Larissa

Hi guys
This weekend our ickle project is to make a chook house... there is an A frame design in "Better Homes and Gardens" and we have some lumber out the back. I was just wondering if there are any other chook keepers out there or whether I have just gone totally mad We won't be able to get our chooks until we move (soon I bloomin hope though) but it will be a cool project and something to look forward too, especially since the kids love chooks too!
ATB
Larissa

Phoenixuk2oz

Hi Larissa

Never kept them so can't give you any useful advice .....except....somone I know kept them over here and all but one got eaten by fox's :scared:

Maybe bring them in at night and make sure the enclosure is strong. If there's a will there's a way with them minxy fox's

Gather youre getting acerage then? As a veggie, presume you'll just eat the eggs?

Larissa

Hi Phoenix!
The chook run is pretty sturdy and you let them range in the day and stick them in the run at night. We're not at all sure about acerage as we are getting pretty settled here, we might have to settle for the edge of suburbia for now because of work, schools etc. You can keep chooks in suburbia but you have to check the regulations for the different burbs and roosters would be out of the question.
I thought about the chook eating issue and am pretty assured that you don't eat egg layers anyway, as they taste stringy... different ones are used for meat and you don't have a problem if you buy laying hens. (If you get chicks you don't know their sex).

Simone

Well, as some people might know I had chooks when I was young, but yeah, a while ago now...

I happened to see them building that thing, very nice, but very small. But if you get chooks with clipped wings(and have an enclosed backyard), you could let them out during the day.
And don't get a rooster, not where you are now anyway!

For the rest, they're pretty easy.
We had bantams, and sometimes frizzles (probably not the official name?!) and silkies (chinese).

Simone

We did have roosters, but we lived in the country. We got lots of cute chicks(sometimes up to 12 at a time!!). Problem was, a lot of those chicks were roosters, so had to be 'gotten rid of' after a while, they kept fighting. My dad couldn't do it, but a friend did, and put them in the soup. I never ate that soup though! Geez, I gave them all names! (the twelve were all January, Feb, March etc. I could even tell them apart.....
Silkies were flipsy and flopsy, but one was nicknamed 'Fluffbum'.

Larissa

Ahhhh I'm determined to buy point of lay pullets as I would be cr@p at getting rid of the roosters, plus the kids would be upset. My daughter got attached to our mates chick (she was raising it as the mother hen had rejected it) but then her dog bloomin ate it! I don't think dogs and chicks mix somehow!
Funny, I could name the chickens after Expats

Phoenixuk2oz

Wow...I just thought you bought a few chicks and hey presto...obviously there's more to it than that. I didn't realise laying hens were no good to eat [eeewwe...sounds awful doesn't it]. I also didn't know that in some suburban areas you could have them. Like Simone said....I couldn't eat them if they were pets

Talking of which, when I was a kid I had a rabbit and when we went to live abroad the rabbit was kindly given a home by some older relatives. I've only just found out.....some 30 years later...... that they ate me bunny :scared: I'm still traumatised....the rotten sods

Simone

LOL.

Yes, when we first got chooks, on the first day, apparently our dogs got two, so while we were at school, mum and dad replaced them(first day, so didn't see the difference then). Only found out a year later!
They got used to them though, as with the rabbits.

One time one of the dogs got to close to a mother hen and chicks, and she chased him all the way back to the house, with his tail between the legs, hilarious! Didn't come near the chookpen for a while!
But you still have to be careful! Ah, poor Eloise!

Brissiegirl

would recommed you buy Jackie French's Chook Book, think it's pretty cheap (! ) to, pardon the pun!

We're going to get some chooks when we get to Qld.. no way we could have them here in the UK...

MrsDagboy

LOL dunno whos those would be . You'll be pleased to know that Mario (the survivor) has moved to a new home now .

Larissa, Point of Lay pullets are definitely the best bet, they should start laying a month to 6 weeks after you get them when they settle down. Check with council about keeping chooks, but you are correct, most councils will let you (subject to a limit on numbers) as long as you dont keep a rooster. If you have a very small backyard, bantams & bantam crosses are a good choice, if you have a little bit more room go for something like Rhode Island Red/Leghorn cross which give good laying abilities with lovely brown eggs. We used to get 3+ dozen eggs/week from 6 RIR crosses, which works out at 5-6 eggs/day.

Technically they dont really need very much room, but be aware that if you do keep them in a very small enclosure it will become a dust bowl extremely rapidly .

Any other specific questions just ask.

Phoenixuk2oz

Should have been called Super Mario

Or yellow belly...I reckon he hid up a bloody tree

tiredwithtwins

pmsl at this!!!!
larissa, if a couple escaped and you were stood calling them, how many funny looks do you think you'd get yelling 'mrs dagboy!! tiredwithtwins!! welshboybilly!! hup!! phoenix!!'

LMAO!!!!

MrsDagboy

BTW, wheres your design from Better Homes & Gardens? Is it on the web or in this months issue in print? Would love to look at it, we are planning to build one at our new house.

MrsDagboy

Almost as bad as someone from this site whose daughter used to have an imaginary friend called MrsDagboy :scared: .

leedslad

Don't know why, but i've always wanted chooks.
I'd love to get some when i get over, but wouldn't it make the house look a bit stepto and son? and how early do you have to get up to let the chooks out in a morning?........i like eggs espesh free ones, but i don't do early mornings.....noooo :scared: