Monday 8 August 2011

Feathered Friends

'Mr. It' came home one day and had a brilliant idea .. "Lets get chickens". 
To me this wasn't so brilliant beacuse (and don't laugh) I'm a little frightened of chickens.
Our backyard was fairly empty and we have dogs.. So I really had no idea where these chickens were going to live. 'Mr. It' had another idea.
So he set about building it all & spent copious amounts of time researching chickens.
We bought a coop for them to roost in at night and it had nesting boxes for them to give us fresh eggs in.


Our chicken area consists of a small area for the chickens to run around in (free range) plus a coop for them to roost in at night/ lay eggs in, etc.


'Mr. It' at work


Finished product - Veggie patch & chicken area


Our chickens
We have Isa Brown Chickens, they are the result of crossing Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites. They are a hybrid chicken, very popular due to their high production and large eggs.
We bought our chickens at 20 weeks old, which is the 'point of lay', however we didn't see any eggs for a good 2 months. 
We didn't name our chickens, they're all just called "Chicken" or "Girls" - If you've read Marley and Me you'd understand why you don't name chickens. 
My neighbour (I love her to bits) named her chickens something to the like of "Holly, Polly, Molly & something else". She's got a great heart & a great sense of humour. 


Miss 3 feeding the chickens


The coop - where the chickens roost & lay their eggs. 
See the little nesting boxes to the left.

We have a special grain feeder in the coop area and we did have a water bucket that was suspended off the ground, but believe it or not the chickens would still manage to get hay and other misc stuff into the water. We found (by fluke) water buckets work really well, but you have to keep them nice and full & clean them out still. 

Easy access to the fresh eggs


Fun!

The hay turns a little yucky after a few weeks, it's then used in the veggie patch as mulch. Our chickens are happy to eat any scraps we have to offer... or weeds! 

I'm also glad to say... I'm no longer afraid of chickens ;)

Natalie

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