of dozen butter, iceberg & rocket lettuce varieties, to give them whole lettuces every day.  

This small gauge chicken wire was perfect to protect the lettuce as they grow.  

 We've found the odd chicken up there having a look around, their weight lowers them down for a little peck & we can easily prop it up if they start to destroy the garden.

I used some old pumpkin fencing, stakes, plastic from my sewing stock & discarded MDF, purchased extra soil which we need for a new wine barrel Spring herb garden too.  Another inexpensive project for the chickens & ducks to benefit from.  Total cost, under $20.

None of our chickens have tried to fly away (we inherited the hens, they might have tried to leave or hop over the fence away from our German Shepherd, even though chickens are useless at flying they can panic flee.)  The ducks have their adult feathers yet i'm uncomfortable clipping their wing feathers & they're staying too . . . for the lettuce??  

The chicken day house is a huge hit, just ask raised-from-egg-chicks Viola, Flute, Piccolo & Cello.  I knocked the top shelf out & put in a perch.  For some reason, our chickens don't have a pecking order, they all hang out together or in gangs of different breeds, sizes, ages & mingle all day & night.  One hen has gone broody (a Silky Star cross) she rolls everyone's eggs under her & is quite the proud Mama.  For more Creative Spaces visit Village Voices.  Love Posie