Chooks in an urban backyard

Still excited about chickens they have now become part of my daily routine.

The chook minding arrangement with my neighbour's hens, while she was on long service leave, worked well. I loved the sound of the chicken in the back yard and the daily eggs were a welcome addition to our menu. However, they never accepted the chook house we built for them and instead roosted behind he shed under a door that I leaned against the shed for protection against the rain and wind at night.

The neighbour came back on 5 September and she rightfully claimed her Isa Browns  back on Saturday 7 September, the day of the Australian election. I only returned four, as one had died in the three months I had them, probably of old age or too big eggs.

Time to act! As usual the universe provided again and just two days later, on 9 September, a friend of mine brought me some beautiful chickens back from Albany: four hens, and they survived the transport well. They had to stay in a big cardbord box for over 20 hours. They were picked off the roost at 9pm and then left in the box on a wheel barrow in the shade until if was time to leave for the 500k travel to Perth, around midday. I was told that one actually jumped out at a pit stop and nearly escaped the car, as they had left the windows down to allow plenty of air in the vehicle. But when the friendly driver got back the hen made her way back into safety quickly and jumped back in the box.

Another wheel barrow got the box including content safely into my big chook pen and when we tipped the hens out about 5:30pm they were in good shape and started scratching immediately. They also took to the water, as they were quite thirsty. Out of the box as well popped three intact eggs. They were fed and that night time the chickens rested under the plum trees near the fence.

Around 9pm I transferred them onto their roost. This generated  a bit of noise, as they were scared. But I knew I had to get them used to the roost immediately. Also they would have never found it by themselves. They soon settled down. It was easy to grab the while chooks in the night, not being well camouflaged. So fluffy and light they dd not put up much resistance, just the fourth one knew what was coming and tried to escape, but to no avail.

I watched them descent the chicken co-op ladder the next morning and they with a smile I saw them starting their new life. Shortly after that I found a fourth egg laid that night under the tree before the hens were moved.

They settled in well but are a lot more fickle than the Isa Browns my neighour has. This race is made up of a lot of Brahma without the fancy feet.I call them Perkins Beach chooks, after the place they came from.

They had a tough time in their first weeks as it has been raining a lot and there is not a lot of shelter, apart from trees or inside the roost. They found their co-op without fail each night and have produced a lot of eggs. I have actually not bought any eggs since I got my neighbour's hens and the cost of the laying pellets is negligible compared to the pleasure and fine returns that poultry bring.

Getting closer to having chickens - borrowing the neighbour ones!

My raised garden beds have been in place a while, but production has not been as good as I expected. The zucchini plants were eaten and the are tomato seedlings the same and not produced even one tomato. The soil has dropped a bit and while one of the beds is full of nasturtions at the moment the second one hosts a slater megatropolis. I tried several ways to get rid of the beast, including hand picking them. The only way to get rid of these beasts in any sensible way was to finally get hens.

Our council allows to have poultry. There are local laws under the Health Act that makes the following specifications, in Division 4:

1. Poultry and pigeons shall be kept overnight in a properly constructed and securely fastened enclosure. The enclosure (chicken coop) is to have a smooth concrete floor at least 50mm thick so that it can be adequately cleaned.
2. The associated run area should be fenced to prevent poultry coming within 15 metres of any dwelling or 18 metres of any street. A free range area of 30 square metres is recommended.
3. All enclosures within which poultry are kept shall be maintained at all times in a clean condition. At the direction of an Environmental Health Officer you must adequately clean or re-position an enclosure that does not meet adequate hygiene or structural requirements. 
4. A combined total of not more than 12 poultry and pigeons may be kept outside the prohibited area.
5. No roosters are permitted to be kept on any premises, but no roosters.

We are lucky as the property is neither on commercial land nor in the part of town where poultry is not allowed at all, which is closer to the centre of Perth. Our chicken coop is next to the neighbours garage, which not a dwelling, as this only applies to buildings for human habitation. Not sure why they mandate a distance to the next dwelling, probably for hygienic purposes, public health issues. We don't quite make it with that mandated distance, but there is a significant distance. The total free range area is only about 15 square metre, but if 30m3 is right for 12 chooks, that will do for the number I plan to have which is 5 at most! The guidelines need updating. To encourage people to grow food in an urban setting, the restrictions should be limited on how people can do this, as long as public health concerns are met.

After we build the fence we got the neighbour's hens over for a day. They loved it and got stuck into the slaters right away. However at night time they were reluctant to slip back through the very small gap in the fence and the neighbour was not happy for the chooks to stay over night. The part of the fance we had taken out was simply not big enough for the chicken to get through comfortably and the birds were scared to push their way back, due to the lack of motivation at the end of the day, no green grass being in sight. We chucked them back over the fence by hand the next day and the trial was abandonned

Soon the chicken are coming over for good, the hen house should be finished by tomorrow morning, the laying box is done. We already dig over the neighbours backyard to get ready for planting radishes and lettuces. Two rats jumped out of her compost scampering for shelter, a sign that the compost was much too dry anyway. We enhanced the soil with two bags of sheep and cow manure and the rain today has watered it in beautifully. Looking good, ready for seedlings!

Lemon and avocado tree in the new garden bed, but not too much shade.

Chicken in the backyard?!

Chickens are a major link in a permaculture garden and I have been thinking about getting a chook coop for a while now. I have been admiring various constructions and found great blog posts such as these ones:

• Raw Earth Living
• 10 steps to an organic permaculture garden - by Anne Goddard
• Permaculture step by step #3 - by Josh Byrne

Special fascination for me have the mobile chicken co-ops and the genuine creativity people put in place when building such houses using what they have or find with the help of friends, verge collections or through initiatives such as freecycle. A great example of a mobile chicken coop is this one, using an old water tank on wheels.



Curious chicken at my mother's place

My garden is big enough, the right spot has been identified and cleared of jungle; and I even got some poles and chicken wire already organised. But so far I have been waiting to make the move and get the pen set up. The time is not quite right yet.

Also I have been turned off by the usual small size of chicken tractors, which is the name given to mobile chicken houses that people place on top of their garden beds to ensure the chickens eat pest, like slaters and snails, and leave their goodies as compost.

Today I saw a post on facebook that intrigued me and I am closer to devising what the final chook coop will look like. Check out this genuinely creative and sustainable construction by Matt Pike, described in the Farmer Pal's Forum.

Yesterday we went to the open day at the Lockridge Community Garden and a visit inspired us even more, especially an opportunity to look into the backyard of permaculture gardens in private hands in the vicinity of the relatively community garden.

Keep it up guys. And everybody who would like to get involved should check out PermacultureWest! Well worth connecting with.