Sustainable Gardening Australia www.sgaonline.org.au [email protected] Backyard Chooks @sustainablegardeningaustralia #sustainablegardeningaustralia • Clucky Lingo • Point-of-Lay – A chicken that is about to start laying – 17- 21 weeks old • Pullet – A young chicken to about 12 months • Moulting – When a chicken loses its feathers and stops laying for a period of time. Usually in Autumn • Hen – A chicken that has been through its first moult • Broody – When a chicken wants to sit on and hatch the eggs • Vent – opening where eggs are deposited from • The benefits of backyard chooks • Fresh eggs; Great pets; Convert kitchen and garden waste into eggs and compost; Source of chicken manure; Help control bugs under fruit trees; A wonderful example of urban and backyard sustainability • Chook Power - Set your chickens to work!! • Cleaning up pests and diseases under fruit trees; Make rich compost; Sort through invasive weeds; Preparing vegie beds • Aged chicken manure - Is a fantastic addition to your composts; Use appropriately on your garden • Used straw bedding can be added to compost • The challenges of backyard chooks • Foxes, snakes and other predators; Suitable space and good fencing; Health and hygiene; Managing Salmonella; Going on holidays; What to do with chickens after their productive egg laying period; Dealing with a sick chook; Vet bills; If unsure about owing chooks, you can rent a chook to try them out www.rentachook.com.au • Chickens are for Life! • Chickens have the same needs as other pets- Food and water; Safe and comfortable homes; Companionship; Medical attention • Chickens can live up to 8 years • Never gift chickens to an unknowing receiver who may not ready for them • Types of Chicken - Heritage / Purebred • Lay less eggs in a year than hybrids but can lay more eggs in a lifetime • Need more chickens to get your desired quota of egg • Need to be replaced less often; Live about 8 years • Large genetic diversity. A variety of temperaments, sizes, plumage colors, yields, egg colors • Popular Varieties – Australorp; Langshan; Leghorn; New Hampshire; Rhode Island Red • White earlobes = white eggs; Red earlobes = brown eggs • To research types of chickens - http://www.poultryhub.org • Types of Chicken - Hybrid / Cross Breeds • Best egg layers; Fast growers; A degree of hybrid vigor; Not as broody as purebreds • Shorter lives – about 4 years; Egg laying slows after ~18 months • Popular varieties - Isa Brown (Rhode Island Red / Rhode Island White); White Cross (White leghorn / New Hampshire); Black Cross (Australorp / New Hampshire); Red Cross (Rhode Island Red / New Hampshire) • Types of Chicken - Bantams • Small chickens (50% to 75%); Smaller eggs; 3 to 5 eggs per week; Less space; Less food Easier to handle • Popular varieties – Dutch; Belgian D’Anver; Belgian D’Uccle; Seabrite; Serama • Getting New Chickens • Where to get point of lay chickens - Local breeders; Gumtree; Breeding clubs; www.backyardpoultry.com • Make sure they are vaccinated and lice / mite free • Take a box or pet cage per chicken when picking up • Introducing new chickens to an existing flock - Try to introduce slowly; Holding pen to initially separate • Basic Needs • Fresh cool water; Regular food; Balanced diet; Access to vitamins, minerals, bugs and greens; Grazing zones; Stimulation; Dust baths; A clean, wind and manure free sleeping area; Shade and shelter • Cluckingham Palace - A humble home for hardworking hens • Build before you buy; At least 1m2 / bird © Sustainable Gardening Australia 2020 1 Sustainable Gardening Australia www.sgaonline.org.au [email protected] Backyard Chooks @sustainablegardeningaustralia #sustainablegardeningaustralia 1. Chook house / pens are bedrooms - Nest boxes; Roosting for nighttime; Shelter from weather; Big eaves / verandah; Cross ventilation for fresh air 2. Chook runs / straw yards are lounge rooms; Safe places for roaming; Fox, snake, bird and vermin proof 3. Free range areas are playgrounds - Areas for free ranging; Foraging for food; Exercise; Dust bathing; Can be fixed or temporary • Chook Tractors - Chook Tractors are mobile pens • Permanent - Chooks live and move across your landscape • Temporary - Chooks are moved around the garden for feeding and scratching • Some have bedding others do not • Deep Litter System • A composting system to help manage chicken poo • Consists of a deep layer (at least 15cm) of dry organic matter e.g. sawdust, straw, dry leaves • Beneficial microbes populate the deep litter and help decompose the organic waste • Can be done on dirt or concrete floors. Be careful with timber floors • Chickens scratch and pick through the litter turning it over encouraging composting • Occasionally mix it over to ensure well mixed and add some more litter. Especially under roost • An effective deep litter system neutralises smells and nematodes and can help manage the flies • Occasionally harvest the compost, let rest and add it to your compost or veggie garden, depending on level of decomposition • Aerate the remaining soil with a fork and add lime to help adjust pH as it may be sweet / acidic • Food and Grazing • Egg production needs lots of protein and calcium • Commercial Food - many options including vegetarian and organic • Scratching mix can include wheat, millet, corn, sunflower seeds, soya meal, barley, and more • Sprouting grain is a great source of nutrients • Shell grit, kelp and dolomite for good shell quality • Offer diverse grazing crops such as weeds, lawn, oats, salad greens • Kitchen scraps • Kitchen Scraps • Kitchen scraps are not a balanced chicken diet • Kitchen scraps should be fresh, and suitable for chickens • If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t feed it to the chooks • Buy seasonal fruit and veggie treats • White bread has minimal nutrients and can clog up a chook • Xanthophylls help make rich yellow yolks and can be found in dark leafy greens (spinach, kale and collards), zucchini, broccoli, and brussels sprouts • Chickens are omnivores. Appreciate small teats of unprocessed meat • Clean up uneaten scraps • Foods to Avoid • Moldy food; Rhubarb leaves; Avocado pips and peel; Raw potato skin; Food high in fat and salt; Coffee grounds and teabags; Chocolate; Amaranth seed (requires heat treatment) • Feeding Systems • Provide feed in large containers or specialised feeding systems • Choose feeders that discourage pest birds and rodents • There are many commercially available systems or make one yourself at home • Foraging • Chooks have an instinct to scratch and forage; Lawn and weeds are a great source of foraging food • Access to a space to forage provides access to supplementary nutrients (Leaves, Seeds, Fruit, Insects, Grit) • Under fruit trees is a great pace for foraging; In your veggie garden is not a great place to forage unless you are in-between crops or have some barriers to control them © Sustainable Gardening Australia 2020 2 Sustainable Gardening Australia www.sgaonline.org.au [email protected] Backyard Chooks @sustainablegardeningaustralia #sustainablegardeningaustralia • Water • Regularly replace water; Clean the water container; Keep water cool and in the shade • Add some garlic cloves or apple cider vinegar; Add ice blocks when it is hot • In summer have 2 sources of water in the run; Have water available in free range areas • Sleeping Spaces • Chooks need a safe, dry nighttime perch for roosting; The pecking order will determine which chooks go where; The more dominant, the higher they want to roost; Space should be draft free • Make sure droppings fall clear of perching or nesting areas; Allow about 30cm of width per chicken on the perch; Elevate the perch about 30 to 40cm above the ground • Nesting Spaces • Clean, dry, draft free and reasonably dark; One box per 2-3 hens; Large enough for chickens to stand in; Fill with fresh straw or wood shavings; Slopped roof (discourages chicken roosting on top; Keep manure free; Add insect repelling herbs to the nest boxes. E.g rosemary, rue, wormwood • Chook Behavior • Are social creatures and work best in groups of 3 or more; Have a pecking order. A hierarchy of social standing with every chook knowing its position; If you have a rooster, 1 rooster per dozen hens • Will put themselves to bed at dusk in the same place every night • Have an innate need to - Be active; Free range; Scratch; Dust bath • Pecking Order • Chickens ”peck” each other to determine pecking order; To us it can look like bullying • Can be worse in cramped conditions. Ensure there is enough space for the number of chickens • Sick chickens can suffer. Isolate a sick chook • Introducing new chooks sets off a period of activity to reaffirm the pecking order. Can last from days to a couple of weeks; Add new chickens slowly. Add a place of refuge; Do not intervene unless extreme; Separate the bully chook if necessary • Chicken Fun / Enrichment – • Being confined in a space can get boring; Add activities for stimulation and entertainment • Broody Hens • A broody chicken is one that stops laying and wants to sit on eggs and hatch them ; Some breeds are broodier that others; A broody chook wants to be in the dark and her body temperature increases • She may stop eating and lose weight / condition; Separate her from the nests / eggs • Make sure she has lots of light and cool air circulating to cool her; She will end up deciding it is too hard and stop brooding • Chicken Health Spa • Dust baths are an important part of a chicken’s hygiene practices; Helps remove excess oils and external parasites like mites and lice; Chicken