We got our first eggs!

[Floweryfields]

And how yellow they are, store boughts don't compare at all with that colour. Not to mention the fact that you know that they are living humane lives and not caged in horrible conditions.

[nanananny]

When I was a kid the next door neighbour had bantams, I would love to go collect the eggs when they were on holidays. I want chickens!

[Phteven]

FM, they don't take much room. If every house in Australia had chooks we could get rid of the caged chook industry.
I think that lots more people are getting them now because when I got mine it was hard to find chook pellets, I had to go to the produce store, now the supermarket sells three types.

[nanananny]

Hi brontide, we've thought about it before, we were worried about the foxes so we will need a good hen house, we have the room. I will bring it up with my husband again and he will go not more animals

[Floweryfields]

Brontide - Absolutely! My local produce store had point of layers for $15ea yesterday. I was thinking about it this morning - currently I am getting 2 eggs a day, soon I will be getting 4. The chooks get all of my scraps, a few treats (cheap canned cat food) once or twice a week free range all day and also have proper layer mash. The mash costs $18 for a 20kg bag which lasts around 2-3 months. Factor in a few dollars here and there for worming and other stuff - shellgrit, etc.
Comparing with how much it costs to buy a dozen free range eggs, because I just can't justify cage eggs if possible - $5-6/dozen. I am getting over a dozen a week currently, soon over 2 dozen - at a couple of $ per week for food! Not to mention the joy of having them - they are such characters.

I am a member of an Aussie backyard chook forum too - bit passionate about getting others into keeping chookies!

[nanananny]

People who have chickens do you let them out around the garden?

[Phteven]

I don't let mine free-range full time because they are a bit too friendly. They come into the house and hang around on the patio which can be a bit messy. The dogs thinks she is a chook so she digs into their pen and shares their food and then they go out through her tunnel and free range for a few hours until I move their coop again. The theory is that they are allowed to free range for a while each day and whenever the grass under their coop is scratched out the coop is moved. Thanks to the dog's efforts the coop is moved a bit most days.
They're very keen on mulch so I spend lots of time putting my mulch back where it belongs. Chickens and perfectly manicured gardnens don't really mix so if you want them to free range you will need to set part of your garden aside that you're ok with having some mess and poo.

[Jennifer13]

People who have chickens do you let them out around the garden?

I let mine out every day when I'm home (so they miss out on most of the three days per week that I work). I usually wait until after we've picked up the morning egg.

We only have the two and a fairly big front yard, so there's really no mess. Although they do kick all of the leaves I've raked onto the garden beds back onto the lawn/path. They are also very friendly and will follow me around or sit on my feet/lap if I go outside to read a book and have a cup of tea. It drives the dogs insane when they wander past the front screen door ever so casually. Our dogs are not so friendly with chickens, so they're strictly in the back yard!

We got a swish hen house I screwed together myself new on eBay. It was half the price of the same type in the shops. And the local pet shop makes up a few different varieties of chook feed (which is in high demand atm, so bron, it looks like the revolution might have come!).

[Astrid]

We have one dog, for now he seems ok with the chickens. We do keep them in an encloser and the dog is only in there when we are as we are training him to not touch them. So far so good. The chooks now have him worked out and will gang up on him if he gets too close. So once we get some fencing back around the veggie patch we will let the girls out.

[aimz78]

Wow jennifer,
That is so cool! We have 2 chooks, too. We love them. They are on egg strike at the moment LOL! Enjoy those beautiful eggs Great fun for DD too.
Our dog is scared of them hehe!

[Floweryfields]

People who have chickens do you let them out around the garden?

Mine have a very large area that they free range in, fenced off from the garden because they will scratch everything! So no, not in the garden part I don't.

[nanananny]

Well I know my neighbour if she puts the lambs up near the house the foxes don't come near. My husband says we would have to put the chicken wire under the ground a fair bit so the foxes can't burrow under. I want to go look at chicken coops today!