Good luck hun!! Just a not-so-sneaky sub, as DH and I do more renos around here, the more I think our backyard would be a suitable place for some cute little bawk-bawks, so there might be some handy tips in here for me in future, too!
We have two chook chooks, they're hilarious! We actually got lucky when we moved here, it was already set up for chooks. There's a pretty big aviary down the back, with some good roosting 'planks' for them and a little box they love to get in to lay their eggs. Outside of the aviary it's fenced off, and we have a problem with them pooping under our verandah so if we don't want them in the back yard they've still got an outside area to play around in.
I agree with ausgirl - the dust bath is hilarious! They love it
They're pretty good at keeping the weeds down, but we've had to fence off the vegie patch pretty well. And they won't go near stinging nettles if you have them cos it hurts their eyes, so still need to get rid of them for them.
They can eat a fair bit, but water is the main thing, they can overheat quite easily
You've been given lots of good advice already We have 9 plump chooks and they are great, low maintenance 'pets'.
When you build/set up their shelter, just bear in mind that they only lay in the boxes... at night they roost and need rungs to do so on. Preferably something like a ladder, but on a slope, as their hierarchy is very important to them! The more dominant chooks roost at the top etc.
Ours have a really big enclosure (we're on acreage) with lots of plants which chooks like to eat. There's no grass left in there, so I let them out to free range during the day when we are at home. You will find that they take themselves off to bed when the sun starts to go down I give them all our food scraps as well as layer pellets/wheat/cracked corn, and I actually grow extra lettuce/silverbeet etc for them as they LOVE it. Their fresh water is always topped up by the water off the roof off the garage. Not 100% sure of initial cost as our chooks came with the place when we bought it and were already set up. But I am guessing that if you have another structure (existing fence) you can start to build off and you use recycled materials to make the nesting boxes etc, you could do it for a couple of hundred bucks. Wire fencing material is probably going to be the most expensive bit.
Hope this is helpful! Enjoy your chookies and your beautiful fresh eggs! (and I DON'T recommend getting a rooster... ours didn't last long because he was a NASTY piece of work!!)
LMM
We have 4 and we (well OH) upturned a couple of old dog boxes onto thier sides and a old cage that we were using for the ducklings and a peice of marine ply over the top for shade. We have 3 different pots for water. We have an automatic feed that OH made from some old piping and fire chimney top thingy. (I can take some photos if you like) OH does put some straw in for them to lay the eggs in.
The best part is that the eat almost all of our food scraps (I personally don't give them onion scraps etc...) but it's amazing how much it saves your bin space and the eggs are yummy and DS is old enough and enthusiastic enough to want to collect them
We have 3 Isla Browns as well in a very small suburban garden. They have a coop which is A frame with a roosting plank and a nesting box for the eggs. Our girls come out and free range in the garden 3 hours or so a day or more if we are home. They have two large water buckets one outside and one inside their coop as well as all our scraps in the evening when they go to bed and heaps of pellets and shell in the morning.
We've had ours for a short while, but we got them from another BB girl (I'm looking at you Onyx) and she got them as rescue chooks.
They are extremely personable and very happy to come inside and sit on a lounge if I'd let them. My neighbours love them as does my MIL who brings them treats.
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We have 9 plump chooks and they are great, low maintenance 'pets'.
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