Backyard Chooks

The cooks have been roaming around the yard this morning, loving the freedom. They can be a bit of a pest coming onto the patio, they are easily shooed away.

We put a bird bath in their coop, thinking that they would like to get up high and perch on it, however we have discovered that they are pretty neat and tidy and do most of their poo in it each day. We collect the poo on a daily basis and it is added to the compost or the garden, we are getting approximately 1kg per week

I was surprised by how much that they can eat, they especially love leafy green vegetables, and seeded fruit - paw paw and capsicums.

They have settled in very well, and are producing on average 2 eggs per day, we have only purchased one dozen eggs since their arrival.

The Chooks - Enjoying the grass clippings

Downpour

The heavens opened up during the week for a couple of days, it felt like torrential rain and looked very much set in. The Cooks looked pretty miserable and did not have much protection from the weather, so we had a quick check to see if there was anything that we could use to help protect them from the weather, found a black plastic tarp which was easy to throw over the roof of the cage and held down by a couple of odd bricks that are also laying around the yard. This is something that we are going to have to get sorted out for the chooks by the start of the wet season.

First Double Yolk

Below is a selection of some of the eggs we have got off the chicken, if you look at the middle one you will notice that it is larger, could it be our first double yolk egg?
Yes it is as you can see below, sorry about the photo, not such a good idea to crack the egg in a yellow bowl, but it is my favourite mixing bowl.

Butter Cake

We got another egg yesterday, and there were another 2 in the fridge. So, decided to bake a simple butter cake, topped off with passion fruit icing, the passion fruit was sauced by the little fella from the vine in the backyard. It was enjoyed by all and has been eaten all up.

On another note, got another 2 eggs this morning.

Very Happy Chooks Indeed

Another egg was discovered this afternoon, total 2 for the day

A Warm Fresh Egg

Went to check on the food and water for the chooks and discovered that an egg had been laid, day 5, total eggs to date 5.

It was lovely and still nice and warm.

Wonder if we will get another one today....

Modifications to the Chicken Coop

There have been a couple of modifications to the chicken coop since the arrival of the chooks, hooks on either side of the door and a little bit more bracing for the door.

The First Couple of Days 1 - 4

Thursday morning arrived home with chooks in boot, relocated them into the coop, opened the lid, left them in there to adjust to their new home
Friday heard a bit of commotion mid morning and checked out the coop - 1 chicken missing, must have laid an egg, to my surprise latter discovered 2 eggs, mother chook was not happy with me taking the eggs and came charging at me.

Friday was also the day we came up with the names for the chooks. They have already tried to escape and started digging a hole in one of the corners, chickens "we are onto you!"

Saturday painted a sign for the coop, LJ was a big help with the painting, he seems to really enjoy painting. We also went to an extra effort and sprayed with an exterior clear gloss to try and protect it as best we can from the weather.
Sunday we heard a bit more commotion this morning and have discovered 2 more eggs, total so far 4, which were enjoyed with lunch.

The Coop

We had impulse purchased a coop from a large hardware store Oz wide, it ended up to be a waste of money in my opinion, however it is still being used, thankfully. After a few discussions with family members, special mesh - snake proof was the way to go. Phoned a couple of hardware stores including the Oz wide one, then found that Tonkin Steel supplied snake and mouse proof mesh, and that it was wider and the cheapest.

The location was decided, Ben set to work saucing what materials were around the yard, a list of what was required and a couple of power tools borrowed from Guru and got started.

The above is what was achieved by the end of day 1.

The mesh

Trenching so the mesh could be buried

The easy bit of the mesh done and buried in now for the tricky bits to begin

Lending a helping hand

The end of day no. 2

The mesh complete on day 3 now onto the door


Thumbs up from the site inspector, may have to get his demolition team in to level out the inside of the coop.......

The end of day no. 3, it looked pretty good just a couple of jobs to be done, the seeming of the wire and cleaning out of the wooden coop and putting it in. Overall I think a great job has been done.

A Bit of Background

We are onto our second lot of chickens; the first 3 did not last too long. This time we thought we would go with a little bit of extra effort and try to do it right and hope that the chickens survive.

We are half way through day no. 4, so, so far so good.

Little Miss V and I collected them on Thurday morning, if I were a writer I could base an eerie novel about the poultry farm and the characters there, lucky for you guys I'm not, this is just going to be a little blog about our back yard chickens and what they get up to.