Chooks (Chickens)

We've been keeping chooks for about ten years.  We've fallen in love with them and would never be without them now!  Over the years we've also had guinea fowl, turkeys, geese and ducks.  I love all poultry but find chooks the easiest.

 

They don't require a pond like ducks and geese.  They are fairly easy to contain to an area and they provide eggs.  They have an almost magical ability to make you feel good!  Watching chooks foraging, scratching and listening to their cooing and clucking noises is the most peaceful and calming way to spend time. 

Often when I am feeling stressed and rushed in the morning, I race out to the orchard to let the chooks out, quickly feed them and check their water and then......  Uh oh!  I often completely forget I'm in a hurry and spend a few minutes watching them.  They are like an instant dose of relaxant!!!

The Australorps

We originally bought chooks for eggs but now we are moving towards meat as well.  We have decided if we are going to eat chook then raising our own is the kindest and most sustainable solution.  We know our chooks have lived a VERY happy and healthy life and there are no food miles or resources wasted as there would be in a commercial production method.

We have eaten four of our chooks so far but I found it a very hard process.  Home butchered chook tastes very different to the free range I was buying at the supermarket.  It is actually much nicer and more flavoursome.  The problem was the intense flavour made me very consciously aware that I was eating my own chooks and I struggled psychologically with enjoying my meal.  The difference in flavour was a bit like a slap in the face!


Our Bantam is four or five years old but still mothers very well

We have had a break from eating our own chooks but in the meantime I have been lucky enough to be able to buy some real free range chooks.  I have really enjoyed cooking and eating these, because I don't have a personal connection, and I figure that if we eat our own chooks again, I will cope better now that I am used to the flavour.

We have tried a few different breeds of chook.  I can tell you right now that if it's eggs you're after, Isa browns and some of the crossbreeds are the best.  For us there is more to the equation than just finding the best egg layer.  We like to have heritage chooks so that we can keep the breeds going.  Commercial production of eggs has meant that chooks have been cross bred solely for their laying ability and many heritage breeds have become threatened.  Some very important traits have been bred out of the cross breeds.  They don't make good mothers because they won't sit long enough or look after their chickens.  Their survival instincts aren't good either.  They don't watch out for predators as well as many of the heritage birds do.  Some of the heritage birds are hardier too.

Our Bantam raising the Dorking chickens

If you would like to raise heritage it would be wise to buy a book with the different traits of the breeds.  They are very varied.  Some are better for eggs and some for meat.  Some are better suited to certain climates and some are great mothers.  After doing some basic research you can make a choice on the breed that is perfect for you!  I was lucky enough to receive Organic Gardener's essential guide to Backyard Chickens for Mother's Day.  It has heaps of fantastic information and I think it only cost $11.95 from memory.  I would thoroughly recommend it for a good reference point.

Our choice of chooks was easy.  We know people who raise chooks that are suited to this area and are supposed to be good dual purpose birds (good for both meat and eggs) so we have access to their eggs.  We own a bantam hen who did the sitting for us.  Bantams are often good mothers.


At the moment we are raising Dorkings and Australorps.  The Dorkings are quite small but I have read they are good dual purpose.  They seem quite a resilient bird and are a bit timid.  We have three hens and a rooster.  The Australorps are my favourite.  They are HUGE birds and are very friendly if you spend time around them.  We have six hens and one rooster.

One of our Dorking hens

At the moment they are all free ranging in the orchard together.  They are just at the point of lay and given the time of year, we don't expect many eggs until the spring.  In spring we will separate them so that we can raise chickens without crossing the two breeds.  The Australorps will stay in the orchard and we will move the Dorkings into a paddock that will become a second orchard.

We used to have Light Sussex chooks too and they are a good large breed if you are after meat as well as eggs.  I had to make a choice between the Sussex and Australorps which was hard because I love them both.  We have been left with one Rooster who was the runt of the litter.  He is named Fluffy, would you believe it?  He is the most pathetic rooster I have ever seen.  He doesn't even crow but with a name like Fluffy I'm sure you've guessed he's the kids beloved pet, so I'm stuck with him.  One last solitary chook makes up our complete flock.  She's an Isa Brown and lays very well but I think when she goes, I will just stick to heritage.

Our Belle is in charge of the poultry these days.  She loves the birds and spends more time with them than she does with her dog!  As soon as she has unpacked her schoolbag and had some afternoon tea, she disappears to the orchard and I don't see her for hours!  So we decided to allow her the responsibility of caring for them. She has taken it on with absolute enthusiasm and I think she is looking after them better than I did.  She's forever fussing with their nesting straw and checking their living conditions.

So that's our chook story!  What's yours?