Do you keep Chickens?.....what do i need to get started???

[littlemissmountain]

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

[kelebek]

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

[christy]

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.

[Shanti]

Chooks are great pets and DD adores them! Chases them and picks them up hehe holds them and rocks them. Awww.

We have 7 chooks (3 types) and a duck and a drake pair of ducks!!! They all live together.

Every day they get free roam of our yard and eat all our weeds! Yep they love the dirt and roll around in it.

DH built a great chook house and pen for them with a builder friend and it's just great.

The girls have given great advice.

I have two fresh organic eggs on toast every morning and when I eat one from the shops it doesn't compare!!!

[Cassius2]

sorry i am just asking a quick question as we are also thinking of getting chooks...will our grass be destroyed when they are roaming?

sorry for the hijack

[Teeki]

sorry i am just asking a quick question as we are also thinking of getting chooks...will our grass be destroyed when they are roaming?

sorry for the hijack

Nope. Ours don't really pay much attention to the grass, they prefer the garden beds where there's some dirt so dig up to find bugs and have dirt baths. So if you have nice gardens with mulch and stuff you may want to stop them getting in there

[PumpkinZulu]

sorry i am just asking a quick question as we are also thinking of getting chooks...will our grass be destroyed when they are roaming?

sorry for the hijack

MIL has 3 chooks (she lives in brighton though, so not exactly the country or anything lol) and yep, they destroyed her lawn. BUT it's not the same for everyone.

Really, I can't wait to get chooks. As someone who is mortally afraid of birds (yep, birds), I just can't resist chooks, they're cute, entertaining, and the eggs! NOM!

[Shanti]

sorry i am just asking a quick question as we are also thinking of getting chooks...will our grass be destroyed when they are roaming?

sorry for the hijack

Depends. Parts of our yard they prefer to scratch and dig at more than others....like along the backyard against our house (where noone really sees anyway) they love having dirt baths in that spot so yeah they've ripped up the grass a bit there, BUT they are WONDERFUL at getting rid of ALL our weeds!!!! We never have to weed our yard!!!
They're so worth it. And our DD is so brave around animals now as she has heaps of her own....it really does teach kids alot too about where eggs come from, how to care for their animals etc.....DD loves collecting the eggs each day with us and loves eating her eggs every morning too because she knows where they come from!!!

[Cassius2]

sweet! i guess if the grass starts to get hammered we could improvise some fenced off area...thanks guys!