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.

Re: keeping chickens
 

Ooh I'd love a lemon tree, or a lime tree - can't beat a bacardi and coke with a slice of lime in it mmmm my fave :) When we were in Perth last year there were lime trees in the garden and it was just so amazing to say 'I'm just going to get a lime off the tree for my bacardi' :thumbsup:

Re: keeping chickens
 

I've got a lemon tree and a lime tree! But they're quite ickle and don't have any fruit on. How big do they have to be before I can use fruit off them?
They're probably about four foot each now, but only have a couple of 'branches' (more like thick stems!) each. It's pretty exciting to have citrus trees on the patio though! :D

Re: keeping chickens
 

Lol, I have no idea but sure someone will - think the ones in the garden that we were using were about my height (just under 5ft 10)

It is very exciting, I hope that I have that on day too :D

Re: keeping chickens
 

Mine grow in a pot on the back patio. It's only about 4' high, but I've got about 6 lemons turning yellow now.

Re: keeping chickens
 

The good life! Your welcome to it. Want a farm? I'll even throw in a herd of Alpacas, a few dozen cattle and 2 F***ing anoying Guinea fowl.

I did have chickens but like's been said they attract rats by the plague loads, and I have more than enough rats without playing pied piper.

Re: keeping chickens
 

Would suit me Arkon - but obviously not eveyone :)

Things no better with you?

Re: keeping chickens
 

Do you know how funny you are Arkon? I don't like to laugh at your misfortune, but your posts do make me chuckle;)

Re: keeping chickens
 

I sympathise with you Arkon, I did "The Good Life" thing as a kid in the 70's. My dad was the original Richard Briers. I remember having to get up at 5am every day to feed the Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Turkeys, Goats, Sheep and Pig. Our veggie patch was just under an acre and we traded fruit and veggies at the local shop in exchange for sugar & flour.
I wouldn't have minded but my dad was a well paid electrical engineer at the local oil refinery, he gardened for pleasure and paid me 50p a week to feed the stock:( The tight arse also paid me a couple of quid to mow the orchard's, that used to take me Friday evening and all day Saturday with an old Atco push mower.
When I left home he bought a bloody ride on:curse:

Re: keeping chickens
 

But it probably taught you a thing or two about hard work and the rewards. Not like the youth of today.

Re: keeping chickens
 

Yeah, young people today are rubbish. Not like the young people of yesteryear, who were much better. :blink:

Re: keeping chickens
 

LOL. I'll raise that to two bucks if you want to come and mow my orchard and I've got a ride on to make it easier.

You do have to be carefull what you wish for as I always wanted the 'good life' and to plant trees. Well I came here and made it all possible, but I tell you after experiencing it, I would rather run my testicles through a mangle whilst having a colonic flush with battery acid than continue the 'good life'.

Today I gave birth to an Alpaca, well I helped anyway, and although this was a nice experience I now have to go out and pick up a placenta the size of wales and get rid of it before the fox's and dingo's get a sniff of it. Imagine a transparent binliner full off jelly and water lying in the field and trying to actually get a grip on it to pick it up!!

Anyway off now to go and get rid of the aformentioned afterbirth.

Re: keeping chickens
 

Believe it or not it's only my humour that keeps me sane here. I have to laugh at myself otherwise it means I did this all to myself on purpose and if that was true I need to work out how to tie knots in thick rope and climb a tree.

Re: keeping chickens
 

:rofl: :rofl:
I think you should write a book about your experiences Arkon ! you really do have a way with words.
good luck

Nicky :)

Re: keeping chickens
 

Can you not feed it to the chickens :)

Re: keeping chickens
 

No, but I have a few billion rats that have their eye on it. I've moved it now, and all I can say is ooooooo...yuk.... Try as I might to not let my human flesh touch it whilst disposing of it I still ended up with my fingers in it! Still it is a miracle, I now have a 5 hour old paca wobbling around out side, very comical.

Re: keeping chickens
 

YOU HAVE NOTICED THEN. :lol: :rofl:

Re: keeping chickens
 

We had goats, chickens and horses when I was a kid... It was my job to milk the goats before school..... as a result I can't stand the smell or taste of goats milk.... it disgusts me.... at an auction when I was living in a bedsit in Norwich I brought 140 day old chooks, took them to my parents and grandpaprents house.... they were loved and fed layers mash ..they turned out to be cockerals .... all but two of them... which is why I got them for about £2 ... they got eaten... The billy kids used to get sold to a carribean restaurant, I don't know what they did with them, but we were often guests of honour on a Saturday night:unsure:

Re: keeping chickens
 

Absolutely! I'd read it and send it to my father, who would love your adventure. I know you aren't loving it, but it would make for really great reading.

Re: keeping chickens
 

Oh yum, goat meat stew & goat meat curry mmmmmmm maybe it is worth getting a couple of goats again. I agree with you about the milk though it's an acquired taste that I never really acquired:unsure:
When I named the two lambs Mint Sauce & Roast Potato one year my sister finally twigged what we kept them for and has been a veggie ever since.