It has been a little while since I wrote a column about all the advantages of having chickens.
If you would like to be a bit more self –sustainable, simply add at least two or three laying chickens to your back yard is just a winner all round.
You can minimise the feed costs of your chickens and reduce your household waste by feeding them a lot of your fruit and vegetable scraps plus give them some of the plants you have growing around the yard.
Ours love thistle, comfrey, warrigal greens, sweet potato leaves plus cabbage and other brassica leaves. Our girls are free range and enjoy the grubs and bugs.
You don’t need a rooster to get eggs and you are likely to upset the neighbours if you decide to have one.
We purchased ours girls locally in Beaudesert. I checked the other day and point of lay fowls were $32. Invest in quality because the feed and housing costs add up.
The rules for the Scenic Rim Regional Council seem quite liberal but it is based on your area and size of your property.
When you know what you can do, then consider your own egg needs. Bartering with neighbours and friends for other fruit and vegetables can be a useful option also. High quality chickens should provide six eggs a week.
Chicken manure is one of our most prized inputs for compost production. If you don’t compost then leave it for a while (chicken manure is very strong) and then spread around the base of fruit trees.
Some people build or purchase mobile chook pens which can be used to help keep the grass down and reduce costs plus widen their diets. Others consider a permanent cage and the number of chickens you have will have a bearing on the size needed.
All the kids and some adults who visit Tullamore Farm love collecting the eggs.
We know we eat healthier with our own chickens and it is one less thing to rely on from the supermarkets.
