keeping chickens
 

anyone have chickens?i have a strange fantasy about me and the mrs living the good life in oz...vegetable patch and chickens....anyone else do it?

astonfarmer...

Re: keeping chickens
 

Deb wants a few chooks, I don't!:thumbdown: Chooks attract rats, I loathe rats with a passion. I've placated her by suggesting that if the chooks attracted rats, which she can deal with, then, the rats would attract snakes. She dislikes snakes so problem solved. No weekends building chook pens for me:thumbup:

Re: keeping chickens
 

We have chooks and I am looking forward to the day when I can twist their little necks as they piss me right off, kids love them though.

Re: keeping chickens
 

nor me now mate,,i had a feeling that was the reply that would come back..

thanks mate..

what about vegetables ,,get any nasties in them??

Re: keeping chickens
 

We do veggies, may do chooks in the future (had them when I was growing up and they were no problem, but that was on a larger property and not suburbia where I now live). Def go the grow your own route - cheaper and healthier, and tastier. Mind you it does all take some work, but then I write that off as being my exercise for the day :)

Re: keeping chickens
 

I once got growled at by a courgette - does that help? :rofl:

Are there no end to your talents, Aston - sorry TYPO - that should have said 'are there no beginnings to your talents. :p

I'm gonna need a wall built round our house in Secret Harbour in the Summer. Are you prepared to travel that far from 'dem dere hills' and can I have a quote please?

Never let it be said that I don't give new migrants a 'leg up' so to speak.

Jules x

Re: keeping chickens
 

I have a free range chicken:)



In the freezer:thumbup:

Re: keeping chickens
 

There is a great site that I discovered... have always fancied the goodlife myself and pretty much se the move as a chance to do just that...

There is a luvly article on the symbiotic relationship between squash, corn and something else...

Sadly Hubby sees a newbuild nxt to the ocean with no garden and no maitenance as his dream and I invisage 5 acres and growing my own inland.

The site is here...

http://www.aussieslivingsimply.com.au

There is a discussion forum which I haven't used yet and all sorts on the good life down under..

Re: keeping chickens
 

That site is advertising free chooks....

http://www.aussieslivingsimply.com.a...674#post_55527

I'd do it except it would then be a pain to go away for the weekend/week, and I'd eat the eggs but I don't think I could eat any of the hens - I would have named them and looked after them and everything! :unsure:

Re: keeping chickens
 

great link:thumbsup:

Re: keeping chickens
 

I keep chickens - I have 6 of them in a giant coop with a large run. But they have stopped laying at the moment so OH is threatening them with the paxo:rofl:

Re: keeping chickens
 

If you're really contemplating the good life, then also get yourself a subscription to Earthgarden, Grass Roots and Warm Earth magazines. (Being a sad sustainability freak, I have a subscription to one, my sister has one and my mum the other - then we all loan them around!) Also join the Diggers Club for access to great seed stock and excellent information on growing plants in your particular area.

Re: keeping chickens
 

That is exactly what Dale is after - me I keep thinking SNAKES but Dale keeps thinking 'get orf my land' :rofl:

He's always wanted a bit of a small holding and I keep having images of me being stuck in the outback somewhere penned in by snakes and giant beasties :blink: deafened by the sounds of chickens clucking and snapping at my hands for stealing their babies.

I'd really love to grow my own veg though and fruit that would be amazing except the nearest to gardening I get is mowing the grass and I hate doing that :blink:

Re: keeping chickens
 

Chooks will happen for us sometime in the not so distant future.

Don't know about the good life, but it's certainly The Good Life but only if Felicity Kendal is a part of it.

Re: keeping chickens
 

When we decided to move to Australia the only thing I said I wanted was a lemon tree. I had to have lemons growing in my garden. So, I now grow lemons in a pot on my back patio. They're starting to turn colour now. Once I get a back yard again I think I'll grow vegetables again. Tomatoes, peppers, maybe cucumbers. I used to have a herb garden in Canada and grew all kinds of nice things. Basil, dill, chives, oregano, etc. Think I'll plant one of those again, too. Oh, and we used to grow raspberries, too. Don't know about planting a bush here, as they attract spiders and nobody wants to invite spiders around.