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Backyard Chooks

An Introduction To Keeping Chicken At Home

© Sustainable Gardening Australia 2012

This Workshop is

Developed by: Sustainable Gardening Australia

Presented by: Mount Alexander Shire


Sustainable Gardening Australia

OUR VISION is for vibrant and sustainable communities and a healthy biodiverse planet OUR MISSION is to inspire, empower and connect individuals, communities and organisations to garden sustainably


Your Presenter is Carey Priest

I am a small scale, free-range egg, beef & almond producer, running a Community Supported Agriculture venture on 30 Acres in Melton.

I am passionate about Permaculture, Organic Gardening & Farming, and am dedicated to regenerating degraded farm-scapes to produce great food whilst re-building soils & habitat.

I also manage the warehouse & construction for Very Edible Gardens (VEG) who are helping make Melbourne & surrounds more edible!


CHOOKS! CHOOKS! CHOOKS!

Why keep backyard chickens?

Fresh eggs and great pets

Chickens help you to make your garden and keep it healthy

They work with you to convert waste into compost for your garden

A wonderful example of urban and backyard sustainability, giving you eggs on most days while helping control pests, diseases and weeds!


Chickens are for LIFE!

Chickens require many of the same needs as any other Pet, Food, Water and Companionship.

Never gift chickens to an unknowing receiver who is not ready for them.

Build before you buy or breed. Get the house ready First!!


Where do I start- Local Laws

Contact your local council for any specific laws that apply to your property or local area

Generally, 6 birds per family is acceptable with fencing perimeters kept clear by 1 metre.


Where do I start - Housing

Moving or Static? Chook tractors or fixed Pens, Strawyards and Runs?

Use recycled + sustainable materials wherever possible

Consider edible living fences or plan your seasonal climbing frames to act as temporary pens.


Designing the system

Photo Courtesy of Very Edible Gardens


The Basic Needs Access to FRESH WATER

REGULAR if not DAILY food

Access to vitamins and minerals, bugs and grasses, dustbaths, weeds and safety perches and new to chook grazing zones

Warmth, and a clean , wind and manure free sleeping area


Housing Pens, Strawyards and Runs? Whats the difference?

Pens are bedrooms

Strawyards are loungerooms Safehouses where roaming can occur that are fox, snake, bird and vermin proof

Runs are playtime areas or out and about areas for excercise and can be fixed, temporary. You can provide several across your back, side or front yards


How is this done?

A Bed can be a clean warm box or an elaborate custom built hammock! Either way it must be out of the wind and free of manure.

Provide a large bowl or container for housing water, with a tap or hose very close by or on the irrigation system. NEEDS regular checking and cleaning

A pest free feeding area, feed your chickens not the neighbourhood!


GET CREATIVE!

Take time to learn the basics then design the outcomes that suit you the best, Visually, Ergonomically and Practically.

Think, Experiment and Play! (then send us your creations for our website!)


Chicken Tractors or Moving Pens

Chicken Tractors are mobile pens and strawyards in which chickens live and move across your landscape, OR spaces in which chickens are moved to temporarily, for specific garden / feeding reasons

Some have bedding, others dont


Moveable day Spaces Moveable day spaces allow

you to move your chickens in a contained way across your patch as need be.

A Brilliant method of preparing soils for new crops by controlling pests

A Great addition to crop rotation systems


A Strawyard enclosing a Pen



A Permanent Run attached to a

Strawyard with an enclosed Pen


A Ready to move in Chook Heaven Ecosystem with multiple fruit trees, green manures and forage plants, Easily divided when neccessary. Preparation is Vital !


Supplying Needs

Owning, renting or sharing?

Do I need chickens?

Do I have time and resources or am I better to share these resources?

Egg and food co-operatives. Can I access and share surplus in these ?

Neighbourly love, love thy neighbour!


Food And Grazing Patterns EGGS NEED PROTEIN!!

Wheat , Millet, Corn, Sunflower Seeds, Soya Meal, Barley, the list goes on and on. Aim for at least 15% Protein in chicken foods

Commercial Food options are great and vast. Aim for Organically Certified and RSPCA Approved foods.

Gluten Free options. Eggs do not carry gluten, even if chickens are fed gluten full foods!!

Access to dolomite, kelp and shell grit for good shell quality

Access to diverse grazing crops such as weeds, lawn, oats, vetch, salad greens and for health and your food scraps for health and vitality.

Plant more food! Plant more food! Plant for friends. If grazing your flock, you will need to consider planting more for your feathered friends


Kitchen Scraps Dont feed them mould!!

Kitchen Scraps should be fresh, exclude anti chicken foods such as coffee grounds and teabags, rhubarb and meat

Collect neighbours, kinders, or friends if you dont produce enough

Buy cheap seasonal fruit treats


The Medicinal Cabinet

Plant medicinal herbs alongside

your chickens fenceline so that they can access medicines such as comfrey, rue, wormwood, silverbeet, tansy and yarrow as they require them!

As seasons and the birds age change so will herbal needs so dont be shy, plant a pharmacy!



Killer Foods!

Rhubarb leaves

Amaranth seed ( requires heat treatment )

Potatoe Sprouts or Green Peel

Crotalaria ( a common green manure )

Lily of the Valley

Hemlock

Black locust leaves


Pests and Diseases

Foxes are ridiculously cunning!!

Foxes love to dig and a challenge!

Foxproofing your chickens means stopping all possible fox entry points with wire including underneath


Pests and Diseases

RATS AND MICE Feed your chickens in the morning

Grandpa Feeders + hanging feeders

SNAKES Use a 10 -15mm snake

netting along all perimeters

Take your eggs daily

TICKS

Consider Using steel posts in known tick areas to prevent ticks nesting in timber


Working together!

Let your Chickens do the work!!

Clean up pests and diseases under your fruit trees

Prepare Vege beds for you!

Scratch and ferment your soil


Chicken or Chook? Breeds Common Breeds = Isa Browns, Australorp, Salmon

Faverolles, Rhode Island Red, Light Sussex, Coronation Sussex, Buff Sussex, Speckled Sussex, Lavender Aruacana, Plymouth Rock, Barnevelders, Welsummers, Campine Gold, Campine Silver, Gold Laced Wyandotte, Gold Pencilled Wyandotte, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Silver Pencilled Wyandotte, Buff Wyandotte, Buff Cochin, Yokohama, Legg and of course Bantams just to name a few!!

Common Friends = Consider Ducks , Geese or quail.


Myth - Chickens are Messy! Most backyards can house chickens!

Most backyards may not allow for true farmlike free ranging systems. Move your chickens around your yard to imitate this.

Key to success to a no mess system is a no mess design, that deals with how to mobilise your mess and get it easily to where you need

Contain your chickens but allow free range like options. Allow for easy access to manures and composting material, daily eggs and cleaning.


Myth- Chickens damage soil!

Chickens build, scratch and nurture soils, with your help and understanding.

However, keeping chickens in one place over extended time creates soil compaction, reduces microbiology of soil, and encourages diseases.


Using the force!

Use chicken manure in your composts

Never handle manures without gloves or washing thoroughly of hands

Dont overuse chicken manure directly on established plants or at all on young seedlings

Use chickens to create potting mix!

Dont dance like a chicken in public!


Eating Older Birds

It’s a personal choice.

You can easily soup or cook your older birds when they are ‘off the lay’.

Young Birds are normally eaten, older birds have a much more gamey flavour.

Check internet for detailed processes and information guides.


Troubleshooting Ask Your local VET if you are ever

concerned about bird health

Look out for signs of disease or sickness, isolated birds, or birds not feeding or drinking

Local Poultry Groups, find who is in your area and ask lots of questions

Read and Research!


LINKS + MORE Health and Legislation

Department of Primary Industries

Your local council

Local Poultry Groups

Local Farm shows and

backyardpoultry.com

rarepoultry.net

Chicken Systems - veryediblegardens.com


Further Information

Healthy Gardens Healthy People

Healthy Environment

For extensive information on a wide range

of sustainable and waterwise gardening practices visit:

www.sgaonline.org.au

backyard chooks - mount alexander shire council › files › environment › ...wheat , millet,...

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