Broody hens - what now?

The hens have made a good start. They settled in well and were producing an astonishing four eggs a day. I have identified which egg belongs to what hen.The brown eggs are laid by the hens without a comb. The small egg to the top left was the first one produced by the boss hen after she went through a period of about three weeks being broody. During this time she was pestering the other three chooks with the result that production of eggs was down. The three pictures were taken on 3rd, 4th and 5th November 2013.

The chooks look quite similar, but the eggs look so different. Does this mean they come from different races. The combs give it away, two have a short one and two have long combs. I think these are (mainly) Light Sussex hens.

The home made nesting box was clearly too big for the Isa Brown. These hens fit in well. The two nest places have been well used, but when the broody hen (without comb) placed herself in the middle of the box there was not much room left for the other hens to lay their eggs. However, it was splendid for Ms Broody. She was able to put all eggs under her feathers and brood away happily.

Egg production went down and we had to do something about Ms Broody annoying the other hens. A simple separating wall did the trick. Now we have two compartments and hens cannot interfere with each other when laying.

Ms Broody finally got out of this mood when the egg supply dried up. However it did not take long until the second hen became broody and egg supply got diminished again. And  then the first Ms Broody got back into it too. I was not aware that chooks can get in and out of broody mood. But it seems to be quite normal http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/791285/broody-for-the-second-time-in-a-month.

For three days now two hens are hogging the nesting boxes and give my other two eager chooks some grief when they want to get into the comfy spot. May be the nesting box was designed too comfortable? I believe it's simply the season for hens to do their thing. But my other hens need to get on with their business.

How to stop broody hens from brooding has been subject to a few publications. When I grew up on a farm we used to put the chook into a sack and hang her up under the roof of the barn for three days. This cruel treatment usually stopped her from creating the heat needed for brooding and get her back on track after three days.

My friend suggested the use of a cage and organised one for me. Ms Broody#1 has been in the cage most of yesterday and the day before. At night time I always let her out and allowed her back into the co-op. It has not done the trick yet, but I will persist.

This morning I found Broody#1 and #2 in the nesting box. I chucked them out and provided fresh veggie scraps and laying pellets. I will check the scene again in an hour or when the noise starts. Usually my other hens complain loudly when they can't get into their usual spot. The cage is waiting for Ms Broody#1, sad to see her sitting in there but this is a warranted temporary measure.

The only other options would be to get some fertilised eggs and put them under her. This would need me sorting out the food supply for my future chicken stock first and being prepared to deal with roosters should any eggs be fertilised. The council does not allow any roosters so they would be destined for the pot. I need a bit longer to think this through. But food supply is  already getting better, as my neighbours are chipping in with their food scraps and a steady supply of vegetables is coming in the direction of my hens. Big thank you to them. Keep it coming.

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.

Getting ready for chooks

We finally built the chook pen in October 2012, after contemplating about it for several years; but summer passed without the friendly animals taking home on our property. The pen measures about 15x10m and is built in a rectangle with the garden shed in one corner.

The area has a bit of shade during summer, from an olive tree near the she and a ficus in the middle of the garden which is our oxygen lung and guarantor for a cool backyards even in a hot summer. the area also it holds two raised garden beds that were unproductive last winter due to a slater invasion. The chooks will sort that out. I am certain about this.

Home made fence spreader for the top of the pole

It was easy to erect the fence, just dug a whole and inserted the fence poles into the sand as is. Spreaders hold the poles apart, the mesh is tied to the top and bottom of the fence poles with wire. It took us two afternoons with two people and turned out a decent exercise and accomplishment.

The decision still had to be made where to house the chooks and where to put their nesting boxes. We decided against putting them into the shed and have started to built an annex on the back of the shed just for the chooks, between the shed and the neighbour's garage.

We hope to finish it this Sunday and the hens are already waiting.

My neighbour is on long service leave in Europe at the moment and she has agreed for me to mind her five chicken in our backyard, giving them a holiday from home. Chook minding at its best. This gives me an opportunity to check out whether having hens is the right thing for me, does not tie me down past September 2013, hopefully results in a friendly slater eradication outcome and might even give me some eggs. Lots of benefits in this temporary arrangement.

Hopefully on Sunday this saga continues and the chicken can settle in. They are rescued battery hens and are still laying. However, I have not found any eggs yet, despite the neighbour being away for 6 days already, as the neighbours chook pen is a gourmet place for some nifty crows that take care of the eggs. Another neighbour just told me that he saw them fly up to the gutter with an egg in their beak, then drinking the egg in the gutter, leaving no trace of their crime. I swear to make life very uncomfortable for the crows if they venture into my chook yard. We will give the hens proper nesting boxes that keep out the crows, hopefully.
More learning and the promise not to neglect this blog for as long as I did since the last post 6 months ago.

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.